Two decades of helping good ideas become real projects.

GLAGLA UK is the clearest example of SHACADEMY’s event-development experience. Founded and developed by SHACADEMY’s founder, it is now one of the UK’s most established winter paddle sport events, operating successfully for more than five years.

It was created from an idea: to encourage paddle sport participation throughout the winter months, when most people stay indoors. Built around community, challenge, safety and adventure, the event was developed from concept through to delivery — not simply supported or advised upon, but conceived, built and grown from the ground up.

GLAGLA UK demonstrates practical experience across:

• Event creation — turning an idea into a structured event format
• Event development — refining operations, safety systems and participant experience year after year
• Event operations — managing water safety, staffing, logistics and on-the-day delivery
• Safety planning — building safety frameworks around real conditions and real participants
• Community building — creating a loyal participant base that returns each season
• Participant experience — designing an event that people want to come back to
• Long-term event growth — evolving the event through practical experience and participant feedback

Alongside GLAGLA UK, SHACADEMY has helped create, develop, support and operate a wide range of other events and participation experiences. Where SHACADEMY did not found the event, its role has typically been water safety, event operations, staffing or delivery support — not event ownership.

• Reigate Tri Series — water safety and event delivery support
• Big Swim events — safety and operational support
• SUP Bike Run — a concept developed and supported with partners, run at locations in England and Wales, still operating today
• Open water swimming events
• Paddle sport events
• Outdoor music events
• Corporate team-building events
• Challenge events
• Community participation events

The experience spans the full journey from first idea to people on start lines — and the lessons learned through creating and growing GLAGLA UK now inform how SHACADEMY supports other organisations with their own events.

SHACADEMY has delivered outdoor learning, experiential education and workshop programmes for a number of schools and colleges — including sessions and programmes delivered at Belmont School, Box Hill School, Dunottar School, Eton College, Hurtwood House, Reigate Grammar School and Warlingham School. These are examples of schools where work has been delivered and do not imply a formal school partnership.

Programmes have ranged from outdoor space assessment and curriculum-linked experiences through to multi-day challenges and workforce pathways for young people entering outdoor careers.

The thread running through all of it: people develop fastest when given real responsibility in real environments, alongside experienced practitioners.

Alongside the water-based and venue-based work, SHACADEMY has deep experience in mountain biking across the Surrey Hills and beyond.

• Many years as a mountain bike coach, instructor and guide
• Youth and adult coaching
• Guided rides across the Surrey Hills
• Skills development sessions and progression programmes
• Trail development and maintenance
• Involvement in the Summer Lightning trail

It’s the same approach as the rest of the work — real environments, real progression, and time spent alongside the people who use and care for the places we ride.

Around 2014, alongside SJI Overseas, Skip developed Ride Bansko — an adventure travel business based in Bansko, Bulgaria.

The project combined:

• Mountain biking
• Ski touring
• Guided adventures
• Tourism and hospitality
• Property promotion
• Destination marketing

Working alongside the St George Palace development, Ride Bansko helped attract visitors and create experiences around the destination — connecting accommodation, activities and community in a place where outdoor tourism was still emerging.

The lessons learned in adventure tourism, logistics, partnerships, marketing and creating memorable experiences directly influenced how The SHAC, SHACADEMY and later We Are Wild were conceived and built.

It was an important chapter: proof that the same principles — good operations, good people, genuine community — work in very different environments.

SHACADEMY’s creative work sits alongside the operational work — helping outdoor brands, organisations and projects show what they do, where they do it and why it matters.

• Content creation
• Photography
• Storytelling and narrative development
• Creative development
• Location finding and location management
• Outdoor filming support
• Water safety support for productions

Production credits and collaborators include film, TV and brand work with organisations such as Mustang Survival — and a long list of smaller projects where the job was simply to make the shoot possible and the story honest.

If there is one thing SHACADEMY does better than anything else, it is bringing together the right people, organisations and opportunities.

Most successful projects are created through collaboration, not individual expertise. Knowing who to call — and being trusted enough that they answer — is often the difference between an idea and a project that actually happens.

Over more than two decades SHACADEMY has developed trusted relationships across:

• Education
• Outdoor learning
• Safety and risk
• Events
• Film, TV and brand productions
• Landowners and venue operators
• Coaches and instructors
• Creative industries and photographers
• Adventure sports and outdoor brands
• Scouting, youth and community organisations

These networks are how good ideas find good people — and how projects come together quickly when it matters.