Tying in with Issue 6, our Blue Mind edition of The Journal of Biophilic Design we speak with Nick Hounsfield, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer at The Wave in Bristol. The Wave is an inland Surfing destination.After working in the healthcare sector and realizing that one of the key aspects for people was that they were lonely but also that they were missing a connection to nature, Nick wanted to help and create something at scale that would have a positive impact. Not only that, but also reach out to people who didn’t necessarily have access a private healthcare system. His mindset was “how can we democratise this? How can we make it more accessible for more people?” Nick explains the thought processes he went through to create The Wave. He had a very clear purpose and a very clear mandate. From wanting it to appeal to everyone and all seasons to understanding disability and ensuring he also addressed the barriers for access to green and blue space, and then meet them. “How do we break down those barriers, we have to break down those barriers through design, through great landscaping and then through a really good business model, and also make sure that we're not destroying the planet and the local ecology either. How can we put something back into that space? That may improve the planet and the people who are coming to visit us.” Roll forward 10 years, and they’ve managed to build it and deliver exactly what they wanted to deliver blue and green spaces for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.  So what is The Wave? If you could imagine a huge slice of the ocean or imagine a really amazing Cove down by the beach. It's like taking that cake slice of the ocean and lifting it up and dropping it right in the middle of the field. There are absolutely perfect surfing waves, and lighter ones just as you get at the beach, you've got sort of bigger waves that are breaking in, further out for people who are sort of more competent. And then you've got really nice whitewater waves on the inside for people who just want to splash and play around or bodyboard. And, the water is Caribbean colour so also does look perfect. People come along just to walk along the pier which stretches out across the waves to enjoy the sound of the waves.  Nick and his team have created a beautiful space where people can connect with water as observers or to enjoy an immersive and active connection. Being close to a city, Bristol, and also partnerships were important part of the vision. They also work with groups who are already struggling with not having access to green and blue space and mental and physical health issues and bring them to the wave, thereby also growing the adaptive surf community and have made sure that the whole space was designed so that that is accessible, and not just ticking boxes, but actually truly accessible. And with surfing now part of the Olympics we might see hopefully in the next couple of months announced that surfing will be part of the Paralympics. “So we've now got the most amazing training facility for these athletes. And we have got genuine medal contenders already in our midst so hopefully that whole sport will grow which is good.”  “That's the key thing, really, it's about that partnership because we will never profess to know everything about the challenges and issues that different sectors of society have. So, it's about partnering up with people who do really know what's going on, and we're just providing a facility and, and try to work out what those barriers can be and break them down together.” Why is why is that nature connection important? “It's everything.” Nick goes on to describe how we felt that nature was taken away from us during Lockdown, and even now “there are young families stuck in high rise apartments with no access to green or space blue space at all, they walk along a concrete road to get to school and it's a concrete playground, there's no green space there. And that is that is their lif