Surf Therapy
Surf Therapy fuses the rush of surfing with Take 5 evidence-based activities to create a fun, culturally relevant and youth-led service for adolescents growing up in high-stress environments. The programme increases the number of protective factors in adolescents’ lives – including:
- The formation of caring attachments with supportive coaches
- Developing social connections with a positive network of peers
- Providing a safe space where adolescents’ nervous systems can settle
- Healthy coping skills that can be practiced and adopted
- Enjoying the wider therapeutic benefits of surfing
The specific mental well-being needs of adolescents living in high-stress environments.
90% of the world’s adolescents are currently living in low – to middle-income countries (LMICs).
UNICEF
In the most underserved communities, adolescents are often repeatedly exposed to violence, a lack of basic needs being met and sometimes even restricted access to caregivers.
Adolescents growing up in conflict, crisis and poverty are often not safe at home, at school, in the community, in the company of their peers or in their intimate relationships with others. This lived reality can lead to toxic stress, a type of prolonged and intense stress response that results from adverse experiences without adequate support.
The effects of toxic stress
How Toxic Stress Harms the Developing Brain
Toxic stress can result in biological responses and damage to the architecture of the developing brain, undermining capabilities such as self-regulation and executive function. This significantly increases the likelihood of mental health problems during childhood and/or later in life, as well as significantly impairing academic success and short-term mental and physical health.
Long-Term Risks of Unaddressed Stress
In the longer term, toxic stress significantly increases the risk of a wide range of psychosocial challenges that teenagers deal with such as substance addiction, anxiety and depression. It also contributes to adolescents dropping out of school, gang involvement and struggling to enter the employment market at a later stage.
A Critical Window for Building Resilience
Research shows that adolescents aged 9 to 14 have a crucial window to strengthen their resilience and mental well-being, helping them navigate the toxic stress caused by multidimensional poverty and develop into productive adults who positively impact their communities.
Surf Therapy as a Solution
Tailored for high-stress environments and the unique mental wellness needs of communities living in multidimensional poverty, Surf Therapy works with the knowledge that adolescents need a place to feel safe and to belong, which is often not at home or school – it’s a third space that can be created through the programme.
Research-driven, youth-led mental well-being support services
Developed through academic research, including a PhD, the Take 5 Model reflects partnerships with the University of Cape Town (UCT), University of the Western Cape (UWC), The New School (New York), and Edinburgh Napier University.
Youth-led research
A key feature of this model is its incorporation of youth-led research. In a study conducted in 2016, feedback was gathered from 54 adolescents living in high-stress environments across Cape Town, South Africa. Using a photo voice approach, adolescents documented their lives and shared their needs for safety and coping mechanisms amidst the violence and adversity they faced daily.
Feedback from the study highlighted the importance of greater access to safe spaces where they could relax and have fun. Adolescents also expressed a desire for relationships with caring, supportive adults who understood their experiences, and for engaging, playful programmes outside of classroom-based settings.
The evidence base
Between 2016 and 2024, we have hosted multiple research studies to support the continuous improvement and refinement of the Take 5 Model combined with surfing. This has included recommendations from adolescents such as fully integrating coping skills with surfing / play-based games and activities to keep sessions fun and experiential and improving coaches’ competency so that adolescents can disclose issues they are facing and get referrals to other services they need.
This invaluable input shaped Surf Therapy – a fusion of the Take 5 Model and surfing to address adolescents’ needs holistically.
Tim Conibear
Surf Therapy in Numbers
47 Communities supported
These communities along the South African coastline are supported with daily Surf Therapy sessions at five beach sites across two provinces.
100% Local Community
73% of participants are referred from quintile 1-3 schools, with 27% referred by hospitals, local clinics and child and youth care centres (CYCCs) within a 10-kilometre radius of the five beach sites.
10 Month programme
Each participant engages with the Surf Therapy programme for 10 months and then ‘graduates’ to our drop-in aftercare service, the weekend Surf Clubs.
Friends Forever
Surf Clubs allow adolescents to grow up with us, maintaining their connections with the W4C coaches, a positive social network and the ocean, and providing a safety net for their adolescent years where they can access support if and when they need it.
Benefits of Surf Therapy
A programme evaluation conducted on our Surf Therapy programme in 2022 highlighted that when combined with surfing, the Take 5 Model is an effective psycho-social, educational intervention in environments where adolescents are exposed to violence. Findings went on to suggest that Surf Therapy significantly enhances self-regulation among adolescents growing up in high-stress environments.
Impact on adolescents
Short-term impacts
- Adolescents feel they belong to a supportive peer group
- Adolescents learn new social skills
- Adolescents learn new ways to manage stress
- Adolescents experience respite from stress
- Adolescents have fun
Long-term impacts
- Reduced risk behaviour
- Improved physiology (such as heart rate variability)
- Healthier relationships
- Stress reduction
- Improved confidence
- Better emotive control
Towards Greater Inclusivity
Our Surf Therapy programme has grown from employing 2 coaches and reaching 15 children annually in 2011, to employing 43 coaches and reaching 2,800 children annually in 2025. Today, we provide 3,049 free Surf Therapy sessions annually (inclusive of the aftercare Surf Club sessions) and over 100,000 nourishing meals to 2,800 adolescents annually, along with safe transport.
The programme has hosted multiple research projects to test and adapt the approach to include groups of adolescents with more complex needs, such as adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, young women who are survivors of sexual violence, adolescents at risk of exclusion, and those who conflict with the law. The programme also creates employment opportunities for previously unemployed South Africans (aged 18-25), who are trained, supervised, and employed as surf coaches. Since inception, we have trained 215 coaches and reached more than 10,000 adolescents.
Where We Work
W4C operates Beach Safe Hubs in coastal communities affected by violence, poverty and conflict, where mental health services are often stigmatised and under-resourced.
Working in partnership with local community members, we identify, train and provide resources to Community Coaches to deliver the Surf Therapy service.
- Muizenberg
- Monwabisi
- Hout Bay
- Port Elizabeth
- East London
What Organisations Say
Dr John Parker, Psychiatrist“Community led interventions like Surf Therapy that are innovative and child friendly are essential for the province and the country to address the mental health crisis that is fuelling cyclical violence, substance misuse, and poverty.”
Elana Le Roux, Deputy Principal, Beacon School for LSEN“Children need a place to belong firstly, and secondly like that sense of community and sense of being part of a surfing culture. It is especially powerful for children in communities that do not get exposure or access to many services.”
Neville G., Goliath Provincial Manager: Positive Behaviour Programmes“Adolescents from WCED Behaviour Intervention Programme have benefited greatly from Surf Therapy as learners are allowed to experience themselves differently through Surf Therapy. These learners were all at risk of being expelled from school. They learn to connect, to manage stress. They become easier for our team and the teachers to manage.”
Teacher, Beacon School for LSEN“There are several benefits for learners on the Autism spectrum, including improving their self esteem, sense of belonging and learning how to emotionally regulate in a new and exciting environment like the beach”
Teacher, Beacon School for LSEN“One of the things learners with Autism struggle with is socialising and making friends. Now Waves for Change has made them feel included. They feel part of the group because they work as a group collectively at the beach. The learners now make friends more easily and are more social at school.”
Latest News
Mental health resources, updates on Surf Therapy, and exciting announcements.
Get a Child to the Beach
Just a ripple can make waves and change lives through surfing and child-friendly mental health.
