BEYOND THE SURFACE
INTERNATIONAL

Surfing is a powerful tool to build relationships and can enable positive transformations within ourselves, inter-communally, and along the coastlines. Unstructured play in wild settings, surfing promotes the cognitive, creative, physical, social and emotional development of young people while also engendering values for a lifelong commitment to environmental stewardship. On a planet contending with climate change and a collapsing ocean, surfing's relevance as a kind of nature play engages the next generation who will face the most critical social-ecological challenges to humanity's sustainable future.  When the ocean is envisioned as a playground, we want to protect it like anything we love. Surfing enables that emotive response that often is missing in conservation education. 

For local youth growing up in remote or marginalized fishing villages, wave-riding a fun, playful, healthy source of joy that builds self-trust and hope. For girls especially, surfing facilities an opportunity for self-expression when on land, it never felt safe or okay to do so. Surfing provides young people with a dynamic liquid stage for building self-confidence, resiliency, and a relationship with the aquatic environment.