at the beginning of the year I found
myself asking myself the question on the
screen behind me am i okay
I think for the first time in my life it
honestly say the answer was no I knew
that I needed some help I knew I needed
some support but it’s really nervous to
pick up the phone and say I’m not okay
I’m not okay I need some help I was
worried about conversations I might have
to have situations I might find myself
in so I didn’t and I stay quiet hoped
everything would get better and three
months down the line I had a big crash
and someone else ended up picking up the
phone for me and the more people I speak
to about my experience the more I
realized that what I’ve gone through is
what a lot of people go through there’s
nothing unique in it asking for help is
hard and that makes me uncomfortable
because I know firsthand how difficult
it is to get that help when you’ve
crashed to see a psychologist is
expensive medication is a very difficult
thing to balance and if you don’t have
access to those two options then there’s
not much else and it can be very much
alone so we need to find ways of making
easier for people to say I’m not okay
and we need to find ways of making it
easier for people to get the help that
they need when they’re at their most
vulnerable state so I’m gonna share a
little story about how we’ve done that
in South Africa now our work here fits
into a much bigger global community that
really can change the way that therapy
looks and that is surf therapy so my
name is Tim Conybeare I’m 36 years old
I’m from the UK probably the first thing
you should know about me is I’m a big
surfer I love to surf I’m not very good
at it I am British but um the ocean for
me is it’s a healing space it’s a
sanctuary if I’ve had a bad day at work
I’ve had a bad day at home I know I can
go down to the beach I can have a surf
and the you know the world feels like a
brighter place some of the first things
I did when I came to South Africa in
2008 is I went down to muizenberg and I
had a surf and I soon realized that
tree isn’t accessible to everyone in
this country if you’re a kid growing up
in a Township the beach isn’t always
down the road it’s not always easy to
get there so with the help of a travel
company I was working for at the time
called Ticket to Ride I started a
weekend surf club and every Saturday I
Drive over to masa familiar Township
just down by chromakey a little city
golf and kind of banging down chromakey
road I’d pick up whoever was waiting so
remember first weekend there were three
or four kids waiting on the side of the
road pick them up we went for surf had a
hot shot I had a conversation it was
really good fun next weekend I went back
down to Massey their friends have up it
saw their friends and their friends and
there’s out 15 kids waiting on the side
of the road okay
said he go how is this gonna work so I
did a couple of trips and managed to get
evidence the beach and we had a surfing
we had a good conversation so it’s
really good fun the next week are Jones
okay what’s waiting for me here and
there were put about 4550 people
standing on the side of the pavement
waiting for me to arrive Dan what do you
do then I traded the little hire car in
for a pickup truck so I could get more
kids down to the beach and this amazing
surf club was formed in Massey and it
became a really really important part of
my life for several years the second
thing you should probably know about me
is I am infuriatingly curious and
inquisitive if there’s something that I
don’t understand I’m going to
interrogate it so the first thing I
wanted to understand was why is this
blown up in Matthew why this why is
there this huge interest in surfing in
masks familiar Township so I asked why’d
you come now the answers that I’ve got
most of you projects baits you meet new
people surfing’s fun we can go and see
new places do things we never thought we
could do before
but there was one answer that I wasn’t
quite prepared for and definitely wasn’t
expecting that was this one we can talk
and people listen to us and that piqued
my interest of it because I used to get
answer Matthew put it up 9:30 10 o’clock
and some of these kids have been waiting
on the pavement since 7:00 in the
morning so they were waiting for two
hours just to have a conversation or
just to experience what it feels like to
be listened to so now I got more curious
and okay started reading academic
journals
my friends phd’s started reading
community crime statistics honest no
what is it like to be a child growing up
in South Africa in a Township today and
what came out was really disturbing
found that kids in South African
townships go through and this is in
masse go through up to about a traumatic
events on an annual basis every single
year death of a loved one the
incarceration of a parents witnessing
community violence physical abuse sexual
abuse in the home eight times a year
they took one of these types of events
to push me into a really difficult space
and he have kids too going through this
eight times every single year so it
probably expect you’ve got this amount
of trauma that be some community
response to help deal with this so this
is what I found
masseria’s community of 60,000 people to
social workers and not a single
psychologist that is a heartbreaking
statistic if you think you’ve got all
these kids going through all this trauma
they’re reaching breaking point they’re
reaching crisis point they’ve got no one
to talk to you made me realise this is
why kids are waiting for two hours on
the side of the road just to have a
conversation so what would you do then
you’ve got this information you’ve got
this data you’ve done this research do
you pass the data on to someone else and
hope that maybe they can do something
with it
parts of the government and hope the
government will do something with it or
do you do something about it and I
scratched my head and I thought well
good job I want to go back to England
maybe one day now I’m gonna do something
about I’m gonna take action so 2011 I
founded an organization could wait for
change purely and simply we just train
local people from Township communities
local young adults to do what I was
doing
identify kids who are in need taken down
to the beach take them for a surf but
most importantly have a conversation
talk about what’s happening in your life
what’s you know what’s going on what are
some of the challenges you face and
let’s work together to work out how we
can cope with that we teamed up with
some local universities some
psychologists we integrated a little bit
more evidence-based to it so we
introduced some meditations and
breathing but very simple and we started
small so we started a massive family we
trained
young adults and they looked after that
surf club then each year we’ve grown a
little bit in a little bit so today we
have 45 people working on the coast of
South Africa engaging 1,000 children
every single week it’s been a fantastic
journey and it’s still going but I’m
infuriatingly curious I’m always
interrogating so a thousand kids coming
down to the beach what does that do why
do you come this is what children tell
us happens when they come down to the
beach we call it surf therapy have a
surf have a conversation this is what
they find find a safe space I think
shares some feelings to meet you some
meet some new friends they get the sense
of belonging if I think back to January
and what I was looking for and I
couldn’t pick the phone up because I was
too scared this is exactly what I was
looking for and exactly what I couldn’t
find so this is therapy in a way what
else do we find this is important always
kids say they feel they achieve
something every single person in this
room knows what it feels like when
you’ve achieved something that you never
thought you could do you walk in and you
think that there’s no way I’m ever gonna
see that I’m just not strong enough and
then all of a sudden 10 minutes later
you’ve oh my god up on a surfboard you
know that sense of recognition that
sense of strength that sense of a care I
am someone that has worth it’s
therapeutic
so that was Inquisitor again if this is
what kids are saying what’s the impact
so last year we teamed up with a couple
of universities in Cape Town and we did
a study we took 200 children 100 of them
started our programs in January the
other hundred starts in December these
are kids from the same communities same
backgrounds we randomly assign them to
two different groups the control group
who didn’t get surf therapy for 12
months versus a group that did at the
end of the trial we were able to
establish this is what being in the
ocean does for us we saw improved
emotion regulation big data point there
was kids with less violence and kids
felt more optimistic so if you put
yourself in that situation where you’ve
had a
matic event you know what happens you
know what the future looks like you know
that the world becomes a very small
place it becomes quite scary going down
to the beach having conversations with
these caring mentors achieving something
you never thought possible optimism
comes through because what happens when
this changes so we asked about 200
parents and teachers what do you see
children with karma more engaged at
school and there was a resilient to
stress now again if you think of therapy
and you think of going to see a
psychologist what are you going for what
are the things that you want to achieve
what are the outcomes they expect
they’re all on the screen behind me so
when we talk about surf therapy we’re
starting to talk about it with more and
more authority it does work so what’s
the bigger message here anxiety stress
depression these are big big global
issues they’re one of the leading causes
of illness globally you know that I know
that the UN actually knows that as well
the UN’s now made good health and
well-being one of its sustainable
development goals so we need now to find
alternative ways that we can promote
health and well-being on mass especially
to populations who don’t necessarily
have the financial resources for
medication and psychologists and there’s
good news the work that we’re doing in
South Africa is not unique spent the
last two years talking to people all
around the world who are doing similar
work and I’m actually seeing similar
outcomes so surf therapy programs are
popping up all around the planet they’re
working not necessarily with similar
population groups this is the
interesting part some of them are
working with Marines coming back from
service some of them are working with
young children on the learning spectrums
some are working with young offenders
coming out of jail
but in each instance they’re seeing very
very similar results and this is
encouraging because it shows that what
we’re doing not only works in South
Africa it is scaleable that is a
solution and there’s more some of them
are not surfers some of them boxing
programs yoga programs some of them are
skateboarders some of them are rally
driving programs in each instance
vulnerable people are being connected to
caring adults they’re achieving
something they never thought possible
and it is working there are health
outcomes coming through that you can
benchmark to therapy here’s another
thing that we found in South Africa for
us to take a child onto the beach
a hundred Rand and South Africa for a
child to go and see a psychologist cost
850 R and this is a lot cheaper so
what’s the message here pick a message
about taking action and more people I
speak to the more people that I’ve
spoken to about their work and more I
realize that they’re just like you and
me these are individuals who experience
something unfortunate they’ve
experienced trauma they’ve experienced
what it’s like to go to a psychologist
or not pick up that phone and they’ve
thought there’s a different way we can
do this and they’ve started something
from nothing and this is a global
movement that is really starting to take
shape and I think that’s the point these
talks it’s an opportunity to share
simple solutions so surf therapy sport
therapy if you want is a simple solution
it does work it’s fun that’s accessible
that’s impactful okay we’ve got the data
to prove it personally I know as well my
therapist prescribes me running and
prescribes him surfing four days a week
it’s the best prescription you’ll ever
get it floods my body with dopamine and
makes me feel good and if I’m not
getting that from surfing or if I’m not
getting that from running I’m gonna get
it from somewhere else so how I was
getting that before was through physical
pain exposure to physical pain so I know
that surf therapy works and that’s what
I’m standing here today so what happens
if we share this and that’s my last ask
to you guys more people are going to
know that there’s an alternative way to
do therapy around the world more people
can know that’s easier to actually pick
up the phone than not and some of the
people that see this talk they might
start their own little weekend surf club
or a running club or a sewing program
anything just to get communities active
and together some of them might also be
doctors or psychologists and they might
take this practice they might integrate
it to their national health services it
has happened and it is happening but
they can only really start if we share
so we have the data we know it’s working
all we now need to do is share and
that’s a conversation to click of a
button
that’s a TED talk so thank you very much
for listening
you
myself asking myself the question on the
screen behind me am i okay
I think for the first time in my life it
honestly say the answer was no I knew
that I needed some help I knew I needed
some support but it’s really nervous to
pick up the phone and say I’m not okay
I’m not okay I need some help I was
worried about conversations I might have
to have situations I might find myself
in so I didn’t and I stay quiet hoped
everything would get better and three
months down the line I had a big crash
and someone else ended up picking up the
phone for me and the more people I speak
to about my experience the more I
realized that what I’ve gone through is
what a lot of people go through there’s
nothing unique in it asking for help is
hard and that makes me uncomfortable
because I know firsthand how difficult
it is to get that help when you’ve
crashed to see a psychologist is
expensive medication is a very difficult
thing to balance and if you don’t have
access to those two options then there’s
not much else and it can be very much
alone so we need to find ways of making
easier for people to say I’m not okay
and we need to find ways of making it
easier for people to get the help that
they need when they’re at their most
vulnerable state so I’m gonna share a
little story about how we’ve done that
in South Africa now our work here fits
into a much bigger global community that
really can change the way that therapy
looks and that is surf therapy so my
name is Tim Conybeare I’m 36 years old
I’m from the UK probably the first thing
you should know about me is I’m a big
surfer I love to surf I’m not very good
at it I am British but um the ocean for
me is it’s a healing space it’s a
sanctuary if I’ve had a bad day at work
I’ve had a bad day at home I know I can
go down to the beach I can have a surf
and the you know the world feels like a
brighter place some of the first things
I did when I came to South Africa in
2008 is I went down to muizenberg and I
had a surf and I soon realized that
tree isn’t accessible to everyone in
this country if you’re a kid growing up
in a Township the beach isn’t always
down the road it’s not always easy to
get there so with the help of a travel
company I was working for at the time
called Ticket to Ride I started a
weekend surf club and every Saturday I
Drive over to masa familiar Township
just down by chromakey a little city
golf and kind of banging down chromakey
road I’d pick up whoever was waiting so
remember first weekend there were three
or four kids waiting on the side of the
road pick them up we went for surf had a
hot shot I had a conversation it was
really good fun next weekend I went back
down to Massey their friends have up it
saw their friends and their friends and
there’s out 15 kids waiting on the side
of the road okay
said he go how is this gonna work so I
did a couple of trips and managed to get
evidence the beach and we had a surfing
we had a good conversation so it’s
really good fun the next week are Jones
okay what’s waiting for me here and
there were put about 4550 people
standing on the side of the pavement
waiting for me to arrive Dan what do you
do then I traded the little hire car in
for a pickup truck so I could get more
kids down to the beach and this amazing
surf club was formed in Massey and it
became a really really important part of
my life for several years the second
thing you should probably know about me
is I am infuriatingly curious and
inquisitive if there’s something that I
don’t understand I’m going to
interrogate it so the first thing I
wanted to understand was why is this
blown up in Matthew why this why is
there this huge interest in surfing in
masks familiar Township so I asked why’d
you come now the answers that I’ve got
most of you projects baits you meet new
people surfing’s fun we can go and see
new places do things we never thought we
could do before
but there was one answer that I wasn’t
quite prepared for and definitely wasn’t
expecting that was this one we can talk
and people listen to us and that piqued
my interest of it because I used to get
answer Matthew put it up 9:30 10 o’clock
and some of these kids have been waiting
on the pavement since 7:00 in the
morning so they were waiting for two
hours just to have a conversation or
just to experience what it feels like to
be listened to so now I got more curious
and okay started reading academic
journals
my friends phd’s started reading
community crime statistics honest no
what is it like to be a child growing up
in South Africa in a Township today and
what came out was really disturbing
found that kids in South African
townships go through and this is in
masse go through up to about a traumatic
events on an annual basis every single
year death of a loved one the
incarceration of a parents witnessing
community violence physical abuse sexual
abuse in the home eight times a year
they took one of these types of events
to push me into a really difficult space
and he have kids too going through this
eight times every single year so it
probably expect you’ve got this amount
of trauma that be some community
response to help deal with this so this
is what I found
masseria’s community of 60,000 people to
social workers and not a single
psychologist that is a heartbreaking
statistic if you think you’ve got all
these kids going through all this trauma
they’re reaching breaking point they’re
reaching crisis point they’ve got no one
to talk to you made me realise this is
why kids are waiting for two hours on
the side of the road just to have a
conversation so what would you do then
you’ve got this information you’ve got
this data you’ve done this research do
you pass the data on to someone else and
hope that maybe they can do something
with it
parts of the government and hope the
government will do something with it or
do you do something about it and I
scratched my head and I thought well
good job I want to go back to England
maybe one day now I’m gonna do something
about I’m gonna take action so 2011 I
founded an organization could wait for
change purely and simply we just train
local people from Township communities
local young adults to do what I was
doing
identify kids who are in need taken down
to the beach take them for a surf but
most importantly have a conversation
talk about what’s happening in your life
what’s you know what’s going on what are
some of the challenges you face and
let’s work together to work out how we
can cope with that we teamed up with
some local universities some
psychologists we integrated a little bit
more evidence-based to it so we
introduced some meditations and
breathing but very simple and we started
small so we started a massive family we
trained
young adults and they looked after that
surf club then each year we’ve grown a
little bit in a little bit so today we
have 45 people working on the coast of
South Africa engaging 1,000 children
every single week it’s been a fantastic
journey and it’s still going but I’m
infuriatingly curious I’m always
interrogating so a thousand kids coming
down to the beach what does that do why
do you come this is what children tell
us happens when they come down to the
beach we call it surf therapy have a
surf have a conversation this is what
they find find a safe space I think
shares some feelings to meet you some
meet some new friends they get the sense
of belonging if I think back to January
and what I was looking for and I
couldn’t pick the phone up because I was
too scared this is exactly what I was
looking for and exactly what I couldn’t
find so this is therapy in a way what
else do we find this is important always
kids say they feel they achieve
something every single person in this
room knows what it feels like when
you’ve achieved something that you never
thought you could do you walk in and you
think that there’s no way I’m ever gonna
see that I’m just not strong enough and
then all of a sudden 10 minutes later
you’ve oh my god up on a surfboard you
know that sense of recognition that
sense of strength that sense of a care I
am someone that has worth it’s
therapeutic
so that was Inquisitor again if this is
what kids are saying what’s the impact
so last year we teamed up with a couple
of universities in Cape Town and we did
a study we took 200 children 100 of them
started our programs in January the
other hundred starts in December these
are kids from the same communities same
backgrounds we randomly assign them to
two different groups the control group
who didn’t get surf therapy for 12
months versus a group that did at the
end of the trial we were able to
establish this is what being in the
ocean does for us we saw improved
emotion regulation big data point there
was kids with less violence and kids
felt more optimistic so if you put
yourself in that situation where you’ve
had a
matic event you know what happens you
know what the future looks like you know
that the world becomes a very small
place it becomes quite scary going down
to the beach having conversations with
these caring mentors achieving something
you never thought possible optimism
comes through because what happens when
this changes so we asked about 200
parents and teachers what do you see
children with karma more engaged at
school and there was a resilient to
stress now again if you think of therapy
and you think of going to see a
psychologist what are you going for what
are the things that you want to achieve
what are the outcomes they expect
they’re all on the screen behind me so
when we talk about surf therapy we’re
starting to talk about it with more and
more authority it does work so what’s
the bigger message here anxiety stress
depression these are big big global
issues they’re one of the leading causes
of illness globally you know that I know
that the UN actually knows that as well
the UN’s now made good health and
well-being one of its sustainable
development goals so we need now to find
alternative ways that we can promote
health and well-being on mass especially
to populations who don’t necessarily
have the financial resources for
medication and psychologists and there’s
good news the work that we’re doing in
South Africa is not unique spent the
last two years talking to people all
around the world who are doing similar
work and I’m actually seeing similar
outcomes so surf therapy programs are
popping up all around the planet they’re
working not necessarily with similar
population groups this is the
interesting part some of them are
working with Marines coming back from
service some of them are working with
young children on the learning spectrums
some are working with young offenders
coming out of jail
but in each instance they’re seeing very
very similar results and this is
encouraging because it shows that what
we’re doing not only works in South
Africa it is scaleable that is a
solution and there’s more some of them
are not surfers some of them boxing
programs yoga programs some of them are
skateboarders some of them are rally
driving programs in each instance
vulnerable people are being connected to
caring adults they’re achieving
something they never thought possible
and it is working there are health
outcomes coming through that you can
benchmark to therapy here’s another
thing that we found in South Africa for
us to take a child onto the beach
a hundred Rand and South Africa for a
child to go and see a psychologist cost
850 R and this is a lot cheaper so
what’s the message here pick a message
about taking action and more people I
speak to the more people that I’ve
spoken to about their work and more I
realize that they’re just like you and
me these are individuals who experience
something unfortunate they’ve
experienced trauma they’ve experienced
what it’s like to go to a psychologist
or not pick up that phone and they’ve
thought there’s a different way we can
do this and they’ve started something
from nothing and this is a global
movement that is really starting to take
shape and I think that’s the point these
talks it’s an opportunity to share
simple solutions so surf therapy sport
therapy if you want is a simple solution
it does work it’s fun that’s accessible
that’s impactful okay we’ve got the data
to prove it personally I know as well my
therapist prescribes me running and
prescribes him surfing four days a week
it’s the best prescription you’ll ever
get it floods my body with dopamine and
makes me feel good and if I’m not
getting that from surfing or if I’m not
getting that from running I’m gonna get
it from somewhere else so how I was
getting that before was through physical
pain exposure to physical pain so I know
that surf therapy works and that’s what
I’m standing here today so what happens
if we share this and that’s my last ask
to you guys more people are going to
know that there’s an alternative way to
do therapy around the world more people
can know that’s easier to actually pick
up the phone than not and some of the
people that see this talk they might
start their own little weekend surf club
or a running club or a sewing program
anything just to get communities active
and together some of them might also be
doctors or psychologists and they might
take this practice they might integrate
it to their national health services it
has happened and it is happening but
they can only really start if we share
so we have the data we know it’s working
all we now need to do is share and
that’s a conversation to click of a
button
that’s a TED talk so thank you very much
for listening
you
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