The Wave Project

Wed, Apr 20th 2022 at 12:50 pm - 2:00 pm

Ruairidh Farquharson is "Changing the Lives of Vulnerable Young People Surfing in St Andrews"

Club members please log in for more information.

The Club’s guest speaker this week was Ruairidh Farquharson, who organises The Wave Project here in St Andrews.The Wave Project is a charity, first set up in Newquay in 2010, to help young people with mental health issues. It came to Scotland in 2018 and to St Andrews (with generous support from the University) in 2021 and uses surfing and the sea to assist troubled young people between the ages of eight and eighteen years.

The Project has proved to be very effective in reducing the mental health issues facing many young people through the therapeutic effect of the sea and the outdoors combined with surfing the waves This gives the young people greater self esteem and confidence as they learn new skills and build new social relationships.

The young people, mainly from Dundee and Fife,come for a six week course which is divided into three phases.They work with an instructor/ mentor on a one to one basis as they gradually master the sport of surfing.The instructors/mentors are all volunteers and represent excellent role models to follow.

At the start and end of each course there are evaluation surveys to complete and all the evidence seems to point to significant improvements in the participants’mental health.This would tend to suggest that this type of project which is not only cheaper than traditional methods for treating mental health is also equally, if not more, effective.

Ruairidh’s talk was followed by many questions from members who clearly found much of interest in this wonderful project.The Wave Project relies wholly on donations to fund its good work and details of where to donate can be found on line.

Rotarian Henry Paul concluded the meeting with a generous vote of thanks.

Surfing tuition is a great therapy for anyone especially if warm weather.

'What We Do' Main Pages: