The drama at the surfing competition in Tahiti during the Paris Olympics may have made you eager to ride some waves yourself. Surfing has been hailed as a great sport to improve your cardiovascular fitness, balance and coordination. “Surfing is a great form of exercise.
It is total body exercise working all the major muscle groups but especially the core, the chest, back and arms,” explains Sam Davies, CEO and co-founder of Surfwell Limited , a community interest company that provides surf therapy to people in the emergency services who struggle with their mental health. The experience of riding a wave for the first time is like no other. “The feeling of riding a wave is completely unique, it’s a feeling that cannot fail to bring a smile to your face when you experience it for the first time,” explains Davies.
“It’s exhilarating and exciting, but it also gives you a feeling of connection to nature and the world around you, to be able to directly harness the natural energy from the ocean for your enjoyment is an incredible feeling. “I love surfing because it can be so many things depending on what I need from it. It can be exercise, it can be a release, it can be a reset in difficult times, it can be a form of identity – but above all, it is always fun!” Davies co-founded Surfwell Ltd with James Mallows in 2018 in response to the national mental health crisis within UK emergency services as they strongly believe that surfing has a vast array of mental benef.