Surf's up - the alternative keeping many young people out of jail

November 22, 2017

Surf therapy is designed as an alternative to locking people up.

A Bay of Plenty programme that uses surfing to help troubled young people turn their lives around is getting results, and the organiser wants to see it spread to other parts of the country.

Krista Davis of the Live for More, or Tai Watea programme, says it's a much better alternative to jail, "because if they go inside when they're young it almost sets them up to become lifelong criminals".

Seven Sharp reported that 54 per cent of the people who've taken the programme said it has kept them out of prison.

Thirty-seven per cent reported it had helped save their lives, while all the participants said they now feel more confident, happy and motivated.

And 94 per cent said the programme has reduced their drug and alcohol intake. 

Surfing is at the core of the Live for More programme.

"It's quite a tangible way of speaking to them about life and life skills. So each week of the programme we do surfing, but we also have clinical group therapy sessions, we do cultural work with the guys," Ms Davis explained.

For young man Mana Khan, the programme was a ticket out of jail. He did surf therapy instead of spending up to 18 months inside for assault, after Ms Davis wrote to the judge while he was awaiting sentencing.

She said she wrote in the letter, "that Mana was a young man with heaps of potential and his involvement with the programme would be more constructive than wasting away in a prison cell".

Mana has now been crime and drug free for four months, is looking for a job and says he wants to be a fully qualified builder in next five years. 

Live for More is a controversial alternative to jail, but it seems to be working and Ms Davis would like to see it catch on in other parts of the country.

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