Five Reasons Why Surfing Boosts Happiness

Image: Jack Kennare

Words: Lily Jacobsen

Surfing is a sport that merges physical activity with a connection to nature as well as your surfer mates. This is a winning trifecta in our eyes.

Surfing has been shown to positively increase your mental and physical health giving you that boost of happiness that sets up your day. This makes getting through your daily tasks so much easier.

Surfing provides many positive benefits that will help you take those small steps to achieve your mental health goals too. 

Here are five reasons why surfing can boost your happiness: 

1. The Benefits of Being in the Environment 

Being exposed to nature increases your positive mood as spending time in a natural environment has shown to be beneficial. Your environment will often influence how you feel as the blue colour of the ocean often provokes feelings of calmness. Most people associate the ocean with tranquility and freedom as the beach is a destination people travel to for relaxation. The waves teach lessons on patience, because not every wave will be right. Surfers need that flexibility that will help them be ready for the perfect wave when it comes. Compared to exercise carried out in smaller indoor spaces such as public gyms, exercise in natural environments inspires the room to roam. This has been shown to help lower symptoms of depression, anxiety, and feelings of anger. 

2. New Social Connections 

Surfing is an activity that can be enjoyed alone or shared with others. It inspires quality time with not only yourself, but the people around you with similar goals. Surfing enhances a positive mood, which helps increase your connection to others. Socially, surfing gives you the tools to communicate calmly and be raw with your fellow surfers. Together, surfers can help each other grow and develop emotionally by breaking through their worries. Normalising your mental health struggles with others who feel the same has been shown to help individuals feel less alone and supported. Having supportive people around you to watch you finally stand on the board… then fall off, is all a part of the experience. Right after you fall, they will help you slide back on your board and give you cheers of encouragement when you try again. 

3. Increasing Your Physical Health 

Taking part in physical activity is directly related to a positive increase in mental health. Surfing aids in helping your cognitive health, especially with symptoms of depression. Physical activity contributes to whole your whole body with an increase in energy, better sleep, physical strength, and a general feeling of happiness. It also has long-term side effects such as lowering your blood pressure and maintaining your heart's health. Doing aerobic exercise helps the front part of our brain called the hippocampus grow. This enhances memory cognition and the ability to use your brain efficiently without brain fog. Not only will your mind feel the benefits, your body will too. 

4. Feeling Alive 

Endorphins while you surf are released, giving you rushes of adrenaline that gives you the feeling of being ALIVE. Surfing helps you gain that confidence and control that gets your blood pumping. The endorphins released during surfing act as a way of relief. This is what can give you that rush while riding a wave. Surfing has been shown to give you a positive shift in your emotional well-being as it can often set you up with a positive attitude for the rest of your day. Having moments of believing in yourself enhances your everyday function like a higher concentration on everyday tasks. This feeling carries onto every session you have as a ‘stoked surfer’ will always look forward to the next time they can surf.

5. Growing Your Skills

Adventurous water sports like surfing have been shown to teach individuals important life lessons such as resilience and trust. Not only are you gaining confidence from mastering a new sport you also gain a sense of achievement. It has been demonstrated that mastering new skills can give you feelings of fulfilment, which ultimately increase self-worth. Surfing has helped those with mental health struggles with the ability to regulate and acknowledge their emotions in healthy ways. This has helped people gain awareness of when they should engage in self-care rituals by releasing it's okay to not be okay. Through the social aspects of surfing, you will gain new methods that may help you while also helping someone else.

Want to learn how to surf? Find out if there’s a WOW Program near you here.