Surfing for Farmers kicks off for another summer

A Surfing for farmers event. Photo / RNZ - Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

By Maja Burry of RNZ

Farmers are preparing to get back out on the water, with the Surfing for Farmers programme kicking off again this month.

This year the initiative is being run at 21 different beaches around the country, with six new locations coming onboard and hopes of up to a thousand individual farmers taking part.

Surfing for Farmers was launched in Gisborne in 2018 and encourages farmers to take a couple of hours each week to head to the surf to help better manage stress and improve their mental health.

While some regional organisers were waiting a few more weeks for the water to warm, others were diving straight in, with an event planned at Ōhope Beach in Bay of Plenty tomorrow.

Bay of Plenty regional organiser Phil Williams said last time it drew in between 15 and 30 people each week and he was keen to grow those numbers.

"I think all the farmers that came down, and we've got a wide range of farmers from quite a wide area, they certainly enjoyed it."

"You can see them coming out of the water at the end of it, they're almost skipping up the beach to the barbecue because they've just had so much fun."

Surfing for Farmers founder Stephen Thomson said when he started the programme in Gisborne he never thought it would expand to so many parts of the country.

"I guess when you actually stop and look at why it's growing, there's a lot of reasons for something like Surfing for Farmers to exist, just the pressure on our farmers in this modern sort of times is pretty heavy. So you can see why there's been a great uptake."

Thomson said despite the freezing water, Southland was actually one of the spots that drew in the most farmers, with their first surfing event planned for later this month.

"Southland's one of our favourites they've just come out firing and turning up and going great guns."

- RNZ