CSB - Stephen Thomson - Surfing for Farmers

The popular Surfing for Farmers program, which gives farmers a well-earned break from life on the farm, starts its eighth season from November 5.

This season, it will be offered at 25 beaches across the country, bringing the benefits of surf therapy to even more rural areas.

Stephen Thomson, founder and chairman of Surfing for Farmers, shared his enthusiasm for the upcoming season, saying, “We’re excited to be heading into another year. Surfing for Farmers has grown so much, and it’s amazing to see how it continues to make a real difference for rural communities, especially during hard times.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the rugby field to the rotary shed. It's the
Country Sport Breakfast with Brian Kelly on gold Sport.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's go surfing.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Now everybody's learning. How come with me? The morning will
be seventeen past seven. Well, the popular Surfing for Farmers program,
which gives farmers a well earned break from from life
on the farm starts. It's eighth a season next week
November fifth, and the whole bunch of beaches around New

(00:29):
Zealand joining us as the man who's I think brainschild.
It was in Sherman of Surfing for Farmers Stephen Toms
the morning Stephen, Brian, how are you great mate? Excited
to get the eighth season underway? Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's from you know, it's pretty exciting
to even have survived eight season, to be honest that
it's awesome. Yeah, now looking forward to it and yeah,
bit of a bit of a soft start with just
a handful of locations kicking off early and then we'll
be all go by sort of early December for the
rest of the locations this year.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Tell us about how it actually came about what seven,
seven or eight years ago?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, so it was it was born out of an
idea after watching a Netflix documentary called Resurface about America
and more soldiers that have been to Afghanistan and dealing
with PTSD and how they use surfing as therapy to
help people recover, and yeah, just at the time, I

(01:30):
just sort of felt that, you know, it wasn't so
much about taking farmers with PTSD or anything surfing, but
it was about using the surfing to just give farmers
a chance to get off the farm and have a
go it's something different, and take a few hours once
a week for themselves. And yeah, so we gave it
a cracking gusy back in twenty and eighteen, and as

(01:53):
you know, the rest is history.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Really yeah, absolutely, what is it, something like eight thousand
farmers and growers across twenty five beaches now participate in
this wonderful event from one beach to twenty five.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, now it's gone gamebusters. And as you sort of
just explained, the locations are growing, but also the number
of participants at each location seems to get bigger and
better every year. So it's pretty awesome to see that.
You know, there's been a huge amount of buyer and
then it's just good to see farmers actually taking some

(02:26):
time for themselves and realizing how important there is just
to have a couple of hours off once a week
and just chill out.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Really, the thing I love about it is basically all
the farmers or growers have to do just hop on
the ute and turn up. They don't need a surfboard,
wet suit or anything.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Do they. Yeah, And that's we're big on that, like
remove all the excuses. All you've got to do is
turn up. And probably the only little thing that's a
little bit different from the has gone buyers, we've got
a new app. You go to the Sporty app on
your phone and register and just let us know you're
coming and she's good to go. Really, so yeah, there's

(03:05):
not really a whole lot of admind or anything. Just
to show up and have a good time.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
And the cool thing is you're throwing a classic Kiwi
barbecue at the same time. Beef and Lamb New Zealand
have come on board.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah yeah, Beef and Lamb are one of our premier sponsors.
But I think, yeah, just important as the surfing is
just a chance to have a yact with with a
mace or a colleague or another farmer after you've had
a bit of a surf and and you're sort of
thinking a bit clearly and bit differently, and yeah, sometimes
you know, you might talk about farming and other times
it's good just to hear if I was talking about

(03:38):
that wave they caught, or how they thought they caught
a wave, but how they thought it was massive but
it wasn't. Extra.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
What's the feedback being like over the course of the
seven season, Stephen.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh, yeah, I think it just speaks for itself really,
the fact that people just keep coming back when I
say this a lot. But you know, at the end
of the day, nobody needs to turn up, but the
farmers grind away down a long, windy gravel road for
up to or over an hour each week to come
to surfing for farmers shows that they just love it
and they just enjoy the chance to catch up with

(04:14):
other farmers and also just switch off for a bit.
So yeah, it's generally always pretty positive and be called
to just a year see the smiles on the farmer's
faces once any new venues this year, no new visus
as such. This year. We're just probably in that bit
of a spot where we're just kind of trying to

(04:36):
consolidate and hold it together going pretty big, and like
any sort of charity, you know, you're always running it
on pretty lean funding, so we're just kind of make
sure we do the venues we've got well and you know,
maybe spring from there going forward next season.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Fantastic. So all the details for Surfing for Farmers, it's
on your Facebook page or the website, right.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeap Surfing for Farmers dot. I'm on the website or
just Surfing for Comers on Facebook page and then yeah,
download the Sporty app and search Surfing for Farmers there
and that's where you can register what.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
I love about it. Everything's free of charge, all supplied,
even of feed. Hey mate, you do a great job.
Well done, Stephen, awesome.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Thanks for having me on the show.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Absolute pleasure and a big thanks too to those that
have sort of the premium sponsors, Balanced Agrenutrians, Bailey's real
Estate as you mentioned, Beef and Lamb, New Zealand, jard
and Rabobank and Fonterra Surfing for