Pepperdine ministry graduate student Daniel Perez finds peace while sitting on a board in the Pacific Ocean.
Perez has been surfing for six years, since his start as an undergraduate at Pepperdine, and feels passionate about how it has helped him through common problems many college students face, such as stress and anxiety.
“Surfing for me is an escape from reality,” said Perez, assistant to Surf Convocation.
Pepperdine has a whole community of surfers who look at the sport as a way to take a load off. Something about the overwhelming power and peace the ocean provides gives these surfing students an outlet for release from everyday stresses.
Although research on the positive impacts of surfing is still in premature stages, many professionals across the country agree that the sport has great potential to help manage mental health conditions including stress, anxiety, depression and even PTSD.
Surfers are more “chill”
Half of students surveyed said surfing helps clear their thoughts, while 42 percent said they get a natural high from surfing and 43 percent said they would recommend surfing to a friend struggling with mental illness. Roughly 80 percent said they surf for enjoyment.
Josh Chan, a 2016 Pepperdine alumnus who is currently studying to become a physician at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, said he believes the community of surfers can help people with mental illness.
“I think surfing helps with allowing individuals with mental illnesses to be surrounded with a caring and healing community,” he said.
The community of surfers and the relaxing qualities surfing evokes in people are a major reason why many have used the sport to overcome mental illnesses such as anxiety, stress and depression.
Many others in the surfing community use it to improve their mental health, Laura Taylor and Tess McClure wrote in an October 2017 Vice Report “Why Are Surfers So Chill? How Surfing Impacts Mental Health.” The authors met with various surfers and discussed the effect surfing has had on their overall mental health. All of the surfers were quick to share their previous struggles and how surfing has alleviated these ills.
Perez is a religious surfer, going out five to six times a week. Perez picked up surfing to make friends at Pepperdine and to continue his passion for extreme sports. He quickly noticed the added benefits it provided, such as an improved mental state and a better work ethic.
“I suffered a lot from a very, very low self esteem,” Perez said. “But nothing compares to just being out there in the open.”
Surfing helped Perez put adolescent struggles with substance abuse behind him.
“Surfing definitely helped me throughout that experience,” Perez said. “The lifestyle itself doesn’t really allow for heavy drug use or alcohol abuse.”
Perez said the surfing community played a major role in him becoming a better person and expanding his faith.
“I see God the most when I’m out in the water,” he said. “I tell that to people whenever I discuss surfing.”
Junior finance major Duke Schillaci believes that surfing is very healing to the mind but also that the ocean in itself is incredibly relaxing to be around, regardless of the activity.
“I think the ocean is way more powerful than a lot of people think,” Schillaci said.
Both Perez and Schillaci found a whole new community through surfing and the people that devote so much of their lives to it.
“It’s such an expression of who people are,” Schillaci said.
Surfing aids work-life balance
When it comes to professional life, including school work and jobs, students said surfing improves their work ethics.
Though he’s a student and a full-time analyst at wealth management firm, Advice Period, Schillaci still finds time to fit surfing into his busy schedule two to three times a week.
“Do you want to go and get better, do you want to go and find release,” Schillaci said.
He believes the same drive that pushes him to paddle out and try to improve his skills has carried over into his work and school life, as it has taught him to keep pushing even when the going gets rough.
Robert Shearer, associate professor of decision science and the head administrator for Surf Convo, believes that surfing can influence students work ethic in two ways.
He believes that surfing can either make students have no personal drive to succeed as they become so immersed with the sport that they focus all their energy on it, or they use surfing as a tool to balance their schedules and plan obligations responsibly.
Chan described how surfing has made him more personal and patient in a work environment, as sometimes surfers will be out in the water for hours and not catch a single wave but they have to just sit there for that right one to come.
“In the ocean you can’t really do anything but think and wait for the next set so during that time I try and find ways to lessen my stress,” Chan said.
Surfing has given Chan an opportunity to think deeply about different stressful obligations going on in his life in a calm environment, so that he can figure them out logically.
Perez also realized the benefits surfing has on his school work. When there are good waves he said he notices that he gets all his homework done far before deadlines so that he can go surfing with a clear head.
What psychologists think
Surfing has a way of evoking meditative, calming qualities in those who participate in it. These qualities are a major reason why studies are beginning to focus on the healing aspect surfing can induce in people.
Sparkle Greenhaw, staff therapist in the Pepperdine Counseling Center, believes students are most affected by stress, anxiety and depression. She said these occur in students for multiple reasons, including drug and alcohol use, difficulty finding friends, rough home life, etc.
The poll found that the leading causes of stress and anxiety for students are school, relationships and finances.
Greenhaw believes that surfing, like all exercise, could be very beneficial to people with mental health conditions.
“Having a balanced life is most important,” Greenhaw said.
Psychology Professor Janet Trammell agreed with Greenhaw but said said surfing may be tough to try if one hasn’t done it before and is in distress mentally.
“If someone is experiencing depression or severe anxiety, it may be quite difficult to get them to start such an activity,” Trammell said.
Research on the benefits of surfing are still in its beginning stages. The Navy recently undertook a $1 million project to see how surfing programs can benefit the mental states of veterans with mental illnesses such as PTSD, Tony Perry wrote in a March 2018 Washington Post piece.
The program began after a veteran from Hawaii, who got his right hand and right leg blown off in Iraq, expressed his desire to get back into the sport. After showing great progress and an increase in self confidence, the Navy saw the potential of surfing as a healing method for a wider range of veterans.
Non-surfers
The Pepp Post poll found that of non-surfers, about 41 percent would be willing to try surfing.
Natalie Bishop, sophomore art history major, does not surf. She never really tried it except for a couple times as a kid and just never enjoyed it enough to keep going.
She said she is not interested in picking it up but does see the benefit in surfing for others.
Bishop loves the outdoors and uses walks on the beach as a source of coping when she’s stressed.
“Nature has a way of clearing your head,” Bishop said.
Griffin Finck completed the reporting for this story under the supervision of Dr. Christina Littlefield and Dr. Theresa de los Santos in Jour 241 in fall 2018. Dr. Littlefield supervised the web story.
