WSC 2025 | Surf therapy for stroke in the chronic phase of rehabilitation: insights from a surf clinic

Surf therapy is an increasingly used outdoor sport program for people with psychosocial needs, physical needs, and mental needs. And now we have observed what’s the effectiveness of or what’s the influence of surfing for people after a stroke in the chronic phase of rehabilitation. We observed that, well, after a week of surfing for these people, we saw a way better balance, we saw way better functional improvements, and we observed a way better self-perceived recovery in a multiple single case study. We had a strong indication that there is a well-perceived recovery, that people perceive they are getting better. And that was until six months after the surf week. So if you look to surfing and the mechanisms behind surfing, it’s more an automatic motor skill. You can’t think about what you do when you’re on a surfboard. You just go and try to keep on the board with unpredictable ways, with instructors who are saying something to you, with the light from the sun in people with over sensories of light with the noise of the sea; people are not able to think what they are doing so they are kind of forced to use other parts, more automatic parts of the brain. And that requires less energy. So they push themselves further in doing activities. And that’s what they say to us as well. Well, now I know I can, well, when I can surf more than I can do at home, this, this, this, and this. So the intervention doesn’t stop when we stop surfing because they translate it to their home and start to do all jobs around the house what they had never done since they had a stroke. Yeah, we started with the surf therapy; I started in a rehabilitation center first because the center was next to the sea. And it was by incident that I found a young patient who really thought I can do nothing. And I took him to the sea with a board. And we were amazed about the effect. He started to think again, if I can do this, I can do more. And that was the beginning. So I had to do more with this concept. And yeah, at the end, now we build our own clinic. We need to show what the effect is and to not only show it by telling about it but also with evidence, so yeah, now we are also using 3D EEG to show the effect of the brain activities. Yeah, we do a lot more to prove the effect. Well, that is how do you see the future of surfing? Yeah, we see there’s a lot of work to do, but yeah, seeing the results, and and what we are still growing in the concept, so rolling it out, and you find more and more evidence that you need a big, a large stimulus to change in the mind to get the neuroplasticity. We are also now looking for biomarkers to prove that, and we are on a good way, and and that way, yeah, never ends. Surfing is not, is not conservative, it’s new, but let’s push the boundaries of what is stroke rehabilitation together. I will not say, well, okay, you have had a stroke, go surfing on a surf school. I say, well, you have had a stroke, find an extreme challenge with your healthcare professionals that interrupts and helps you, interrupts vicious circle of habitual acts and helps you to go alone, without, eventually go alone without healthcare professionals.

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