Participant Katie Floyd found the healing effects of surfing immediately after discovering the organisation last July. “After the first session I did with Groundswell I didn’t sleep that night, because being in the waves was so moving,” she says. “My body had a reaction where all these memories, and all these emotions were being lifted to the surface.”

Katie dealt with emotional abuse and physical abuse as a child and was sexually assaulted in her first year of college. “That changes a person,” says Katie, “I was using antidepressants and anxiety medication, I was so beat up after work I would drink. I was hiding feelings.

“These feelings manifested themselves in really ugly ways. I would get really sick. I had three-month long sinus infections, I would get other infections. I was so stressed out and bringing this garbage energy into the world.”

Since becoming a regular surfer, Katie doesn’t use any medication at all. “Surfing is like magic. It’s like medicine,” she says.

“Surfing is like magic. It’s like medicine”

While #MeToo has helped people realise that sexual abuse is widespread, few realise the severity of the problem. Sex trafficking, for example, is rife in places like California.

This year alone there have been more than 500 arrests in relation to sex-trafficking offences in Los Angeles, following a major investigation led by the Los Angeles County Regional Human Trafficking Task Force.

In 2017, around 200 human trafficking cases were filed by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Horribly, it’s children between 12 and 14 who are most at risk of becoming victims of sex trafficking.

Whatever the science behind it, there’s no doubting that Groundswell has changed participants lives for the better. As Katie Floyd says: “[The] programs drive up issues of confidence or feelings of ‘enoughness’, and you get to work on them.”

The bond between participants is also important, she believes. “It creates a sisterhood. Women come together to feel themselves in one another. I’ve seen women gain confidence [through the] community.”

Both Katie and Maria now give back to this community as volunteers and mentors, helping others who attend Groundswell programs. The stories they’ve heard from others are frequently as shocking as those of their own past.

“Vulnerable women can have a lot of triggers that we may not know about,” explains Maria. One woman, after putting on the wetsuit and having it tight around her arms, had a flashback to a time when she was bound by her wrists. “We slowly worked through it,” remembers Maria, “she later told us that she was so proud of herself for getting in the water and felt like surfing for the first time had changed her life.”

“It’s about remembering that you are beautiful and that you matter”

There was another woman who came to the group after being in an abusive relationship. She lived in the middle of the country and didn’t even know how to swim, Natalie remembers. “For weeks she wouldn’t put her head under the water. It can be crazy on top but if you just go underneath there’s this calm holding space.”

Then, on the final day, “this woman dove between the waves,” Natalie says “and when she came up she was so full of tears.”

“It was a realisation that all this chaos in her life was just on the surface.”

There’s a similar – and similarly potent – metaphor that Groundswell use in all their surf sessions. “When life happens, [there’s a] current underneath that’s consistent, and who you are,” says Natalie. “We tap into that and let people realise – that was just a wave, they can choose to surf the wave or dive beneath the wave.”

Of course Groundswell deal in more than just metaphors. The effectiveness of their work is evidenced by the fact that, at the end of the eight week courses, many of the women go out and buy their own surfboards and surf gear. “It’s been super fun to see that progression,” smiles Natalie.

Katie is perfect example of this, “I now live in a very superlative community with a lot of sisters who go surfing and learn from the ocean,” she says.

“It’s about remembering that you are beautiful and that you matter.”

If you’ve suffered sexual trauma to any degree and feel surf therapy could help you, or want to volunteer with Groundswell Community, contact the team via their website at www.groundswellcommunity.org

Some names have been changed to protect the identity of the victims.

To read the rest of Mpora’s March ‘Space’ Issue head here

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