Rejected petition Allow single people to travel out of cities to surf during lockdowns for their mental health.
Between March and July 2020, I was denied access to travel and surf. My mental health has been at best difficult, at worst excruciatingly impossible. Surfing has helped me get through this and has helped me deal with chronic long-term depression. Not being allowed to do the one thing that kept me sane made me sink to such a dark place that I was fearful for my life. Suring can change people’s lives. We are asking the government to allow single people living alone access to drive to beaches to surf.
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Surfing for years has had a huge beneficial effect on people’s mental and physical health and Wales is the home to some of the world’s greatest surfers but also home to high numbers of mental health illness.
Surfing has been known to be highly significant in the treatment of mild depression through to chronic long-term mental illness and PTSD so to deny people access to the ocean from cities is quite frankly, cruel.
The Wave project founder Nick Hounsfield said:
"A belief in the benefits of being in water and in nature is at the heart of the Wave. Our report looks at the theories and research behind what many of us instinctively feel - that being in the water lifts our mood. The pandemic has had a detrimental impact on mental health for many people and we need the wellbeing benefits of water and surfing - now more than ever."
Surfers who are landlocked who suffer from mental illness must be allowed to travel alone to surf for both their physical and mental health.
Why was this petition rejected?
It did not collect enough signatures to be referred to the Petitions Committee.
Petitions need to receive at least 250 signatures before they can be considered in the Senedd.
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