Canteen and Waipuna back young people with cancer

Canteen has a line that cuts right to it: cancer can suck the fun out of life. For young people navigating a serious illness, it can strip away the normal things, the spontaneous moments, the friendships, the feeling of just being a person in the world.

That’s why Waipuna Youth Services partnered with Canteen to run a six-week surf programme on the Canterbury coast. Six sessions. Waves, wipeouts, and the kind of afternoon that leaves people smiling on the drive home.

Meg, a Waipuna counsellor who works in the outdoors with young people, has seen what happens when you take people out of ordinary environments and put them in the water together.

“It’s not just about catching the wave. It’s about getting smashed in the face by a wave, getting up, and getting back out there again.”

By week four, the group had started to find their feet: not just technically, but with each other. Connections that live in the Canteen community were finding new life through shared experience. Party waves. Wipeouts. Cheering someone on as they wobbled to their knees on a board.

Tommy, a Canteen participant, put it simply.

“Waipuna really cares about the experience and the engagement of everyone out there. Everyone’s getting together, we’re all cheering each other on. It’s just really cool to be a part of.”

Conor agreed.

“It’s a shame they don’t have events like this more often in the year. Because everyone just goes away from these events smiling.”

That, says Meg, is exactly the point. The surf programme is one expression of something Waipuna has practised for 25 years: that genuine shared experiences in the outdoors form bonds that are hard to build any other way. And that sometimes the most powerful thing you can offer someone is an afternoon where none of that other stuff matters quite as much.