This episode is brought to you by Prime Video's incredible new film Thirteen Lives, based on the gripping true story of the twenty eighteen tai Cave rescue. If you've been listening for a while, you'll know of this story from my all time favorite episode with doctor Richard Harris in episode one oh two, and now you can watch it unravel from August fifth.
It's like taking those thoughts to court. I'm like, all right, we're going to court. We're kind of put this to the evidence, Like, what's the evidence that is there that says that this isn't going to work. To be able to know that something may end, something may not stay the same forever, it's really important to come to terms
with as well. That's a natural cycle. You know what, if I look back in the last five years and know what I've done, if something was to happen tomorrow and we couldn't continue, it would still have been successful.
Welcome to the C's the YA Podcast. Busy and happy are not the same thing. We too rarely question what makes the heart seeing we work, then we rest, but rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than one way. So this is a platform to hear and explore the stories of those who found lives they adore, the good.
Bad and ugly.
The best and worst day will bear all the facets of seizing your yea. I'm Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned funentrepreneur who swapped the suits and heels to co found Matcha Maiden and matcha Milk Bar. CZA is a series of conversations on finding a life you love and exploring the self doubt, challenge, joy and fulfillment along the way. Lovely neighborhood, I hope you're surviving the final weeks of winter. I can't believe how fast this year is going, but I'm okay with it if
it means we're inching closer to spring. Thank you all so much for the lovely feedback on the past few weeks of episodes and the anonymous Q and A. I'm so glad that last week's fertility and IVF episode in particular did help some of you on your own journeys. Wasn't Aaron Holland just such an amazing woman? The adoption episode is also coming to you next week. But speaking of incredible women I've squeezed another amazing story in between
this week. I heard about today's guest through her brother, who happens to be our editor here at CZA. Very huge shout out to Sam blackas Sam, I know you're listening at the podcast Butler if anyone needs anything podcast or audio related. He is literally a lifesaver, one of my favorite people, one of the nicest guys going around. So it was no surprise to me that his sister,
Amy is just as much of a legend. Amy Blacker started out as a pediatric occupational therapist, even after not actually knowing what occupational therapy was until she finished high school. She's one of those amazing examples of not really knowing where you want to end up, meaning you're open minded enough to stumble upon you where you were supposed to
end up all along. She is the co founder and director of Surfing the Spectrum, a not for profit surf therapy initiative working to positively impact the lives of families and their children with autism. In anticipation of their next fundraiser this Saturday, the twentieth of August, I just had to scream from the rooftops about the transformative work she and her team are doing, so I hope you are as inspired and moved as I am.
Amy. Welcome to Seize THEA.
Hello, Thanks for having me.
Oh it's a pleasure. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. This is one of those rare episodes, you guys, where a lot of this information I will be hearing for the first time along with you. And though it's always like meeting a brand new person, is one of my favorite most exciting things ever.
So thank you so much for joining such a pleasure. So before we get.
Into it, you may have heard from your wonderful brother. Everyone. Amy's brother, Sam is the incredible editor of this show, and he has saved my life over and over and over again. So I already adore you and your family. But as you may have heard from Sam, before we get into your pathway, or as I say, your path and how you sort of got to where you are, my ice breaker question for everyone is what is the
most down to earth thing about you? And I think if anyone encountered you through your work or through the chapter you are now, it's really easy to assume you know you've got it all together.
You're changing the world.
But you know, I think we all have something really normal and down to earth about us.
Yes, I hope, so, I hope most of me is down to earth, the most down to earth thing about me?
What would Sam say?
What would Sam say? I never stick at anything. I don't know if that makes me down to earth, But growing up and still I remember that comment stayed with me from my brother, whether it was like karate or athletics or anything, except for surfing. Surfing has been the only thing in my life that's sort of stuck. But I'm pretty good at just testing out a few different things. I guess. Yeah, I think that's a good thing.
I feel like you could either word that I don't stick at anything, or you could word it as I'm adventurous.
I've got a good appetite for trying me Yeah.
Yeah, I don't like to get pigeonholed.
Yeah.
And also, you've stuck with one thing, and that's all you need to do.
Only one thing needs to stick, right, I think?
So I think so?
Yeah, Oh, I like that one. I think that's very relatable.
I think lots of people try lots of things and just don't stick with them forever.
Yeah, And sometimes you feel like a bit like, oh, that's going to stick with this, and I was going to do every day or every week or whatever it is. And me and my partner actually were really good at not quite doing it, but knowing that that's just pretty human experience.
I love all those memes that are like, you know, don't be a quitter. I'm like, actually, I'm a quitter. Yeah, no, I'm going to be a quitter today. I'm okay with being a quitter today.
Yeah, that's fine by me.
So the first section of the show is Your Way to which is really just going through all of the chapters of things that you might have tried and quit. Yes, just sort of show that you know, with serving the spectrum. As we'll get into, you know, it can appear like that's been your lifelong purpose, that you always knew this was going to be where you would end up. And the passion that you have now isn't necessarily always.
The passion that you knew you'd have later.
So I like to go back to sort of childhood and trace back through all the dots and see how they connect, because I think it's reassuring for anyone whose dots.
Haven't connected yet.
That. Yeah, you know, no one's pathway is straight or direct or obvious. So take us back to young Amy.
It's actually interesting. I feel like in the past twelve months I've come back to maybe enjoy relate to young Daggy. That's my first goal for twenty twenty two was embrace your dagginess.
Oh I love that, because I was.
Just for so long didn't embrace it or tried not to. I think when I was a kid, I've had a lot of trouble at school really just with feeling quite on the outside or not quite fitting in or moving schools, being bullied. So for me, young Amy was quite shy
and reserved, and now Amy is too shy too. But I suppose to a extent, And it's interesting feeling so yeah on the outside or disconnected, but moving through all that space, it's always been connected to people or community, no matter the sort of work or pathways that I've been, so something's always kept me within that field, I suppose.
But yeah, young Amy had a lot more luck maybe doing lots of activities, whether it was surfing or being outside or being in nature or more connected to animals or things like that, rather than particularly people and social settings.
Yeah, yeah, it's so interesting that you said that now you're sort of getting back in touch with that person, because I think whatever our childhood looked like, we very quickly let go of that person as we grow up and if anything, try and kind of stifle those things.
And yeah, a similar aide, especially when you're going through those stages in young adolescents. Or I think for me, I've got and you know, it was always in my school reports, it was always in my jobs, like Amy is a great member of the team, blah blah blah. You know, but all these things because I'm really quite good at fitting in to do whatever needs to be done, or fulfill a role or work cohesively with other people.
But sometimes when you're quite good at that, you don't really understand who you are or what parts of yourself you're not really living out. And I suppose that's where, yeah, I've made more of a conscious effort. I suppose that that's the parts that are me that need to be embraced by me.
Yeah.
Yeah, Oh, that's so articulate.
And I think it's a lot of people will resonate with I don't know our identity from childhood to adulthood is just there's so many layers, and there's unwrapping and there's rewrapping, and I think it's so fascinating. I had like a different pathway, but still remember being bullied quite a lot and suppressing all the parts of me that I felt led to that. And you just now as an adult, look back at small you and just like your heart breaks for that tiny person.
I know.
Yes, yes, so you obviously found a lot of solace in the water and in nature, and like growing up in put Mcquarry, obviously that's you know, a lot easier than it might have been in the same melt bed.
Yes, yes, very lucky to have grown up in a coastal town. And me and my partner are actually moving back to put mcquarie soon, which is really exciting. Yeah, and I guess that's definitely the ocean's been such a space. Yes, solace, that's a good good way to explain it. I suppose and surface have quite a connection to nature just because
you're so immersed in it. It's such an immersive experience from a sensory point of view, I suppose that's yeah, how you see, what you smell, how it feels like you can't escape it in any sense, so gets you quite connected with yourself and the environment around you that you can feel a little bit and not so much grounded I suppose for me, but alive.
Yeah.
Yeah, So having that as you're obviously quite a common theme throughout your life, but not necessarily sort of wanting to be a pro surfer or have that as your career. I think one thing that's really interesting in people's pathways is finding a passion, then finding a profession, and whether they're connected or they're not connected, and sometimes they start disconnected and then they end up you move back closer
towards something that you're really passionate about. When you were sort of in high school and trying to find your way, and the idea of a career started to first become a thing like I can't just do what I love and what makes me feel good, I actually have to like make a.
Living and a job.
Like you know, how did you start to decide who you were going to be at that stage in your life. Did you actually think about turning surfing into a job or was it always your passion on the side and then you were going to have a profession as well.
I think like I think it was my job in high school was doing like surf coaching. That was like a dream as a teenager, that was the dream, Like I just got to spend all day at the beach and get paid for it that quickly, so we changes you get the quickie like this is actually a really exhausting job physically and you kind of isn't as exciting down the track. But as a teenager that was I guess as surfing was. But I suppose the passion was more. No,
they weren't really connected. I suppose they were definitely separate things, and how they perhaps wove together was through some really great mentors of mine, and that when I started. So when I finished school, it was my mum who said, why don't you look at doing occupational therapy? And I was like, like most people at the time, they're like, what is occupation? What is that? Like? Is that work rehab or something like that, which is what I get
masked all the time. But once I started looking into it and seeing how diverse it could actually be as a profession and it was enabling people to really do the occupations that were most important in their life, I was like, oh yeah, like, I can see I could see how that could fit and you could work in whether it's in a hospital getting people back home after surgery and making sure they've got the right equipment to keep them safe, whether it's doing home modifications for people
with disabilities or wheelchair users, whether it's in mental health and supporting people. So occupations in the broadest sense is everything that we do, Like it's you running a podcast, it's me going surfing, it's kids playing in the sand. Whatever someone does with something to occupy their time is
their occupation. And so in that sense, as an OT, you're ensuring that everyone else is going to be able to continue on with their passions and what gives them meaning to their life, I suppose, which was quite yeah, enabling, it feels like something that I was gonna participate in. And I was like, yeah, no, that sounds good. And it was my OT sort of teachers that connected in a more social justice framework that I started to see how surfing could fit in to this and build community. Yeah.
So I was writing that you specialized in pediatric OT, and I think, firstly, it is so interesting that you didn't even know what OT was when you first graduated school. And I think that's a really big thing that we kind of think there's like seven jobs that exist when we're at school, and then you think you have to pick one of them forever, but you don't even know that there's actually a million different jobs. There are jobs that won't exist by the time you get you know,
there's so many different things. So it's fascinating that firstly you didn't know what it was, but then when you did find out that you were like, this, this is it, this could be me, but that surfing wasn't part of it at the beginning, and that you know, everything unravels in chapters, so starting as in you know, the pediatric side of things, how did you actually qualify? And then how long did you work before you realized you could turn it into something else? Like how did it all develop?
I'm sure it wasn't just like an overnight success.
Was not overnight. Definitely, it was not overnight. It was it was these small tiny bits and pieces along the way. So I studied at Newcastle University and it's a four year course and I have to say, like, in the first few years is looking at anatomy a real body science based and you know what There's definitely times where I was like, this is really dry, what am I doing? But I kind of just it was one thing. Here we go. It was another thing that I was like,
I'm sticking in. I'm doing this and finding some mentors along the way. And it was sort of in one class my teacher Alisa was giving us this. It was the project was like a call to action. So what occupational marginalization? So what's something that you're seeing that's in the community where a group is being marginalized or deprived of accessing resources or their occupation of choice, And how can you be a call to action to support them? And that really got me. I was like, we can
do this as ots like this. This is another part of it too. It's not just the one on one, face to face stuff, but it's actually a social change component that we can contribute. And that's what sort of pulled me in. And I think I did a veterans surfing idea at that point in time because I saw there was an OT in the States, Kylie Rodgers, and she'd started a Veteran's surfing program to support them with PTSD as a way because of such big risk takers
and the trauma that they'd experienced. Surfing was providing a space for them to explore that component of PTSD. Being a risk taking hobby as it is, but the modality of surfing and being outside and being in nature was really conducive as a therapeutic use. And I was like, oh, wow, that's really exciting. So that was sort of like the first point. And then my mum was working with the DVA at the time, and she kind of I think she must have said, like, why don't you just try it?
And so we sort of just set up a day at the surf School in Port wa Quarry and I was like, I'm just going to give it a crack. What's the worst that can happen?
I mean, babe, I can quit it later exactly exactly, like it's.
Just and it went really well. I got my other friend who was a yoga teacher to come along, ran through like a yoga class with the guys, and because obviously I knew the cerf school owners, I got them on board and they all, yeah, they all had a
really great time. Because Mum often coordinated the volunteer group for the DVA, and she would say the boys and the men would always do their meetings outside, like if they they had their weekly coffee catch ups, because they don't want to be inside or enclosed in these spaces. So it kind of fit. It was amazing to see how it could fit really well, and just it just sort of happened and I was like, oh wow, okay, I could do something with this, and then yeah, that
was it for a while. Like that was just like towards the end of my fourth year of UNI, So I guess I let that sit for a while. That was a project that I did, and then there was one wave is all it takes Grant there in Bonda, Yeah, he's with the Fluo Fridays. Yeah. I sort of just got into that from there. Maybe after I finished UNI, I was working pediatrics, but this was in mental health. That sort of was really easy to flow between a few different things. I think that's sort of been something
I've always done, is not just done one thing. I think I had my first OT job started full time and I think I was full time for about six months, so then like I was like dropping back and then and it was voluntary, like the fluo Fridays that I ran then led into waves of wellness, which they run mental health surf therapy program too, So before it was Waves of Wellness, it was one Wave Surf experience. So
that was with job Hilgrim. He was an OT as well and a good friend, and so there was just all these things that sort of led to opportunities that I was like, I'm just going to pursue it. I suppose I was led more by that sensation or feeling about that feels right more so than what I should do is stay in this job that's five days a week and full time and I get all these benefits. So that's not been something that I've experienced in the past eight years.
Is.
Stability, which, yeah, that comes at a cost itself, I suppose if that's what some people or how you feel, But it's given me the opportunity to explore the possibilities and the depth of what I could do in my role as OT. So then, yeah, I was running those through Fridays and the one wave surf experiences for twelve months.
This is after graduation, during your first job.
Yeah, during my first job, and then what happened, what happened.
For me, I mean, even to that point, I think it's really cool that even once you do know what an OT is. I think from the outside, you kind of think hospital, you think like rehab center. Even inside that job, you don't necessarily know how diverse you can make it, you know. I think the way that people often perceive their careers is in a very reactive way, like it's this is what happens to me, not Oh, I could be proactive and I could make this into
a more broad thing. I could go part time and do something else on the side and turn it into a fully, you know, fully fledged initiative. I feel like it's so reassuring to hear someone's story that just was like, I chose not to necessarily do the stability certainty route, and it's all worked out really well because I'm not suited to that. You know, we're all different and that suits some ots for sure, but not everyone has to go that way, and it can still work out exactly.
There's more than one path way to move through it. I guess it's just being it's not even feeling confident. I suppose it's just making sure that you're listening to what actually feels good for you. Really, what's really going to be the path that you want to choose? Not what you're being told you should do. They shoulds Yeah, they should?
Can I ask?
In that context? One of the things we talk about a lot in the Nata, which is the challenges that you face along the way, and it kind of ends up weaving into the story anyway. But one of the biggest challenges people seem to have, and that I definitely have in trying something new, especially something a bit different to what's conventional, is the self doubt, the fear the whole like without stability, how am I going to make money or finances aside? Like can I do this? Am
I going to fail? Is it going to look silly? What are people going to think?
How did you.
Tune in more to the how it feels good than how it feels bad? Because I feel like you often feel both at the same time, and some people get so overwhelmed by the fear side that they can't even hear anything else.
Yeah, that's really true. Definitely have heard a lot of the fear as well. And you know what, it's still there, it's still going and I mean it's maybe listening to it within reason. Yeah, I had and I've been talking to my partner about this too, But I feel like when and it feels like there's like a freight train running through your head of less like a nighttime all the thoughts come at once. You're like, huh, I don't know what I'm doing, so obviously that's not the best
time to look at it. But that's usually when it comes to me, is that that nighttime freight train arrival of this, but this, but this's you can't do this because that obviously won't work, And so then I just it's like taking those thoughts to court, is how I'm like, all right, we're going to court. We're going to put this to the evidence, Like what's the evidence that is there that says that this isn't going to work? Like
suggest it? Like what's really there? And obviously maybe there's some things like oh, there's not a big enough reach, people aren't going to be in the area, or usually there's not that much not as bad as you think anyway, yeah yeah, or even if it is there, it's like, all right, so that exists, but how can you manage that, Like if it really does get turn upside down, you're not stuck. Like even I suppose another really useful thing for us was and it's a whole other conversation around
just setting up a charity to start with. I just went in completely blind. I had no idea what I was doing. Yeah, set up charity me and cute, Yeah, cute, we can do that. Yeah. But one mentor in the first meeting that Tullia. So Tullia is the co founder with me with Surfing the Spectrum. The first thing he said to us is what's your exit strategy? And me and Tali are like, you know, just at the start, we're like, what do you mean our exit strategy?
Like we haven't even yeah, I haven't.
Even entered abruptly. But it's only been in the last years that I've been like, that's actually been really important. And I guess that's also ensuring that we don't come across sort of founder's syndrome. I think that's what they call it, where you get really stuck in your ways and really stuck in thought. But the natural process of that life death life cycle, it exists. So it's to be able to know that something may end, something may not stay the same forever is really important to come
to terms with as well. It's a natural cycle that you can't just be like, it's not going to work. It's like, well, you know what, if I look back in the last five years and know what I've done, if something was to happen tomorrow and we couldn't continue, it would still have been successful. What I did was still successful. So that's been really good to come to terms within the last twelve months with redefining what that sort of looks like.
Yeah, oh my gosh, amazing.
I feel like that whole last five minutes is just a SoundBite for the entire show, Like.
That is so exactly what yeah, philosophy is abowt.
It's like Bijoya sees it and then it evolves and it's not like this is static place that then I can founder the charity. It's everything I ever wanted. It's doing exactly what I wanted to do, and it's going to stay there forever. Like no, yeah, it's not supposed to. You're not supposed to stay the same either.
No, that's it. And that's the same with passion. Like passions a feeling, it's a sensations. You know, I'm when I am surfing, when I'm in the bush, when the sun's in the trees, it's a sensation or a feeling. It's when you're cooking for people that you love. It's not just one thing. It's not just like this is my passion. Or if you just sort of like standing there being like I'm just you know, looking for my passion, just sitting around waiting, it's like, oh, you're never gonna
find it. Like you just need to see it in every little bit of things that you do each day because it's there, because it's a feeling that we experience.
Yeah, I love that lovely neighborhood.
It isn't you to anyone that Episode one or two with doctor Richard Harris is possibly my personal favorite episode of all time. One of my ultimate messages here is that it doesn't matter how unusual or unique your personal combination of yay is. Someone out there is looking for exactly that, And nobody could ever have known that an anethetist cave diver was the key to one of the
hardest rescue missions of our time. They say, you remember exactly where you were the moment you heard about a disaster like thirteen young boys getting stuck in a cave almost impossible to reach for eighteen days. It may just be me, but I feel like the details of just how impossible the rescue was went over my head at the time, and I never really grasped that they may
not survive. So what I do remember was the moment two years later when I realized the dive just to reach them was so hard it took the life of a Navy seal and could take eleven hours return, That it was through coffee colored water in tunnels so narrow it touched both their chest and back at the same time, that the boys had to be sedated to prevent panic in the multi hour dive, and restrained to stop their limbs getting cut off by jagged rocks, and that even
the divers themselves weren't sure they'd come out the other end until hours later when they did. These and so many other details of this impossible feat still give me goosebumps. It's one of my favorite stories to hear over and over again. And now you can watch the mission unravel in the incredible new film based on the true story, Thirteen Lives on Prime Video, directed by Ron Howard and
starring the likes of Joel Edgerton and Colin Farrell. You'll get goosebumps, spine tingles, tiers of despair and tears of hope. It is streaming from August fifth, so it's out and now do not miss out. So Talia was in the disability sector, you were working as an OT. Both deep love for surfing, yes, and then this idea, yeah, I think the spectrum yep.
Yeah. By then I'd been doing the One Way Surf Experience and the Fleury Fridays. Talia and I still both worked. See I still worked as a surf coach and an OT at the same time because I just loved not doing just one thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And my job at the time as an OT, I was driving a lot, so from Newcastle, driving up you know, up to Scone, up the Hunter Valley. It was a lot of driving to more rural areas, which I really enjoyed, but it
wasn't as physically active as I really needed. And so that sort of gave me a break when I just thought, I'm just going to do some surf coaching one day a week, just to diversify. And so we were still really connected with the Surf School and they were doing There was an American organization called Surfers for Autism and they came out once a year to Australia. Yeah, to do pretty much what we are running now, which was
setting up the events. The kids could come with their families and a whole bunch of local surfers surf schools would volunteer their time to allow the autistic kids and their families to come to the beach for the day. And Talia and I were doing that. At one point it stopped just with things that were happening, whether it was the board or funding, and Talia and are like, oh no, like we can't, this can't stop because all the surfers were wanting to keep giving in some in
some sense. So Taliah and I we're so young, yeasy. We talked to the owner of the surf school, like, well, we can't just let this stop. Let's just do it as a day. Let's just at least get I think they used to have hundreds of kids come down like it was a huge event. We were like, let's just you know, do a little Facebook event and say we've got you know, fifty families want to come along. We can get them
in the water thanks to the surf school. And I think in about fifteen minutes, like all the spots were sold out and we're like, oh no. So then we put up another fifty spots sold out again and we're like wow, oy no, it was in demand, like they families really wanted it. And so from that point Talia and I thought, oh, we can't just not do this, like we know how to do this, so we could make this into something more. And that's when we started in the whole rash, let's do this, let's create a charity.
Don't you think though, that if you had been less naive to what it would actually involve, that nobody would start anything like that. Sometimes it's better that you aren't aware. Oh, just how much is ahead of you, which is why the whole like start before you already thing is so valid, because if you were ready, you wouldn't start because that's too hard.
Yeah, it is too It was just I think we got it was like a startup fund. We picked yet it was the same thing that I had practiced at from from my OT course. Was a quarter action. We had three minutes to pitch our idea and you'd get the seed funding. It was a local community thing in Newcastle and so with a thousand dollars which was our first money that we received as the charity. We're like, yes,
that's where we got linked up with. What was even more important were the mentors, and then they linked us up with the lawyers who actually did all the constitution and legal parts that it wouldn't have happened if we didn't have those connections. So it was really interesting to think, like we're at the start, were like, we just need the money, We need money. But what was so important in that first part of setting up the charity was the connections, because yeah, there's no way we could have
paid for lawyers. That was definitely going to be the case throughout our constitution and then you know, get DGR status and doing all these bits and pieces. It was the connections. So getting yourself out there, which is not my favorite thing or to the favorite thing to do. We both hate it, but yeah it was worth it. Yeah. Funny what you can actually push yourself to do when you're like, oh no, this is this is the only way.
And I think purpose makes it so different, Like what you think that you aren't able to do until you maybe you just haven't found the thing that you care enough about.
To push you to do it.
Like when there's a greater purpose driving your whole mission. It kind of I don't know, it changes things. It's not just unattached to a purpose and something that you want to actually achieve as a legacy or to help others.
I don't know.
I feel like it suddenly all the things aren't as
scary when your purpose is so clear. But it's also really interesting to me that as someone who's first couple of sentences about your childhood or that you found such solace in nature and that the people part wasn't really your favorite, that the ongoing theme of how this whole journey developed for you is like pivotal moments from mentors, from people and interactions and relationships and connections, even if it wasn't your forte that like, it's often not so
much what you can do or how you do it, it's who you do it with or who helps.
You along the way.
And I think that's coming through so clearly that like you might have at different sliding doors moments chosen not to do it or not thought you could do it if you hadn't had people to sort of just just push you a little bit closer.
Yes, that's exactly hot. Yeah, there's definitely those moments where I would have thought, no, I can't, I can't do this. This isn't something that I'm good at. Would be the narrative in my mind that goes over and over is I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough. That one's that that's a favorite for putting on repeat.
Yeah, butbe I have that CD too. Oh god, it's the best seller.
Yeah, it's like really scratched, well used, it's been played a lot.
But went platinum. Like it's on the charts everyone in Australia.
It's great.
Yeah, everyone could relate to that one, I'm not good enough, I can't do this. But having yeah, having those people there to sort of introduce you to those networks or lead you in or where there's some points where yeah, it's not going to happen unless you do it. And I think that's what you were saying. With regards to the purpose and the families and the kids at the events give t Leia and I are a lot of purpose,
along with the surfers as well. They are the ones that kind of, you know, when it was all stopping, they're like, well, we want to keep volunteering, like what can we do? What can we do? And we've never had an event where we haven't had enough volunteers, Like having volunteers is not our problem. We usually have too
many volunteers. It's not oh my god, like trying to you know, really it's not a real challenge in that sense, like they're getting just as much out of the day as the kids who for some of them, you know, they they often don't get to the beach because of well, whether the it's a single parent or just changes in routines, new environments, busy places, especially the beach on the weekend or in summer or where it can be pretty full on,
whether it's the sensory experiences where it's the waves, whether it's the sand, the seaweed, the loud noises, the sun, the brightness, all these all these factors, and it's just so hard and challenging for parents to sometimes get the kids to get there, like that's that's the biggest challenge. And then when they're at the beach, knowing that it doesn't it doesn't really matter what happens, like if there's a meltdown, if they're not coping, no one's there judging.
And that's probably the biggest comment we get from from our families is like, I don't feel judged. I can come to the beach as my family is, as they are, just as they arrive, and I'm accepted just as that. And to know that that's not something that they experience in almost any other environment that they're in day to day is enough to know that it's like, Okay, this is really meaningful for these families.
Oh my gosh.
So yeah, I mean, tell us a little bit more about how you designed what Surfing the Spectrum would offer and how often you do it, if it's events, if they're like even just surf therapy in general. I know there's so much research now into the benefits of water for mental health, physical health, Like you know, surfing a site just water generally. Then there's like surface specific therapy, and then there's serving the spectrum and what you guys
offer in particular. How did you develop your program and what does it offer?
I think definitely grew out of the Surfers for Autism, which was an American model which we sort of adapted, and obviously ours has grown and shifted over the last years, which has now included neurodivergent members of our team. So Jay is autistic and Jay originally came along as a volunteer and then their knowledge has been really powerful to making sure that we are allies to the autistic community
and ensuring that what's coming through is supporting them. So we run events at the moment, so from pretty much the Gold Coast down to Jerringom on the South coast and then hopefully getting to TALKI sum yeah, hey you can come along. Oh my gosh, one hundred yes, I'll keep you posted.
Please do.
And at the moment it sort of works that we'd sort of come in. It's a one day event and we connect in with the local surf school in the area. And for me as the OT, it's really important to make sure that we are enabling our community instead of coming in and offering something and then leaving when the community is then left with not the resources, knowledge or know how of how to continue this support. It's much more important for us to empower communities to build this
for themselves. So we find it's really important to include the local surf school, get them on board, local therapy services, and the autism community groups. So the kids come down, they sort of have like half hour sessions in the water, they get like social stories sent to them beforehand, so they have able to anticipate what's going to happen during the day. So for our autistic friends, the routine or in knowing what's coming next is quite grounding in that
sense and reducing anxiety. Same as if you were going for an interview and you know the questions beforehand, it's sort of like, oh, okay, I know what effect. So we try and make sure that for all the kids they know what's going to happen throughout the day, and then we train up the volunteers to support them with communication, with social skills and get them in the water. However they want to be in the water, so our mottos
just to be safe and have fun. So there's obviously an idea out there about how surfing should look, and for us, it's very much stripping that back to be surfing can be whatever you want it to be. It can be lying on a boogeyboard, can be sitting on a surfboard, it can be body surfing. But it's that knowing that how therapeutic our relationship is with the water.
Like you were saying before, there is more research coming out around surf therapy and we know that or stick children and or to see people in general are quite drawn to bodies of water. And whether that's to do with we'd call it like the appropriate receptive input, or that's our body awareness, so knowing where our body is
in space, so shifting that whole. Obviously it changes so much when we're in water or we're floating in water, and you often find they like to spend a lot of time under the water because perhaps that sensory experience is giving them a better or different understanding of where their body is in space. Yeah, so we just want to encourage whatever their experience is of surfing, Yeah, whatever
that's going to look like. And so yeah, our events will run up and down the coast local surf schools and then at the moment, we're just setting up a training program for surf coaches to be able to then keep these sessions ongoing in their community. So whether that's being able to access the NDIS and for the participants to keep engaging with their local surf school and keep building up their skills, whether it's I must have had one kid, this was in football quarry and he was
so unsure about coming to the beach. He had quite low tone, so his body and his muscles were quite weak, I guess is the way to describe it. Mum and dad like they came hours late because it had been so hard for mum and dad to get the two brothers to come to the beach for the day and shift them out of their usual routine. They got there, they were quite unsure about it, didn't really want to
have a go. So a lot of it is following their lead but still giving them autonomy and choice and saying, well, you know, we can sit on the surfboard up here, or maybe we can go down down to the shoreline. Eventually getting him in the water, catching a few waves and just the smile on his face was huge, and he came in. He was like, this is better than the iPad. It was just like, yes, I've got him.
Now we've got to get him out of the water.
To get him out of the water. But it was just knowing that because that is obviously another a big component to the physical activity side of things. So with autism, there's the neurological component, but that also impacts motor skills and function along with you know, if there's medication that
kids are taking, which he's shifting their weight gain. So physical activity just on its own is so important, but being able to combine that with connecting with a community group of surfers outside is kind of where the magic sort of happens.
I think, Oh my gosh, it just sounds extraordinary. I can't wait me to come to talking. I want to come so much to an event. I don't know where I will fit in because I am not a good enough server to coach anybody who don't.
Have to be. There's like sand play and sand castes on the beach play.
I'm going to help sound playing perfect be the same castle, Quinn.
So I also know that, like very soon you're having your next fundraiser, and I imagine part of a not for profit is you know, as you mentioned, there's no shortage of volunteers, which is incredible, there's no shortage of ideas, there's no shortage of need, But like actually funding the activities that you do is like the really difficult bin and even just there's so much generosity out there, but it's just connecting with that to the.
Cause that you're actually working on.
So this Saturday, the twentieth of August, what do you have going on?
And how can we support it?
Well, there are so many ways to support it. I've tried to make it as easily support we are. Yeah, yeah, any platform you can support us. We have for those people that live locally to Newcastle. Obviously there's there's a paddle battle on in the morning where people are doing a little paddle race. They've all got their profiles though
that you can donate to. It's five kilometers and we've got a couple of the board riders teams are all joining in and all their board rider team members are jumping on board to paddle the five kilometers on any sort of craft. So that one is the first time we've done something like that, So one's going to be a little bit interesting. I don't exactly know how it's going to work again, which is the exciting thing. If I knew how it was going to work, maybe I wouldn't do it or wouldn't have done.
It, But yeah, that's right.
And then at the night time we have an evening event at the local gin Distillery in Newcastle, RBS with some local bands, some pretty good auction prizes as well. But what we're doing is that the auction prizes, there's like a must be two nights at Crown Towers, the Opera House, Opera House Views and Champagne a Skydek and a few other things. And there's like Mark Richards is a surfer here in Newcastle is a fort Home World champ. He's donated one of his own boards the auction off.
So we're doing it live on Instagram first time again for so anyone can be anyone. Anyone can jump on or we've also got some pretty amazing Raffle tickets and Raffle prizes that are also online, so anyone can buy a Raffle ticket.
Oh my gosh, you've thought of it all. I know. I know.
So anyone, no matter where you are in Australia at least can jump on board for any of those things. I suppose, like you said, yeah, no short if there's volunteers and the support is out there. But Erica Gleason, she founded Autism Swim, which is another really amazing grassroots charity. She had a video the other day which she said and really resonated with me. She's like, I don't own Autism Swim and for Telia and I it's the same, we don't own surfing. The spectrum in essence, it's owned
by the community. We're just here to serve the community in running the charity. Someone can own a charity except for the community. So the only reason why they exist is because it's a community need, and the only way they can keep existing is if we're supported through the community. So that resonated with me a lot, because I think sometimes people can look on the outside and they get a bit, oh, it's going so well, things are going
really well, and they are. It's great, We've got such a great reach and we're fulfilling a lot of the missions that we have, But it's based on what the community have presented, is their missions. It's just being enacted through. To Leia and I, we're just bringing it to life, but it's what is come through from the community, and it's yeah, it's really owned by the community, these small grassroots charities. Yeah.
I love how that ties in with what you said before about over the last sort of twelve months being okay with being guardians for what's happening, and like you've created this movement that kind of transcends people. It's now its own thing with its own momentum, and I think that's so incredible. That you've created this thing that now if you one day weren't around, it's still got its own life, you know what I mean. Like that is
so incredibly special. To think this will transcend me, Like that's extraordinary.
Yeah, that's the goal in that sense.
Yeah, well, I am just so inspired by you and I can't.
Wait for it to come further down South.
But we'll absolutely share all the links to the raffle tickets and the live for this Saturday Saturday Yees Saturdayturday, Saturday, Saturday, the twentieth of August. Everyone listening in the neighborhood, please tune in and support in any way that you can. Will of course make a yahborhood donation as well, but if you can all tune in on Saturday, that.
Would be extraordinary.
Thank you guys, so many to Amy, You're just doing amazing things, and congratulations as well. Like as you mentioned, it's a long journey. It's not easy to like DG our status alone is like a total disaster.
Yeah. No, it's been a great and is still a great journey. I wouldn't have wanted to do, Yeah, anything else. I'm happy with the pathway I suppose and being open to what's arriving amazing.
Well, very last question, just to finish up.
Do you have a quote that kind of represents serving the spectrum or that you would like to leave everyone with on their own pathways?
Do I have a quote? I don't. I suppose there was some words that I was saying to a group of fourth Coot students that I had and that was sort of a round passion that might be I guess, guess of relevance from definitely what we've said today, but talking that passion is each and every moment that you're alive. So don't give into that societal expectation that it is
somewhere outside of yourself. So each day instead, be useful, don't wait for passion, be useful, solve problems, connect with people, and find ease, because this is where you will see motion. For Remember, passion is a feeling and energy, and you will start to see your passion arise where your energy and effort reach is someone's need.
Oh my gosh, that's beautiful and so perfect for everything we've spoken about and everything that this show is about. So thank you so much for your time, Amy, and I hope this weekend and beyond goes incredibly.
Thanks so much.
Oh, as promised, there will be links to everything for Saturday and beyond in the show notes. Please get behind Amy and Serving the Spectrum. I mean, what a woman and what an incredible initiative. I would so love the neighborhood to help spread the word by sharing the episode, to thank Amy for her time, time and work tagging Saving the Spectrum and of course us so we can keep growing the neighborhood as.
Far and wide as possible.
I am somehow off again to another overseas wedding, truly seizing the AA at the moment before the family chapter of our life begins and the spontaneity maybe slows down a tiny bit, so not saying no to any.
Of life's delights.
But as I mentioned the adoption episode, we'll be going live with another amazing guest and story shortly after that, so you won't be missing out, I promise. I hope you're having an amazing week and is seizing your YA. And of course if you haven't caught up yet you might not have heard. I'm pretty sure you have. We have a new show called Feast Pod with three or four time maybe five time guests now cone on one of my dearest friends, which has been such a hoot.
Speaking of spontaneity, it literally started twenty four hours after we first had the idea. That was only a couple of weeks ago, and we're about to be four episodes in. So far so Feast is our spicy little sister, a little bit cheekier than sees the AA. But if you run out of ya in the meantime, head on over to Feast Pod for some chaotic laughs and serious curiosity quenching. I hope you guys enjoy that just as much