The International Surf Therapy Organization (ISTO) is a global community of surf therapy practitioners & researchers collaborating to advance the use of surf therapy as a health intervention. ISTO was Founded in October 2017 when representatives from eight leading global surf therapy programs joined together in South Africa to bring collaboration to the sector. With an emphasis on “sharing wildly”, these programs helped spearhead a movement to grow and develop surf therapy worldwide through shared research and data with a focus on combined impact. In one year ISTO’s Contributors have grown to over 30-organizations GLOBALLY and represent numerous and varied surf therapy programs, applying a structured approach to surfing to achieve a therapeutic benefit. The mission of ISTO is to leverage the power of partnership and the ocean to advocate for surf therapy to be used globally to improve mental and physical health and making a collective effort to enable more access to safe evidence-based surf therapy. The vision of ISTO is a society where surf therapy is universally accessible through prescription and supported financially by healthcare organizations.
