Around 60 families headed to Blacksmiths Beach at the weekend for respite, therapy and a day on the waves, as the youth-oriented program, which teaches beach awareness while connecting young people on the spectrum to volunteers and the surf, returned after COVID lockdowns.

Children were invited to learn to surf and take in the beaches as a respite to the anxieties of isolation and returning to the community after months in pandemic-induced isolation.

"Many of our families have reported to us the heightened anxiety they have experienced due to lockdowns, and how this has impacted their ability to engage in the community," Surfing the Spectrum cofounder Aimee Blacker said. "Some parents are reporting the sounds of sirens or helicopters sending their children into dissociative states, challenges transitioning back to school for fear of the virus or even for allowing other family members to leave the house.

"The additional stressors placed on the family have not been met with the appropriate supports they desperately needed during this time. This event provides a hope for a way out, the knowledge they will be accepted and the support they have been seeking."

The program began five years ago, when founders Ms Blacker and Tahlia Anderson, who had been working with Newcastle Surf School and had volunteered at a similar Newcastle event, stepped in to organise a one-off surf event for young people on the autism spectrum. The response, Ms Anderson said, was overwhelming and the pair have since run yearly programs along the east coast helping to at once introduce young people to the beach and provide therapy for young people experiencing autism.

"For all kids, it's a different experience," Ms Anderson explained Saturday afternoon, "What we try to do is meet them where they are.

"Some kids might have sensitivities to sound, some others to the textures and the feel of the sand, and some have fears of the waves in the water, and maybe even the crowds.

"We train the volunteers to check in with the families and the children and see what they want to do for their experience at the beach that day, with surfing being the goal but maybe they want to ride the board on their belly or have a swim, or play in the sand that day.

"For some kids, being in the water is a complete release - like a decompression almost - and a complete calm. The experience can be completely different for each child, but the waves and the ocean are the best environment we have found to be able to deliver for each child where they are."

Each child was paired with two dedicated volunteers at the weekend for the program's first run after COVID lockdowns. Tickets for the event sold-out online within an hour, Ms Anderson said, and both founders now have ambitions to deliver their program to as many locations as they can along the east coast this season.