Moses Le Grice on the beach with his surfboardMoses Le Grice is more motivated and driven than his years would suggest; he’s talented and sees surfing in a whole different light. He understands how quickly surfing big waves can become dangerous, and can’t imagine how the impact of alcohol would affect his ability to react to emergency situations; how something he loves can turn deadly in an instant.

Moses jumped on board with the Don’t Drink & Drown program towards the end of 2014 with such passion that it was hard not to get excited about working with such a motivated individual. Royal Life Saving Society WA is lucky to have such a young and promising ambassador.

When we asked him what pushes him he said "I push myself because when I do well, I love it and I get a bigger high than I reckon I would from anything else." Unfortunately young Western Australians still don’t see it that way.

In the past 5 years, the impact of alcohol in drownings amongst young people aged 15-24 has risen slightly to 40%. Young people still drink in spas late at night, they still drink on boats without safety barriers, they still go for ocean dips after a night out and they still drown suddenly, without a sound.

Moses understands the link and sees it all the time with young people his age: “Alcohol holds you back from reaching your full potential. There are 2 types of sports people, regular sports people, and sports people with a drive and they’re the ones who will achieve their goals. You can't surf when its dark which is like losing your sense of awareness, so how are you going to surf when you drink? That would be dangerous in any sport around water."

After working with such a driven young man, you forget that he’s still a student. He's currently studying at John Curtin - part of the Gifted & Talent Program for musical theatre. So what's next for Moses Le Grice? "I'm just trying to get to Nationals this year. Finish school and all that stuff you're meant to be doing when you're growing up." His message to young people is simple "Come up with a goal. Get into sport. Realise that you don't need alcohol to have fun. Get outside and live!"