WHO’S IN YOUR CORNER?

The definition of coaching is pretty simple; to coach is to “train or instruct”. ¹ Of course, when we’re talking about a sport as complex and unpredictable as surfing, coaching takes on a whole new meaning. If you’ve played a sport, you’ve had a coach.

Most of our first dealings with coaches come early in life when we take our first sports’ baby steps playing soccer, little league baseball, and kid sports, where the coach is there to teach “the basics”. Hopefully, said coaches have patience and use encouragement as a tool to help the young ones get involved with the sport. As youngsters progress through the ranks of the sport, things get more serious playing the game and the coaching involved. Football, soccer, baseball, cricket, volleyball, etc., have been coached since the inception of those sports. In the case of surfing, coaches are a relatively new concept with vastly different styles and challenges. Most surf coaches hate the term “surf coach”.

“Coaching is interesting because there wasn’t really an exact moment in time that it became an official thing,” says surf-historian Matt Warshaw.

“I do remember back when Ben Aipa travelled with Fred Hemmings to a few events way back in the ’60s as his board shaper and possibly, sort of a coach figure. I also recall Michael Ho coaching his younger brother Derek Ho in heats by waving a towel and using different whistles to tell his brother where to go or which waves to paddle for,” he says, followed by a thoughtful pause.

“I guess you could say that was surf coaching,” Matt emphasises. “Before that, the system was much different. Surfers were scored on four waves, and the judges would look at ‘length of ride’ and ‘how many turns you could do on the wave’, regardless of how good the turns were. If you were coaching back in the ’80s, you might just say, ‘Well, go out there and catch as many waves as you can. Do as many turns as you can—ride them all the way to the beach,’” he laughs.

These days, most elite-level professional surfers have personal coaches or share a coach with a handful of other surfers. Many of today’s coaches have Championship Tour experience as well as calm, cool demeanours and an air of confidence in their respective clientele. To coach an elite athlete, you’ve got to believe that athlete has what it takes to win. This goes for surfing and any other sport that can be coached.

“Coaching has made everyone better,” says Championship Tour veteran Conner Coffin. “The learning curve when I first got on Tour was rough because we didn’t really have coaches back then. These days, most of us who have been on Tour want someone in their corner who has already learned all the lessons and