Burning Bright

I’m looking forward to joining Joel Gray and Lee Bartlett at the Retallack Resort (that houses the Flowrider) this weekend for a Surf Solutions coaching session with the next generation of UK groms. I’m gonna have my UK Pro Surf Tour judging hat on and am expecting lotsa questions like; “does a hands free get more points than a grab” or “is a tube better than a hack” from the little tackers. These questions are impossible to answer of course, because the response would be subjective and the questions do not contain nearly enough information to give a valid opinion.

What they really want to know is ‘how do you win a surf contest’ and the answer to that is quite simple: you just have to surf better than everyone else in your heat. In fact you just have to surf good enough to be in the top two places, the only heat you really have to win is the last one. This basic truth is often disregarded by even experienced surfers, many of whom persist with going ‘balls out’ in a heat and only succeed in falling off and accumulating a series of 1.5 scores, in what is basically a manoeuvre practise session. If you get this guy in your heat, you’re laughing, a couple of safe turns and you’re through… My message to the aspiring contest machines this weekend will be to get the basics down first, from turns to heat strategy – build your contest repertoire from a firm foundation.

Certainly there are no quick fixes or shortcuts to win a surf contests it’s all down to the correct preparation; hours and hours and hours of practise, training properly, attention to diet, getting good boards, getting your head right and having the desire to win.