Newquay Activity Centre welcomed the Royal Navy surf team for a day of advanced coaching with 3x National Champion and expert ISA coach Johnny Fryer in preparation for the upcoming inter-services championship in March.
Advanced Surf Coaching
10 of the Navy’s most talented male and female shortboarders, as well as longboarders were greeted with epic conditions at Fistral beach on Saturday 18th February. Clean 6-8ft swell and blazing sunshine made it undoubtedly the best day of surfing so far this year.
The morning started in the Newquay Activity Centre classroom. Introductions out of the way, Johnny first established the different skill levels of the surfers and took onboard any specific skills that they wanted to cover during the day.
After a quick briefing and warm up, the crew headed in for an initial free surf session. This was an opportunity for the surfers to demonstrate their skills in front of the video camera. With relatively un-crowded conditions and multiple peaks breaking across the beach, everyone had their fair share of waves and there was some great surfing on display, plus a few ‘friendly’ drop-ins amongst the crew.
Video Analysis
After 2 hours in the water it was time to break for lunch before meeting up for the video analysis session back in the classroom. It was awesome to watch with so many great rides, big moves and heavy wipeouts.
From the video footage, Johnny picked out several more skills to cover with the group and specific individual guidance for some of the surfers.
Competition training
The final in-water session of the day would involve two competition heats with the top two surfers from each progressing into a final.
The swell had increased and the waves were breaking harder on the lower tide. Certainly not conditions for the faint-hearted, but nevertheless everyone was keen to get out there and have a go.
One half of the group helped judge as the other half surfed their heat out in the water. This is a great way for the surfers to understand what judges are looking for and how they can approach their upcoming heat.
After the opening two heats the 4 surfers qualifying for the final were…James Jervis, Olli
Judd , Darcan Graham , and Rory Bewers .
Ollie and Darcan struggled to find wave with much scoring opportunity, and
Rory caught a few short rides but couldn’t find the magic he had in his opening heat where on one wave he scored a massive 7.5 out of 10.
It was James Jervis that stole the show, opening with a strong 6-point backside wave, and finishing the heat with a beautiful right-hander. Two searing front side off–the-lips, perfomed with speed, power and control earned him the highest score of the day. An excellent 8 points ride. With an impressive two wave total of 14 points he was the clear winner.
Johnny said ‘ I was really impressed with the level of commitment shown by all surfers today in some epic, but challenging conditions. I hope everyone enjoyed the day, learned something new, and has some new techniques and skills they can focus on when they next get in the water.”
Newquay Activity Centre and the Rip Curl Surf school wishes the Navy Surf Team the best of luck for the Inter services championship next month and looks forward to seeing them again soon for more training.