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Emerging Frontiers: The Developing Surfer Market

These days it’s not just pros getting themselves coaches.

As much as we might not like to admit it, surfing is big business in Australia nowadays, and a big part of that business involves getting people in the water. Hence why so many surf schools have popped up on our shores over the last fifteen years. But surf schools, for all the benefits of getting people involved in such a healthy, hedonistic pursuit, only take you so far. They’ll get you hooked, but unless they offer some kind of ongoing development program outside of their usual cattle herd classes, they won’t show you what to do next. And navigating that step from kook to competent punter can be a long cruel road full of obscure obstacles and unspoken codes, especially for those who haven’t had the luxury of taking it up in their early years.

On the other end of the spectrum, elite level coaching is also on the rise. You only have to look at the top 34 this year to see that a lot of pros now have coaches. Beneath them too there’s a whole network of development programs available for promising young juniors, with Surfing Australia running the state-of-the-art Hurley High Performance Centre (HPC) on the Far North Coast of NSW and many ex-pros also moving into the private coaching game.

The area between beginner lessons and elite level coaching, however, is far less developed. As a result, a lot of surfers in the earlier stages of their development aren’t getting the kind of guidance that could help take their abilities to the next level and also give the rest of us a few less headaches.

Enter into the equation Linton Fafie and his business Next Level Surf Coaching (NLSC). Based in the increasingly diverse surf haven of Byron Bay, NLSC has found a niche for itself by focussing specifically on a certain type of developing surfer—namely, the working professional whose busy lifestyle gets in the way of their progression. And it’s proving a hit due to its unique approach to coaching.

‘It’s more of a casual development process than an intensive classroom-style approach,’ says Linton, who aside from running NLSC also works with advanced surfers at the Hurley High Performance Centre.

A high-end service where everything from travel to accommodation can be arranged, the whole idea of the program involves getting individuals away from their hectic routines and into a laidback, surf-stoked environment for a few days. Clients are picked up of a morning and whisked away from the hustle and bustle of Byron’s chaotic main beaches to somewhere secluded and more suited to their development. Once there they receive a combination of relaxed in-water tuition and on-beach video analysis, working on everything from positioning in the line-up to their technique on a wave. Afterwards, it’s off to one of Byron’s many cafes for the essential post-surf feed and a breakdown of the morning’s session. From here, the day is filled with a variety of activities all designed to stoke people out on surfing and improve their skills as they go: technique training on a skateboard, yoga, meeting up with a local crew to watch a surf movie or go see a band, chill time, and of course, loads of surfing. Essentially, it’s a double experience—guys who love the idea of surfing but never really have the time get to come and hang out and be surfers for a few days, and at the same time, they’re coached and given the type of advice that improves their abilities in the water. They’re also provided with some simple yet often overlooked pointers on how to conduct themselves in the line-up, which helps instil a greater sense of etiquette into their act. And that’s something we can all get behind.

Linton himself, piped at Kandui.

‘The feedback is great,’ says Linton. ‘I have guys say to me: “You don’t understand what my life’s like in the city. This is like a dream, it’s exactly what I needed.”’

Originally from the South Coast of NSW, Linton—or Lint Doggy as he’s known to his mates—has been in the coaching game for over a decade, teaching everyone from Swedish backpackers to the shredders of tomorrow. He’s also just a fun-loving dude who genuinely cares about surfing and all the positive things the lifestyle brings. A long-time Indo devotee and a tube pig of the highest order, he comes from a strong surfing family where his development was nurtured by his father, his brothers, and his uncle, as well as a tightknit local community, and it’s this sharing of knowledge and support that he believes isn’t being passed on to newcomers enough these days.

‘The way I look at it, when we grew up we had older people that we looked up to or spoke to in the water and it helped with our guidance and progression in surfing. But if you come into the sport later in life, you don’t get that guidance that’s so important to develop.’

Having watched the contrasting levels of surfing going on in Byron, Linton could see a significant gap opening up in the water between those who knew what they were doing and people coming to the waves afresh. And all too often those groups don’t gel.

‘I just got sick of the way surf schools were operating,’ says Linton. ‘It can be such a rape and pillage market. Put people in, take their money, put people out the other side. There’s just not that one-on-one, care-about-someone’s-development thing going on. And as a result, people don’t know how to deal with the line-up. They just haven’t got the know-how. So when you have someone experienced out there next to you getting you to move earlier and seeing those things before they happen, it’s so important for your development.’

 

In a lot of ways, Byron is the ideal town for a market to open up around developing surfers. With its warm water, consistent waves, and laidback coastal vibe, it’s become one of the iconic capitals of beach culture in Australia, and by now the whole world knows the best thing to do at an Australian beach is surf. Considering the proliferation of beginner schools that exist on Byron’s shores and the fact that so many people come to the sport for the first time there, it would make sense for more programs to focus-in on surfers in the early to intermediate stages of their development, not only from an economic standpoint but also for the greater benefit of the culture—hypothetically, the more people who know what they’re doing in the water, the safer and more orderly the line-up becomes.

‘Everyone’s so focussed on beginners that no one’s taking care of the guys beyond that,’ says Linton, who’s a firm believer in passing on the right kind of advice rather than let people keep making the same mistakes. ‘And it’s that next stage that’s so important.’

And while Linton and Next Level Surf Coaching have carved out a niche for themselves in Byron by providing a unique brand of coaching to those who need a getaway as much as they need advice, they have no intention of trying to take over the developing surfer market. In fact, Linton welcomes the idea of more coaching in this area and believes that it’ll bring benefits to the line-up as a whole.

‘I don’t want to take over the world or make a big surf school out of it,’ he tells me. ‘I don’t even look at NLSC as a surf school. It’s more about providing guidance to people so they can get out there and enjoy it for themselves.’

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