In August 2006 I got the phone call from Pete asking me to come up and show him what I do. Having coached the New Zealand national youth team, I could see after the first lesson there was a lot of work to be done to get the young surfers up to the level Pete was looking for. Even the best of the group Toby, needed a lot of work. Pete’s ambition was to take the most talented local surfers and give them every opportunity and support in their surfing to compete on the world stage. But coming from New Zealand and knowing the level that was out there, it looked like a daunting task with the dream being so far away from a reality.
When I started, Toby was the only sponsored rider - the rest were struggling to do single cut backs and simple top turns. For the lower abilities merely catching green waves was a bonus. At the first official training day I laid down some rules - that I’d rather they fell off while trying a new manoeuvre than not fall and not try, and if they weren’t committed they’d be off the programme. They all seemed a bit scared of me at the start, unsure of this new man on the block. For the first three months we focused on bottom turn. Bottom turn, bottom turn, bottom turn – nothing else. I wanted perfection. My training revolves around technique and competition surfing. So even the stand out surfer Toby who’d done a few events with limited success was put through the grinder.
This uncompromising approach of pushing the kids to their limits and beyond was uncharted territory in the UK and came to a head at the British Nationals. Toby was entered in the u14s and u16s – “put yourself down for the u18’s” I told him. I was serious. The surf was well overhead and clean. He surfed hard, really hard in the heats until he collapsed on the beach. “I can’t do any more. I’ve nothing left.” His u18 semi, u16 semi and u14 final had all been scheduled back to back – it was no-ones fault.
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