Was super proud (as dad and coach) that young Joel Christopherson (12yrs), made the national team selection for the recent Surf GB camp for 10-13yrs olds at the Wave at Bristol on the 19th/20th April weekend. It was great to see the standard of the young surfers in this age band from the home nations and they all RIP – our young surfers from Scotland, Kai, Gabe, Seb, Joel and Callie, didn’t look out of place too which was great to see.
The Wave is an inland surf pool and an amazing venue for repetitive training on technique and all the young surfers improved over the weekend. On a personal level I learned a lot as a coach, which will go back into our local junior surf development and the Belhaven surf club to help our young surfers. I can also see a lot of fun and potential with the new Lost Shore surf resort, Northern Europes biggest inland wave park being built next to Edinburgh right now.
A big thank you to Suds (Scottish National junior coach) and Joel Gray (the Surf GB head coach) for a great weekend. It was also great to hang with the parents from around the UK (a lot of nice people). The future is bright.
The objective of this camp was “forehand surfing” connecting a large wrapping cutback (or roundhouse) to high quality top turns as the wave went steeper. Here’s a wee selection of stills with Joel as the first surfer and Gabe in the background both Scottish Juniors.
