The second day of the Red Bull Unleashed junior surfing project was greeted by another wondrous south coast day. The assembled groms were treated to the absolute luxury of Richard Barrows’ sprawling house, right in front of a fun and secluded beach-break setup. The Australian coaches of Richard Marsh, Andy King and Dan Ross sent the groms out to start their mock contest, where heat strategy, planning and preparation were all important components.
The juniors took to the contest with gusto, amping to prove to the coaches and themselves that they had what it takes to be successful professional surfers. On the beach, investigative reporter and media coach Les Aupiais was waiting as the surfers came out of the water to interview them, in a mock live interview situation.
“Some of the surfers were fine with the interviews,” said Les after the final first round heats. “Others just needed to expand on their ideas to make proper, quotable statements.” The interviews were all recorded for later review by the surfers.
As the contest got underway, the top performers started showing what they were worth. Young Max Armstrong impressed everyone with some solid surfing in the earlier rounds, and Steven Sawyer was another young surfer who impressed the coaches. “Steven has a great bottom turn,” said Dog Marsh, and added, “A very impressive surfer who could easily put the whole package together.”
Nicky Godfrey was on top form, surfing hard and fast in the average beach break conditions, and Durban surfer Beyrick de Vries was also having a go, pulling off some big aerial moves in the cross-wind conditions. The event was run through to a final, and the winner of the event was Shaun Joubert with runners-up Nicky Godfrey, Dylan Lightfoot and Beyrick De Vries.
The first prize for the event was a flip in the Red Bull Extra 300 Aerobic Aeroplane with Glen Dell, the Red Bull Air Race pilot.
“This has been a great project,” said Joubert after his win. “I think that I have learned more over these last two days than I have learned in my whole surfing career.”
Richard Marsh was glowing with his praise for Joubert. “Apart from having talent and skills, the kid really used our exercises and stretches, and applied and absorbed the stuff that we have tried to teach the kids over the project,” said Marsh. “Shaun and Nicky are the stars, and they both realised that they could take some good stuff away from the weekend, which is the whole point of the project.”
To wrap up the weekend the surfers went on a fun GPS exercise. They were sent hunting for a number of items to be retrieved for points, to help them better understand teamwork and group dynamics, as well as take all the things that they had learned, like strategy and planning, and use them in a non-surfing environment.
By the time the GPS exercise was coming to an end, the surfers were a stoked bunch of tired groms, who had been enriched by the initiative, but were probably also looking forward to a good nights sleep and some chill time.
Comments
Add a comment