WOMEN ON FIRE
Surfing Australia's Female Squad Storms Grajagan
Photography by WHSUP!!
Bobby’s G-Land camp set the stage for a very unique happening recently. Chelsea Hedges, a top coach with Surfing Australia, led a team of rising amateur female surfers to our premiere wave in order to help hone their skills. It’s all part of Surfing Australia’s serious and enviable national coaching program to develop young hopeful surfers as they move into a professional career. And if not that, then at least to help them reach their full potential in surfing. Surftime met with Chelsea about this extraordinary opportunity and here is what she had to say:
Chelsea Hedges: This was one of Surfing Australia’s latest strike missions for coaching. The concept is to identify waves that are either world tour locations or locations that are similar to CT contest locations. This is so we can take our athletes there for exposure and experience in those types of wave profiles. Like if it’s not a world tour location like cloudbreak, we try to go to a place like G-Land to simulate it. So that’s one part of the program. For exposure in reefy, barrelling left hand waves, the main part of my coaching at G-Land was to coach them on deep barrel riding techniques, backside and frontside, depending on their stance.
At S.A. each coach has a cohort of athletes that are assigned to us. And these three junior women are who I am currently coaching. Ziggy Mackenzie, Isi Campbell and Charlie Hatley. It’s a very serious and deeply committed program that we hope leads to creating world class potential. We are coaching what we call Pathway athletes, surfers who we feel are emerging and developing pro level athletes. We do our best to bring out the potential that could lead to a podium finish on the CT.
I would say our G-Land trip was successful in giving these women exposure to world tour waves because I feel that Cloudbreak is quite similar. It’s not just a grab-a-rail and hope-for-the-best kind of wave. You need to be aware at G-land and read really read the wave. You have to explore the line-up and figure it out or you get either pummelled or left behind. So, teaching them how to navigate a long, left reef break was and important skill to master. It was great to see Ziggy really step up. Obviously growing up in Bali and knowing Indonesian perfection and her Padang Padang performances put her in a notch above.
The travel and culture aspect of the program is secondary to performance but we were fortunate with these women that they are already quite experienced in traveling. So they are already ready for that. But still, especially when you go to Indonesia, life on the road skills are an imperative.
And what is important to our coaching vision is not only create the worlds best surfers but the world’s best human beings as well. That is a really important part of Surfing Australia’s values when it comes to coaching these athletes. A really important element. Good values and a winning way of life. Their surfing skill development is forefront, but it is also about helping to create a well-rounded, worthy human being. We never forget that surfing can give you that if you really pay attention.
Bobby’s G-Land camp set the stage for a very unique happening recently. Chelsea Hedges, a top coach with Surfing Australia, led a team of rising amateur female surfers to our premiere wave in order to help hone their skills. It’s all part of Surfing Australia’s serious and enviable national coaching program to develop young hopeful surfers as they move into a professional career. And if not that, then at least to help them reach their full potential in surfing. Surftime met with Chelsea about this extraordinary opportunity and here is what she had to say:
Chelsea Hedges: This was one of Surfing Australia’s latest strike missions for coaching. The concept is to identify waves that are either world tour locations or locations that are similar to CT contest locations. This is so we can take our athletes there for exposure and experience in those types of wave profiles. Like if it’s not a world tour location like cloudbreak, we try to go to a place like G-Land to simulate it. So that’s one part of the program. For exposure in reefy, barrelling left hand waves, the main part of my coaching at G-Land was to coach them on deep barrel riding techniques, backside and frontside, depending on their stance.
At S.A. each coach has a cohort of athletes that are assigned to us. And these three junior women are who I am currently coaching. Ziggy Mackenzie, Isi Campbell and Charlie Hatley. It’s a very serious and deeply committed program that we hope leads to creating world class potential. We are coaching what we call Pathway athletes, surfers who we feel are emerging and developing pro level athletes. We do our best to bring out the potential that could lead to a podium finish on the CT.
I would say our G-Land trip was successful in giving these women exposure to world tour waves because I feel that Cloudbreak is quite similar. It’s not just a grab-a-rail and hope-for-the-best kind of wave. You need to be aware at G-land and read really read the wave. You have to explore the line-up and figure it out or you get either pummelled or left behind. So, teaching them how to navigate a long, left reef break was and important skill to master. It was great to see Ziggy really step up. Obviously growing up in Bali and knowing Indonesian perfection and her Padang Padang performances put her in a notch above.
The travel and culture aspect of the program is secondary to performance but we were fortunate with these women that they are already quite experienced in traveling. So they are already ready for that. But still, especially when you go to Indonesia, life on the road skills are an imperative.
And what is important to our coaching vision is not only create the worlds best surfers but the world’s best human beings as well. That is a really important part of Surfing Australia’s values when it comes to coaching these athletes. A really important element. Good values and a winning way of life. Their surfing skill development is forefront, but it is also about helping to create a well-rounded, worthy human being. We never forget that surfing can give you that if you really pay attention.
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