Durban marks the business end of our South Africa trip for those doing their ISA level 1 Surf Instructor’s with us. Between all the fun and games has been some serious hard work and effort by the group and us to best prepare for the final weeks in Durban. Chris Bond joined us to run the Surf Instructor and Surf theory section, this meant time in the classroom really getting into what is required to run a successful surf lesson.
From the classroom it was straight to the beach to practically implement and refine everything learnt in the classroom, Chris ran a demo beginner lesson to show the guys how their potential future lesson would need to be run. The ISA qualification is held to a high standard so it was imperative that the group fully grasp all the elements of a beginner surf lesson. After the demo from Chris the group were later requested to run a beginner lesson on each other as practice.
After their teaching skills were tested it was time to get in the water and prove their own ability in the water. In heats of 30min each rider was asked to catch and show control on two right and two left hand waves. In the end everybody had managed to pass which is incredible considering that most of the group had never surfed before prior to the trip.
After meeting all the requirements for their Surf Instructors the final hurdle for the newly qualified crew is to complete a mandatory 20hrs training at a surf school, once that is out the way they’ll be able to officially start working as Surf Instructors.
A big shout out has to be extended to their head coach on the trip, Jarred Veldhuis. He has been with them in the water since day 1, mentoring, coaching and moulding them into the surfers they are today. He leads from the front and inspires everybody to push themselves, A class act in and out the water and a huge contributor to everybody’s progress. After all the hours of coaching, analysing and helping each and everybody improve their surfing and adapting to each persons individual ability there was nobody more stoked than Jarred on the success of everybody in the group. Shot bru!!
Here’s a short video I’ve put together showing some of what we’ve done in our efforts to become Surf Instructor’s whilst in Durban.
Its been an incredible journey and I’ve personally had the best 10 weeks with this crew and I couldn’t be more proud of everybody’s accomplishments, where does all the time go? I could do it all again!
Till next time, shakka’s 🙂
Luke