“Coaching is a bit of a fucking magician show. I wanted to see if there’s any value in coaching, that it had any grounds, that it wasn’t a farce.”
Ain’t no secret that Australian competitive surfing is at its lowest point in history, no genuine title contenders, no teen freaks coming through the ranks, the country’s only bauble a bronze medal from the Tokyo Games.
And this, despite the government millions thrown at Surfing Australia, the funnel through which potential champions are poured through via regional contests etc.
All of that is set to become a memory now that Andy King, the personal coach of Gabriel Medina and Mick Fanning, has been appointed head coach at Surfing Australia.
Andy is the Australian pro from Cronulla who lost his hearing after a street fight in 2004; a hard-charging goofyfooter who grew up with an alcoholic pops (Andy kept a knife under his pillow for protection) and who shifted to surf coaching after his tour comeback was stymied by his deafness.
He was intro’d to Medina by Mick Fanning at a time when Medina’s life was going through rapid change, the estrangement of his family, a new wife and so on.
Medina’s shaper said King’s arrival stilled Medina’s emotional state, elevated his performance.
Cue: a world title at a canter.
“Coaching is a bit of a fucking magician show,” he says. “I wanted to see if there’s any value in coaching, that it had any grounds, that it wasn’t a farce.”
With the Paris Games two-and-a-half years away, and with the surf event being held at Teahupoo, King is gonna attempt to improve Australia’s medal haul, chasing silver, maybe gold.
“This (upcoming Olympic period) is the biggest stage in our sport, held at the biggest and best location in the surfing world. I’m so honoured to ride with the Australian team into this battle. Tahiti will truly showcase what our sport is all about and it is overwhelming to have this opportunity,” Andy said in the usual stiff press release.
Not real sure who’s gonna snatch gold at Teahupoo, howevs, maybe Jackie Robinson?
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She’s not wrong about it being a sausage fest. I’m also guessing the majority of guys complaining here aren’t putting in time at pipe. Our opinions surfing the comments truly aren’t worth much.
Great time for pipe. This is the time of year that the Volcom Pipe pro was held for years and they almost always scored.
Looks like tomorrow will be good .
Hoping a coach fixes your broken surfers is fantastic. A recipe for success! See you at the Olympics.
There’s the San Luis Obispo QS on live. I’m not really watching it though.
God love you Kingy …. I have no idea how much influence Surfing Australia had on creating the absolute joy of Australian Surfers , both male and female , banding together , having fun , while getting results and enjoying the Challenger Series 80 / 90 / 00 style but if they can continue it , there is no stopping us … with Kingy at the helm or without him
But the Poodle didn’t !
Jack Robinson could. As long as he qualifies for team in underwhelming conditions in the lead up
Everyone is forgetting the relationship that OWEN WRIGHT has with CHOPES !
Robbo is pretty much a Brazzo at this point.
Aussie surfing exceptionalism is so dull. Earnest gurning dimwits are not going to win titles. The cost of coastal real estate anywhere in the developed world means this idea of only poverty stricken battlers bringing home the title is flawed. Future world champions are going to have to come from those with access to the ocean.
I think last year on here the consensus was to get little Iqbal from the western suburbs to start surfing but like you said how do they get to the beach every day.
I’ve not got an encyclopaedic knowledge of world champs’ childhoods but I think most could walk to the beach as small children and had parents with free time. Hardly sounds likely to apply to working class Australians from the Western Suburbs.
I don’t know what Occy, Parko or Fannings parents were up to but living within a bike ride to the beach seems essential.
Occy‘s dad was an Italian immigrant Engineer , Fanning‘s was Irish working class but after the divorce Mick’s mum got them to the beach at Dbah and Parko‘s dad was a tradesman and apparently moved from the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast to help Joel achieve his dreams ….. Parko‘s Uncle was a very talented surfer .
Interesting. I assumed they didn’t have parents that were so involved with their early development. Around here Nat Young’s mom would drive him down to So Cal every weekend for contests. I would see Adam Repogle pull up in his bike at Pleasure Point when he was about twelve by himself.
Occy invented home schooling except he wasn’t at home and not at school either , and used to steal his dad‘s car , that was parked near the local train station , to go down the coast when he was 15 , 3 years before he got his driving license , bring it back and tried to park in the same spot .
The death of pro surfing…
They should put him on the commentary booth with Joe Turps, his secret weapon will be to turn off the hearing aids from time to time.
Totally off topic but watch this vid Healy put up today. Pipe absolutely firing! Only like 2k views..this is a well worthy 8minutes . 4:38 for burn of the winter.
Italo was the only top guy I noticed.
Love Healey’s roll-ins!
FIRING.
If guy at 3:55 made that…
Can’t think of anything much worse than having some dude telling me, ya, do this, do Dat, watch this video of yourself tonight and correct all of your perceived flaws, all in the hopes of beating someone so you can stand on a platform and beat your chest.
What about someone shitting in your mouth for breakfast?
That’s surely more of a lunch time thing.
Do you not do dat dat dis dat ting, Sam?
How about being forced to eat your own hair?
Sam, I’ll bet you’re competitive at some things, like having the most elaborate tiki bar in the entire city of Pomona.
got a world title next to his name now
Nobody:
Pro surfers: “me want to do good at olympic surfyboarding”
I blame litmus. That self absorbed wankfest ushered in the era of it being ok to ride a shit board and surf like a kook as long as you looked cool.
Its why backpackers want to ride a “feesh”, why every man and his dog rides a 9ft noserider with resin tint, and why everyone wears a fucking unbuttoned shirt in the lineup.
No need to surf good if its not all about surfing good anymore.
But i shouldn’t complain too much. I should be finding it harder to get waves as i get older, but its getting easier, because no one has any competitive drive unless the waves are truly epic. And that’s about 3 times a year at my local. I can live with those odds.
Litmus was the best film of the 90’s, if people took the wrong message from it oh well. We should encourage the andrew Kidmans of the world.
I have mixed feelings about that film but I stand by my comment with respect to what it did to competitive surfing. Whether this is a good or bad thing is a different question entirely.
Deep down I wonder if time has proven them right.
Without that film there’d be no modern fish, no hypto krypto and no puddle jumper. So instead of being pensioned out to a mini mal, I can just add 5 to 10 litres from what i used to ride, still hit the lip, and ride fat waves without sinking.
I still can’t forgive that cringe inducing part where Joel Fitzgerald starts banging on about his old man. And Derek Hynd’s pretentious mysticism is only tolerable in very small doses.
I tend to think kelly slater in black and white, searching for tom curren and momentum blew more minds, but i have to grudgingly admit litmus proved to be very influential.
Why do you think I snuck away?
Yeah, I can see that. The Curren section fired me up. Loved the slo mo black and white. Dunno if it ushered in fishes, bound to happen.
Agree 100% about Hynd and Fitz, I forwarded by that stuff.
Cartoon was sick too. Sutherland.
Yeah. Let’s remember that the “cool” people were riding boards that were too thin and too narrow for anyone, let alone the average person on here who has an elevated view of his ability. Blaming Litmus is like blaming the Colombian in the jungle working in a coke lab for the US’ drug problem.
Today …..at 56 in 4 degree water , in 1 ft wind swell Baltic Sea dribble I admit I could have done with some more volume ….. But fuck it is a sad day if you are under 60 , if you need to ride a midlength or fish at a 3ft pointbreak in OZ ?
The world has gone soft, surfing so vanilla, that’s why longboards so popular. Nobody up for a struggle. Was funny though seeing the Australians on the Challenger series re-enacting their version of the Brazilian storm. Hahaha
who’s next banting…
Phew! Time to hit the trampolines!!
Tell ya what, I recently got roped into some mentoring for a surf program by my mate here in Gunditjmara country and those were the kids in the group that needed no pushing or encouragement. One kids second surf was spent screaming across left handers as a goofy. Freakish talent amongst them, even the girls were formidable.
Good luck to Kingy but unless he puts his tail between his legs he’ll get chewed up and spat out again.
Can’t coach stupid and you can’t coach hunger.
As dog trainers at Dapto are fond of saying : “if they don’t bite as puppies”