Winter training camp for Naval surfers

Royal Navy & Royal Marine Surfers from across the country headed for Newquay for a training weekend to take advantage of a sponsor’s generous offer. 

Changeable weather and freezing sea temperatures didn’t put off a hard core of Service Surfers who gathered at Towans Beach, Newquay in Cornwall for a training weekend with ‘Newquay Activity Centre’ (NAC) and ‘Skindog Surfboards’, that had been designed to push the naval personnel and improve their boarding techniques. 

Briefings from Rob Barber (NAC Director) and a question and answer session with Ben Skinner, the world number two ‘Longboarder’ established a benchmark to start the level of instruction from and what was required by the RN & RM surfers. Sessions in the water were videoed for play back later and ‘one to one’ instruction from the NAC team proved to be very popular. “Being taught by some seasoned professional from the Surf-world was pretty awesome,” said Lieutenant Simon Schnetler from 857 Naval Air Squadron and Chairman RN&RMSA. “We don’t get many opportunities to get together during the summer so off season training camps like this are essential to bring on new blood.” 

Ben Skinner and Head Coach of NAC Jorrin Massingham helped assess the progress of the Navy Surfers and discuss the finer arts of ‘cross-stepping’, ‘top-turn snaps’ and ‘board good trim’, with both the long and short borders. Unfortunately there were no body boarders at the weekend but it’s hoped they will come along to further training sessions. 

Lt Schnetler continues, “A long weekend featuring specialist instruction and bio-mechanic tuition is a brilliant way to push our club members and improve surfing techniques. We organise similar training weekends, as well as competitions and even foreign training camps. Further details and dates for these can be found on the Royal Navy Surfing website www.surfnavy.com or via our Surf Navy Facebook page.” 

Fired up with top quality instruction and professional feedback the RN&RMSA hope to attend the Tri-Service Championships in April 2014 with the ability to significantly out-perform their Army and RAF counterparts!