Australia’s elite junior boys and girls surfers are being put through their paces at the Surfing Australia High Performance Centre’s first Under 14 national training camps.
The Under 14 boys headed to the HPC in Casuarina for their five-day camp from September 9 and the girls joined in on September 14.
The participants were selected by their State branches as the next crop of Under 14 surfers who are ready to take their surfing to the next level.
It is the first time the HPC has hosted a camp for Under 14 surfers, having previously held elite camps for Under 16 surfers and above.
Those attending are – BOYS: NSW Sam Bond, Fraser Dovell, Darcy Crump, Zac Wightman, Luke Hamilton; QLD: Reef Hazelwood, Quinn Bruce, Dexter Muskins; VIC: Joe Van Dijk, Cody Robinson, Tom Harrison; SA: Zac Ryan; WA: Shaun Manners, Lachlan Ross, Duke Nagtzaam; TAS: Hamish Duncan. GIRLS: (NSW) Tess Mawson, Alyssa Lock, Billie Melinz, Kobie Enright; QLD: Kiani Dobbyn, Laura Poncini; VIC: Jemima Hutchins, Rikki Bell-Warren; SA: Megan Hein; WA: Ella Massie, Emi Campbell; TAS: Tabbi Fasnacht.
Surfing Australia’s National Coaching Director Martin Dunn said the focus of the camps would be on technique.
“Basically the Under 14 camps are all about the technical and foundation skills of surfing,” he said, “how to read the ocean, how to do better bottom turns, how to finish off waves. Some will be better than others in these areas, but they will still have inconsistencies in their basic manoeuvres which we want to work on.
“It’s not until the Under 16 camps we get into the competitive side of things like heat strategies and how to ride a wave to get a better score and other things like psychology and fitness.”
HPC manager James Eggington said the camps would also incorporate a general life skills program.
“They will also be introduced to the Illicit Drugs in Sport Program for the first time,” he said.
“It will be part of a general life skills program that will also include etiquette, social networking and media training.”
The Surfing Australia High Performance Centre training camps are supported by the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Government’s Illicit Drugs In Sport Program, BASE surfboards, Suncorp, Coastalwatch, TravelSIM and Casuarina Beach.
The Surfing Australia HPC is based at Casuarina Beach, which is just 15 minutes south of the Gold Coast.
