MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2 March 2016
REVOLUTIONARY ALL-INCLUSIVE SURF TRAINING CAMP A FIRST FOR SA
(EDEN DISTRICT) – Waves School of Surfing (WSS) and the renowned Kenako Golf & Sports Academy have joined forces to offer an all-inclusive surf training camp. Known as the South African Surfing Academy (SASA), the first of its kind will take place from 30 March to 2 April 2016.
“The camp will offer the Waves School of Surfing coaching program and much much more,” said Llewellyn Whittaker, of WSS. “It’s going to be a full four days of surfing… of learning and improving their skills and techniques. The goal is to expose them to what it takes to be a world-class surfer, an attitude that can then be applied into all aspects of life,” he said.
Whittaker, who has been involved in high performance coaching camps since 2008, has a dream and passion to increase the depth of junior surfing in South Africa and felt that this association with one of the top Golfing Academies in the world was the perfect evolutionary next step. “As with any business you try and improve what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. I was looking into buying a house and setting up a surfing academy with the emphasis on education, so while doing you schooling your focus could be surfing and all the elements that make for a great surfer,” he explains.
“While I was going through this exercise I came across Kenako Sports Academy in George. They focus on individual sports so it seemed the best way to go about this idea was to plug in WSS HPC surfing into this already well established academy,” he said.
The first SASA will cater for both boys and girls from the age of 12 and up, and, while the camp is aimed at elite junior surfers, kids or anyone is welcome. “The only way to improve the level of junior surfing in the country is to grow the depth, therefore if the level of the intermediate and advanced surfers is raised it will have to push the level of the elite surfers,” Whittaker said.
The SASA will include accommodation; all meals; biokineticist & mental skills sessions; transport (including airport collections); surfing sessions and entertainment.
“A successful camp to me will mean that the kids get some good waves, have a great experience, learn a lot and ultimately improve their surfing,” Whittaker said, explaining that his coaching philosophy is built around the ‘FTB principle’. “Focus, trust, believe and you will achieve…You can apply this to your surfing, your relationships, your work, anything in fact. If you put your mind, heart and soul into achieving your goal you can do it. I also believe in hard work always pays off, if you want to achieve something great it won’t come without hard work,” he said.
Whittaker and Kanako are also exploring the possibility of launching a full annual learners’ programme (including Cambridge-based schooling) at Kenako from 2017, in line with how the golfing academy runs. “The goal is to grow this into one of the most recognised surfing academies in the world,” he concluded.
