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WORDS BY BRAD BRICKNELL

The rise of Ryan Callinan over the last few years could culminate in Olympic gold!PHOTO: BARRIPP

In the Olympic qualifying year, we pull back the curtain on Surfing Australia’s National

High Performance Program to find out how the Australian Olympic squad are preparing as they

head towards Tokyo, 2020.

Australia’s Quest for Olympic Gold.

Behindthe Curtain

After decades of lobbying by International Surfing

Association (ISA) President, Fernando Aguerre, on the 3rd of August 2016, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that surfing would be included in the 2020 Summer Games.

The sport’s biggest drawcard for organisers of the games was that it brought a more youthful and vibrant sport to the Olympic program. And yes, the event will take place in the ocean in Chiba, Japan.

Surfing Australia was the first national surfing organisation to take major strides towards participation in Tokyo. Early moves indicating the seriousness of their quest included the appointment

of former championship tour surfer, Bede Durbidge to the role of Surfing Australia’s Elite Program Manager. The appointment came while Bede was still competing full-time in August 2017, but the announcement became a precursor to his retirement from competition at the end of that year.

As the core support team and high-performance program was already in place, the new position galvanised the push towards 2020 and beyond.

To find out a little more, we sat down with some of the key members of Surfing Australia’s National High Performance Program to find out what they do, and more importantly what their roles are in preparing our surfers for their Olympic debut, across the areas of surfing, mind and body.

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Sally Fitz has always been the quintessential Aussie team supporter — the Olympic format will suit her perfectly.PHOTO: BARRIPP

THE PROGRAMSo what does Surfing Australia and

its National High Performance Program look like? Kim Crane, the National High Performance Director explains:

Surfing Australia’s National High Performance Program exists to support our Australian athletes to become the world’s best surfers and people. High Performance is a Department within Surfing Australia. It was identified that to ensure sustainable success on the world stage, Surfing Australia needed to ‘reboot’ the program in order to set it up for its next stage of growth.

Regardless of the announcement of the sports inclusion into the Olympics, which simply acted as a strong catalyst for change, the rich pool of surfing talent in this country needed and deserved more. The high capability of people in our High Performance Program team means we can offer both standard and/or individually tailored program support that can be mobilised nationally and globally, adding value to athlete campaigns and progression.

I’m amazed by the passion and expertise in our team — they are the world’s best.

What is the program looking to achieve heading towards an Olympic year?

To build trust with our elite athletes we’ve been mindful of finding ways to add value to their individual WSL campaigns, if and when they require. Knowing how demanding their WSL schedules are we work creatively and collaboratively with the individual athlete, coach or performance team, if it is deemed that the National High Performance program service and expertise can assist.

In context of the group as a whole, there’s been emphasis on building a ‘Team Australia’ culture of performance and support — an outcome of simply creating opportunities for everyone to be together. We’ve facilitated camps based on daily performance environment opportunities, whereby just having the athletes in the same space generates fun, learning, planning and meaningful communication. Stronger relationships will naturally translate then into the competitive WSL or ISA World Surfing Games environment, and we can already see a real uplift.

Is there pressure to deliver gold for Australia?

The way in which our Australian

High Performance System operates, every sport at a national level comes with clearly identifiable measures of success by which it will be judged. I sit really comfortably with this, as it drives team commitment when you’re accountable for results.

Personally, I’ve been operating in sensitive, high pressure environments most of my life, and I’d choose this every day of the week, as I know I’m the best version of myself when there’s a clear target. That being said, with all the complexities and the highs and lows that high performance brings, if you don’t find true meaning and enjoyment from the journey along the way, there’d be some days you’d question why you do it! The rewards outweigh the tough days… I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What will the on-ground support team look like for the Olympics?

The Australian Olympic Committee will appoint surfing’s official roles for the on-ground support team and we are working through that process now. As compared to swimming, cycling, or the team sports we’ll be a relatively small group. Working with the athletes selected to then identify if there are any additional support roles or expertise to consider for the on-ground support team will be important to ensure they are best prepared to perform.

Who has been involved in the early stage preparation of the Australian squad?

We are blessed with such a rich history of success in surfing, in Australia. We immediately invited Mick Fanning, MR, Layne Beachley and Kate Wilcomes to be part of the journey. They’ve been so generous with their personal insights that they’ve shared with the athletes, so when everyone’s together, this has added some powerful reflections and learnings.

Within our Australian surfing community, we’ve got an enormous amount of experience to draw from and we’ve appreciated it when others want to lean in and contribute.

With other successful Olympic athletes invited to share their impactful stories at different camps, every athlete, coach and staff member involved, has had individual takeaways. Whilst camps have been just one forum over the last 18 months, we’ll also take a highly competitive Team Australia to Japan, in September this year, for the ISA World Surfing Games. The ISAs are an Olympic qualification event in 2019, and are another opportunity for athletes to test themselves and learn.

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An Olympic medal would look great next to those seven world title trophies!PHOTO: BARRIPP

THE SURFINGBede Durbidge is the Elite

Program Manager for the Surfing Australia High Performance Program, and the Olympic Head Coach.

Bede’s best ranking on tour was #2 in 2008, and he retired from the WSL Championship Tour in 2017, after 13 years of travelling the globe. His experience, including three career victories and three consecutive years in the top five (2007–2009), will ensure his charges get the relevant input they need to not only prepare for the games, but to gun for gold in 2020.

But how is it different to the lead-up for a championship tour event?

It’s different to a WCT in a lot of ways, but still very similar to a stop on the tour once the athletes are in the water and competing. I’m very mindful of keeping things simple for the athletes so they can just focus on having their best performance come Games time,

and allowing our team at Surfing Australia to take care of the rest of it.

What’s the plan leading into 2020?

It’s still the qualification time of year, so adding value where I can with the athletes and their coaches CT campaigns. There’s some preparation to do for Japan’s ISA World Surfing Games in September, whilst trying to ensure we do what we can to support the remaining events.

Once the team is chosen, it’ll be a lot more emphasis on the individual planning — how they want to approach preparation for the Olympic Games and working collectively with them to give them the best opportunity to go to Japan with an edge.

THE MINDJason Patchell is the Lead

Psychologist (Performance & Wellbeing) for Surfing Australia and is tasked with preparing the mind of our Olympic surfers

leading into the Games. He has a long history working with the Australian Institute of Sport and joined Surfing Australia in 2018. Jason already has a strong rapport with the championship tour surfers on the Surfing Australia roster, but what will change heading towards 2020?

One of the strengths of our crew is that they are all experienced at travelling internationally and adapting to the specific environments to get the best out of themselves. There are some differences that exist for an Olympics as a result of being an international multisport event. In our preparation, we aim to anticipate these new experiences and build on the strengths that already exist.

What does a sports psychologist add to the world’s best surfers?

From a psychological perspective, it’s a lot about supporting surfers to be as

adaptable as possible and supporting their personal growth both in and out of the water. Their journeys are very individualised and are shaped by surfers’ curiosity, and the drive to develop themselves.

Some of the key areas of support that Surfing Australia’s High Performance Program offers to surfers and coaches include support in performance psychology, mental health, personal development, dual career and adjustment. Surfers and coaches will differ on what support is desired, based on need and timing.

Our philosophy is to empower each individual member to grow not only as a surfer, but also as a person, and that’s why respecting each member’s readiness for support is important.

Going into 2020, we’ll make sure we understand each member’s unique performance needs and journey, and use that intel to prioritise what’s important and what’s not. This is always easier said than done!

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Behind the curtain at Surfing Australia’s High Performance Centre. PHOTO: SURFING AUSTRALIA

THE BODYDeb Savage is the lead physical

preparation provider with Surfing Australia’s National High Performance Program. With a 16-year career history with the Australian Institute of Sport and senior experience working with a range of Olympic, World Championship, Commonwealth Games athletes including swimming, triathlon (Able and Para), athletics, BMX, kayak, her primary responsibilities are providing performance support in the area of physical preparation to individual athletes. Along with Surfing Australia and its rostered surfers, Deb also implements and drives a collaborative approach to planning, preparation and performance that optimises expertise to close ‘gaps’ to performance.

So what challenges do the looming Olympics bring?

The Olympic Games brings some different experiences and demands

for physical preparation for the athlete compared to a WSL event. The points of difference being the additional logistics of being on an Australian team with multisports made up of both individual and team events, lengthy opening and closing ceremonies, Olympic compliance components, sport-specific scheduling and event requirements, etc.

With this in mind, the physical demands on the body that are required to adhere to this must be taken into consideration during planning and different strategies will ultimately enhance the athlete’s performance rather than deplete them.

The performance support team that surrounds each Olympic athlete will provide expert advice based on evidence of individual athlete assessments, screenings and observations. The individual performance preparation will be detailed to provide a full encompassing physical performance enhancement process where outcomes will be highlighted for optimal performance shifts to

occur during the specified training periods and time frames in order to achieve desired outcomes.

This will be across medical, nutritional, physiological, physical capacities such as mobility, power and strength, skill and technical advancements, along with total load monitoring to name a few.

What are the key areas you will work on in 2019?

With the Olympic team still to be determined, 2019 acts as a period to identify individual physical performance plans and areas of improvements, and best periods to achieve gains.

It is a year to identify opportunities, to observe, collect data, network and collaborate with coaches, athletes and professionals in their field on modes and methods for application not just for after the team is announced, but also to add value to their World Championship Tour campaigns.

What will you focus more on, as the event gets closer in 2020?

It will be vital for the Olympic athletes to comprehend not only the scope of what an Olympic Games brings, but also the energetic requirements required, due to the extra demands they have to juggle.

The ability for the athlete to have an individualised performance plan, including recovery modalities, and total event strategy in conjunction with silky transitions will all be fundamentals provided to guide the athletes who will be competing at their very first Olympic Games. It is so rewarding and exciting to be on this journey with all our athletes.

No matter what side of the Olympic fence you sit on, you can’t knock the effort and professional approach that Surfing Australia is taking on the road to 2020.

There’s still a long way to go, but one thing is for sure — if we bring home Olympic gold, no one will be complaining! For more surfing food made in Australia visit

www.surfmeal.com.au

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Flying the Australian flag will take on a whole new meaning come Japan in 2020.PHOTOS: BARRIPP

The current Olympic squad consists of Sally Fitzgibbons, Steph Gilmore, Nikki van Dijk, Bronte Macauley, Macy Callaghan and Tyler Wright for the women.

Mikey Wright, Owen Wright, Wade Carmichael, Julian Wilson, Ryan Callinan, Adrian Buchan, Jack Freestone and Soli Bailey for the men.

After understanding the Surfing Australia Nomination Criteria for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games, the surfers were required to sign a Surfing Australia Athlete Agreement, which deemed that they were declaring themselves eligible for nomination.

All 14 of these athletes signed the Surfing Australia Athlete Agreement so therefore were listed with the AOC (Australian Olympic Committee) as Surfing’s Olympic squad, otherwise known as the long list.

Surfing Australia nominates the athletes, then it’s over to the AOC for selection (end of May 2020). The

AOC then selects our Australian Olympic Team.

Only two male and two female surfers will qualify to surf for Australia in Japan 2020, based off the WSL Championship Tour rankings. These surfers must also compete in the 2019 and 2020 ISA World Surfing Games as part of the qualification process.

Surfers may also qualify for the Olympics by making the finals of the ISA World Surfing Games and Pan American games. The below details are from the ISA’s official website (isasurf.org):

The key elements of the qualification system are as follows:• 20 men, 20 women.• Maximum of 2 surfers per

gender per National Olympic Committee (NOC).

• Qualification spots will be earned on an individual basis,

by name.• In accordance with IOC

guidelines, the qualification events have been determined in hierarchical order of qualification, as further explained below; if two surfers of a gender have qualified through the first hierarchical order, that NOC will not be able to qualify more surfers of that gender through qualifying events lower in hierarchical order.

• All surfers selected by their respective National Federations for their national teams must participate in 2019 and/or 2020 ISA World Surfing Games in order to be eligible for Olympic qualification.

The hierarchical order of qualification will be as follows:1. 2019 World Surf League

Championship Tour: First 10 eligible men and first 8 eligible women.

2. 2020 ISA World Surfing Games: First 4 eligible men and first 6 eligible women.

3. 2019 ISA World Surfing Games: 4 men and 4 women selected based on their continent. Top finishing eligible surfer of each gender from Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

4. 2019 Pan American Games: First eligible man and first eligible woman in the surfing competitions.

5. Host nation slot: One men’s and one woman’s slot will be guaranteed for the host nation of Japan, unless already filled through the above hierarchies. Should athletes from Japan qualify regularly, their slots will be reallocated to the highest ranked eligible surfers from the 2020 World Surfing Games.

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