Surf Coach Profile: Steve Anderson
Because of politics and apartheid in South Africa, he headed for Europe and turned pro, competing at 18 years of age and overcoming hardships to become European pro Champion in 1987 in his rookie year. While headed for a successful career on the world tour, Steve decided early on to pursue a different path.
As a competitor and free surfer, he surfed many spots around the world. In South Africa the surf traveling bug had already bitten him at the age of 13 where he hitched around the South African coast from Durban to Cape Towncoast during his school holidays, surfing waves such as Nahoon reef, J-Bay, Kom, Transki and some other wild ones.
He now has a great joy in sharing his knowledge and experience to beginners and all the way up to competing pros. As Steve puts it: "I want to give back to surfing."
- Birth place: Umhlanga Rocks, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa
- Past country of residence: South Africa, England, Ireland
- Favorite waves: Hollow beach breaks
- Hobbies: Walking his dog,
- Spoken language: English, French
- Quiver: 6'0'', 6'2'', 6'8''
- Favorite season: Fall and summer in France
- Favorite spot: Jeffrays Bay, Mundaka, secret spots
- Founder and chairman of Wave Wizards Surf Club (Umhlanga Rocks, South Africa): Coached Umhlanga Rocks surfers to become South African Champions: Carl Roux, Greg Eiselie, Vince King
- South African Lifeguard
- European Pro Champion: 1987
Rates will be available soon
Guest of honor and visiting Surf Coach: Tim Fox
Tim is probably one of the most atheletic, underrated, funny, daring, and nicest surfer of all times. During a trip to southern Japan with his childhood friend Taylor Knox (Winner of k2 big wave challenge), as they would be cliff jumping without knowing the height of the cliff or the real depth of the water, Tim would always volunteer to jump first. Once in Japan, during the heaviest monsoon rain of the year, Tim went down in the churning waters of the Kuma river on his surfboard, through the city, only to have his adventure interrupted by the whole fire department.
Fit like a mule, his stamina and all around waterman qualities have been saught after by such notorious surfers as Kelly Slater and Taylor Knox. Some of Tim's experiences as a traveling buddy on the World Championship Tour includes caddying for Kelly and Taylor at big Mundaka and maxing out Sunset Beach.
Tim's innocence and fearlessness in the face of danger is all but ignorance: Though born fearless, Tim has years of experience practicing meditation and facing his inner fears and mental blocks. Through meditation, Tim has freed his mind and allowed his surfing to become as creative and youthful as that of a grommet. As a teacher and coach, Tim's patience, happy go lucky attitude and deep understanding of each person's needs makes him the ideal person to guide you through your first surfing experience.
- Birth place: Southern California, USA
- Past country of residence: Japan, California, Mexico
- Favorite waves: Hollow beach breaks, big waves
- Hobbies: Writing, training, river swimming
- Spoken language: English, Spanish, Japanese
- Quiver: 6'0'', 6'2'', 6'10'', 7'2'', 8'3''
- Favorite season: Winter and summer in California
- Favorite spot: Todos Santos, Pipeline, Sentan (Miyazaki)
- 13/05 · wiserabbitnose: Palawan and the subteranean river....what an amazing world!
- 04/05 · wiserabbitnose: Manila is such a polluted city. It's hard to breath the air here. I can't believe I see people jogging here. Low quality of life.
- 02/05 · wiserabbitnose: The Kelee is the Holy Grail. The vessel within you waiting to be explored.
- 30/04 · wiserabbitnose: Looking out on early Morning Makati...looks like it might rain today.
- 25/04 · wiserabbitnose: Finally feeling less sick. Ready for fun in Makati! It's been a while.
- 22/04 · wiserabbitnose: I'm dreaming of the Batanes...
- 13/04 · wiserabbitnose: Looks like there's going to be an 8.2 earthquake in Baja this weekend. I'm already shakin.
- 04/04 · wiserabbitnose: 6.9 Earthquake in Baja, Calif....it rocked and rattled and made my sister cry. San diego california
- 04/04 · wiserabbitnose: 6.9
- 04/04 · wiserabbitnose: Just felt a good shake here in California....an earthquake that lasted for about 3 minutes.
Rates not available yet
Surf Coach Profile: Jean-Marc Takagi
After discovering surfing at the age of 14 while on summer vacation in Southern Japan, Jean-Marc would become so passionate about surfing that for the remaining 4 years of high school he would dream of only one thing: Getting out of Paris and surfing!
Little did he know during his high school years that he would spend the next 5 years of his College life in the surfing mecca of the world, Hawaii. Overcoming his fear of big waves and understanding the nature of big wave riding was one of the topmost obsession in his early years on the island. Soon he would start surfing powerful North Shore waves from Sunset to Haleiwa. As Jean-Marc recalls, he once had a dream he was surfing perfect big waves at Waimea Bay and loving it; This precluded what would become a love affair between JM and the Bay.
After college Jean-Marc went to live in Japan where he continued surfing and re-adapting to smaller waves. There he honed his skills in riding tiny waves until the typhoon season would come around and offer some Hawaiian juice.
For JM the ultimate surf experience and the best of his surfing are yet to come. For this reason, the adventure and excitment always continue. As a surf coach, JM enjoys helping beginners ease their way into surfing. He also enjoys helping more experienced surfers overcome their fear and venture out in bigger waves offshore.
- Birth place: Paris, France
- Past country of residence: Hawaii, Japan, France
- Favorite waves: Hollow beach breaks, long rights
- Hobbies: Creation, ideas, trekking, tennis
- Spoken language: English, French, Japanese
- Quiver: 6'2'', 6'4'', 7'6''
- Favorite season: Typhoon season in Japan
- Favorite spot in France: Guethary for the aura
- 13/10 · jmminu: After event number 8, Joel Parkinson is still no1 in the adjusted ranking http://www.surfbuds.net/eng/aspranking
- 11/07 · jmminu: @Tokyomidnight Hey Lance are you in tokyo now?? I'm here too.. let 's meet up on tuesday if you re around.. I'm leaving wed.
- 04/05 · jmminu: Hilarious lecture. Do schools kill creativity? http://tinyurl.com/5gsyph
- 23/04 · jmminu: @wiserabbitnose Same in France, week-end is gonna be epic with 8feet, 14s period. But I'll be in Paris! Have fun
- 22/04 · jmminu: coach booking and profile tabs added to surf coach profile on surfbuds.net: example, http://www.surfbuds.net/eng/profile/tim
- 21/04 · jmminu: magicseaweed put back my web site URL in my profile, after a phone conversation. They didn't want to come across as a "machine".
- 20/04 · jmminu: Great! I had magicseaweed removing my profile link and my user signature. Sad some co. don't understand the give and take nature of the web
- 19/04 · jmminu: European surf forecast and satellite picture by mail for mobile phones http://www.surfbuds.net/eng/forecast (via @addthis)
- 19/04 · jmminu: bar hopping in Tokyo, Paris, Hossegor, London: http://nightfeverbars.blogspot.com . Wiserabbitnose, got some good stories?
- 18/04 · jmminu: @wiserabbitnose Like "winning", what can be learned from the desire or the end? How important is the process? what are some misconceptions?
Rates will be available soon
Surf Coach Profile: Philip Fabre
About Philip Fabre
After spending years in such varied places as Indonesia, Mexico, Hawaii, California, Costa Rica, Reunion Island, Mauritius Island, Morocco, Portugal, Santo Domingo, Philip has finally settled back in the beautiful Basque country.
While born and raised there, Philip left the Basque country at an early age to fulfill his desire to explore the world and discover amazing surf spots . Today Philip enjoys the privilege of living in one of the most beautiful place in south west France. His villa overlooking Lafitenia is any surfer's dream. Fortunately Philip provides surfers and travelers the opportunity to stay at his villa. Moreover Philip happily shares his expert knowledge of the coastline and surrounding mountains by taking visitors on adventure road trips. For anyone wanting to surf secret spots, explore the beautiful surrounding mountains, rivers, villages and local fiestas, Philip is your ultimate guide.
With over 25 years of surfing experience, Philip has learned to surf some of the heaviest lefthanders in the basque country: Avalanche and Les Alcyons. His local status in the water makes him the ideal buddy to go surf along with. As most surfers know, there is no better way to avoid frictions with the locals than to be introduced to the line-up by a true die hard local.
- Birth place: Basque country
- Past country of residence: France, Morocco, Reunion Island, Mauritius Island
- Favorite waves: Hollow lefthanders
- Hobbies: Playing with his son and daughter, training, trekking, diving, organic farming, tennis
- Spoken language: English, Spanish, Basque
- Quiver: 6'2'', 6'4'', 7'6''
- Favorite season: Fall in the Basque country
- Favorite spot: Les Alcyons, Avalanche, Padang, Lafitenia, St Leu
Rates will be available soon
Rates will be available soon
Surf Coach Profile and guest of honor: Alex Leonard
Known as LuckyAl to most of his friends and AlTheSpaz on some Internet forums, Alex is also known in academic and surf writing circles as one of the most knowledgeable person when it comes to surfing. Not that AlTheSpaz would outsurf Kelly Slater or his childhood hero Mark Occhiluppo, but if they had to give us a lecture on local surfing cultures in various parts of the globe, Alex would most definitely give us the most poignant insight.
As a young kid growing up in Australia, Alex fell in love with surfing and quickly developed a powerful surfing style a la Mark Occhilupo. Like all kids hoping to make it as a pro, he enjoyed early success competing at the regional and national level. However, LuckAl realised his true calling was writing about surfing and soon would embark on a long journey across the globe, learning new languages and studying new cultures while at the same time completing his post graduate studies in Anthropology.
Today, in spite of his busy schedule writing and serving as chief editor for Kurungabaa, a surfing magazine he started, Alex can still be found surfing at least 3 hours a day! As a visiting guest of honor this summer, Alex will be happy to share his wealth of knowledge on surfing, his good humour, and with his superior surfing skills, help you make some quick progress in the most fun of atmospheres.
- Birth place: Australia
- Past country of residence: Russia, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam
- Favorite waves: Hollow beach breaks, long point breaks
- Hobbies: Writing, reading, film making, bintang, playing with his son
- Spoken language: English, French, Japanese, Indonesian, Russian
- Quiver: 6'2'', 6'5'', 7'2''
- Favorite season: When there are waves
- Favorite spot: Padang, Uluwatu, secret spot in Australia
Rates not available yet