I had convinced myself that I’d never stand on a surfboard: too many accumulated ankle fractures and soft tissue injuries in both legs over too many years, and too old to learn new tricks. Dan Keelan listened to my long list of excuses and gave me a radiant smile. His beachside business — the South Coast Surf Academy, which operates out of his Land Cruiser trawling the esplanade from Middleton to Victor Harbour in South Australia — boasts a 95 per cent success rate. His job is to get people standing on a surfboard during their first less
I had good reason to doubt; my previous attempts on experienced surfer mates’ boards had been a disaster.
Without understanding how either the equipment or the ocean behaves, I struggled to catch a wave, let alone ride one. Dan says it’s a common problem among beginners; surfing only looks easy once you understand the movement of waves and the buoyancy of a surfboard with someone floating on it.
So Dan begins his lesson on the sand, drawing diagrams and teaching you to look closely at cresting and breaking
waves. His object is to break down the surfing process into a series of physical manoeuvrings, and to get novices thinking about what to do before they get in the water. You get a bit of coastal geography, some fundamental body mechanics, some simple physics and, above all, water safety.
“The south coast is a really good place for people to learn to surf — the waves aren’t too big, there’s a nice clean break without many rocks, so beginners don’t feel threatened,” Dan says. “They can concentrate on what the board is doing without having to battle against a big swell. They can have fun, and that’s the best way for people to learn quickly.”
Dan knows this coast more intimately than most. This is where the 35-year-old’s parents first met as teenage surfers. It’s where he grew up and surfed as a child with his parents. And it’s where he returned to build his own home and start his own business after a four-year surfing odyssey with mates at Margaret River in Western Australia. (“My time spent with bachelor guys in share houses had run its course,” says Dan of his decision to return to Victor Harbor.)
After acquiring a Level 1 Surf Instruction qualification in Western Australia, Dan’s teaching skills developed when he took an instructor’s job in 2000 at the Victor Harbor Aquatic Centre, a popular destination for school camps. After two years of fielding inquiries about whether additional surfing lessons were available, he decided to establish his own surf school. And through eight years of coaxing novice riders, he knows how to get success. “Teaching people to surf is about giving them confidence. If they feel like they belong out there in the waves, the whole concept of surfing quickly clicks into place,” he says.
You certainly feel the part by the time Dan completes his beachside instruction drills. The class is clad in full-length wetsuits (necessary protection for a 90-minute lesson in the chilly Southern Ocean) and attached by a leg rope to high-density foam softboards — a very long, broad and light board, coated with a patterned rubber grip. “The progress of technology in surfing has made it so much easier for beginners,” says Dan. “The softboards have so much buoyancy — and they’re safe. They’re not going to hurt if you get knocked by one in the surf.”
Of course, once you’re out in the water, all the method and system that you’ve learned on dry land goes haywire as your wobbly balance sends you falling off the board in all directions. But as you pop your head above the surface after wiping out, Dan’s at your shoulder with a smile, advising which parts of the routine you got wrong. I’d been in this situation before as a kid and gave up, frustrated, humiliated and disheartened. Dan keeps gently identifying your faults until, suddenly — and triumphantly — you’re standing upright and riding a wave into shore.
All of this happened on a whim. I’d seen a South Coast Surf Academy brochure stuck to the fridge in a rented Middleton holiday house, and decided to take the plunge. A phone call had me booked into a group lesson the following day with my teenage son.
Another dad and his kids also joined our lesson. Dan says it’s not uncommon for whole families to book a group lesson, or birthday parties, or corporate groups on bonding exercises. There also are huge numbers of young girls taking lessons, prompting many “girls only” training sessions. “A woman from Middleton who’s 60 comes surfing with me, and so do kids that are only five years old. Age isn’t an issue. The only thing stopping you is whether you’re prepared to have a go or not.”
After six years, Dan’s business is booming, teaching about 1000 customers each year. It’s one of three surfing instruction schools in South Australia. Surf Culture Australia, established by Christine Cox and local surf veteran Brian “Squizzy” Taylor in 1991, operates a year-round surf education service from a Moana base, taking lessons on either the mid-south coast (Moana or Southport) or the far south coast (Victor Harbor to Goolwa), depending on conditions. For more experienced surfers, they host weekend safaris to the Yorke Peninsula, and help prepare enthusiastic surfers for competitions. And Surf and Sun conducts daily lessons at Middleton beach, with lessons at Robe’s Long Beach over the summer school holidays, and day trip packages from Adelaide to Middleton offered from November to April.
So for a dedicated surfer such as Dan, who spends an annual vacation surfing in California during Australia’s winter, how can it be satisfying to work in South Australia’s timid south coast break? “I get stoked to see the buzz people get when they stand on a board for the first time. It takes me back to when I started surfing — and it reminds me why I still love surfing every day.”
Photo credits
“Dan Kennan in “a barrel” courtesy of South Coast Surf Academy
“Surfing Australia” Courtesy of Global Media Staffing
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