Recon Strike Mission to BSR Waco Surf

surf trip Dec 28, 2022

I wasn’t expecting much for our first recon mission to Waco Surf.  In fact, I was almost writing it off even before we arrived. 

After running co-coaching trips to various locations, I’ve found that each trip exposes deficiencies and strengths in different surfers.  I felt at that point, between Baja, Kelly Slater Surf Ranch, Indo, Costa Rica, Lakeside, and Boat Surfing behind my boat, I had all the bases covered.  There were waves for beginners, intermediates, and advanced surfers.  There were rights, lefts, tubes, rippable sections, slow sections.  You could ride longboards, mid-lengths, and shortboards. 

I didn’t think there was anything left to cover. 

But Waco Surf and the Perfect Swell technology changed my mind. 

The variety of waves and the repetition was what I was expecting.  I hadn’t expected the number of coaching opportunities that it presented. 

I invited a small group of close clients and friends for a recon strike mission.  Two days, let's go check it out and see if it's a good place to run a coaching trip there another time. 

My pre-trip thought was that there wouldn’t be much challenge to the wave itself.  But I was wrong.  There was plenty of challenge to the waves – reading the take off (Level 2) was more technical and there was certainly more paddling (Level 1) than I thought there would be. 

Because of how many waves you caught, keeping the heart rate low on the paddle back to the takeoff area was critical, especially with the number of sessions we had booked in just two days.  Optically, the takeoff looked easy, but had more to it than it looked.  The experience overall gave surfers different challenges with each wave called up.

From a surf technique point of view, even though I don’t teach that, I can definitely see the surf coach I co-coach with can provide enormous value on a trip with clients. 

All in all, I was super excited coming away with a lot of different ideas on how to run a trip to bring out the best in the surfers that participate.  While I don’t have all the questions answered yet, I look forward to working through some ideas with clients and coaching partners to create a coaching trip that brings up the surfers’ skill levels a few notches. 

Photo and Video by Rob Henson and Rob Case. Surfers: Barry, Rob, Camila, Ade, Sunshine, Seth, Osiris, Matt, Andy.

Looking for Paddling Technique Training?  Check out the Level 1 and Level 2 Online and In-Person Courses to learn more.  And feel free to reach out with questions.

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