Ahead of our Wild & Free Adventures 'Alan Stokes Such Coaching' break we thought we'd catch up with Alan to have a chat about the up coming adventure in May and let the man himself tell you what this 4 day intensive experience is all about!
In this interview we ask Alan 'who this course is aimed at' because we often get the question "am I ready for this?" and the short answer is.... "if you are interested in progressing your surfing, then yes!". Read more below and enjoy the video!
If you are thinking of joining us, head to this page for more information and we still have both private and shared (twin) rooms available: https://www.wildandfreeadventures.co.uk/surf-coaching-with-alan-stokes
We are also here to chat, so do not hesitate to contact us if you are thinking about this course and have any questions, drop us an email.... we love to hearing from you and will be more than happy to jump on a call!
Enjoy the interview on the video above or written below...
Joe / Wild & Free Adventures
Thanks for joining us today. I just thought we'd have a little catch up on our upcoming Wild & Free Adventures Surf Coaching Adventure, which starts on the 12th of May. Super excited by that!
Alan Stokes
Yeah and Spring is on the way!
Joe / Wild & Free Adventures
Yeah, exactly! Before we get into any detail, I just thought it would be useful for people to understand who this course is aimed at and who's going to benefit from it.
Alan Stokes
Well, this course, is a 4 day intensive course, geared up to basically fast track your surfing progression and to really get people learning a lot quicker. It's geared at intermediate surfers, but also it's open to beginner into intermediate surfers, so it's a really good way, if you've already had a few surf lessons to now just really speed up your learning curve.
So ultimately thats who it's geared at and we're looking to get people onto green waves, in a variety of conditions and teach people how to read the conditions and get them riding nice green waves.
Joe / Wild & Free Adventures
I think you've nailed it right there, As well, I always remember from our last trip what was really beneficial was actually learning from the different breaks along the Newquay Coast and all of that section there, taking the van out, doing some road trips, going to where the swell is, reading it and learning from yourself on that one.
Alan Stokes
Yeah, that's exactly what this whole course is for. We're basically just trying to cram as much as we can into the 4 days, multiple surfs per day, utilising the local beach that we're going to be staying at, Mawgan Porth, but then also spreading our wings out along the coast and just picking the eyes out of it really. The tide is going to be moving in and out, winds are changing, the swell will change over the 4 days and we'll just be at each spot at each beach when it turns on.
The beautiful thing about that is just seeing people transition in different conditions and be able to teach a variety of skills and set some goals in different locations and see how people adapt and start to surf in a different way to maybe that they're they've already become accustomed to.
Joe / Wild & Free Adventures
Excellent. So I guess to sum it up, it's sort of like you're refining the skills that you've already learned and actually enhancing them in a safe environment to sort of develop those skills to the next level.
Alan Stokes
Yeah, obviously a priority is safety the first, fun second. We just take a small group of people that are all looking to fast track a surfing experience and that's what it is. It's a really lovely experience just along the coast here, surfing some really lovely waves, nothing too crazy, nothing too scary.
But we will get you out of your comfort zone and challenge you to surf some really nice kind, long pealing green waves. That's ultimately our goal really, is to is to start to teach people how to turn on waves, get them connecting turns together, increasing the speed on the wave and start to understand and really read the ocean conditions.
That's kind of your next step, once you've learned how to catch white water waves, you then move onto paddling out and start surfing what we call 'out the back', where you see surfers sitting, waiting for waves. What they're doing out there is reading the ocean and waiting for the right wave that's going to allow them to do what they want to do on that wave.
So that's what this course is all about, 4 days surf coaching, where we've got a kind of little safari around the coast looking for the waves we want to surf and then we've got yoga to keep us nice and supple and energised and then really good food to come back to as well. It's a great trip and I really look forward to it every year.
Joe / Wild & Free Adventures
Yeah, sure our chef on this adventure will be doing 3 meals a day, so I don't think anyone will be going hungry.
Alan Stokes
It's the best food and it's really nice to see the guests when they get back from quite a long surf, they're all pretty tired and hopefully everyones had some great waves, then we all sit down and everyone's eyes light up when they see the food that the chefs prepared because it's really something else, Its like art!
It's really nice just around the table with the group and just chatting about the waves that we've had, then coming up with a plan for our next surf. Yeah,
Then when everyone's eaten and just digesting the lovely food, we then sit down and go through all of the footage from the day, because the surf sessions are filmed. So we sit down, we go through the footage and we analyse people's waves and we go through basically from them catching the wave, paddling into it, standing up, riding it to the shore. We take that wave apart, we put it back together and yeah, we just give feedback on bits that we can improve on. We can pick up of bad habits with movement and things like that.
We take all of that into our next surf and everyone improves as we go.
Joe / Wild & Free Adventures
I can certainly vouch for the surf analysis for sure, watching yourself on a wave surfing is most certainly the best way to actually learn, to see what you are actually doing, and looking at where you potentially could improve, as well as where you should have been, where you could have been, etc., I think it's just such a great way to learn and quickly,
Alan Stokes
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's sometimes quite hard to have that awareness of what your body looks like and how you're moving in such a short period of time, we're talking seconds on the wave! It all happens so quickly when you're in the surf. So the best thing is to come back, watch your waves, go through it all and it's really nice for me, because I can then start to give you really good tips and advice, including ways that I've coached myself through the years to progress. So we're utilising the same tools that I've used through my professional career to get better every time I surf. So it's tried and tested by myself and it's just lovely to be able to pass that information and experience onto people and then just see them get in the surf and apply that.
Sometimes people will come back from surf one and we'll go through the footage and I can pick up little bad habits straight away and then just give them a little tip and they paddle back out for surf two, and the first wave, they just nail it! Yeah, it's great, its really nice to see.
Joe / Wild & Free Adventures
Yeah and we can do all of that in the comfort of the luxury lodge, which I can't wait to stay in again and all over a beer, which sounds great.
Alan Stokes
Yeah, it's a really nice course. It's 4 days and you are just immersed in this really lovely little valley experience in Mawgan Porth. It's also a really nice way to just disconnect from daily life and just immerse yourself into the surfing mode and surf all day, enjoy some decent yoga, eat some good food and enjoy a really nice place to stay in.
Joe /Wild & Free Adventures
Alan You've summed it up so well, honestly, can't wait to see you all on this adventure and come and enjoy some waves and some stoke with us!
Alan Stokes
One last thing, just if you have any inquiries or questions and maybe you are wondering if it's a course is for you, please just drop Wild & Free Adventures an email or a message them on their Instagram. Also feel free to drop me a direct message if you want any advice and we'll get you booked on to the course.
Hope to see you there!
