You know that feeling of dread, the waves are pumping and you’re stuff in work smashing your head repeatedly on the desk thinking of what you’re missing out on. Well not the crew at Cardiff branding agency Cre8ion, according to the BBC this is how they are gonna roll.
Allowing staff to take Friday off every two weeks to “do sport, go surfing or read a book all day” has boosted employee performance, according to a company boss.
Cardiff branding agency Cre8ion said the move improved its creativity and staff retention
For six months, the nine-strong team at Cre8ion, which has offices in Cardiff and Bristol, has worked a two-week pattern where staff take the first Friday off entirely, then on the second they work on research and development and their own ideas, either in the office or wherever they want.
How does it work? “Talk to most creative agencies, Friday afternoons are a bit of a write-off, so you’re only really losing a morning,” said chief executive Darrell Irwin.
As long as employees plan ahead and know their deadlines they do not “miss a beat”, he said.
“Having that extra space has helped them creatively. There are other industries that are similar, where they’re always thinking.
“It’s a passion… allow people to experiment, allow their passion to flourish.”
“Having that extra day back, allowing them to go and do sport, go surfing or read a book all day, that gives them that time back.
“And people can think ‘well it might not work in my industry’, so I challenge people: ‘Well if you can’t give a Friday off to all your workforce, why not have half the work force take Friday off and the other half take Monday off?’
“If you’re looking to retain millennials, these sorts of things are really important to them.”
He said the move could improve companies’ bottom line, but it takes a “leap of faith”.
After last year’s double postponements of this very popular event on the surfing longboard calendar, organisers Christian Surfers UK in partnership with Tubestation were very pleased to see the event take place at the first time of asking over the weekend of October 12 and 13th. With around 75 of the U.K.’s top longboard surfers entered, the event was always going to be a great opportunity to get the longboard community together, enjoy some great hospitality and watch some top surfing action.
The event is part of the Jesus Surf Series which Christian Surfers UK has been running for 27 years as a way of serving the surfing community and which, due to its popularity, was split into two contests (the Jesus Longboard Classic and the Jesus Surf Classic) in order to provide a focus and additional capacity, which has proved extremely popular with all concerned. The Christian surfers team support so many of the mainstream surfing events in the UK but these ones are always special as they run the complete event.
The event started with an 8am check-in and a free healthy breakfast for all the competitors at Tubestation with heats getting underway just before 9am. Surf on the Saturday was fairly lined up and on the turn of the tide some great surfing took place in some solid 3-4ft surf. At the end of the first day around 20 heats been surfed and all the six categories were down to the semi-final or final stage. One of the highlights of this event for many involved is at the start of the second day a very simple but thought-provoking ‘surfers blessing’ which is held in the Tubestation. Wildwood Kin member Meg Loney lead a reflection on the importance of the mustard seed, before fresh flowers and saltwater blessed each of the surfers that came up to the front.
From there the event moved into the final heats and despite the wind turning from light to quite ragged north-westerly the level of surfing remained high right the way through to the final heat in the men’s open. Moving to the results, in an all Welsh over 60s (Legends) final (Sponsored by Old Guys Rule) Colin Bright yet again took the top spot ahead of fellow Llantwit surfers Peter Cosier and brother Gwyn, with Chris Taylor from Bridgend and Ray Sampson from Porthcawl bring up the rear. In a hotly contested over 50s final Newquay’s Adam Zervas took the title ahead of Colin Bright, and in the most popular category of the event, the over 35’s, it was a great comeback from injury from Braunton’s Ashley Braunton ahead of Taunton’s Rob Davin, Damian Hooker third and Ben Clifton with his first trophy in fourth.
The Junior (U18’s) category was equally as well contested with on fire Jordan Zervas from Newquay beating young Eddie Roy Roynon from Penzance in a tight heat, with Gwill King in 3rd and Arthur Randall in 4th.
Whilst in the women’s division Emily Currie once again took victory ahead of Jen Pendlebury from Newquay, fellow Bude surfer Beth Leighfield, and Ella Harrison doing well in fourth position. In the men’s division, with current title holder Ben Howey getting married this weekend to the lovely Sammy Patterson (Congrats to both of them) there was always going to be a new name on the trophy and in a tightly contested final Jersey visitor Josh le Marquand made the trip over worth it, taking the victory ahead of Jordan’s Zervas, Ashley Braunton in third and Andy Gale getting onto the podium for the first time.
This event could not be run without some great partners and sponsors and this year our sponsors included Nineplus, Finisterre and Old Guys Rule. A huge thanks goes to Era Adventures for water cover, Beagle Media for the video edit that will be with us soon, BLU and Hotdoggers for ongoing support and photographer, Andy Holter. Final thanks of course go to the amazing staff at Tubestation and all the volunteers from Christian Surfers UK who give their time freely for the weekend, and God for providing waves.
Next year’s 13th event has been pencilled in for October 17 and 18th 2020
Contest director Phil Williams said ‘It is always great catching up with the longboard community and when you combine the hospitality of Tubestation, the volunteers from Christian Surfers, and the surfers themselves, this event is always one of my favourites. This year was no exception and by the sounds of the response from surfers involved it continues to be very popular and enjoyable event, and another great opportunity to serve the Surfing community’
For more details of the work of Christian Surfers UK log on to christiansurfers.co.uk and for more details and pictures of the event checkout our Facebook pages, Christian Surfers UK and Jesus Surf Series CSUK.
Next events for CSUK include the two UK Pro Surf tour events in Wales (October 18 19) and Watergate Bay (November 9) where they will be part sponsoring the event as well as working alongside the event organisers Dave Reed and the UK pro surf tour team. All in all, it’s been a pretty busy year.
So the pool is filled, and we have heard rumour of perfectly peeling waves … but also that The Wave’s creator Nick Hounsfield is locked out! What is going…?!
Nick what’s happening? We are hearing there are perfect waves…
I’ve heard that rumour too! The Wavegarden team is on-site and working away on testing the equipment and apparently creating some incredible test waves. I can tell by people’s faces that something special is being made and having dinner with the Wavegarden crew last night I could tell they are confident and happy with what they have created.
I’m currently banned from the site and have been told I can’t come down until the team is ready to reveal the waves to me. I’ll not lie … it’s a bit frustrating, but sat next to my desk right now I have a warm wetsuit and a board which I’ve waxed a few times this week already!
It must be quite frustrating, but I bet it’s a bit like being a kid at Christmas. What are you doing to try and keep your mind off what’s happening?
It’s been difficult! I’ve been seriously tempted to head down for a sneak peek at progress – but at the same time the anticipation of seeing perfect waves peeling down the lake is huge, and I don’t want to ruin that moment. There is sooooo much going on right now that distraction is very easy. We have hundreds of workstreams running right now, so there is never a dull moment. Have you asked anyone to break the no filming on phone rule and get you a sneaky glimpse? Binoculars?
Wouldn’t dare – my Head of Comms would kill me!
Has anyone else tried to sneak in to have a look yet?
Security is tight. The operational team is all on-site setting up the kitchen, shop, surf area, etc. and training on everything from our surf coaching programme to running the tills. They are working full steam ahead but imagine they will be seeing a lot of wave action when they have time to look up from what they’re doing.
Are you still on target for the opening – and what are the dates?
All on target. We are selling tickets for sessions from 4th November and getting very booked up!
Waving Not Drowning
How did all this come to be, what does The Cove ride like and more…
Words by Steve England, originally published in Carve 197.
The Wave Bristol is coming. Back in July Carve sent a crack team down to the secret test facility in the Basque Country, along with The Wave’s creator Nick Hounsfield, to find out the story behind the project, and to test the wave. Our conclusion? Get excited!
Intro
Nine years ago, the story of The Wave kicked off. Nine years! It seems like yesterday that it was announced, but as soon as it was surfers were demanding where it would be and when it would be open. All it would take from Nick’s side was a massive amount of meticulous planning, hundreds of hours seeking the £26 million in investment needed, a change of plan halfway through as new tech arrived, a change of site, more planning, more investment and … Well, it’s not as simple as surfers like to make out. Strange that hey! Anyway, it is finally coming. It has been a long road, but after hearing what The Wave is about, the full story first hand and riding the prototype I think the wait will be worth it. More than that I’d say given some of the environmental and social aspects woven into The Wave the launch timing couldn’t be much better.
Wave tech
You have seen the videos, but no one ever really tells you what the wave is like. Weird huh? Anyway to fill you in on all the details here is the run down from personal experience. Just how does it ride compared to other tech and the ocean.
OK, so the prototype is a sixth of the size of the real thing, one-sided and the wave not as long. The take-off area is also smaller due to the size restrictions of the mountainous research lair. Given that here we go.
Lukas Skinner testing
Power
The take-off has plenty of push on all waves – learner, a Waikiki type rolling wave, long tubes and Beast mode – the slabby setup. It is slightly different from the ocean where you see the sets coming and look down the line, so it is much more immediate, but once you have that sussed you are off.
Beast mode is a different matter. I had wondered why I saw Toledo, one of the fastest surfers in the world, late in and having some trouble coming off the bottom and pulling in. As it turns out, Beast mode on the prototype has a technical drop with little slabby ledge effect when you hit the bottom. You kind of need to tail drop it, then pull in. It caught everyone out for some while. The barrel is square and spits, and it hurts if you slap the water. Lukas was probably the only one who got it sussed (sorry dad!) and was almost standing in pits and getting spat out on the shoulder in the last session. It was pretty nuts. On the full-size Wave, the take-off will be more of a roll in and the barrel section longer. If it lives up to the promise people are going be getting shacked all day every day.
Size
The size is fine – shoulder to head high with plenty of push, the prototype offers a lot of fun on lower intensity modes for loggers and intermediates too. The Wave promises to be slightly bigger, so all good on that front.
Alfie England testing
Speed
I’d say the wall moves slightly faster than an ocean wave, so you have to adjust your timing for full performance turns, but that will come given the frequency of your rides. The Wave will offer a 100m ride, which is plenty of time to tune those turns.
Frequency
The key to wave pools commercial success and fun factor is frequency. Surf Snowdonia works well with three people on each side given the length of ride. It pushes your fitness. It’s tough to see The Ranch succeeding at our level – i.e. average wage surfers. One wave every 3 1/2 minutes means long waits, more substantial entrance fees, and it seems to be aimed at top earners and millionaires.
We tested the Cove at one wave every eight seconds with six of us in, all good surfers. Even in the shorter prototype, we couldn’t catch all the waves, and we tried for a while. It was intense. The Wave promises ten seconds per wave frequency and a longer wall, and more technical sections. That is 360 quality waves per hour. I can’t quite get my head around that scene at the moment. I reckon 20 waves in an hour will ruin all but the fittest.
Wash
If you imagine making waves in your fish pond or bath, you will see the water movement takes ages to subside. The backwash is what decreases wave quality at higher wave frequency at Surf Snowdonia and kills the commercial angles of The Ranch. Wavegarden has killed the backwash in the Cove. At eight-second intervals in a small pool, it has a negligible effect on the wave face. If you are a bit geeky about waves, like me, it’s pretty cool to see. At The Wave, it will be even less due to the learner slopes on the inside.
Coaching
As a coaching tool, it is going to take surfers on a very steep learning trajectory. We watched beginners go from whitewater to being pushed into green shoulder high waves in two 20 minutes sessions. The Wave coaches are also going to integrate culture and etiquette into lessons which will be great.
On a high-performance level, the prototype had a poolside scene with replays. You can’t get that many quality waves with high-quality feedback in any other situation I can think of. The one thing that held back high-performance surf coaching is that the playing field never stays the same. The Wave promises repetition of wave faces, manoeuvres and instant feedback. Without getting too technical, the potential with the correct coaching is for performances to go through the roof. Even without coaching surfing that many constant waves will lift your game.
Conclusion
This is just the wave tech stuff. I haven’t mentioned all the other eco and social benefits. All up, it is a fascinating project, and of all the tech out there at the moment I think this is the one. But if there are any other wave pool developers out there reading this feel free to prove me wrong!
*Post testing we sat down with Nick for the inside scoop on all things Bristol:*
Why The Wave? What made you drop everything and set off on this journey?
Big question.
I guess it was several factors. I’ve been surfing for 41+ years and always wanted to get more involved in surfing on some level. The sliding door moment for me was watching my Dad passing away in front of my eyes after an operation to try and remove cancer that went wrong. I made a promise to him there and then that I’d do something that he’d be proud of and would make a big difference to people’s health and happiness.
I used to work in healthcare and was frustrated that I could only have limited input in helping people get active and healthy. So I started to plan a destination that got people outdoors, into nature and had an impact on their health, but in a relaxed and fun setting. That idea developing coincided with the release of the original Wavegarden technology. I’ll never forget watching a simple, stirring, minute-long video of a perfect wave running down an empty lake in a field surrounded by woodland. That was the “YOU ARE KIDDING ME!” moment when it all fell into place. Perfect waves, outdoors in nature, close to a city and delivering a healthy immersive experience for everyone to enjoy.
Where do you start on such a large project? How did you kick it all off?
I started with £500 and a strong vision on what The Wave could look and feel like as an experience. I spoke to key people like Tim Smit from Eden Project and Chris Hines (Co-Founder of Surfers Against Sewage and now Head of Sustainability at The Wave). I found the influential people in Bristol, and I described to them what the future of The Wave would look like. They all said it was a crazy idea and I should 100 percent do it!
From then on, it was about meeting as many experienced people as I possibly could and building a vast knowledge base of all the different things I needed to achieve to make The Wave happen. I was so naive, but tenacious and never believed it wouldn’t happen. I’m an optimist. I guess that’s my superpower.
I began to pull together a core team with the skills to help get me started, and we went to the Bristol media with the vision for the project. In many ways I had nothing except a great idea, but the people of Bristol rallied around me, the team grew, and The Wave was underway. Since then, it has been about surrounding myself with the best people, people who believe in the vision and have the right attitude and creating a team and culture to make it happen.
The Crowdfunding campaign was also a huge moment. Such an incredible response from the public was a real affirmation to us. It showed the investors that people wanted the project to succeed, and they were willing to pledge their hard-earned money to see it happen. We’re so grateful to every one of them.
It’s been nine years of hard work what have been your most challenging moments? E.g. changing tech, how that came about, planning challenges.
Four initial years working 100+ hours per week, unpaid, was a massive strain, particularly with a very young family, a building site of a house and me probably not entirely over losing my Dad. My wife Juliana has been a real rock! Along the way, we have had so many set-backs – changing the land, changing technology, three or four planning applications and two years of seeing over 230 investors to raise the money to get The Wave built. The highs have been high, and the lows have been full of lessons.
As our vision has grown, so has the wave technology industry. We were the first exclusive partner to Wavegarden back in 2011. From there, both our companies have developed, matured and got our products to a place where they are commercially very exciting. The new Wavegarden Cove technology is the right technology for us to deliver the vision of waves for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. That’s in our DNA, waves for everyone.
Skindog on the nose
How do you go about raising £26 million from a standing start? What have the investors seen in The Wave that has got them buying into surfing?
A dear friend of mine Craig Stoddart came on board to help raise the finance for The Wave. By the time he joined, I had secured the land, got planning, built a growing public following and had a very clear vision of what The Wave would deliver. Craig was the guy who helped turn that into a deliverable business model, which is ready for investment. He’s brought real credibility to the whole venture and with another fantastic guy, Nick Asheshov, we managed to get the investment secured.
The investors have seen a huge opportunity to be the leaders in a brand new industry that can deliver a tremendous amount of happiness to hundreds of thousands of people and create a profit, which will enable us to repeat it in many other locations. Combine that with a solid team who are committed to delivering the business with positive social and environmental impact, and you have a winning (investable) combination.
I believe you had to teach one of the investors to surf before he signed the paperwork. And halfway along a wave in the Basque country after a day coaching, he was hooked?
Yeah, that was a fun day. Our investor had never surfed and was going to watch. He then said to Fernando from Wavegarden that if he were able to teach him to surf in a day, he’d sign the contract. Suffice to say, we all did what we could to make that happen, and within 90 minutes he was sliding down a 1.8m wave face screaming “Where do I sign?” It was a great moment. I could have cried.
Surfers are pretty impatient when it comes to waves. As soon as you launched, everyone was asking when it was going to open. When you look at the overall picture in terms of advances in tech, the rise adaptive surfing, awareness of the benefits of social inclusion and the environment all the challenges seem to have led to a very timely project launch. Would you change anything?
I wouldn’t change a thing. I know what it’s like to be an impatient surfer. It’s taken a long time. I’ve been knocked back so many times, but it’s like surfing – through falling over, you learn to adapt, modify and get up again. The whole venture has taken so much longer than I originally intended, but it has allowed me to build a real depth to what we are delivering. My work as a Director of Surfing England and British Surfing and development of the adaptive surfing scene would never have happened if The Wave had been built quickly. Surfing coming to the Olympics has been another massive development since I started in 2011. The time is now for surfing, and I’m so happy to be a part of building the sport for the future, both with The Wave and my voluntary Director roles.
Everyone wants to talk about high performance, but tell us a bit about the other aims of The Wave – environment, local programs, disconnection, preserving surf culture.
The high-performance element is exciting, and the training opportunities that The Wave will offer the likes of Lukas Skinner and other stars of the future is phenomenal. However, the project has always been about more than that for me. It’s about sharing the pure joy and fun of surfing with people of all abilities and convincing those who may not think it’s for them to give it a go.
We are developing education programs for schools and plan to work with youth and community groups, charities, mental health support groups etc. to bring surfing and its benefits to a broader audience. We have been actively involved in the UK adaptive surfing community for the last three years, and our whole site has been designed to be fully accessible. All of our coaches will be able to deliver adaptive surfing coaching, and we will have a wide range of specialist equipment on site.
We believe we have a real responsibility as a provider of surfing experiences to make sure we not only create great surfers but that they are also respectful, thoughtful and able to reflect on the real pressures we are all under on this planet. Socially and environmentally. We have been working with many relevant stakeholders within the surf industry (and beyond) to make sure we are celebrating and preserving natural ocean environments and cultures. We can use The Wave as a space that tells stories and help inform people about a range of issues in a fun, interactive and engaging way – rather than preaching!
We’ve got some incredible plans for the future, which I’m excited about, but first of all, we have to get the core experience right and then build amazing initiatives and programs off that success.
So we had a great day testing the wave, what impressed me most was the retention of quality at very high wave frequency. How does The Wave compare to the test facility – what rate will you be running at advanced setting, will the wave face height be 1.8 metres, and how long will the barrel section be?
Wavegarden Cove technology is awe-inspiring. Our facility will be five times bigger with a left-hander on the other side of the pier. Perfect waves, around every 10 seconds and we can set the number of waves per set to whatever we choose. Continuous mode is pretty hectic, but each wave is as good as the last. The Wave maxes out at 1.8m, but we can adapt the character of that wave, from a deep slabbing five-second barrel with an open face section to finish, to a fun open wall with performance and barrel sections. We are looking at the potential for around 13-second rides in the reef area.
Most importantly, the wave reforms over other reefs to create waves for intermediate and beginner surfers for further approx 15 second rides with gentler character waves. That allows for a big capacity for many different abilities. That is what makes this technology impressive and sets it far apart from all the other technologies.
Do you have a rough estimate of how many waves a surfer will be able to catch in the average fully booked one-hour advanced session?
It does depend on the final configuration, which we will be defined during our wet commissioning phase, but I can assure you that it is one heck of a lot of waves and all within an intense period. Tiredness will stop you surfing before anything else does. I’m sure you can vouch for that Steve!
Sure can. The continuous mode is insane! Everyone is looking at Waco and the air section, will The Wave have a tweaked section to allow air training?
We plan to have an air section in the wave – there is still hope that this 46-year-old will develop an air game! Seeing Lukas Skinner being able to practice airs and getting deep barrels within minutes of getting on the Wavegarden Cove in Spain showed me the real potential of what we are making. The advantage this gives us as a nation to take performance surfing to the next level is massive.
Are the left and right mirrored or slightly different setups?
They are identical, we have configured the lake to give equal opportunities for goofy and regular surfers.
Where do you see The Wave in nine years?
Honestly, right now, the sky’s the limit. We (The Wave Team and investors) all have the desire and ability to deliver many more of these destinations. London is in the immediate pipeline, and we have other projects in the early stage.
We want The Wave to deliver sustainable profits, positive social impact and be environmentally sustainable for the future. Eventually, I’d like to see our developments being “off-grid”, harnessing our own power, managing our own waste and growing our own food. That is the ultimate goal.
Most of all I want to see a really wide range of different people coming to Wave sites, experiencing the physical and mental health benefits of surfing, having a shedload of fun and leaving feeling happier and more connected to themselves and each other.
When we do that, I know my Dad will be proud.
Nick, the last time he saw a perfect wave pool wave.. Unlike his employees lol
