Nicholas Donawa: Developing the next generation of Barbadian surfers
Surfing is a part of Nicholas Donawa and he regularly admits that he has no idea where he would be without it. Over the last 30 years, Nicholas has been involved in every aspect of shredding the tide from soul surfing to representing Barbados as both a coach and athlete as well as travelling the Caribbean developing surf programmes. Nick has now found a deep passion for coaching and developing the next generation of Barbadian surfers.
Adrenaline Sun went to Brandons (Drill Hall, St. Michael, Barbados) to catch a wave or two with the surf veteran and then skipped over to his newest project the High Rock Cafe in Bathsheba (St. Joseph).
How long were you surfing this break?
Brandons is my home break, I was surfing here since I was 9 so that’s about 30 years that I’ve been coming down here. It’s changed quite a bit but not radically so I still know where the best take off points are and I can tell you when the best time to ride is. So there are a lot of small benefits for having surfed a spot for so long. But although I consider this my home break, I grew up in Bathsheba, so Parlor and Soup Bowl are also my home breaks.
How would you compare Bathsheba to Drill Hall?
That’s easy. I consider Brandons as the fun wave and Bathsheba is all about survival. Surfing them both make you a really well-rounded surfer because at Brandons the waves go left and and at Bathsheba they are all rights. So surfers can learn to be proficient in both frontside and backside surfing.
How does today’s surfing culture compare to when you were growing up?
In the 60s, 70s and 80s Bathsheba was the mecca of surfing in the Caribbean more so than Trinidad, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. So when I was growing, my friends and I couldn’t wait to see the foreign surfers come in and we would beg them to leave a board with us or if a board broke they would leave it and we would fix it up and ride it. Nowadays especially on Brandons you get both sides of the spectrum, you have the young ones coming up and the old boys getting their last ride… and I’m right in the middle.
What drove you to start coaching?
Well, I left Barbados when I was about 12 and I moved to Canada for about 12 years and when I came back I was more of a soul surfer. I met up with some of the old boys I surfed with and they suggested that I should join the Barbados Surfing Association (BSA) and give back to Barbados by helping the surf industry. So I joined and eventually became President. I travelled with teams and I was also on teams as an athlete and I realized that although we prepare for these contest, we were nowhere near ready for what would see out in the world.
The thing is that we have perfect waves in Barbados; great reef breaks and all kinds of lefts and rights and a lot of various sizes. However, when we go to these overseas events, 90% of the time they would be held on beach breaks which were mushy conditions with bad waves. I would even say that if I saw some of those conditions in Barbados, I wouldn’t even go surfing. What we had to do was get ourselves trained to handle those types of waves. It was in about 2004 when I decided to take coaching seriously. I became certified in coaching surfing basics and fundamentals as well as competitive/professional surfing. As I did that I realized I really loved coaching kids because they are the future of surfing.
How did you surf while you were in Canada?
Simple, I didn’t. There were no beaches in Canada. During the winter, what I did was surf using a toboggan going down the hills. Guys used to ask me what I was doing standing on a toboggan and I always said that I was surfing. In fact when I was leaving Canada in 1993, manufacturers put out the first snowboards I remember thinking that it was just a small surfboard with no fins. But during those 12 years in Canada whenever I took a vacation to Barbados, I would still run down to Lazy Dayz and get a board to surf.
You spoke about the nutrition aspect of surfing. Can you say a little about that?
Well about 10-15 years ago, there was no thought into training for surfing because if you surf everyday that means that you’re fit. But as professional surfing has evolved over the last decade, they have changed much of the sport from its original form. In competitions, they used to take your best three waves and the criteria was different, now it’s the best two waves and they have expanded the criteria to include the aerial manoeuvers.
Now that they have developed the judging criteria, the nutrition and fitness of the surfer has to evolve as well. A big part of surfing now is yoga, Pilates and the core exercises. Also exercises to strengthen the torso, shoulders, thighs and triceps. It is all about making the surfers physically fit and flexible. They should also know what to eat, when to eat before you go out and know what foods to eat to sustain energy between heats. I have just been retrained on the flexibility aspect of surfing from top Brazilian surf coach Ricardo Rivavaldo and surfers Chelsea Roett, Josh Gault and Liam Grant were also involved in the programme. What Ricardo taught was a really great mix of yoga, Pilates and basic stretching to get your muscles ready for the radicalness of surfing.
How do you conduct your sessions with the kids?
My students must always begin with goals. I believe that if you don’t have a goal, you’re just flying around in the dark. I also agree with getting a solid education so for kids to come and surf with me, they have to finish their homework. Unless their parents call me and tell me that they have finished their homework I am not letting them in the water. I also make the competition schedule for the year available to all my students so that they can see when they need to be in shape to compete. When a contest is coming up, we start training.We meet at Brandons every Saturday and I set drills for them.
I like to see kids develop at different times, so the toughest part is to coordinate drills per kid. My classes are small, usually like 5-8 kids and we spend the whole day from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the beach and obviously we have drinks and food. For me, it’s more about keeping the fun aspect of surfing alive. If there is no fun involved, the competition spirit will die. I’ve seen that many times. There are some kids here in Barbados that can be on the world stage but they have just been pushed, pushed, pushed and all they hear is surf, surf, surf and they just stop surfing all together because the fun element dies and sometimes we lose our best surfers this way.
Tell me about your board
I surf Rapo boards made by Bajan shaper, Andrew Rapson. He knows all of the waves around here so he knows how to build boards especially for Barbados. What I try to do is to get as much local kids as I can to ride his boards at the beginning of their career because it will help them define the wave and ride it with equipment made for Barbados. Most of the boards that come into Barbados were shaped for Florida or for Hawaii and although they would surf our waves well, there’s nothing like local knowledge.
Can you pinpoint one of your students who you believe can make it professionally?
Liam Grant has just turned 11 and his rate of progression is so fast. If he keeps on like this, I believe that he can make it but there are a lot of other youngsters who have great potential.
What’s the average age of your beginner students?
Well they are starting younger and younger which is beneficial to us coaches. Before kids started in their preteens and by that time they have become set in their ways and are a little fearful of the sea. Now that they start earlier at 7 and 8 years old, they are like sponges that soak in all the knowledge.
You’ve said that you had some experience snowboarding, how does it compare to surfing?
It’s very fast, there are no brakes. It’s a really great alternative to surfing. Some of the new surfers I teach are from the northern United States and Canada. So they have experience snowboarding and they actually can transfer a lot easier than if they didn’t. The only difference is with snowboarding because the board is locked to your feet you do most of your steering with the front foot with surfing we steer and control our speed with the back foot. But the general premise is the same, the stance is the same and a lot of the manoeuvers are the same so the cross training aspect is fantastic. In the summer, they can come here and surf and in the winter they can go back home and snowboard.
Do you have any advice for any kids out there who may be a little intimidated by the current crop of juniors who are being sponsored by international brands?
First of all I would say that whereas sponsorship is great, it’s not the be all and end all of surfing. I think the pinnacle of surfing should be having fun. I think that for young kids it should be about loving the sport and the enjoyment of it not about money or sponsorships. As long as you enjoy doing something you will get fulfillment in doing that whether money comes or not. I would advise the kids to get their friends involved because they learn a lot better in peer group sessions and to bend the knees. In surfing, everything is in bending the knees.
With all of the junior talent we have in Barbados, with Andrew Rose, Dane Mackie, Josh Burke, Chelsea Tuach etc, how do you see the future of surfing?
I can only hope that the tourism officials take notice when our juniors go overseas and represent Barbados well. Surfing does so much for the tourism product in Barbados and it is still very much underrated. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t see it as a serious sport. They have to understand that surfing is professional, and we have the perfect arena. Just the tourism aspect of it is huge. If you know how many people return to Barbados to surf, how many surf lessons are taught, how many boards are rented, how much surf apparel is sold and this is just in the surfing not the wind surfing or kite surfing but they are all wave riding sports.
Getting that spot on recognition is what the sport needs. I believe that after our kids go out there and compete on the world stage that surfing will get that recognition it deserves. This is all natural… You don’t have to build any Ovals or Stadiums as with other sports and we get great waves all year round. The fact that world champions like Kelly Slater come here to surf is a big endorsement for Barbados. And what is so good about surfing is that it can bring massive returns for the island because the industry is already established.
Any last words?
I am very excited about the level of women’s surfing in Barbados especially with the two Chelseas (Tuach and Roett) unfortunately we don’t have the depth directly behind them, but should I say with the even younger girls we have a lot of potential. I believe that female surfers coming from Barbados have the best chance of dominating the World Tour. Not that the boys can’t do it as well but it would be a little tougher for them. Due to the fact that women’s surfing in general is still developing, I can really see the girls going a lot farther and faster. Right now we have two of the hottest girls in the world in Barbados. Sometimes in overseas competitions, some athletes and coaches want to know if Barbados is part of Jamaica but after they finish surfing against the Chelseas, they know exactly where Barbados is, trust me.
