More about the Welsh Surfing Federation Surf School

[Welsh Surfing Federation]

Welsh Surfing Federation Surf School

The Instructors

The instructors work for the surf school in the summer months and have other jobs or are students. The lucky ones head south to surf somewhere warmer in the winter.

All of the instuctors working for the WSF are fully qualified British Surfing Association coaches with Surf Life Saving Society or Royal Life Saving Society beach lifeguard awards. There is quite a range of surfing ability amongst the instructors from Mike "its taken me 23 years to be this average" Steadman to Nick "how did he do that?" Reid. Its all about having fun and safety is the only thing we take seriosly.

On the beach each instructor wears a yellow identification vest, waterproof two-way radio and emergency whistle. With each group is a first aid kit, mobile phone and one recsue surfboard per instructor. In the lesson you willl wear our distinctive yellow and black wetsuits or your own with one of our lycra vests in the surf school colours. All this equipment is there just in case and the most important thing each instructor takes to the beach is the ability to spot risks well before they can become a danger.

For 2007 these are our regular instructors and a little bit about them:

Mike Steadman (Surf school manager)

Age:	41 years
Years surfing:	23 years
Years instructing:	14 years
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 2) NARS Beach Lifeguard (Valid to 13/5/10)
Main occupation:	Teacher of I.C.T., Olchfa Comprehensive School, Swansea (14 years)
Other info:	Other hobbies include snowboarding, mountain biking and moustashe growing (retired).

Mike's trademark surf manoeuvre

Charles Legg

Age:	38 years
Years surfing:	21 years
Years instructing:	5 years
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 1) NARS Surf Life Saving & Surfing Coach Award (Valid to 13/5/10)
Main occupation:	Surf instructor
Other info:	Charlie lives and breathes the sea juggling his "busy" life between surfing, canoeing, fishing, spear fishing and teaching surfing. How does he do it?

Unfortunately the "pose with a surfboard" section of Mr Universe had been cancelled but nobody had thought to tell Charles.

Anne Gallagher

Age:	23 years
Years surfing:	5 years
Years instructing:	2 years
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 2) NARS Beach Lifeguard (Valid to 13/5/10)
Main occupation:	Cinematographer
Other info:	Olympic standard chocolate biscuit eater.

Matt Crome

Age:	25 years
Years surfing:	years
Years instructing:	1 year
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 1) NARS Surf Life Saving & Surfing Coach Award (Valid to 13/5/10)
Main occupation:	Youth and community worker for Parklands church
Other info:	Getting married to Claire in Sept 2007! Going to the Maldives for their honeymoon. Matt assures me that It is pure coincidence that there is world class surf there and he chose the Maldives as a beautiful place to spend time with his new wife.

Matt Cook

Age:	24 years
Years surfing:	10 years
Years instructing:	1 year
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 1) NARS Beach Lifeguard (Valid to 17/4/09)
Main occupation:	PHD student
Other info:	Going to the Mentawi islands to work as a surf guide for winter 2007/2008

Jess Glanfield

Age:	23
Years surfing:	5 years
Years instructing:	1 years
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 1) Royal Life Saving Association Beach Lifeguard (Valid to 18/8/08)
Main occupation:	Surf instructor
Other info:	Comes from Devern

Nick Reid

Age:	24 years
Years surfing:	10 years
Years instructing:	2 years
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 1) Royal Life Saving Association Beach Lifeguard (Valid to 30/3/08)
Main occupation:	PHD student
Other info:	Member of Welsh surf team 2007, winner of student surf championship

Tom Hayman

Age:	21 years
Years surfing:	5 years
Years instructing:	2 years
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 1) Royal Life Saving Association Beach Lifeguard (Valid to 20/6/09)
Main occupation:	Engineering student at Cardif University
Other info:	Other hobbies include rugby

Simon Fellows

Age:	24 years
Years surfing:	5 years
Years instructing:	1 year
Surfing Qualifications:	British Surfing Association Surf Coach (level 1) Royal Life Saving Association Beach Lifeguard (Valid to 30/3/09)
Main occupation:	Surf instructor
Other info:	says "tidy" alot

Here are some of the people who work in the office:

Mel Steadman (Office manager)

Age:	Not telling
Years surfing:	Only dabbles when its sunny
Years instructing:
Surfing Qualifications:
Main occupation:	Nurse
Other info:	Married to Mike, likes cooking

Ben Whitehouse (Office assistant)

Age:	17 years
Years surfing:	2 years
Years instructing:
Surfing Qualifications:
Main occupation:	A level student at Gowerton School
Other info:	Other hobbies include rugby and talking

Sam Beynon (Office assistant)

Age:	17 years
Years surfing:
Years instructing:
Surfing Qualifications:
Main occupation:	A level student at Gowerton School
Other info:	Just passed her driving test so watch out!

Rhian Poulton (Office assistant)

Age:	15 years
Years surfing:
Years instructing:
Surfing Qualifications:
Main occupation:	GCSE student at Gwyr School
Other info:	You might also see her serving food at Eddie's cafe

Want To Be A Surf Instructor?

Fancy joining the team?

If you have a passion for surfing, are a good communicator, enjoy teamwork and have a keen eye for safety then please apply.

You should be a competent surfer, we teach beginners so there is no need to be of a competition standard. You will need to have the RLSS or SLSA beach lifeguard and surf coach awards. If you don't have these awards then we can show you where to get them.

Having the surf coach and lifesaving awards and experience of working with the longest established and most successful surf school in Wales looks very good on a CV if you a gap year student. Teaching people to surf is also great fun and personally rewarding.

As we run at weekends and school summer holidays ideal candidates will be surfers who are school teachers, students or someone who has a winter job.

If you are interested please send an e mail saying why you want to work for us and attach a CV and a recent photo.