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May 2006 Issue
The Game Within
By Chuck Graham
Photo by Bill Tover
A lone soul with clipboard in hand and video camera slung over his shoulder, keenly observed a young ripper following through on a tail-sliding top turn at a deserted stretch of beach. Competitive surfing coach Mike Lamm was putting another pupil through the paces to eventually achieve optimum performance in the competitive arena. Big, full turns are a requirement, strategy and developing tactics are ongoing, and although Lamm won’t reveal any specific details on what he calls a “science,” his pupils are shredding proof that his approach produces favorable results.
During the 1980s, Lamm himself had a solid amateur career in the Western Surfing Association (WSA), and later graduated to the Professional Surfing Association of America, the U.S. pro tour. However, it wasn’t until he retired from competitive surfing, opened Slam’s surf shop and attended business classes that his competitive juices were reborn and he started to enhance the competitive lives of a bevy of aspiring champions in the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA). “One of my business courses said knowledge was the key to confidence and success in any professional field,” said Lamm. “I applied this to surfing.”
What Lamm learned in his business courses led him to what he coined a “passionate Einstein-like study of competitive surfing,” a study in techniques and the intricacies of contest surfing, which he feels unlocked the secrets to “the game.”
“It wasn’t doing heats over and over for years that made the difference,” continued Lamm. “It was this study that taught me the winning moves and mistakes of competitive surfing.”
He retrained himself and put the contest jersey back on. During one season, he won 10 straight NSSA masters events, not to mention four national titles, but more importantly his students were winning too!
Bob Hurley took notice of Lamm’s savvy contest strategy and hired him to train a young charger, Mike Todd, who was ripping in big surf, but was struggling in contests. After a summer under Lamm’s tutelage, Todd put together an unrivaled and dominant run of competitive successes.
During the 1998-99 NSSA Open Season, Todd won eight out of 10 events in the men’s division, a record that still stands today. Currently, Todd is rated third on the World Qualifying Series (WQS). Some other NSSA title holdovers that have benefited from Lamm’s surfing science include Nathaniel Curran, Alex Gray, Dylan Slater, Jeremy Ryan, Travis Mellem, Bron Huesenstamn, Andrew Doheny and Nick Rozsa. For the girls there were national titles for Veronica Kaye, Kayla Langen and Karina Patroni.
During the 2004 World Championship Tour (WCT), Tim Curran employed Lamm. Curran was going through a long competitive drought; he hadn’t garnered a quality result in two years. Under Lamm’s instruction, Curran leapt 20 places on the WCT that year.
Lamm was also one of the coaches for the 2005 805 Ventura/Santa Barbara National Surf League (NSL) team, a star studded lineup that included Bobby Martinez, the Malloy brothers, Tom Curren, Tim and Nathaniel Curran and Hanko Mills. “I love to help create champions,” said Lamm. “To educate them against drugs and elements that could damage their careers and lives.”
Posted May 2006 Blue Edge Magazine. All rights reserved.
