Surfing’s First Olympic Prep Summit Aims to Sustain Focus on Progression

Olympic hopeful surfers leave with new knowledge and inspiration

Thousand Oaks, Calif. (February 28, 2018) – Surfing’s first Olympic Prep Summit concluded with a strong program and plan for peak performances and continuing surfing’s progression. Eight of the top surf athletes in the U.S. participated, including Lakey Peterson, Caroline Marks, Courtney Conlogue, Kolohe Andino, Zeke Lau, Griffin Colapinto, Sebastian Zietz, and Seth Moniz. The top two women and top two men at the end of the World Surf League season in December will qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. 
 
The two-day session was held at the Mamba Sports Academy, an elite training facility for organizations like the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, Olympic beach volleyball and more. 
 
USA Surfing medical director Kevyn Dean said he is moved and humbled by the potential to advance surfing’s progression and change the way the sport is viewed. “These athletes are so talented and committed to their craft,” Dean said. “We want to give them the strongest start possible on their road to the Olympic Games – in 2020 and beyond.”

Dean assembled the top minds in sports performance and health care (See list below.) to bring a holistic approach to surfers training for peak performances. The list in itself is impressive, but seeing the collaborations and ‘a ha’ moments unfold at the summit was next level. "We are enormously grateful to the committee members for making our athletes their priority,” Dean said.  ​

Dean said he is excited about the potential to follow surfers as they continue to train and prepare. “This was the vision - having the best of the best at all levels involved in knowing and working with each athlete’s unique strengths and potential,” Dean said. “If we continue to just work on one thing at a time, we’re stabbing in the dark. But now that we have all these experts gathering around the athletes and their performance data, our conversations start to illuminate a path.” 
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USA Surfing CEO Greg Cruse said the summit was organized with an end result in mind. “We want American surfers to be the best in the world and bring on better and better athletes every year,” said Cruse.  
 
Both Dean and Cruse are excited about having the sport of surfing get better at getting better — more science, more measurement, more intention. 
 
HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUPPORT TEAM
Kevyn Dean, MSPT, OCS, USA Surfing medical director 
Dr. Warren Kramer, Orthopedic surgeon and medical director for the WSL
Dr. Tim Brown, Chiropractor, co-Medical director WSL, Northern Hemisphere
Tracy Axel, Manager of sports performance research & analytics, Mamba Sports Academy
Dr. Michael Rintala, Chiropractor, Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) instructor
Peter Park, Trainer 
Lisa Andersen, Four-time world surfing champion
Nikki Viesins, Former USA Surfing team member and national champion, B.S. Sports and Exercise Science
Dr. Su Wang, DPT, OCS, CSCS, Movement Specialists Physical Therapy  
Kaleigh Gilchrist, Olympic champion (water polo) and professional surfer 
Brett Simpson, assistant coach, USA Surfing 
Chris Gallagher Stone, head coach, USA Surfing
Karen Cogan, Sr. sports psychologist, United States Olympic Committee
Michael Gervais, USC sports psychologist
Kevin Wallis, Director of forecasting, Surfline
Maury Hayashida, Variant Labs