So, by now you’ve really impressed the instructors at the local surf schools. They applaud you and throw you shakas like they’re going out of fashion. You feel great, but you’re just not getting any better. Have you surpassed the scope of the average surf lesson? Are your fellow classmates holding you back? What’s the next step?
It’s a problem many of us face as our surfing progresses.
Thankfully, Pepijn Tigges, a professional surfer from the Netherlands, is helping Dutch surfers to level up their surfing prowess. Amidst his own rigorous training regime for competitions, Pepijn runs his own online surf coaching business, designed for those who feel they’ve mastered the basics, and are ready to take their surfing to the next level.
Keen to learn more, I got in contact with Pepijn to understand a little more about him, his business, and the surfing community in Holland.
R: The Dutch surf scene is on the rise. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve witnessed in the surf community here?
P: It has evolved exponentially, in size, but also in-depth. We have a lot more surfers. I think when I started, 17 years ago, there were only a few hundred surfers. A few years ago there was a survey for how many people surfed in the Netherlands, and now it's twenty thousand, but for sure it’s now way more. That’s super cool.
When I started there were almost no coaches, there were a few surf schools, but they were super small in shipping containers on the beach. But now there’s the whole Dutch surf team. There’s the Surf Topsport Centrum, that’s for all the groms to get better coaches and better training multiple times per week. We also have school programs, where they get surf lessons instead of gym lessons.
I think the quality of the surf coaches is going up. About 90% of the coaches have an ISA level 1 certificate, but I think it’s getting better and better, all the coaches are getting more experienced because more and more people are taking part in contests. We’re just getting more and more experienced in the whole surf scene. People are starting to specialize in certain areas of surfing, like longboarding, shortboarding, SUPing, swim training, or surf-skate training, so it’s getting broader, but also deeper.
R: There are many surf schools in the Netherlands helping beginners to find their feet, what inspired you to target intermediate/advanced surfers instead?
P: I’ve been giving surf lessons for 8 years now. It’s so fun and so cool to give them a passion for surfing. I love helping people find happiness and joy in things, and that’s what surfing gives me. It’s great to help people, but 90% of your lessons are beginner lessons, and after a few hundred of those lessons I got tired of saying the same stuff every time. Seeing people only once, telling them how to popup, explaining the parts of the board, how to get out of a current, or whatever. I thought: I wanna teach slightly more advanced people, so I started doing that.
However, I quickly realized that this is really difficult with a surf school because the lessons are only 2.5 hours and they all have very different skill levels. So you see them surfing for an hour, or whatever, then they come out of the water, you give them tips, but then we’re back into the water for another hour and the lesson is almost done.
I wanted to target these intermediate to advanced surfers because I think that I can help them way more, and I really like that depth, so I can touch on a lot more than that 0.01% of surfing skills.
R: Naysayers would say that the quality of the waves in the Netherlands lack a little punch when compared to its more prestigious European counterparts. Would you agree that the waves here limit the level of surfing a person can ultimately achieve?
P: For sure. They always say if you learn to surf in the Netherlands then you can surf anywhere! And that’s true! (laughs) I mean, I think learning to surf in the Netherlands is way harder than other good surfing spots. So you can surf anywhere, but it’s really hard to surf on a high level because we don’t have as many good waves as everywhere else.
We have as many waves, so we can surf as many times as they can surf in Hawaii for example, but the quality of the waves here is just way less. If they can do 5 or 6 turns on a wave there, we can maybe do 1 or 2 here. If it’s really good we can do 3, maybe 4, but that’s not often.
R: How do you separate yourself from the many surf schools that scatter the Dutch coastline?
P: First, I'm not a surf school. I am what I think they call a ‘professional surfer’. I don’t make money surfing though. I compete in the QS and the World Championships, so I do those types of contests. I also have years of experience in surf training myself and I think because I’m also really interested in the science behind surfing; the training behind surfing, the swimming, paddle training, skate training, and why that’s good for you.
People come to me like, “Should I do strength training?” for example, and I say “Yeah, of course”, but I don’t think that’s a good question, I think any surf coach in the Netherlands could say you have to do surf skate training, or whatever. But I go way more in-depth because I’m with people for a much longer time, at least like 3 to 6 months, even a year sometimes.
We really go into depth in all those questions. I’m really interested in the science behind it, so when we do strength training, I’m really trying to explain to someone how the muscle groups work and why you should train in a certain way, and not just do lots of reps. I mean, I really go into detail with people, so I think that’s how I separate myself from the surf schools.
It’s just higher quality than most lessons, I think most lessons at surf schools are more for fun and entertainment, and I really want to coach someone in their surfing, because I have so many years of experience myself from training and doing contests.
R: Your business focuses primarily on providing coaching online, rather than traditional face-to-face coaching. What led you to take this route, and what are the pros and cons you have experienced so far?
P: It’s so hard in Holland to find good waves a lot of the time and so I became more like a strength training coach on the beach, I didn't want that. I saw that a lot of people were travelling, and not surfing in Scheveningen, where I live. So now people can access my coaching at any time, on their own terms, regardless of where they are in the world. Sometimes people just need one small push in the right direction, and that’s what I'm there for.
I also thought if you can work together with one person, you can give really personal feedback, with much more personal advice. So that’s a pro for me and for them, I'm really working for a longer time with someone. It’s so much harder when you need to go somewhere as a group.
It’s also much less expensive, I don’t need to spend so much time meeting somebody, traveling somewhere, also for that person. Now I'm just at home training people, there’s so much less friction this when compared to going to the beach, it’s much more time-efficient.
I get more options this way too. We can do video analysis, strength training, or skate training, it’s all a possibility. But when you meet on the beach, you can’t just go and do skate training, unless there’s a really good street close by.
Of course, physical contact is great for the explanation of the technique, some people like me to really be there in person so that they can understand exactly what I mean. Sometimes you need to actually set somebody into a certain position so that it really clicks in their head what kind of technique you want them to learn; online, you can’t really do that. Then again, online, you can sometimes explain things even better, and then they need to really understand it themselves, which can help the technique to stick way better than when I just show them on the beach.
R: You have the ability to produce content online that has successfully engaged a large audience. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs about how they can connect with their audience?
P: I don’t think I really have a large audience, but I have my main focus on a Dutch audience which has been really successful. I think what I do well is I connect with every one of them, so I get loads of messages and I reply to every message that I get. I think it’s really good to help your audience, to really make content that’s helping them, almost like you're giving away your stuff for free.
I make a podcast, for example, the Surftips Podcast. This is usually me talking with somebody really passionate and enthusiastic about surfing. It’s a little bit like a surf lesson, but really short. For example, the first podcasts were about board choice, pop-ups, bottom turns, paddling, strength training, floaters, top turns. It’s just me giving the information that I have, and people really learn from that, that’s causing them to really engage with what you’re making.
If you’re just posting a picture of your food or your surfboard people don’t really care, but if you give more explanation about why you eat that food, why is it applicable for surfers, or why you surf that board, more in-depth, then people learn from it and they engage with it; they remember those things.
It’s just like a normal relationship with anyone, like, if you go to a friend for dinner and you bring a nice bottle of wine and some flowers, they’re gonna remember that. It’s a really long process, I’ve been doing this for like 10 years, trying to engage with people in the Dutch surf scene, and now it’s really paying off because I’m doing the right thing, and I’m doing that more often, but I’m still learning as well.
Do what you like to do. I really like to teach people how to surf, and that’s why I’m successful at that, I think.
R: Finally, many people must ask you: “Pepijn, as a passionate surfer, what exactly keeps you in the Netherlands?” Do you see yourself living abroad someday?
P: Umm, I think, I really like the vibe here, it’s just easy for me. I really love my friends and family, I wouldn't want to miss them for a day. I’m not the type of guy who goes travelling for like, months on end, I get bored with that pretty easily, and I get homesick as well. I’m in my comfort zone here, which is really nice, but I’m starting to travel a lot more, like, I’m travelling a few times per year for a few weeks at a time and that’s been so nice to have a home base that’s really secure and comforting and then going anywhere in the world, from Japan to Indonesia to Morocco.
I like working here too. I like working, I like helping people. I like what I do here with the podcasts, with surf coaching. I could do that anywhere, but, I don’t know, home is home, there’s no place else.
Do I see myself living abroad someday? For sure. I think that’s a really good life experience, taking yourself out of that comfort zone. It’s now a really nice time to grow myself, but I think it’s a really good thing to go abroad, learn things there in a new community, and probably have better waves, for like, a year or two. I see myself doing that pretty soon I think, in like 1 or 2 years. I’d like to go to Portugal maybe, it’s just a really nice country, I like the vibe, I like the waves.
Interviewed by Richard Dobinson
Richard is a surfer and Content Marketer from the United Kingdom. He is an in-house blogger for the Surfpreneurs Club and Founder of RAD Content. Richard has written articles for numerous businesses that rank #1 on search engines. You’ll find him scuttling about in the line-up, or on his website, Instagram, and Facebook channels.
Interviews with surf entrepreneurs
