Ollie Newton - Surf Fit Academy

Ollie grew up in the East Midlands far away from any consistent surfing beaches. As a youngster he always enjoyed sport and competed in swimming at a national level, however, his passion was always surfing, despite only being able to go once or twice a year on family holidays.

At the age of 18 and after finishing a college course in Sport and Exercise Science he went to study the same subject at Cardiff Met University (because it was close to the coast). Whilst studying he became fascinated with strength and conditioning along with sports psychology. As a result he carried out research as part of his dissertation looking into the mental health benefits of surfing - which are plentiful as it turns out!

Whilst living and studying in Cardiff, The Wave (an awesome artificial wave pool in Bristol) had opened providing Ollie the opportunity to work there as a surf coach. Ollie then went on to acquire his ISA level 1 instructor qualification and has since worked on the beaches at Gwithian and at The Wave coaching surfing.

Lockdowns in the UK meant that surf coaching was no longer allowed, for the large part, and with no other opportunities for work Ollie decided to start his own business and combine two area’s he’s passionate about - Strength & Conditioning and Surfing. This lead to the creation of the Surf Fit Academy.

The Surf Fit Academy has now been running since September 2020 and is focused on helping surfers improve their, strength, fitness and overall health so they can catch more waves, feel confident in the water and therefore maximise their time surfing.’

Ollie has been involved with us on a personal coaching level for some time now and has been amazing in helping us with our surf fitness and conditioning.

You could call him our resident PT.

Ollie Newton - @surf_fit_academy