040: SAMBA MANN - Surf Coach
SHOW NOTES
Are you standing in the wrong spot on your board—and is that killing your ability to surf top-to-bottom?
Even experienced surfers often have poor foot placement, especially their back foot, without realizing it. In this episode, elite Australian surf coach Samba Mann breaks down why that subtle misalignment limits your ability to turn powerfully and surf in the pocket—and what to feel for instead.
Learn how to feel where your feet are without looking—and why that changes everything
Discover how different boards (like twins and longboards) train your weight distribution and surf awareness
Hear how coaching a blind surfer sharpened Samba’s approach to intuitive, sensation-based coaching
Press play to rewire your surfing from the ground up—starting with your feet—for more speed, control, and flow.
Surf Coach Samba Mann talks about the feeling of surfing and how to improve yours.
https://www.instagram.com/samba_mann/?hl=en
https://www.surfingaustraliahpc.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoOcDV5-VvY
Key Points
Michael introduces his recent trip to Nicaragua's Malibu Popoyo Resort and upcoming plans for September.
Samba discusses the importance of feeling in surfing and how 'only a surfer knows the feeling'.
Samba identifies foot placement as the most common issue in surfing coaching, particularly with recreational surfers.
Discussion about surfing technique with Mark Richards' twin fin boards and their unique riding style.
Samba shares his experience coaching Matt Formston, including surfing together in overhead waves.
Samba announces his relocation plans and new coaching direction focusing on recreational surfers with GoPro footage.
Outline
Introduction and Background
Michael introduces the Surf Mastery Podcast, mentioning his recent trip to Nicaragua and stay at the Malibu Popoyo Resort.
Excitement is expressed about returning to Nicaragua in September for a trip with Taylor Knox and Matt Greggs, citing the abundance of world-class waves in the area.
An upcoming interview with Devon Howard on nose riding and longboarding is announced, scheduled for release the following Monday.
The current interview features Samba Mann, initially intended as supplementary content for the Matt Formston interview but expanded into a standalone piece due to its valuable content.
Samba Mann is introduced as an experienced surf coach working with Surfing Australia and the Hurley High Performance Centre (HPC), a former WQS competitor, and one of Australia's top surf coaches.
Plans for a more extensive interview with Samba later in the year are mentioned, encouraging listeners to follow Samba on Instagram.
The Feeling of Surfing
Samba emphasizes that surfing is primarily about feeling, referencing Billabong's slogan 'Only a surfer knows the feeling' as a truthful statement.
Generating speed, feeling the board, and understanding how to maneuver are all based on feeling.
The importance of looking at specific spots on a wave, particularly for recreational surfers, to improve their surfing is highlighted.
Surfers are challenged to identify their foot placement on the board without looking, as many recreational surfers unknowingly position their feet incorrectly.
Incorrect foot placement is noted as the most common issue encountered in coaching, particularly with surfers who learned improper techniques earlier in life.
Even professional surfers like Joel Parkinson sometimes need to remind themselves about proper foot placement.
Foot Placement and Board Design
Proper foot placement, particularly the back foot on the tail pad, forces surfers to surf closer to the pocket and enables top-to-bottom surfing.
Surfing with incorrect foot placement makes it nearly impossible to turn tightly or surf in the critical part of the wave.
An experience with Mark Richards is shared, noting that some older board designs, like MR's twin fin, are meant to be surfed differently, with weight distributed more towards the front of the board.
Understanding different board designs and how they affect weight distribution and surfing style is emphasized.
Coaching Matt Formston
Experience coaching Matt Formston, a visually impaired surfer, has given a new appreciation for personal abilities.
A session where verbal cues were used to guide Matt through a wave while simultaneously filming with a GoPro is described.
The goal of pushing Matt's surfing into bigger waves is mentioned, expressing excitement about future possibilities.
A memorable day of surfing overhead waves with Matt is recounted, which ended with an unexpected jet ski breakdown and a long swim back to shore.
The Importance of Feeling in Surfing
Feeling is reiterated as everything in surfing, encompassing movements, weight distribution, and speed generation.
The concept of taking weight off the board to generate speed is discussed, noting it's a difficult concept for many surfers to grasp.
The ideal surfing feeling is compared to skating a bowl, where movements align perfectly with the wave's transitions.
Agreement is reached that while visual aspects are important, especially in tube riding, the core of surfing is based on feeling rather than sight.
Fear and Its Impact on Surfing
Fear can override the feeling aspect of surfing, becoming the dominant sensation when faced with challenging sections.
Intense fear can immobilize a surfer and take away from the feeling of surfing.
Samba's Coaching Career and Future Plans
Transitioning from full-time work at the HPC to becoming a freelance coach, relocating to Port Macquarie is shared.
Passion for working with adult and recreational surfers is expressed, finding enjoyment in helping them improve.
Plans to create a website and focus on using GoPro footage to show surfing from the surfer's perspective are discussed, aiming to provide a new angle for instruction.
Continuing to work with some QS (Qualifying Series) surfers while expanding coaching to the general public is mentioned.
Love for coaching all types of surfers and the goal of helping people get more enjoyment out of surfing is emphasized.
Conclusion
Interest in Samba's upcoming website and coaching initiatives is expressed.
Samba provides their Instagram handle (Samba Man) for listeners to follow and mentions that their coaching website will be launched in about a month.
The interview concludes, with Michael indicating they'll direct listeners to Samba's Instagram for now.
Transcription
Samba Mann
It's the most common thing I come across in surfing now, is foot placement on a board.
Michael Frampton
Welcome back to the Surf Mastery Podcast. I just returned from a little mini surf trip down in Nicaragua. I was staying at the Malibu Popoyo Resort there. And after staying there for four days, I am now even more excited to go back in September because there are so many world-class waves within sort of a 20-minute drive and some of them even just literally a five-minute walk from the resort itself. So I am frothing to go back there during the season when there's some bigger south swells, i.e. September, which is during the Taylor Knox Matt Greggs trip. But aside from the quality of the surf breaks in the area, the resort itself, outstanding clean healthy food and ultra comfortable rooms, I really am looking forward to going back there. Last week I recorded a conversation with Devon Howard. Devon's so well-spoken, it was such an easy edit, so I will release that next Monday. So that's a conversation with Devon Howard on nose riding and longboarding. Today's interview is with Samba Mann. Actually this interview was only going to be, I was just going to splice some audio of it into the Matt Formston interview because Samba is Matt Formston's surf coach. But Samba delivered so many gold nuggets, I decided to release a good portion of the interview as a standalone interview. So it kind of does follow on from the Matt Formston interview in so much as we're really talking about the feeling of surfing. So this interview sort of starts off diving straight into that. And so Samba, a little bit of a background on Samba. Samba is an experienced surf coach working with Surfing Australia and the Hurley High Performance Centre, otherwise known as the HPC. Samba is a former WQS competitor as well. And I'll put a link to a video of him surfing. He rips. He's a very good surfer himself, and he's one of Australia's top surf coaches. Giving you some free gold nuggets here on surfing. And I do plan to do a more researched and long-form interview with Samba later on in the year. So look forward to that. Give Samba a follow on Instagram. He's got some exciting projects coming up as well. Without further ado, Samba Mann.
Samba Mann
It's the weirdest thing to say. We were laughing about it the other day, but Billabong had it, saying only a surfer knows the feeling. But it's the most truest statement that you can get for being a surfer. Taking off on a wave and generating speed, feeling out of board, it's all feeling. Where you look, that definitely helps. Knowing how to look on spots, how to look up. And that, I feel like, for the more recreational surfer, learning how to identify the exact spot you're trying to look for, where you're setting up a turn and then where you're looking to finish, is hugely an improvement. Because I feel like that's one of the first steps. But then feeling of a board and riding it, and understanding how to manoeuvre around it. To put your feet into different places of a board, and to understand without looking what it feels like. So I challenge anyone to do that. Take off on a board, put your feet on where you stand up, and then tell me where you are on the board. Because, to explain that a little more, you get recreational surfers that, they take off on a board and they generate great amounts of speed, but they surf off the middle of the board. Front foot is past it, back foot is behind. So they actually centre with both feet on the middle part of the board, which they feel is right. And they get great amounts of speed, but then they catch a rail every time. So then, if you were, for yourself or for me, to jump on that board, you'd be like, no, I'm too far forward. I have to step back to the right, what you call a sweet spot, or whatever you want to refer it to know that you're in the right spot of the board. And that's all feeling, and that's right technique. But other surfers have learnt in a way that is actually wrong, but that's their feeling right there at that point. It's the most common thing I come across in surfing now, is foot placement on a board, and what they feel, and what they've learnt. Yeah. I find it really interesting, and it's just, it comes up again and again. Yeah, I've found it something that teaching surfers then to stand back onto the middle point where you support with your front foot and back foot in the grip is the hardest thing to teach once they're later in life.
Michael Frampton
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I remember going through that. I remember it was challenging. Yeah. Yeah, it still is. I still find myself not wanting to get that back foot into the back of the pad.
Samba Mann
Everyone goes through it. I remember Joel Parkinson talking about one event. I would love to get the footage, but he goes, I had to remind myself to put my back foot into the kick, and I have to do it still to this day, which is funny. But with my front foot, never the case. I know where my front foot is by feeling on a board. I don't have to look. I'm not being cocky about it. I just know the feeling of a board.
Michael Frampton
Do you think having that foot right back on the back pad, do you think that forces you to surf closer to the pocket?
Samba Mann
For sure, definitely, because if you're generating speed up the board, racing down the line, for any surfer that wants to surf top to bottom or in the critical part, you can't possibly surf that way because you catch every time. You won't be so far up the board and your front foot being that far up the rail. If you try and turn tight, I guarantee you bog every time. It doesn't matter what your technique is. I'd actually like to challenge someone to that too. Trying to surf up the board, back foot being behind the midpoint and front foot past, trying to surf top to bottom would be incredibly hard. In saying that, with MR, I did a camp with Mark Richards, and he had his twin fin, and his boards are meant to be surfed up the board. He had that conversation with me. So you don't actually weight back into the tail as much as what you would on a traditional shortboard with the way that the board is designed. That's off his replica of his retro 1980s board. That's what it's designed as. That's how they surfed in those days, because he would hover over the front and generate speed from that part. But going into the back, they would weight back, but it wouldn't be the same as a traditional shortboard now. I know because I rode the board myself, and that was a twin fin.
Michael Frampton
Interesting. I imagine if you put too much weight on the back foot, it would just slide out.
Samba Mann
Guaranteed. And on your backside, how hard you push, when you come into a normal bottom turn with your back foot right up where the swallow is, you push, you slide out. Guaranteed.
Michael Frampton
Have you got Matt on a twin fin?
Samba Mann
He tried one, yes. He did try one, which he put... I think he was riding... It might have been a Firewire Evo, which I've ridden as well as a quad, but he rode as a 20 and he loved it. Thought it was amazing, the feel. But he generally doesn't ride twins a lot, but I think there's so much benefit from learning how to ride different boards like that to transition weights or where you stand on a board and being able to move around. That brings it back to the whole longboard thing, is that you can manoeuvre around a board and be comfortable moving, shifting your weight or getting back into the tail. Whereas if you're just firmly stuck on a board in the one spot and trying to always surf from those parts, then you're going to run into problems. This is my opinion. It's actually what I've seen through coaching a lot of surfers in the last decade. And I've seen them and it's such a common thing. It blows my mind. And then I still say to guys, I'm like, so how often do you feel this part of the board? They're like, never. And it happens 90% of the time.
Michael Frampton
Interesting. That's a good reminder.
Samba Mann
Yeah, it back to Matt.
Michael Frampton
Yeah. Your experience coaching Matt, has it changed anything of your own surfing personally?
Samba Mann
I guess probably appreciation for what I have and being able to just go out and surf and being able to look at a wave in how I can. But thinking more about him, we're trying to look at how far we can push his surfing into even actual bigger waves is our whole game plan. So yeah, I'm kind of excited as to what we can do. And we surfed on a wave together where I queued him through when to turn and I actually GoPro it at the same time. So that was really interesting where I was reading the wave for him. And it was really cool to tell him when to turn. We had amazing outcomes through that, which I thought was really interesting being able to experience surfing a wave together and then helping someone to... I was basically being his eyes.
Michael Frampton
How big?
Samba Mann
How big were the waves?
Michael Frampton
Double overhead?
Samba Mann
Yeah, it was probably like four... It was definitely overhead and it was just me and him. And I think he still has the audio or he has the clips we were looking for on the other day, but it was really... Yeah, it was proper good waves. It was really fun. Yeah, it was a really cool day. Apart from his friend that took us out, sunk his ski, we had to basically swim it in from 2km out to sea. That was the end of the session. But yeah, if you ask Matty, it was wild. We actually... The ski broke down and anyway, it was a whole other part to that. But it was a big day. You know, safe to say we hit the bakery. Matty had about three pies, I'm pretty sure. He likes his pies. So it was a good day.
Michael Frampton
Classic. It sounds like you're already using feeling in your coaching before you even met Matt. So he was instantly the right fit.
Samba Mann
Yeah. I think feeling in surfing is... It's everything. It really is. I mean, looking, you see the wave, but it all goes by feel. Like your movements and... Like another part is like taking your weight off a board to generate speed is... It's hard for people to grasp that concept of like putting weight on a board and then taking it off. It's a very difficult one to make it... Once a surf can understand it, then they can really... With speed on a board, you can do so much. And even listening to other, you know, stuff that you've talked about through your podcasts, you do hear about like movements and like how to kind of lean into getting on rail. But then when you go back to it, it seems like you're referring to another feeling.
Michael Frampton
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think if you focus on the feeling, it's not as obvious as visual, but it's why you're surfing anyway. And it's... Yeah. Like for me, the best feeling is when you don't... When you... Do you skate?
Samba Mann
Yeah, I do.
Michael Frampton
You know when you skate a bowl and you hit the transitions and there's not really much acceleration. There's not really much loss of speed. It almost feels like you've got a little motor, but it just so happens that you're moving your body in the right way for the transition. And when surfing feels like that, the speed's there and you're in rhythm with the wave and that's what I'm searching for.
Samba Mann
Would you say though that going back to that when you're surfing a wave and everything's clicking into place, you know, is it visual or is it feeling for exactly.
Michael Frampton
You? Yeah, it's all feeling, yeah.
Samba Mann
Visually, yes. Like it's awesome. Like when you're in a tube, it's different because you want to see how deep you are. I feel like that part would be a lot more visual, but surfing a wave, it's like you feel speed. You feel your turns when they're on rail. You feel when you release a tail. It's feeling. Yeah, for sure. That's why you love it. And then on a big wave, you're going so fast. It's feeling again.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, feeling. We need to do a separate podcast, I reckon.
Samba Mann
Yeah, I'd love to do one. I think it's, I can give you a lot of stuff I've been working on currently, which is, I find it interesting. I love thinking about it and talking about it with other surfers, but yeah, it is definitely, there's a lot of stuff that's come up that I find that, I'd love to know why people surf a certain way and how it's taught. And then, you know, how can we get that recreational surfer onto the next part?
Michael Frampton
Well, I think it's like, the feeling is primary only when there's no, like if visually there's fear, then you'll forget about the feeling.
Samba Mann
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
So if you're visually looking at a section and you're fearful, then that becomes so much louder than the feeling.
Samba Mann
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
I think that's a big part of it.
Samba Mann
That's a whole other realm, I guess, because fear, when you're looking at a wave and what you want to actually take on, completely, well, it takes the feeling out of it because depending on how intense the fear is, it can basically immobilize you.
Michael Frampton
And then do you serve the general public at all in your area? How do you work as a coach?
Samba Mann
I was full-time at the HPC, but I'm now going, we're relocating down the coast towards Port Macquarie for my family. My youngest boy, sorry, oldest boy goes to school. So I'm going to be doing, which I'm kind of, you know, it's interesting for me, a lot of coaches generally go for working with just elite kids and chasing the comp thing and getting on tour. But I actually generally have a passion for working for, I like working with adult surfers and recreational surfers. I find a lot of enjoyment out of it. So I'm kind of going to be more sort of becoming a freelance and working with surfers. And I want to kind of dedicate more time where I'm going to be working with doing stuff GoPro and shooting, which is a visual thing, different angles of the wave and a surfer's view to showing people what you look to when you're on the wave instead of just showing the wave from the beach. So yeah, the passion of mine is I'm going to be building a website and doing that, which I'm currently in the process now. So yeah, we'll be working with the general public doing that. And then obviously I work with some QS surfers in that as well. So yeah, a bit more of a, I'll do social media and stuff like that. And it's a passion. I love coaching any type of surfer. I'm just, I'm a froth. I love surfing. So I like working with anyone really, as long as they can learn.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, man. That's a great idea of getting the footage from the surfer's perspective, basically. Yeah.
Samba Mann
Yeah. So yeah, I'm going to be working a lot towards that and yeah, just going that direction, which I will be doing stuff with HPC as well. But my main focus will be that.
Michael Frampton
I look forward to this website.
Samba Mann
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it is passion and that. Yeah, definitely. My main focus is just you getting more enjoyment out of it. You know, that's why we surf. Through boards and technique and yeah, being versatile.
Michael Frampton
Cool, man. Well, thanks for your time. I appreciate it. No. And where should I direct listeners?
Samba Mann
Worries. No, that's all right. Anytime.
Michael Frampton
Like do you have a website or an Instagram or?
Samba Mann
My Instagram is just my name. So Samba Mann. But it will be under my name as a coaching website, which I'll probably release in about a...
Michael Frampton
Month's time. Okay. Well, the podcast will probably come out a little bit before then. So I'll just point people in the Instagram direction.
Samba Mann
Yeah, no, I appreciate it.
Michael Frampton
Sweet. All right, man. Cool.
Samba Mann
All right. Thanks, mate. Champion.
Michael Frampton
I'll be in touch. All right.
Samba Mann
Okay, legend. See you.
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