FlexinThis is my trainer, Richard Robinson.I say trainer but I’m not really sure that is the best term for what he does. Strength and conditioning coach, sports scientist, drowning zebra rescuer....I’m never sure what title to give to him, I’ll explain the zebra thing in due course. Rich isn’t one of the guys you see in a gym with the words Personal trainer or PT proudly written in large letters on his polo shirt counting the reps out loudly so everyone can hear. In fact getting him to tell you anything about the stuff he has done and achieved is ridiculously difficult. Former Mr Natural UK, for those of you who don’t know, that means without steroids or growth hormone etc. A degree in sports science and years of working with top athletes, body builders, running health companies and instructing personal trainers and advising on diet to all sorts of people are some of the things he has done that I’ve managed to whangle out of him and that’s just cos i’ve known him for so long. Im not going to bore you by going into loads of depth about the stuff he works on with me but to give you an example. At the start of this winter season he changed my under water training to a very specific re-enactment of being held inside by continual huge waves that only allow me to surface momentarily before the next one hits me. Quite often in big surf I might get caught and wear one or two on the head before getting washed through but his plan was going to prepare me for as many as 10 successive waves on the head with little or no air after fully exerting myself by either catching a wave or falling. It came in handy the other day when I got cleaned up by 8 waves in a set, eventually got into the channel seeing stars only to wear a further 6 on the head and then 20 minutes later another 2. I had flashbacks under water to the training id been doing and it really made me relax and just go with the flow knowing that I can deal with whatever comes my way.
This may appear like a shameless plug for Richard and in
some ways it is but he is really good at what he does and i’ve seen a lot of
people benefit from working with him. I have
recommended him to quite a few people in all walks of life for diet and fitness
stuff and he gets results for them if they are determined in what they are
trying to achieve.
Oh and the zebra thing….No word of a lie, a zebra was
drowning in Portrush harbour and he helped rescue it in his boat! So when you see the guy in the gym with the
polo shirt on and the big letters on the back ZEBRA RESCUER you’ll know that’s
Ricky. richard@bespoke-pt.co.uk
Reef Inspection (photo credit Big Wave World Tour)
I have just released the second edition of my book Surfing mennie Waves. The book is a re-edit of the original but has lots more photos than the print version. Im lucky to have such a good group of photographers around me and the book is filled with their photos. All the guys Conn Osborne, Gary McCall, Aaron Pierce etc are all friends of mine and I’m so lucky I can look back on memorable moments through the images they captured. Thanks guys. Also want to say a massive thanks to Margaret Robinson for helping me and to Paul Sampson and Alan Simpson for their input.
JP has just sent me over some new boards for the winter complete with future fins. Excited to try them out.