NOMB Surfteam: surfcoach Romi

NOMB Surfteam: surfcoach Romi

Our surfteam in Fuerteventura is growing: meet surfcoach Romi.

Originally from Slovakia, Romi got stuck on our homebase island Fuerteventura many years ago. Like most us us, Fuerte’s neverending waves and sunshine make it impossible for her to leave.

Having surfed for many years and learned the hard way how to prove herself in the line-up, Romi decided to take her passion of surfing to the next level, and train to become a surfcoach.

We were lucky enough for Romi to decide to do her mandatory practical training with us last year. Her positive attitude in the water, her neverending smile (and paddlepower) and her ability to learn and implement, quickly turned her into an irreplaceable part of the team. Leaving us no other possibility than to offer her a space in our surfteam upon completing her practical training. And yeah, she said yessss!!

Here are a few words for you by Romi herself:

My name is Romana Babicova and I was one of the lucky ones to find my biggest passion, surfing. It took only couple of sessions, and my world started to spin completely around surfing. After many many many wipe outs and lessons by the ocean, I learnt a lot about values as patience, modesty, respect, sharing and more. Surfing brings me happiness and happiness is only real when it’s shared. Another important reason why I became a surf coach is, that there won’t be less surfers in the water, only more. I want to help to create safe environment on the line up for all of us.

Romi will be supporting our surfschool in Fuerteventura. She speaks fluent English and Spanish, and her German is really good, too. Romi & Angie are a great team, synced in their approaches of high quality surfcoachings. While headcoach Angie heads off sometimes to coach our surftrips, Romi will hold the ford in Fuerte. That means: all year round we offer our trademark high quality individual surfcoachings.

Sounds great, right?? We are super excited to see NOMB Surf grow and being able to support a young surfergirl in her professional career. Welcome to the team, Romi 💙

¡Hola, Ola! – our dictionary to the Spanish surf language

¡Hola, Ola! – our dictionary to the Spanish surf language

Let`s write a book! That`s how it all started. Surf coach Angie and camp chef Miris were sitting at a beach in Galicia when the idea struck. Why not write a book that helps people communicate in a Spanish speaking line-up?

A dictionary for surfers

The potential use of the book is obvious: it gives travelling surfers an opportunity to communicate, impress and avoid bad vibes in a Spanish speaking line-up. We as travelling surfers are at the bottom of the wave hierarchy, that`s a fact. Showing respect to the local surf community can be done by following the surfing rules, and also by trying to communicate in their local language. No need to be perfect but at least it shows that you are making an effort.

A surf book idea was born

Camp chef and NOMB Surfer Mirjam Loosli, aka Miris, is an incredible artist. Out of nowhere she comes up with the idea of a hilarious illustration and brings it to paper. This way the famous washing machine was born. We as surfers know the feeling of being tossed around by the waves. It really does feel like a washing machine, right?

When surf coach Angie saw Miri`s Instragram post with the washing machine, she was once again blown away. How does Miris do it? And even more important, how can we tackle more of her creativity out of her brain and onto paper? An easy solution popped into Angie`s head: let`s make a book! Containing Miri`s illustrations. And maybe even some funny surf trip stories.

The making of the book

It didn`t take much to convince Miri of the book idea. She was immediately hooked on the idea of creating a surfing book. The idea was set and the two chicas agreed to brainstorm and talk via video call in a month time.

Poco a poco (little by little) the idea of the book turned into a project. And what a hell of a project it was. Turned out that both Angie and Miris had underestimated the amount of time and work it takes to create a book. But as they both love a good challenge, they kept going.

When Angie and Miris met on Lanzarote for a week of surf tripping in warm water, things went serious. The idea of inventing a dictionary for surfers took form. They wanted to make it easy for surfers to learn. Instead of having to study the old school way they decided on visual and textual Eselsbruecken (mnemonics). Plus adding an actual dictionary part containing the translation, the pronunciation and a short description. That`s what it looks like:

Four chapters full of words and phrases

The title of the book represents not only our gratitude towards the ocean but also the contents of the book. ¡Hola, ola! is composed of four chapters:

  • Gone Surfing
  • Surfing Equipment
  • Social Skills
  • Surfers World

The 1st chapter `Gone Surfing` includes important words like wave, current, left and right. In the 2nd chapter you will learn the essential words like surfboard, wax and fins. The 3rd chapter, `Social Skills`, teaches you easy to remember phrases like saying hello or explaining that you don`t understand. In the 4th chapter we will take you into the real world of surfing and make it easy for you impress with common surfing words in Spanish.

We hope, you will enjoy ¡Hola, ola! and are certain that you will be loads more confident, catch more waves and experience fun and beautiful moments in Spanish speaking line-ups. Pleases dedicate a wave to us once in a while!

Sea you in the ocean!

NOMB Surfnews from Fuerteventura

NOMB Surfnews from Fuerteventura

`Don´t fear change, embrace it`

The past six months have been a bit of a bumpy ride for everyone worldwide. No exeption for us at NOMB Surf. Cancelled surftrips, cancelled surfcoachings and travel restrictions affected our surfcoaching operations to the maximum degree.

But with every challenge and change, there comes growth. And we here at NOMB Surf are embracing the new normal and reinventing ourselves. Sure, there has been a tear or two shed, and sure, there have been some moments of complete frustration but we take it as part of the growing process.

NOMB Surf activities in autumn 2020

We are grateful that the local restrictions on Fuerteventura allow us to operate our surfschool and coach individual surfcoachings without any restrictions. COVID-19 safety measures are implemented in our operations but as we only coach private lessons it´s easy to keep the distance and follow the safety guidelines. All you need to do is get to the island 😉

Encouraging Fuerte´s female surfers

While international tourism is still limited here on the island we have taken the chance (and time) to coach and support some local chicas.

Encouring the girls here on the island to learn to surf, or to overcome their fears and progress in their surfing, this has always been something I wanted to do. The bumpy times we live in right now have given me the time and motivation to give back to the community.

– Head Surfcoach Angie

You can follow the progress, challenges und fun times of the local NOMB Surfchicas on our social medial channels.

Not on Fuerte? Our Online Surfcoachings will help you

For those of you who are not able to train with us on Fuerteventura we have designed a new NOMB Surf feature: Online Surfcoachings. You will need a little bit of surf experience though in order to benefit from the online coaching.

How does the online coaching work? As with all surfcoachings we first will determine your challenges and goals and set you reachable targets. You will be asked to send us photos and/or videos of you surfing. Surfcoaching Angie will then draft you your own personal online coaching containing:

  • an analysis and feedback of your surf pics / videos
  • surf theory to make you understand your fields of error
  • physical exercises for you to practice at home
  • carver skateboard / balance board exercises to prepare you for you next surfsessions

All this will be wrapped up in a video (approx. 30min) and send to you. This way you can watch the coaching all over again, keep practising and check on our areas for improvement right before taking off on our next surfadventure.

Brand new website

New challenges, new look. We are proud to present you our freshly designed and pimped website. The site makes it easier for you to find out more about our surfschool on Fuerteventura and also about our surfcoaching trips worldwide.

It also explains you our customized surfcoaching methods, used in our coachings, surftrips and also our online coachings. We hope, that you will enjoy the new NOMB Surf online experience we have created for you.

Upcoming surtrips

Travelling has become a bit of a challenge these days. Last minute bookings seem the way to go, as you never know if you might be able to fly/get home the next day. We have adopted to the worldwide happenings and have changed our booking policy accordingly. Making it easier for you and us to stay flexible.

The following NOMB Surftrips are planned, and still have surfspaces available:

  • #IrishIdols (07/11 – 14/11/2020), 7 days surfholiday in NorthWest Ireland
  • #FuerteFloater (23/01 – 02/02/2021), 10 days surf & fitness camp on Fuerteventura (closed for bookings)
  • #FuerteFuerza (20/02 – 27/02/2021), 7 days female surfcamp on Fuerteventura (info to be announced)
  • #Galiciando (08/05 – 22/05/2021), 14 days intensive surfcamp in Galicia, Spain
  • #Galiciaddict (29/05 – 05/06/2021), 7 days intensive surfcamp in Galicia, Spain
  • #CornwallCalling (September 2021), 7 days surfholiday in Cornwall, England
  • #TaiwanTwister (November 2021), 14 days adventure surftrip in Taiwan (info to be annouced)

We are optimistic that we will be able to run all of our planned surfcoaching trips but will only go ahead with them if it´s safe to do so, and local regulations are met.

We are here to help you improve

NOMB Surf stands for indiviudal surfcoachings, it´s all about you. Whatever goal or issue you have, let us know and we will try to help you improve. And don´t be shy if you feel unsecure about fear or emotional issues. You are certainly not the only one and we are here to help you overcome your insecurities.

If you are intersted in joining us on one of our incredible surftrips or train with us on Fuerteventura, get in touch!