SURFING AUSTRALIA’S
OLYMPIC
CHARGE
A
ussie Olympic Surfing Hopes Receive Massive Boost for Japan 2020 with Bede Durbidge announced as Surfing
Australia Elite Program Manager.
Former Pipe Master, Triple Crown Champion and long-time
World Surf League (WSL) competitor Bede Durbidge has
accepted the role of Surfing Australia Elite Program Manager
in a major boost to Aussie medal hopes at the 2020 Tokyo
Olympic Games.
After coaching Hawaiian John John Florence in his world
title winning 2016 campaign, he said his focus is now building
on already strong relationships with Australian athletes and
coaches with gold medals the goal.
Durbidge, who incredibly returned to elite level competition
at the beginning of the 2017 season after a life-threatening
injury suffered in late 2015 at the Pipe Masters, will begin his
new role in early 2018 and will officially retire from competitive
surfing at the conclusion of the Australian WSL leg in Margaret
River in 2018.
The primary purpose of this new role is to ensure there
is high quality daily training environment, coaching, and
competition solutions available for nationally identified elite
athletes who will form part of the Australian Olympic Squad
to be announced in January 2018.
The role will work closely with high performance coaches
working with nationally identified surfers across the network
and will lead the Australian Olympic Surfing Team at the key
benchmark event the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Complimenting Durbidges’ appointment, Sporting high-
performance specialist Kim Crane, who has a lifelong
connection with the ocean through surfing, outrigger canoe
016 | Issue 16 // Winter 2017
racing and stand up paddle-boarding and who is also a
former member of the Australian Women’s Hockey Team, has
accepted the position of Surfing Australia’s National High-
Performance Director, further bolstering Australian surfing’s
Olympic gold medal ambitions heading into the 2020 games
in Japan.
Tailor made for the position, Crane not only has a genuine
passion for surfing, but extensive knowledge and industry
experience in high performance sport. Her impressive
background includes involvement in multiple Olympic
campaigns, sports administration and competing as a top-
flight athlete.
Crane’s recent role as the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)
Performance Manager has been the perfect primer to her
new role. At the AIS, Crane was responsible for leading the
engagement of key internal and external partners to develop
high quality, effective high-performance plans and strategies
in order to increase the likelihood of achieving and sustaining
performance targets.
Prior to her AIS role, Crane worked at the New South Wales
Institute of Sport (NSWIS) as Manager High Performance
Sport & Excellence. This role required her management
oversight of up to 16 Olympic sports, and she led the NSWIS
Coach Excellence Program, including facilitation of a Coach
Development Tour to the London Olympics. In the final year
of the London Olympic Cycle, she also spent time as Hockey
Australia’s National High-Performance Manager.