Joe Surf: A coach with a sea of experience

Bill Sharp’s Huntington Beach office is modest, has a perpetually sandy tile floor and enough plastic chairs to fill a backyard patio.

“Watch out for the wet spot on the floor,” Sharp tells a visitor. “Leaky ceiling.”

But other than Lifeguard Tower 0, which sits atop the Huntington Beach Pier, Sharp’s office is probably the best in town.

Sharp runs Huntington Beach Surf School, a city program, and his “office” sits on the sand just a few hundred feet south of the pier. It’s easy to miss, considering the back half of the building is made up of public restrooms.

The door into Sharp’s office, though, faces the ocean, a view Sharp has become accustomed to during his decades as a professional surfer and coach.

Sharp’s coaching skills are about as wide-ranging as you will find. Just last Sunday, he had a private coaching session with a 6-year-old. But Sharp also coaches the best in the world.

South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag finished fourth last year on the World Surf League’s World Championship Tour, and made it a point to work with Sharp when the tour made a stop at Lower Trestles.

Buitendag finished second in the contest at Lowers, one of three second-place finishes on the 10-event tour.

“As a coach, you have to be adaptable to different levels and different strengths and apply the same principles,” said Sharp, 63. “It’s experience that gives you that. Being an ex-competitor and knowing the temperament you have to have to compete is key.”

Part of the reason Sharp helped coach Buitendag is because Sharp also is from South Africa. He grew up surfing off the coast of Durban, what Sharp calls the “Surf City” of South Africa.

“My grandparents lived in Durban, and we lived in Northern Rhodesia, which was the Congo,” Sharp said. “When we could go on summer vacations we’d go to Durban and stay with our grandparents. I loved the water — I was a good swimmer — and when we left Northern Rhodesia we resettled in Durban, a block away from the beach.

“My high school was like where Duke’s is. We’d look out the window in the afternoon and say, ‘Oh yeah we’re going surfing.’ There was a whole crew of young kids, and we all used to go surf together, and that’s how I started, living right on the beach.”

Sharp turned his love of surfing into a “professional” career, Sharp emphasizing the quote marks.

“I was a sponsored surfer by Leman Surfboards and Rip Curl wetsuits,” Sharp said. “At the time I was at college studying, and they said we’d like you to turn pro because we’re starting the pro movement. That was 1977, and the pro movement around the world, they were trying to formulate it. We started the South African Professional Surfing Assn.

“There was a nucleus of great surfers, we all formed that body, and away we went. We were pro surfers … who weren’t getting paid. They gave you free wetsuits, gave you a deal on a board. When we went away on trips, they would take you and help out.”

Sharp had some success on the local pro tour and got the opportunity to travel the world. Eventually, though, real life kicked in.

“In the late ‘70s, I did well in the trials and surfed in the main events,” Sharp said. “It was good, but I got to a stage where I had to decide whether to pursue my career or keep on pro surfing, which wasn’t paying a lot of money.

“Engineering, I was a marine engineer, and I said it pays a lot more money so … Then I said hey, OK, enough playing around.”

About the same time Sharp’s pro career was ending, his son Wade was starting to surf competitively. So Sharp jumped feet first into coaching. Wade, now 44, surfed professionally for awhile, and now coaches Costa Rica’s national team.

Sharp eventually moved to Huntington Beach in 2001 after winning a green card lottery.

“I was the coach for the South African Team for the 1996 ISA (International Surfing Assn.) World Games here in Huntington, and I came out here and I stayed a month, and I stayed with (local shaper) Barry Vandermeulen; I had worked with his dad in surfing administration,” Sharp said “While I stayed here Barry said to me, ‘Why don’t you enter the green card lottery.?’ When I got back home his dad called me up and said, ‘I’ve got the forms, we’ve been trying for five years, you never know.’ I filled it in, and six months later, ‘Congratulations, you won.’”

Sharp took over HB Surf School in 2006 with a partner. A couple years later his partner left, and Sharp began running the program himself. He continues to coach all levels and helps out with Huntington Beach High’s girls team.

Women’s surfing has a special significance to Sharp.

“Back in South Africa, we really struggled with ladies for our national championships in our state; that’s when it all started,” Sharp said. “I started really giving incentives for young ladies to participate, and coached them more.

“In the old days, all the expertise went to the guys, and the girls, don’t worry about them. But then we realized if we wanted to win our state, we needed the girls to help us — and that’s where it started, me working with girls.

“I get a lot of enjoyment watching them because a lot of girls in surfing, they get the rough end of the stick. Guys always drop in on them. The pecking order, they’re right at the bottom. I always try to instill in the girls to be confident and to earn their place in the lineup. And if a good wave comes through, they must take it and show that they can ride it.”

For Sharp, it’s all about the process, whether it’s the 6-year-old being pushed into whitewash, or the world-class surfer.

“As a coach, your reward is seeing people achieve their goals, growing as a person and putting those experiences into life,” he said. “Never give up, face your fears and deal with it because that’s life.

“There’s a lot of parallels with surfing and life. Some days the waves are really big and you don’t want to go out. But you got out, and maybe you’ve caught one wave, but you faced your fears. It’s the same in life. Sometimes there’s difficult challenges and you learn to problem-solve and to deal with it. That’s the reward as coach to see that.”

JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at [email protected].