Former head of Instagram’s international development, Kai Elmer Sotto, recently told me that he likes to surround himself with people who are nostalgic about the future—not the past. Upon speaking with Trace founder and CEO David Lokshin, who I was lucky to interview last week for episode #22 of the Surf Simply podcast, I immediately knew what Kai was talking about.
These days, video cameras are perhaps the most important tools for surf coaches. Seeing yourself surf is often mortifying, but it’s also the first step towards improving your skills. Improvement is something we should all want, regardless of what level you’re at. Being a better surfer means having more fun in a wider range of conditions. What makes the camera so useful is that it provides objective data, which helps a surfer evaluate their performance and bring together what a maneuver feels like with what is actually happening with the board and wave.
It’s hard to imagine a day when video cameras are replaced for teaching new movements and maneuvers, but it doesn’t fare so well when trying to show a surfer subtle degrees of change in, say, speed and power. Of course, as a coach, we can use the tell-tale sign of the spray, but David Lokshin’s Trace technology is the first and most accurate way to find out exactly how much more speed you are creating during, for example, a forehand cutback.
Trace co-owner Jordy Smith powerfully advocating the new technology at home in South Africa.
Jordy Smith has partnered with David, and the Channel Islands team is now on board, too. I think this is just the beginning for Trace and its technological siblings. As the data becomes more accurate and surfers and coaches get better at knowing what questions they want to ask of that data, this tool will only become more powerful. After all, data is knowledge and knowledge is power. And I’m feeling nostalgic about the future.
Listen to the full interview with David on iTunes or at surfsimply.com/podcast.
