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Brett Simpson considers his experience as the first-ever surfing coach for Team USA, which included Carissa Moore’s gold medal win and a stacked team of John John Florence, Kolohe Andino, and Caroline Marks, one of the most memorable experiences of his career.
Simpson shares more about the background that led him to become a surf coach, what it means to coach surfing, and his reflections on Moore’s Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 victory.
Brett Simpson grew up, not in a beach setting, but in the world of American football, where his dad, NFL defensive back Bill Simpson, played for eight seasons (five with the Los Angeles Rams and three with the Buffalo Bills). The younger Simpson grew up playing ball sports and gaining a competitive drive, but he didn’t discover surfing until age 11.
Simpson says, “Once I did it for the first time, I just became hooked.” The young surfer quickly mastered the sport, surfing at the world-famous Huntington Beach pier in Surf City, USA. He says, "My dad thought I was nuts at first. But then he saw the passion I showed and just how much I loved it." He soon came around to appreciate his son's newfound sport and eventual career.
Simpson says of his surf career, “The biggest goal of my surf life was to make the World Tour and compete at the highest level of the best waves in the world, and I was able to achieve that.”
He competed on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour for six years, from 2010 to 2015, earning several podium finishes. His biggest wins, though, came at the U.S. Open of Surfing, where he won two titles in 2009 and again in 2010.
In 2010, he famously advanced past Kelly Slater in the semifinals to win his second consecutive title. Slater himself said of Simpson at the close of the event, “He got very smart out there, not lucky. Smart.”
This strategic aspect of surfing—being calculated about positioning and wave selection—a skill that Slater has famously mastered—made Simpson a perfect fit as the first U.S. Olympic team coach at Tokyo 2020.
At first, Simpson resisted the idea of coaching; he told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview, “When I was on tour, I said I would never coach. It was one of those things where I can't do it, you know? And then a year or two out of it, I realized it’s really everything I love.”
His first job was coaching the USA Junior Team. At the 2019 ISA World Juniors Surfing Championships, Simpson coached one athlete to victory in the U18s, with two finalists in the women's and, notably, a young Caity Simmers, who earned fourth place in her division.
Simpson says, “I had just come off tour, and I realized I could teach them about mistakes that I had to learn from—knowledge that I wanted to pass on to the younger kids.”
This experience coaching the Juniors team led to coaching at Tokyo 2020. “It was such a treat,” says Simpson. "I look back on memorable things in my career, and it was by far obviously one of the most memorable.”
Simpson already had a relationship with the Tokyo 2020 U.S. Surfing team, which included John John Florence, Kolohe Andino, Carissa Moore and Caroline Marks. “I knew them from traveling, competing, and being around it all. But it was cool on a different level.” Simpson points to the camaraderie and the opportunity to get to know the athletes individually as one of the highlights, as well as earning their trust as a coach.
He explained his role to Olympics.com, “It's not necessarily that you're telling these surfers at this caliber what to do. It's more that they lean on you when they're not watching the competition. They lean on you for where the best wave is being ridden. I’m just giving them the wealth of knowledge that they need, so when they go out there, they have the most success they can.”
Olympics.com asked Simpson to relive Moore’s gold medal victory. He played back the day, which featured erratic surf at Tsurigasaki Beach due to the tropical storm. “Going into the finals with Carissa, conditions were changing,” he explains. “It was one of those things where, you know, she loves a routine and having a plan—most surfers do, obviously. But from where the men had surfed their final to where we ended up surfing women’s was completely different.” He explains how he and Moore had agreed on her paddling to a different wave section from where the men had surfed earlier in the day.
Simpson explains, “I think she had the same idea but wasn't trusting it as much. And when I said it, she was like, ‘Okay, that's the plan.’ And it ended up being executed to perfection. And now she's the first women’s gold medalist, and she's going for another. So, it's pretty darn cool.”
Caroline Marks landed just off the podium in fourth. Simpson adds, “She was hard-pressed not to get a medal. She surfed so well the whole event.”
All gold medalists have the opportunity to acknowledge one coach with the USOPC’s Order of Ikkos medal for their leadership in achieving world-class success. Moore awarded hers to Simpson, acknowledging the helpful role of his positioning calls in her tricky finals heat.
Simpson shares that coaching is a lot about sharing information the surfer in the water misses out on. He says, “A lot of times, the coaches will be in the water, they'll be on the boat, or they can sit where they have a line of sight.”
In those instances, the coach can provide valuable info to the surfer during competition. “The surfer in the water doesn’t have a line of sight on what their competitor does on the wave,” explains Simpson. “They see the wave coming in and see that they're dropping in, but they don’t really know what they did at that moment.” He explains that his role is to “relay to them, in the quickest moment, maybe as they're paddling back out, what that score was and why, and also relaying which waves to be looking for … really quick.” He adds, “You're obviously not telling them what to do. It's more just giving them nudges.”
Carissa Moore talks with Team USA coach Brett Simpson at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach on July 26, 2021.
Simpson won’t be coaching the U.S. Team in Tahiti, but he was willing to share his insights garnered from his experience competing at Teahupo'o, where the sport will be contested at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
He expects that the U.S. Team will be looking to spend as much time surfing the wave as possible ahead of the Olympics.
Teahupo'o is a technical barreling wave that will be a different break than Tokyo 2020. "Knowing where to sit and being comfortable there is going to be important,” Simpson shares. “I've had heats out there where it's big, and you see this wave lurch up, and you end up paddling yourself out of position, and it ends up that there's no way you can catch it.”
Simpson says that the most important advice he can give to the surfers at Teahupo'o is to hold their line: “When you see that wave come in, you just flip it and go, and it's intense—it's an intense wave. Just identifying that and trusting it is the hardest part. But I think that's where they'll benefit the most.”
He’s looking forward to watching the event—“I'm the biggest fan even from afar.”
And he’s excited for the world to see the best surfers ride this one-of-a-kind wave. “I think Teahupo'o is a phenomenon. It's one of the ninth wonders of the world,” he says. “When the wave is good, it's pretty darn perfect—you make the drop, and you have a really good chance to make the barrel.” He adds, “I think we’re going to see some crazy barrels, and it’s going to lift our sport to the next level. I'm excited to cheer, and again, I think we have a really good chance at gold.”
The Paris 2024 surfing events will be held in Tahiti at Teahupo'o, one of the globe's most celebrated surf spots. The competition will take place over four days in a 10-day window, from 27 July to 8 August.
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