Stanley Norman: British champion surfer on World Surfing Games & Olympics
- Published
Stanley Norman was crowned British champion in April
Stanley Norman doesn't normally get nervous, but there's no harm in letting the butterflies flutter now and again.
Lockdown put paid to any surfing competitions for the Briton. No more trips chasing the waves around the world; instead it was the Cornish sea, luckily right on his doorstep.
That meant the nerves crept in when competition finally resumed in April. But they seemed to work to his advantage, because on the one occasion he did let them in, he was crowned British champion.
"It was nice to get all the dust off," the 18-year-old tells BBC Sport. "I was a bit nervous, but it was nice to get the win and there was a couple of good people in the final who I beat.
"I was really stoked. To get the win was sick."
Norman's life has long revolved around his sport. He was scouted at the age of eight, and his parents - who own a hotel in Bude - took him out of school at 13 and he has been home-schooled since, allowing him to devote every inch of free time to his craft.
And so far, so good. He has surfed in all corners of the globe - including witnessing a shark attack in Hawaii 10 metres away from where he was paddling - and has been widely described as one of the most promising groms (young surfers) in the sport.
From 29 May, Norman will compete alongside some of the world's best in El Salvador at the World Surfing Games, as part of a six-strong British team that also includes Luke Dillon, Harry Cromwell, Lucy Campbell, Emily Currie and Ellie Turner.
"I thrive off the pressure. Obviously there's pressure there but I feel like I take it well," Norman says.
"I'm doing it for me. Obviously I'm doing it for my team and my country, but I have to think about myself as well.
"If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be doing it. I love the sport and everything about it. That's why I'm doing it all the time and why I'm trying to make a career out of it."
'I'm not thinking about the Olympics'
Norman competing at the British Surfing Championships in Thurso, Scotland, in April
The World Surfing Games is the final opportunity for qualification for this summer's Olympics in Tokyo, where surfing will make its Games debut along with climbing, karate, skateboarding and baseball.
The top five men and top seven women will qualify for the Games if they have not done so already via the World Surf League (WSL), and Norman is relishing the opportunity.
"It's incredible. I feel really proud to be representing my country and I'm going with really good people," he says. "It should be fun. I really hope to do well out there.
"It's more for me. The Olympics, it is on the cards, but I'm not really thinking too much about it.
"If it comes, it comes. I'm just focusing on just doing the best I can."
Whether it happens for Norman or not, he says surfing's inclusion in the Olympics is "amazing". Surfing's profile in the UK is far less than in other countries, and that is something he wants to change.
To do that, he aims to compete with the best in the world on the WSL Championship Tour, although he is not putting a timeframe on when he wants to achieve that by.
"I think [the Olympics] is really good for the sport," he says. "It will show people that it is a real sport. Loads of money gets pumped into golf and football and other sports, but you don't get enough attention on surfers.
"I feel a responsibility. It does make me want to train harder. The sport needs to grow and to be taken a bit more seriously.
"My long-term aim is to get on to the WSL - that's the top 32 surfers in the world.
"They go around the world and just surf the best waves all the time. They live the dream."
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