Introducing Luke Dillon
Talking Comps, Coaching, and Cornish Slabs
At the end of 2024 we welcomed 2x British champ, GB Surfing performance coach, and all round charger Luke Dillon to the C-Skins family. Following a few wintery waves at the start of December we caught up with Luke to learn more about his transition into his new role, and what he’s got planned for 2025.
Hey Luke, can you introduce yourself to the C-Skins community?
Hi everyone. I’m Luke Dillon, I’m 29 years old and from Newquay in Cornwall. I’m the Performance Coach at GB Surfing.
What does your role as Team GB Coach and Performance Manager entail?
As the performance coach at GB Surfing I coach the Great Britain senior teams at the ISA World Surfing Games. I also coach our progression squad, which is our Olympic development programme. We're in the early stages of running and planning activity up until the 2028 Olympics to get multiple surfers qualified. I’m very much looking forward to having that goal achieved and getting some of our British surfers on the world stage.
What was your biggest drive for accepting the job?
I always wanted to help out the next generation of British surfers who wanted to compete regionally and internationally. I felt like there wasn't too much handed back to my generation and I didn't want there to be a gap for the next ones coming through. It came at a really good time as I was winding down my competitive career. It all happened very quickly and I’ve loved every second of it. It's been great to see the girls go from strength to strength and I look forward to completing our goal of qualifying athletes for the LA Olympics.
How do you view competitive surfing for Great Britain as a whole right now?
I'm really positive about where Great Britain is with competitive surfing. The juniors are doing really well. We've also had some senior breakthroughs over the last 12 months.
We have a programme and opportunity for the next generations to learn, compete and progress, which I don't think has ever happened before. I certainly don't remember this amount of support going into athletes before. It gives them a platform to try and be the best that they can. It also provides something for the younger generation to strive for and everything is geared to help them, which I think is unbelievable really. It's up to the guys and girls to take this opportunity now and in the future.
Where do you think high performance coaching is going in 2025?
I honestly think the sky's the limit. With the wave pools that are being developed there’s no ceiling. Similar to a skate ramp, they give surfers the opportunity to practice manoeuvres, aerials, carves, anything on the face surfing really, repetitively over and over again. We’ve already seen this over the last decade, plus how good the surfers at the top level are at aerials for it. Filipe Toledo was always known for his big open face surfing, lots of carves, and clean rail to rail turns. Then at J-Bay he just pulled off two giant alley-oops on one wave and scored a ten. I don’t think that we're going to stop seeing those types of manoeuvres in the future, and that's really exciting.
Are you continuing your own competitive career alongside your new role, or are you full time training the Progression Squad?
No, I'm not [competing]. I retired in February and have no plans to put the rash vest on again, I'm afraid. It's full-time training with the progression squad, so that involves planning logistics for the next 12 months. There has to be a what and a why to everywhere we're going, so there's always a game plan. We don't just spin the globe, put our finger on a country and head out there.
So yeah, I'm done. I wouldn't say I’m never putting the vest on again, but not in the near future.
What are you and the team working towards at the moment? Are your sights already on the LA Olympics 2028?
Yes, absolutely. We’re setting our sights on LA 2028, which I think does suit us to be able to qualify as a country with multiple athletes. I think it's going to be more UK style waves and if it's somewhere a little bit more high performance, even better. I think LA is going to be a great one for us and that's what we're working towards already.
Where has training taken you this year?
In January 2024 we ran our first long-duration camp in Australia. Following that we were in Puerto Rico in February for the ISA World Games. We ran multiple Portugal camps in March and April before the QS. We went back to Australia in June and then we had a couple of weeks off, then did some domestic training in July. Then we were over to France for the QS. There was the QS in Pantin in Spain and then Anglet, France. The guys were down there for that QS as well. We were over in Jersey for the GB Cup, too. We’re having a quiet end to the year before we kickstart 2025.
Are wave pools playing a role in your coaching plan?
Not really at the moment, but it would be foolish to say that it's not something that we've all got our eye on. As I said before, there's so much opportunity at the moment. It would be great to be able to give our athletes the chance to go and practice manoeuvres over and over again. In our lead up to LA, if it’s available, I think it would be likely that we would seize the opportunity.
Any tips you can share with us?
If you can be really good at the fundamentals and the basics, that's going to take you quite far. There have been plenty of surfers who’ve made a career from just being amazing at a selection of turns. And if you're able to take that to different places around the world, and take your surfing to a high level, then when you compete you're going to go very far.
What tools do you have in your coaching kit? Do you work on in-heat tactics, breath work, psychology, diet etc?
Most of our squad do strength and conditioning with their own private S&C coaches. That handles their training and their diet, and obviously I check in and keep up to date with that, plus injury prevention etc. Some of them have sports psychologists and if that's something they want to work with then they're more than happy to support that.
We've also been working with them on their equipment. Some of the team use their local homegrown brands and some of them have international equipment.
We've also worked with multiple world-class coaches. Mick Kane over in Australia, Andy King (Mick Fanning and Gabriel Medina's former coach), and Richard Dogmar. It’s been amazing to work with them on the beach, have access to private messages with them, be able to lean on them, ask for little tips and tricks, and just to help further advance my coaching. It’s been a huge part.
Why are you excited about working with and representing C-Skins?
I’m stoked to be working with a British brand again, especially a British wetsuit brand. I know a lot of the team riders and the squad and they are a real good bunch. I think that there is good opportunity to build into some projects and go and chase good waves and reefs and slabs. Plus some of the things that I'm interested in in the winter seem to align with C-Skins. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to working on some projects and seeing what the future holds.
Why is surfing important to you?
As a kid, being able to finish school and no matter what the kind of day I’d had or how I was feeling at the time, I could jump in the sea and forget those issues. I could do it with friends or I could do it solo and that was my escape for a while. That turned into the last 20 years, where I was very fortunate to compete and travel to different countries and surf with both the Great Britain and the English flag and win events and meet a load of people. Now I'm able to coach our next best generations and hopefully take them to the Olympics and get them medals, so it's been an unbelievable journey. I owe a lot of that to my mum and dad and the people that I grew up with. It’s been a crazy journey and I’m just very excited for this next chapter now.
Lastly, the most recent epic session you had? Because it can’t be all work and no play…
Actually, it was just last week. I went surfing with Lucy Campbell, Alex Libby, and Toby Donachie. We had Luke Gartside as our photographer and we went and surfed a slab in the south west and scored. It was pretty fun. It wasn't overly big but still powerful and there was a really good atmosphere out there. It was good to share waves with those guys and have Luke there in the danger zone shooting for us. That's what I absolutely love at this time of year. I can't wait for that wave and other certain waves around to start turning on and have a good winter.
We're excited to have Luke on the team for 2025 and to follow his surfing, at work and at play, this year.
Luke wears the NuWave natural rubber Rewired 5:4 chest-zip hooded steamer.
