Micro Surf Academy

Micros Micro Surf Academy or MSA is a mentoring and coaching academy for intermediate to elite surfers. MSA is designed to improve progressive surfing, manoeuvre technique, competition strategies and advice on events, equipment, fitness, nutrition and all at that is required to perform at the elite level in surfing. MSA’s current stable of athletes include up and coming junior surfers right through to elite professional surfers competing on the Championship Tour (CT).  MSA is headed up by retired CT professional surfer, Glenn “Micro” Hall...

Glenn ‘Micro’ Hall

Micro grew up in the small town of Umina, New South Wales, Australia.  Supported by his parents, Micro reached an elite level of surfing and spent most of his 20’s surfing the world qualifying series renowned for being a hard slog.  In 2013 Micro realised all his dreams as he became a rookie on the world’s surfing Championship Tour at the ripe age of 31.

4 rounds into the 12 round 2013 CT season, Micro’s rookie year was dealt a severe blow, injuring his back in a flogging at the renowned “Cloud Break”, in Fiji.  After missing out on an injury wild-card in 2014 (which some people still today talk about as a controversial decision by the industry’s governing body), Micro managed to fight his way back onto the Championship Tour in 2015 before retiring from professional surfing at 2015’s seasons end in Hawaii.

In late December 2015 when asked to look back at his CT career, Micro reflected with; ‘My most proud moments in my life, aren't surfing really. It was getting married and having kids and having good friends. Looking at my CT surfing career specifically - probably coming back from my injury in 2013. I was pretty proud of myself for that and even the year before I qualified, I was out for a year with a busted ankle and the fact that I didn't give up, that was something I was really proud of in my career.’

Surfing has been the main part of Micro’s life since he was about 9. He was hooked from the start and enjoyed dissecting each turn and ways to improve his surfing.  Micro started to get results in local, state and Australian title events and at age 16 Micro was approached by the Australian Institute of Sport or the AIS to participate in its ‘surfing’ program. The program was run by Martin Dunn and regularly utilised coaches who were surfing on the world tour at the time.

Only a handful of junior surfers in each age group were selected for the AIS surfing program which provided regular coaching with the best coaches in the industry which Micro was exposed to throughout his entire junior career.

The knowledge Micro gained from his time in the AIS program was instrumental to his success as a professional surfer and more importantly now as ‘Head Mentor’ and ‘Coach’ at MSA.  With his time with the AIS, a decade on the world qualifying series and his years surfing and now coaching on the Championship Tour - Micro has been studying surfing at an elite level for 20+ years.

In recent years Glenn "Micro" Hall has become something of a super-coach on the CT. In a short period of time, he's been able to help facilitate a career turnaround for CT surfer Matt Wilkinson, a fairy-tale-like return from injury for Owen Wright, and back-to-back World Titles for Tyler Wright again both on the CT.  Micro also works with Championship Tour athletes Conner Coffin and Tour veteran Ace Buchan.

In addition, Micro works with a number of Qualifying and Junior surfers.

For Micro it is more than just focusing on the competitions. During the offseason Micro likes doing a lot of interesting work with his MSA athletes both physically, mentally and adding the fun component of staying engaged, and creating a bit of longevity in his athletes’ careers.

His approach also involves in getting his athletes together and chatting about things outside of surfing and making sure that all aspects in their lives (even outside of surfing) is in order.

‘I try to help to relieve the pressure from their surfing. We catch-up a few times in the pre-season, pretty much just hang out and go surfing and run some drills and do some training, but also go have a couple beers, and dinner to try and understand each other better’.

Micro’s role as head of MSA is more than coaching.  It includes mentoring MSA’s athletes and in particular MSA’s junior up and coming athletes.

‘Just hanging out for a few days or a week, the right topics come up and it can be anywhere - on the way to the beach, or sitting in the car park, or any day to day activity.  Having time together creates those moments to talk about the right topics and I suppose, they let their guard down here and there, and we get to really talk in depth about certain things. To me, that's just as important as results.

Surf Mentoring and Coaching is an honest passion of Glenn “Micro” Hall’s and his dream and vision behind MSA is to pass on the knowledge he has gained from his many years of surfing at an elite level.

MSA and WSL

The World Surf League (WSL) organises the annual tour of professional surf competitions and broadcasts events where the athleticism, drama and adventure of competitive surfing is played out.

It results in travel by the world's best male and female surfers to the most remote and exotic locations in the world. The WSL allows fans to fully immerse themselves in the sport of surfing with live event broadcasts, social updates, event highlights and commentary on desktop and mobile.

The World Surf League is headquartered in Los Angeles, California with offices throughout the globe, and it brings the athleticism, drama and adventure of pro surfing to people worldwide.

The original governing body of professional surfing, the International Professional Surfers (IPS), was founded in 1976 and spearheaded by Hawaiian surfers Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick. The next evolution was the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), founded in 1983 by Ian Cairns and giving birth in the 90's to the company philosophy of "world's best surfers, world's best waves". 2015 saw the ASP officially become the World Surf League.

Currently there are 11 events on the Men's Championship Tour and 10 events on the Women's Championship Tour.  The top 34 men's surfers and top 17 women's surfers that qualified to compete in the Championship Tour battle it out and the male and female athlete with the most points at the end of the year are named World Champions.

There are two main rankings systems, the Championship Tour rankings and the Qualifying Series rankings. The CT rankings determine the World Champions while the QS rankings help determine who will qualify for next year's Championship Tour.

There is also a “Big-Wave“ tour, “Longboard” tour and a “Junior” tour.

MSA has several athletes across the WSL tour categories as well as intermediate surfers trying to push onto the elite level tours. MSA’s stable of athletes evolves year to year.  As the elite come to the end of their careers the juniors grow and develop and their careers in elite professional surfing begins.