Joey Buran: ‘If you can lead surfers, you can lead anyone!’
Joey Buran branded his name in surfing history in 1984 on the North Shore of Oahu.
After countless heats and expensive trips to competitions, he found himself perched atop the crowd’s shoulders at Pipeline, the first mainlander to win the Pipe Masters.
But his honeymoon was short. A year later, he was stuck in bed with malaria after a trip to Indonesia.
Paddling out through sets at Pipe was off the table. Mental health struggles and a suicide attempt followed.
He eventually made it back on tour and added a few more wins to his name.
Over 30 years later, he has coached a handful of national teams, including the U.S. squad, and now serves as a pastor in California.
Buran spends his time mentoring others and sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience about the sport, growing up on the beach watching for sets, and the tough life.
SurferToday recently asked Joey about the book and career.
It’s been a while since you surfed on the world tour, but you’ve stayed close to the sport. What surprised you most about yourself while you were switching roles from competitor to coach and now author?
As I entered my 60s, I was thinking way too much about retirement and slowing things down as a whole.
I realized that as much as I’ve done in my younger seasons of life, there are many more things I want to do in my fourth quarter.
Writing the book motivated me and made me think that the story isn’t over, and if I choose to challenge myself, there are even new challenges and adventures to be pursued, embraced, and lived out.
I read the book and loved it. How has the reaction been? Any exciting feedback?
Great! From Bob Hurley to Tom Carroll, people who have read the book have really enjoyed it.
I’m looking forward to seeing more responses as the book gets out there to the general public.
In “Beyond the Dream,” you wrote about your struggles with depression. How did the surf tour and its struggles prepare you for ministry and mentorship?
Being a pro surfer in the 1970s and 1980s required great innovation and flexibility. Nothing was stable, and things were often disorganized.
In short, you had to have passion, faith, and a positive attitude to stay at it and keep your pro surfing dreams alive.
You had to stay positive in the midst of personal disappointment – like going to South Africa and losing in your first heat in both events.
That’s a long way to go and a lot of money to spend to feel like a loser and not be discouraged. Stuff like that happens all the time in ministry!
So, for sure, pro surfing taught me to stay focused and positive toward my goals, contrary to what I might be thinking or experiencing.
It was for sure good training for being a pastor! Leading the PSAA was even more important. I’ve often said that if you can lead surfers, you can lead anyone!
You have spent much of your adult life teaching others, but during your time on the world tour, you didn’t have many mentors yourself. What didn’t you know about yourself and looking back, do you wish you did anything different?
I accomplished more than I previously thought, but not nearly as much as I could have had I been more faithful and diligent in certain seasons of my life.
In short, while I have no trouble believing I can do anything, I do, at times, struggle in the daily grind of doing the little things that require time, patience, and personal growth to successfully get them done.
Do you wish you had a mentor back then, one that could’ve given you that advice?
Yes. Although the great Peter Townend became my coach in 1983, I was already in the final season of my career.
I don’t remember anyone in the late 1970s or early 1980s having a coach. Peter Townend and the Bronzed Aussies were the first to even think that way.
That being said, a life coach and or career manager would have been hugely beneficial for my career.
At the time, we were all such trailblazers. There was no one from our past to look at who could lead us.
The first wave of great coaches came from those who were peers in my generation.
There can be no disputing that Peter Townend and Ian Cairns were the founding fathers of all great surf coaches.
Truly, they were way ahead of their time. Their revolutionary vision and concept for managing and coaching pro surfers in 1978 is essentially the model we see with all current top professionals in 2024.
Coaching Team USA. Were you ready for this challenge when you got the offer? What are some big takeaways about the sport in the U.S. today?
While working with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOC), I received a lot of high-end training in regard to all sports.
Through time, education, and skillful evaluation, I improved at how to match training expectations with the age, skill, and interest of the American surfers I worked with.
Simply put, I went outside the world of surfing for my coach training, and I was able to bring to USA Surfing the skills I learned in the USA Olympic program.
The USA Junior Team that I recruited, developed, trained, and coached went on to win gold, silver, and gold from 2017 to 2019 at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships.
You write in your book that as a coach, you also served as an unofficial pastor. What did this look like?
While serving as a coach for Team USA, Team Great Britain, and Team Chile, I was barely compensated or not at all.
The motives in coaching for most sports are the love for the sport and sincere care for the athletes and their families.
Even now, for current Team USA coaches like Ryan Simmons and Shane Dorian, there is no way their financial compensation is anything even remotely close to what they are worth, the skills they bring to the table, and the time and energy they give to the USA Surfing program.
There has to be a higher calling in it. For me, it was to shine for Jesus in how I served and cared for all of those I led.
Former USA Team Manager Greg Cruse would often say to me that he saw me as a true Pastor to the USA Surf Team, serving, encouraging, lovingly correcting, and guiding athletes, parents, and all those involved in the program.
Establishing a vision, culture, common goals, respect, unity, and a positive atmosphere – this is what I tried to do as coach of the USA Surfing program, always to the glory of God.
Most of the time, I succeeded, but certainly sometimes I failed as well, but never for lack of good motives or sincere care for all in the program.
I will let God determine the true fruit of this labor when I get to eternity.
Joey Buran’s book “Beyond the Dream” is scheduled to be released on September 3, 2024.
Words by Max Van Rees
