Club Highlight: Folsom Lake Surf

We sat down with Folsom Lake Surf’s Club Services Manager, Dineen Fraser to learn more about how Surf has helped her club, players, coaches, and administrators and their upcoming season goals:

What is the greatest value add for Folsom Lake being part of the Surf Nation community?

The best aspect of being a member of Surf Nation is belonging to a sporting culture primarily driven by providing great experiences to its members. The network is well-managed, and each of the clubs in it is run by very talented people. Having access to best practices shared across top clubs in the country has helped Folsom Lake Surf to grow organizationally into one of the top clubs in our region. Being a part of Surf Nation allows us to provide more meaningful experiences for our players to grow and be seen on national and international stages. The quality of our overall experience as a member of Surf Nation only validates our decision to join it.

As you look at the start of 2024 and beyond, what are some of the KPIs you have set for the Club this year?

Our Executive team has just completed its strategic plan and vision for 2024-2027 and has set club priorities around the development of players, coaches, referees, club operations, our community, and a focus on the retention of our members. Player and coach development and retention will be our near-term strategic focus for the rest of 2024.

What are some of the biggest changes you have made to the Club structure over the last year?

This year, we completed a two-year overhaul of our club governance and operational structures. We worked hard to wrap operations around the basic concepts of providing a great player experience in our programs and providing great customer service to our members. We created an unorthodox office structure and implemented standard business processes that reflect these core objectives.

How has the Surf Select program impacted the players within your community?

It opened doors for so many of our players looking for additional high-level playing opportunities. Many of our players competed nationally and internationally, creating lasting bonds with other Surf players from around the network. It also provided best-in-class travel opportunities for our families. As this program grows in size and scope, we are excited about what the future holds for our players and coaches.

The City of Folsom is one of the largest growing areas in NorCal, with this is mind and population growth please share a little more about your player development pathway that provides various opportunities to those moving into the City?

To accommodate the growth we are experiencing, we have restructured the relationship between our large recreation program and our competitive program to define our end-to-end player development pathway. Most notably, the way we identify and promote recreational players into competitive teams. Offering supplemental programming for the players making the jump from recreational to competitive has resulted in the overall quality of our Academy program. With more talent moving to the area, we have seen an overall increase in the quality of our teams, and we have been able to accelerate overall targets for higher level league participation for our competitive teams.