Martin has been coaching surfers since 1986 and still loves working with motivated surfers to this day. He is in fact the “coach’s coach”, having coached and mentored the majority of Australia’s premier surf coaches and wrote the original International Surfing Association’s level 2 surf coaching course that is used to up-skill surf coaches globally.
Besides guiding surf coaches, Martin has been Australia’s national coach on 12x occasions, guiding the Australian team to gold medal winning performances in both junior and open world title competitions.
Martin’s vision is to help as many motivated surfers as possible, to enable them to reach their surfing potential – as the better you surf, the more fun you have on a daily basis.
“Surfing and coaching have been such a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. I started surfing around 1971 as a 12 year old grommet and first started coaching surfing in 1986, after completing a university course in sports coaching. I loved working with motivated surfers back then and I am just as enthusiastic now in helping surfers improve their surfing. It’s been a great journey, one I hope to continue for a couple more decades to come.
In those early days, I had to create a career in surf coaching, as there wasn’t one at the time. Working with surfers is such a joy though, and that was the catalyst for my perseverance. Seeing a surfer pull off a new move, fix faulty ones, or help surfers win in competition – just made me want to be a part of surfer’s development even more.”
The thing that all this experience gives you is a critical eye and the confidence to work with surfers of all performance levels. Additionally, it gives you the ability to see into a surfer’s future. “What is their next developmental step” that a surfer needs to take to further their development. It’s not rocket science – just patient development, building a performance one skill at a time.
My time coaching surfers on the internet has also been a journey. I created my first internet site – Ripstix.com – in 1995. Basically a shop window into my surf training business. Ripstix.com was my early attempt to spread the word of my coaching to a larger audience. I then created Surfcoach.com ten years later, a site where I sold packages of coaching videos – much like what some surf coaching apps do now. Then in 2019 I launched Martindunn.com.au which takes online training to the next level, showing surfers how to surf better like before, but now, also providing the training surfers should do to fast-track surfing improvements. Martindunn.com.au has been renamed to the website – esurfr.com – Martin’s online membership site.
New in 2026, Martin’s first mobile app – “Surf Reader” – a one-of-a-kind FREE app for surfers, designed to “teach surfers how to read the ocean” before surfing. leading to better decisions and riding better waves while in the ocean.
There’s so much I could tell about my journey and that of my surfers, but suffice to say – all these years of on-the-beach experience and building instructional websites just give me the confidence to help surfers be better. No matter a surfer’s level, having a critical eye in your corner when trying to surf better, is the best gift you could give yourself.
