When I arrived to interview Kim Hellman, Executive Director and founder of the Grom Project, she opened the door to her home with a warm smile as she had done for so many promising kids of San Diego’s burgeoning surf community. Sitting with Kim at her kitchen table like old neighbors, she confessed that her Mira Mesa home was much quieter than her previous home in Cardiff, which was filled with a constant buzz of the talented cast of groms from the Grom Project.  

“You’re Good. Get Better,” Kim would tell the local groms crashing in her living room like Gabe and Nick Garcia, Josh Hromin, and many others. She told them this with good reason -- the groms had talent but needed help.  With a background in public relations and coaching, Kim hooked up with San Diego’s legendary Gary Taylor, who was working with the Professional Surfing Tour of America and Van’s Triple Crown, and the other side of surfing revealed itself to Kim.  

Kim encountered countless kids who “were in a nebulous area” of their life, distracted by contests, sponsors, and the general complexities of being young.  These talented youths were being told to wear this watch and only to sport that type of sock all the while being fed dreams of going pro.  “It was clear” Kim recognized, “that for these groms it was go pro or nothing.” They needed help.  They needed help becoming the professional athletes they aspired to be, or they needed help understanding the vast opportunities outside of becoming pro that are just as rewarding and exciting. And so the Grom Project was born.

Actually it was the Grom Bus that Kim had initially organized for the kids to see their heroes rip in real life.  She proposed the idea, and the kids immediately bought it, but the sponsors didn’t.  The bus wasn’t marketable enough, and as Kim always sensed, there needed to be more. The Grom Project was then created through surf trips, BBQ’s, video nights, a Web site, and, of course, Kim’s living room.  She spent countless hours filming in the water and editing video at home with groms like Adam Knox and Ricky Whitlock, all the while educating them with the knowledge of the industry and the soulful values of surfing they needed as they encountered the tribulations of competing and becoming sponsored.  

Just like the groms who began to find more success in their surfing career, the Grom Project itself is an example of growth and maturity.  They are now supported by organizations such as the Western Surfing Association, Interscholastic Surfing Federation, Board Retailing Association, and Mike Gerard with US Surfing.  Thanks to a grant from Quiksilver, the Grom Project is currently in the process of starting the Inside Edge Athlete Development program.  The program will feature nine workshops that will focus on the particular skills an up-and-coming grom needs in order to be successful.  Pros, industry insiders, and athletic trainers will be among the many guest speakers teaching subjects that range from “Sponsor Relations” to “Nutrition.”  Imagine surfing in front of an ASP judge and then getting to sit down with him to learn about competition strategy.  

From the gym to the beach to the classroom, the groms will learn what it took years for the pros to figure out, and all of it will be taped and placed online for others to reference.  The Web site, along with a monthly newsletter, will provide content to serve as an educational tool for whoever wants to use it.  Unknown kids, parents of the groms, and even the average surfer, grom or not, can find something of use, whether it’s a video on surfer-specific athletic training or employment opportunities in the surf industry.

The Grom Project has an endless supply of kids becoming more skilled with each set of waves, but the resources are limited.  Donations to the Grom Project have been contributed in the form of money, professionals offering their time and knowledge, meeting places, etc. Check out www.GromProject.org to see how you can contribute, or just to scope out what may likely become the faces of surfing’s future.