Trip Forman: Welcome to the REAL board loft everyone. I'm Trip Forman. We got Matt Nuzzo. What's up? And as you can tell, we are not actually in the REAL board loft. We are in the backyard of REAL. We have a beautiful day here and we are here to talk with you about REAL Zero to Hero camps. Zero to Hero camps for kiteboarding, surfing, and wing foiling. Matt, let's get in our time machine. Let's go back to 2001. Camo jet ski, two-seater. Let's go.
Matt Nuzzo: Four-wheel drive van. Going to the best locations and developing our camp program, which actually Outside magazine picked up Zero to Hero as one of the top 10 adventure camps in the world. If I remember correctly, which is 25 years ago and getting to be kind of hard, we actually beat the grandfather of all adventure camps, Outward Bound.
Trip Forman: We did, which is amazing. So let's go back to what has made Zero to Hero so popular.
Matt Nuzzo: Zero to Hero is how you get into a sport. Our goal is to make new riders every day in surfing, foiling, winging, and kiting. Zero to Hero is a way that you can go with other people that are learning and have a really set up, understandable way to get into the sport safely. The thing that differentiates our programs versus a lot of other instructional programs is that this is not a half day of recreational activity. It's three days of full immersion. You're coming in as a rank beginner and you're leaving as a self-sufficient rider in that sport, able to purchase your own gear and go home and practice.
Trip Forman: That was a huge thing for us. In the beginning of kiteboarding, we saw that people would take a half-day lesson, and this was in the stone ages of kiteboarding, so it was really challenging gear and hard to get any progress. We decided to put together a camp. We thought about other camps we admired like Camp Woodward that had multi-day camps. We formulated the Zero to Hero kite camp and saw that in three days, people are having a really good time. They're getting that self-sufficiency and they understand the gear. They have a variety of different conditions and equipment. 25 years in the making, we've continued to evolve that camp curriculum in kiteboarding, then added in surf, and now we've added in wing Zero to Hero. We've taken what we've learned over those 25 years and applied it to these different sports so people can get an education, learn safely, and do it on their own terrain. Let's look at if it is all water time, because that's the number one question we have. Am I going to be kiting, surfing, or winging all three days, dark to dark?
Matt Nuzzo: Well, if you did that as a rank beginner, you would not be able to walk for the next two weeks because of so much output. If you think about jumping out of an airplane, you're not parachuting the whole time; a lot of it is learning how everything works. In each sport, we're dividing it into the different components involved. In kiteboarding, you're learning to fly a kite, then learning to ride a board, and then combining the two. There is on-water and on-land training for all the different sports we're teaching.
Trip Forman: That's where our programs excel—taking the briefing in the classroom and applying it to the water, or taking what you've learned in the water back to the classroom. You're building these foundation blocks of knowledge and skill, practicing them in the water with a coach, and then reviewing them on land. Who do you see coming into these programs? Where are our students coming from?
Matt Nuzzo: They're coming to us with a will to learn. When you leave a REAL Zero to Hero, you're going to go to the beach and have a really good understanding of what gear you need to use, if the conditions are suitable, and how you can train. You'll actually be a steward of the sport. In kiteboarding, you can launch and land kites and help people on the water safely. There is a huge range of skill sets depending on the ability level people come with. We get kids and adults from 10 to 80 years of age. A 20-year-old athlete with board sports experience might be going upwind and jumping after three days. Someone with no skill set in flying a kite or riding a board will leave being able to launch and land their kite, ride both directions, and safely get back to the beach. Each Zero to Hero has a different curriculum that defines self-sufficiency. We focus on making you an independent rider from day one.
Trip Forman: Let's dive into the Zero to Hero surf camp. We see so many people wanting to get into surfing. There is paddling, catching the wave, standing up, and riding. What else do you need to know to be self-sufficient and be in the right place at the right time?
Matt Nuzzo: A lot of it is understanding weather and equipment. Half the battle is using tools like iKitesurf or Surfline to understand forecasts so you can schedule your time off. It's not only about riding that one wave and getting the shot; it's about getting yourself there, getting gear on your car, and understanding the conditions. Having the skill set involves paddling, pop-ups, and dry-land or on-water training.
Trip Forman: Let's talk about wing foiling. It is exploding and growing really quickly. There's a trend where people think they can just teach themselves because it looks easy and safe from the beach.
Matt Nuzzo: It is common for people to take Zero to Hero after trying it on their own and realizing it’s harder than it looks. Winging is dynamic and accessible on any body of water, but you're combining two different sports: foiling and riding the wing. In our Zero to Hero wing camp, we separate the two. We teach wing handling on land first, including how to generate power and go from kneeling to standing. Then we take that onto SUPs with no foil to learn wind direction and power. Separately, we teach you to foil behind a jet ski using stable foils and short masts. As your skill set improves, you merge those two until you're out on foil with the wing.
Trip Forman: At the beginning of the wing foiling program, you kept mentioning "more time on foil." What does that mean?
Matt Nuzzo: That's just what we do here. There are so many ways to ride a foil, whether it's e-foiling, tow foiling, kite foiling, or wing foiling. If you spend more time on foil, you gain confidence with mast height, turning, and how to fall. We have all the resources, tools, and jet skis in the REAL rental shop to put more time on foil.
Trip Forman: When you watch what happens here versus someone trying to teach themselves, the difference is dramatic. You see people foiling everywhere here, whereas the self-taught person is often just drifting. The last thing I want to touch on is the statement "you have to take a lesson." Nobody wants to have to do anything. 25 years ago, we decided we wanted to make school cool and fun.
Matt Nuzzo: 25 years later, we have much better resources and more stoke. When you're in lessons at REAL, you've got private access to the Pamlico Sound. We have one of the few places in the sound deep enough to kite foil and wing foil right out our backyard. We continue to evolve the curriculum every year as gear and techniques change to provide more stoke and make new riders every day.
Trip Forman: In this 25-year span, we've seen students mature, get married, and come back with their spouses and kids. Part of that evolution is having accommodations on-site at Waterman's Retreat, a restaurant and bar on-site, and four-wheel drive shuttle vehicles. In the surf program, we can find a private peak for learning or honing skills. In places like California, there are hundreds of people in the water. With our surf camps, we can find a stretch of beach where it’s just our camp, sometimes with no other humans period.
Matt Nuzzo: We're still keeping school cool and making it accessible for families and groups. You wouldn't jump out of an airplane without an instructor; you shouldn't do these sports without proper baseline instruction. Zero to Hero gives you a knowledge base so you can be safe and have a vertical learning curve. Those first three days will save you months of failure and potential injury.
Trip Forman: Matt, thank you for taking this trip down memory lane. If you have questions about Zero to Hero or want to book a kiteboarding, surfing, or wing foiling camp, reach us at 252-987-6000 or realwatersports.com. Thanks for tuning in.
