Ocean Thunder Europe Ltd - the Company

Ocean Thunder Europe Ltd is a company that has been established to conduct the Ocean Thunder surf rowing events in Biarritz, South West France.  The directors of this company are Corinne Meadmore-Berset, Richard Meadmore and Andy Fox.  There is a relationship between Ocean Thunder Europe Ltd and Ocean Thunder in Australia.  Ocean Thunder in Australia has given the right to Ocean Thunder Europe Ltd to use the brand name Ocean Thunder.

The event Ocean Thunder World Surf Rowing Championship is a private event staged and managed by Ocean Thunder Europe Ltd with input from Ocean Thunder in Australia.  The opportunity for surf rowing crews throughout the world to participate in this event is by invitation from Ocean Thunder Europe Ltd only.

Our Vision

Surf rowing is a spectacular and skilful sport which has its origins in Sydney Australia 100 years ago as a surf life saving craft.  It is a relatively new sport in the remainder of the world with exception of Cornwall in the south west of the UK.  Ocean Thunder Europe Ltd recognised the south west of France as the ideal place to launch surf rowing as a world-wide sport.  The City of Biarritz has welcomed this new sport into the region and pledged continued support.  Our vision is to develop the Ocean Thunder World Surf Rowing Championship as the annual event of choice for every surf rower in the world to compete in, and to establish Biarritz as the acknowledged global centre of surf rowing.

Our People

Corinne Meadmore-Berset
 
Corinne is French and discovered surf rowing when she lived in Australia. Since she has lived in the UK she has been the driving force behind the creation of the European Surf Rowing Federation (ESRF) in 2007. Corinne is an Olympian from Barcelona 1992 and during her rowing career won 19 French Championship rowing titles. She has been involved in rowing clubs for many years, the French Rowing Federation and the ESRF.

Corinne is the Event Director and her role is to promote high a level of competition and to develop this spectacular sport in Europe as a marketable product.  
 
Richard Meadmore
 
Richard is an Australian who has a life-long involvement in surf life saving in Australia. Rowing surf boats has been his passion within surf life saving and he has been competing in surf boats for 40 years.  His understanding of the sport was a primary influence on the decision to stage the event in Biarritz and the creation of the Ocean Thunder Europe Ltd vision.
 
Richard is the Director of Competition and he uses all the knowledge from his experience and network he built up in Australia, UK and France to deliver an outstanding sporting event.

Richard and Corinne actually met at a surf-rowing event in Hendaye in SW France. Corinne was meeting fellow 1992 Olympic rowers and was persuaded to fill a vacant seat in a surfboat. Richard was the sweep they chose and the rest is …history.

Andy Fox

Andy is British and, having got his first rugby ball for his second birthday, has been a passionate sports player, coach and supporter all his life. He may be able to claim the first surf-sport in the UK in that, in 1967 he paddled a battered old fibre-glass canoe in and out of the fierce North Sea waves at Whitby until it broke apart beneath him. A keen interest in rowing was a natural follow-on, as his son won honours at Henley Royal Regatta and represented GB Juniors.

Andy is the MD of Powerhouse Productions, a globally-successful video, events and conference production company, which he formed in 1984. Andy and his team of broadcast TV professionals invested in Ocean Thunder 2008 by supplying all Outside Broadcast equipment and producing the TV programmes at no charge.

Andy’s role as the Director of Media & Communications Production is to ensure that the exposure of Ocean Thunder World Surf Rowing Championships to a global TV audience will provide a worthwhile investment of time, effort and money for sponsors and participants alike, and to help promote and develop the sport.