Meet the team here at Gnarwhal Skate School
Ricky Tunbridge
Lead coach and founder of Gnarwhal Skate School.
Rick has been teaching skateboarding in the area for over 3 years. He’s been skateboarding for 24 years now and brings a lot of experience to the team. He also teaches snowboarding and has done at local and international level for 10 years now and leans a lot on what he knows from this and adapts it to skateboarding.
He’s a big kid at heart and when he’s not at the skatepark you can find him out and about with his 2 kids getting into all sorts of mischief.
Chris Humphreys
Coach and ideas man
Chris has been helping teach at Gnarwhal for a couple years now. It all started a few years back when Rick was teaching Chris’s youngest, Reed, to skate. From there his middle and eldest kids, Jase and Amelia (Ethel), started to learn to. As the school grew Chris threw his hat in the ring and started helping out and became the right hand man.
Chris and family never miss a session and it’s been amazing to watch them all grow together.
Chris is an avid athlete and when he’s not sakting with the kids he’s normally out running, swimming or cycling training for triathlons and other competitions he regularly enters. If he’s not doing anything active, you’ll find him much the same as Rick, at the hobby desk or gaming table playing or painting Warhammer with his kids.
Drew Wright
Coach and general good guy
What is there to say about Drew. He embodies skateboarding. If skate parsing was a person it would be Drew. For a young kid he’s miles ahead of almost everyone on and off the board. He learns tricks with ease and is the best hype man to have at the skate park, especially when he brings all the weird contraptions with him.
Drew’s been a massive help over the last year, helping run and entertain kids at our various skate camps we’ve put on. We couldn’t do it without him.
Drew lives at the skatepark, but if on a rare occasion he’s not there, he’s probably in his shed making awesome products for his project sk8kraft. (You should definitely check it out and buy something.)
Jodie Tunbridge
Business stuff and admin
Jodie is Ricks wife and the behind the scenes organiser. She keeps the diary going, helps with booking in lessons and groups as well as many other tasks.
Jodie can skateboard but chooses not to and instead let’s Rick get hurt as someone has to look after the kids at home. You’ll sometimes see her at lessons chilling and taken photos. Or trying to control our 2 kids. If you have any questions or queries about what we do, Jodie will know the answer.
Jess Baker
Behind the scenes guru
Whilst she won’t admit to it, Jess has been pivotal in getting Gnarwhal Skate School off the ground. She has helped from day 1, sitting on a picnic bench when I came up with the idea. She designed the logos for the school, helped me with the website and helps me with coaching ideas and adaptive coaching. She’s been a snowboard instructor for 8 years now and when shes not with me skating or at the dry slope, she’s following her dream round the world snowboarding and teaching in some incredible places. We really wouldn’t be here without her and her input into what we do so go give her a high 5 if you see her. Also look out for her new business venture launching soon……..
Leoni Harris
Safeguarding officer
Leoni has been with the team since day one looking after the safeguarding side of our operation. She has been an infant school teacher for over 10 years and is no stranger to keeping kids safe, having participated in almost every safeguarding course there is. If you have any concerns regarding childrens safeguarding please contact Leoni who will then lodge the concern through the relevant [email protected]
