For the Love of Surfing
Written by Jade Wright
The alarm
clock jolts you awake during the early hours of the morning, before the
golden contrast of colours illuminate the sky with another perfect
sunrise. It’s 5AM; your boards’ are strapped to your roof-racks as you
drive the silent roads down to the beach. All the while you can’t seem
to shake that giddy and excitable feeling stirring inside at the thought
that there is something special and new awaiting you down on the
shores. Polystyrene cups filled with your frothy garage caffeine fix in
hand, you head over the hills and smile at the perfect vision before
you. Crisp, fresh waves ready for the taking; the salty spray back of
water in the fresh off-shore wind – it’s all too inviting. Suiting up
and strapping the leash around your ankle, you make your way down to a
sand-dune accompanied with good friends and a bar of wax to share
amongst yourselves. You watch the waves, you count the seconds between
the breaks; choosing the perfect spot to paddle into. It is all part of
the process to get to where you want to be… stealing down the face of a
wave.
To be a surfer you need to have patience and loyalty
toward the ocean. You’ll wear your heart in your throat at the drops
you’ll take. You’ll be consumed with the undying faith you have as you
fall, plummeting down, putting all the courage and trust you have into
it. It is like falling in love – but better. Kelly Slater once said, “I
have felt married to surfing and all it offers at times.”
As a
female surfer living in the Garden Route, I am all too familiar with the
right-handers dwelling in the comforting swells of Buffelsbaai. I
attend the Ross Taylor Surf Competitions in August every year and
finally had the guts to compete in 2012. I got owned by a girl of about
thirteen, doing all these nifty little tricks that I had never seen or
heard of before, but that is one of the beauties of this sport. Age and
sex doesn’t matter – if you’ve got it, you’ve got it.
I took
defeat with pride and respect, smiling admiringly at her as she grinned
with pure delight. A salt-encrusted glowing happiness I remember so well
when I first cupped my hands as I paddled for an intimidating wave,
picked myself up and wobbly cut through the water on my first ever ride.
You learn to move with the rhythm of the ocean, you dance with
the flirtatious waves with everything that you have got. Naturally, I am
a terrible dancer. On land I have absolutely no co-ordination,
but there is something about the ocean that brings everything together.
Suddenly I am whole and able – capable of so much more. It connects me,
it fills me; it makes me fall even more in love with the sport every
time I surrender myself to it. In a quick, fluid movement I become
graceful with bended knees, eyes cast forward; aided with but a board
and a wave.
Surfing can be your best friend, your one true love.
It can be your medicine after a bad day, your natural high. It
revitalizes your body and soul; it cleanses your spirit of all
negativity. However, surfing is not for the faint hearted. It takes
power, commitment and muscle; but most of all, it takes passion. You
have to have unconditional love for the waves. It is a love-hate
relationship. Sometimes you will get knocked down and feel infuriated,
yet at other times you will have the ride of your life. It is something
you have to learn to accept for the love of the sport.
“Surfing is
very much like making love. It always feels good, no matter how many
times you’ve done it,” said Paul Strauch, a Hawaiian born surfer who has
been doing the sport since the age of four.
Having recently come
back from backpacking and camping my way through Europe – there was
definitely one place that really stood out to me. In between gnawing on
ginormous lamb knuckles and attempting to down litres of beer in the
famous Hofbrauhaus am Platzl in Munich, I went on a bicycle tour with a
company called Mike’s Bike Tours. Right at the end of the bike tour,
after passing through the Englischer Garten we came to a river called
Eisbach. An artificial wave has been created there and I was lucky
enough to experience it first-hand. Surfer’s line up and one at a time
they take turns in surfing this never ending wave.
A permanent wave has
often been described as the best training ground for a new surfer but I
beg to differ. As incredible and as fascinating as it was – nothing
quite beats the feel of a natural wave forming around you. There is
something about a wave being completely unpredictable that one should
learn early on if they want to surf. As a beginner, that is what you
need to learn, the unpredictability, to truly appreciate the sport to
its true beauty.
No wave is ever the same, nor should it be – Enjoy the
journey.
