I was in two not one but two serious car accidents (both I was the victim and not the cause) in 2016. The first one in May I broke my arm in multiple places and whilst still in a cast and having physio, I was involved in the second accident but escaped unscathed. That was not the end of my unfortunate situation as due to circumstances I left my job in Advertising and was not able to surf for 5 months due to the recovery of my broken arm. Understandably my passion and stoke for surfing diminished as did my performance once I was able to surf again.
Then Chris gave me a call and asked me to assist the Cape Town surf camp, which I agreed happily to do. Little did I know at the time that, that 2 week stint would get the stoke back into my surfing.
During one surf lesson, one of the girls had battled repeatedly with her pop-ups and had not yet fully ridden a wave. I could see how despondent she was as each lesson started, until her luck turned on a little white water, she gave three of her biggest paddles ever, popped up perfectly and rode the wave to the beach.
She was beaming from ear to ear and proud of herself and that smile on her face forced me to reflect on the joy surfing has always given me. Someone can have the best ride of their life on a 1ft white water, turn and look at me with tears of joy…
From that moment my passion and stoke for surfing was back stronger than ever!
