Being A newbie is humbling

the truth is, when starting from literally nothing in a sporting field, you’re gonna look like a moron. period.

no, you’re not going to dive straight into it and be all like ” awe yeah I’ve got natural talent and am all of a sudden out at the backline surfing barrels”. you can try, but I would’t suggest it… especially not during the cyclonic swell. its been a bit of a shock for me, as I was pretty much top of my game when I was horseriding because I had done it my entire life. By the time I reached thirteen I was basically living at the Horse Safaris, working with the guests, training horses, riding out into the bushveld as a sort of backup guide. I felt like the ultimate macho man, being only thirteen and strutting my stuff with the horses because i knew how to handle almost every situation that was thrown my way, right from a runaway pony to having to deal with Elephants charging the herd of riders.

with surfing, I’m literally on the same playing field as your average six year old surfer grom. I’ts humbling. swallowing pride is something that I’ve had to learn… and pretty quickly. Its not a nice feeling when the girl that’s two years younger than you paddles past you, rocking her shortboard as she gets right out to the backline and rips passed you on a colossal wave, her hair flying out perfectly behind her as she gracefully winds up and down the wave face. Meanwhile I’m fumbling around in the foam waves, my hair literally blinding me when I try and catch a wave and leaves me clinging to my board trying to get out of my own mess, while the boys on the shore more than likely stare at me in confused awe as to how someone could possibly screw up so much as myself . I have to constantly remind myself that your average fifteen year old surfer usually has about ten years of experience on them already, not a measly four months like myself, so I swallow that pride. Ill be there one days… even if it takes ten years… all in all, its more the realization that that fifteen year old girl is basically me but in the surfing world whereas I was in the horseriding world, strutting her stuff because she knows she’s the macho man out there… oh the pain of this realization. perseverance is key, and even if I may still not know what in this world I’m doing out there in the water, I have faith that one day I will…