Me and I was hanging out a little and I was thinking about some conversations I had in the line up. It was an eventful dawnie, and we had just spotted a Bronzie tail wagging in a breaking wave towards us(Ragged Tooth shark, brown in color). There was a lot of mullet out, so no wonder. I was also attempting to surf a left, since I am a backhand surfer and all, and really sucked at it.
As we moved to one of the rights, we spoke about the many different kinds of surfers. Many of those profiles go hand in hand with personalities, or maybe the number of years experience. Some of these characters really intrigue me. I know, I also fall in there somewhere, and so do you. Have you ever seen this one type of guy, who shows no emotion, never gives a wave and the only time he makes a sound is when you just look like dropping in on him?
He regularly locks into a barrel, makes one huge hack, lines up and then amazingly locks into another barrel. Afterward he paddles back to the takeoff furthest out to wait for the next set. No hoot, no smile, not even a squint for the glaring sun. When the next set comes, he is on the first wave and so the pattern continues. After he had like ten or so waves, he parks off and surfs every third or fourth set or just leaves without a word.
Enter the same guy, a couple of years later. His high school Rugby injuries are beginning to catch up to him, and he is not so fast on the takeoff anymore. The swell is getting dik (heavy for the non ZA readers) and he finds it increasingly difficult to to get on a wave or to get any wave at all. He is annihilated a couple of times as the closeout catches up with him as he desperately scratches to stay out of the way of the next set. Some of the younger guys that have been surfing with him all along for the last couple of years look onto his demise. They secretly laugh in their neoprene sleeves. He has no friends.
Yep, he's getting old and the spark is gone. "Aag Shame. Poor ballie. Give him a wave, he's really desperate" And then you remember the days when he did not allow anybody to catch a wave and never spoke to anybody in a whole session because he thought he was better than his fellow surfer or whatever his philosophy was. By now, who cares anyway?
The sea is a good school master, and it teaches us lessons every time we frolic in the liquid classroom. Water time can amount in wisdom, or pride. As all things in life, you have a choice as to how you are going to respond to it. You also have a choice as to what you are going to dish out into life.That is ultimately going to come back to you. Call it the sow and reap principle.Input vs. Output, Karma, whatever. You give waves when you're young, you'll get waves when you're old. Share a couple of smiles and greet your fellow surfer, and others will do the same to you when you're older.
Who knows, when you are really that old and find it nearly impossible to catch a wave, somebody may actually remember thar smile, sit back and say: "Nooit, it's yours. You can have it" and hoot you on as you surf off into the orange sunset.
A Blog entry by Paul van Jaarsveld, taken from
http://www.jbaysurfcam.com 
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