Overlooking Main Break at the beautiful Margaret River. Photo: WSL / Kirstin Scholtz
I started surfing in Southern California. I was spoiled. I got to surf all the time in great spots, some as close as fifteen minutes from my house. Then I relocated to Singapore for a job. Don’t get me wrong, I love Singapore but the closest option for surfing is a two and half hour flight to Bali. What all of this means is that I try to surf when I can but don’t get to surf very often. I was recently on a work trip to Australia. Since it was a work trip with multiple cities and I wasn’t sure how much time I would have I didn’t bring a board with me. I ended up having a weekend in Perth and decided that I would make the trip to Margaret River for the weekend. The place is famous for amazing waves and amazing wine. That’s worth a trip, right? My wife and I spent our first day wine tasting. The few surf spots we visited were completely blown out with high winds. I started to get disappointed thinking I wouldn’t be able to surf in this amazing place. After hitting a few vineyards I spot a guy who looks like he just got out of the water and who works behind the bar serving the wine tastings. I start talking to him and he tells me don’t bother with the river mouth or a number of the other well-known spots because it’s too windy. Kook move number one: ask the local about the local spots that aren’t in the tourist book. He proceeds to tell me of a local reef break protected from the wind because of the location and shape of the beach around it. He told me how to get there without any hesitation on his part. He basically gave away this beautiful local spot with a smile and a glass of wine and sent me on my way.
That evening I went just to check it out. It was a pristine stretch of beach and a spotless reef break with almost nobody around and head high waves. It was one of the most perfect spots I’d ever seen in pictures or in real life. I promised myself that I would surf there the next day even though I knew it had to be a local’s spot and even though I had no board. It was just too beautiful to pass up.
The first part of going surfing in an unknown place was done. I had found the spot I wanted to go to. Since I didn’t have a board I figured I would just rent one. I’d rented boards outside of Sydney without a problem so I figured it would be easy here. It wasn’t. There were only a couple small shops and they didn’t rent boards, but they directed me to surf school that might. I called the surf school and it turned out to be a local woman and her husband who give lessons when they can. I explained I knew how to surf but that I really needed a board so I can get in the water. Kook move number two: show up with no board and start asking everyone in town where you can score one. She told me that they weren’t giving lessons but they were at home and I was welcome to come by their house for a look at the boards they had to rent. Yes, she invited me over to her house. The boards she had out were pretty big and bulky. When I explained that I surfed much shorter boards at home she told me that I could take her board and a couple of others and just see which one I liked best. Now to be clear I don’t mean “her board” as in a rental that she owns I mean “her board” as in her personal board – a very nice short board. I don’t know about you but I would have a very hard time giving out one of my boards to a complete stranger who was obviously from out of the country. She did it without hesitation and didn’t charge me anything extra for taking more than one board from her. She told me “just open the gate to the house and leave them inside when you’re done” and with that she drove away. I told her I wouldn’t use her board unless I really had to.
I couldn’t believe it. So far one local guy had given the blatantly-out-of-town surfer a local spot and the surf school owner had given that same blatantly-out-of-town surfer her own board. But I was too excited to think about it and off I drove to that stunning spot. I walked out to the beach, saw the break and couldn’t believe my eyes. Not a single person in the water, not a single person on the beach and the waves were perfect. There was one other guy getting ready in the parking lot with me but besides that, nobody! I decided not use the personal board of the woman I rented from and instead took the short but fairly bulky, obviously generic brand rental board with me into the water. Kook move number three: prancing down to the beach like an excited school boy with an obviously rented board. I got out to the break and caught a wave or two but nothing special. Soon enough the guy from the parking lot joined the kook (me) in the water. We struck up a conversation, he told me he lived just five minutes from that break and surfed there almost every day for years. I was just waiting for the “what are you doing in this spot with that rented board, kook?” moment but instead he started giving me tips about the break. Kook move number four: clearly not knowing the reef I was on and paddling in and out at the wrong spot. The water was so crystal clear he started pointing out the reef to me and giving me pointers about where I should line up with respect to the reef, the best spot to catch the waves without too much paddling and the best spot to paddle back out again. With that insight I started catching some really spectacular waves. Some of the best waves of my life in fact. Not just because of the size and shape of the wave but because of the unique place that I was in. After a while the one other guy out there left me all alone and I sat there on my bulky rented board and enjoyed one of the best surfing moments of my life. All alone in that gorgeous ocean just sitting there looking around in awe of how beautiful everything in front of me was. I never wanted to leave. Eventually I did paddle in, changed and drove off in awe of what I had just experienced.
We read a lot these days about localism and kooks like me getting run out of “local breaks.” We even read about fights and lawsuits over local spots. But maybe we don’t talk enough about the other side of it all. The side of surfing that brings people together. All I can say is that when it came time for me to be the kook I saw a side of surfing that showed me what it should really be about. When it was my turn to be the kook I didn’t get run off or get my ass kicked. I got welcomed into one of the most beautiful places I’d ever surfed. I was welcomed without hesitation and I was welcomed with trust. Trust not to share the location with every person I see, trust to return a stranger’s personal board to her house even if she wasn’t there, and trust to respect the place I surfed. In return I did everything I could not to break that trust. And in turn something really beautiful happened and showed me an extraordinary side of surfing that I hadn’t seen before and doesn’t get talked about enough. Quality waves in amazing places yes, but more than that, quality people who actually want to share how inspiring and beautiful surfing can be.
