28/08/2026
What’s a “real surfer?”
Someone who surfs. That’s it. Each surfer has their own relationship with the sport that is as unique as a fingerprint. Ask 10 people why they surf and you’ll get 10 different answers. Someone might love the adrenaline of facing down the biggest wave they can find. Others might love to find mild, playful waves where they can switch off from their daily lives for a while and just cruise. Please don’t compare your ‘why’ to someone else’s. And please, as you learn and progress, do not compare your chapter 3 to someone else’s chapter 30.
Being a surfer is less a thing that you earn, and more a lifelong relationship with the ocean that changes throughout the different phases of our lives. Some years pull us away as we tend to other things, other years give us more space to surf more and progress faster. Plateaus, injuries and time away from surf doesn’t mean something has gone wrong, or that you’ve “lost it.”
When you’ve had a particularly bad day in the surf, zoom out across your whole timeline and you may find you’ve had quite a few amazing surfs, some frustrating ones, and that is just the ebb and flow of the sport.
And if you’re just beginning please know: you’re never too old, and it’s never too late.
