Last time you had a killer windsurfing session?
I am pleased to say that was my last but one sail. To be honest, I have not fallen in love with Cape Town, it’s gusty at best and that doesn’t suit the bigger sailor, though my opinion changed dramatically when we turned up at Paternoster. The swell doesn’t always get in there too often so when we turned up to see surfers catching endless waves peeling over their heads I had that sinking feeling, it’s picture perfect, the times I don’t get to sail !. Sure enough I was stuck on the point shooting down the line as the team took it apart. An hour passed and I declared the sun too high in the sky to shoot, guess I might as well go out ! I know we’ve all heard it before “best ever” and all that, but this really was. I came off the water claiming I’d like to buy the house on the corner of the beach, this place flattered my sailing, ok, so it’s nothing like the guys I’d been shooting and I’m pleased to say there’s no video evidence, I mean there’s no point in coming off the water feeling like the man and being proved otherwise. As if I wasn’t sold on this place already, the sun dropped and I bagged some of the best shots I’ve ever taken in South Africa.
Last time you sailed until your body couldn’t take any more?
Didn’t I say I wanted to buy a house at Paternoster? It’s everything I said it was, so I was pushing for a return trip the next day. With the best shots coming from the evening I suggested I got out there first. There’s no point in running around with some of the world’s best if you don’t take advantage so I’d been asking Skyeboy what I had to do to better my wave riding. So after a few warm-up waves it was time to put his advice into action, push out into the flats and push into the bottom turn. There was more instruction to follow but I didn’t get past the push in the bottom turn as my Achilles tendon snapped. It went off like a gunshot so I knew something was wrong. As soon as I got back to the beach I ran my finger down the back of my leg until it popped into a hole, that was the moment I knew my body couldn’t take any more !
“ Maybe I’m a bit odd in my thinking but I find a positive in everything ”