Bim surf adventure 10 years later.
Growing up, I always thought of Barbados as the island where some of my ancestors ‘hung’ out before coming to Guyana. Oh, and of course crop over, where I was not allowed to go because of the no-blackballing clause my mother put on me (Americans call it twerking, but it's more than that. It's snake oiled waist movement). The first time I visited the island was in 2007. I vaguely remember being taken to Crane Beach by the Virgin Atlantic team during a 6-hour layover. There I was eating flying fish and I saw this long hair pale dude surfing. I watched in amazement because the sea was choppy and I would never put my toe in it, much less be so far out on a piece of wood. I sat on the beach for hours, took images of the waves, chatted with a rasta guy, met the surfer at the end, and took a shitty picture with him. Look, no matter how expensive the camera, I just cannot take a good picture. Accept me this way.
10 years later I found a cheap Air Canada flight (£321 return) for 10 days, London to Barbados. But this time I had a purpose, to surf. Life is a funny thing in log base 10.
My easily sun burnt friend and I headed down to the island, in the height of the rainy season and well….It was raining. But it was the warm rain that you didn't mind leaving perpetually wet London for. I was so ready to surf, not even a thunderstorm would have stopped me. All I wanted to do was get-to-the-WATER!!!
“I want to paddle for myself and surf for me!”
Silly me though, I thought island and immediately assumed cheap. I'm on a postdoc salary remember. Barbados was more expensive than Copenhagen! Granted our measure was the price of milk in the supermarket and Denmark has cows. I can’t remember seeing any cows in Barbados. So we bought fruits, and I went to a Guyanese friend’s garden and got some corilla, spring onions, and other veggies to cook ourselves. We did have the best apples!!
Barbados had me in weird mental spaces. I loved the surfing, the turtles, the crystal clear water, and the surf instructors (Noah and Jay are brilliant). But I disliked how expensive it was and how many people were unemployed, out on the streets, just chilling. Especially knowing that there was a David Yurman store on the island.
I’m usually a positive person and there was one day I couldn’t go out with the group surfing at Freights bay because I had the big sup like board and I wasn’t strong enough to carry it far out and paddle. At first, I was like yeah that’s ok, I’ll get there someday. But then as I sat there looking at my friend and a few other people paddle and glide back in, my heart ached. It was the moment I realised, if I don’t get my stuff together and be more fit I will never get out back and I’ll always need someone else to push me! I want to paddle for myself and surf for me! So I contacted surffit.life.
I think that was the moment I became serious about surfing. I don't think I've gone mental, but at that moment, I decided that paddling out had all the values I wanted to have in my life and there was no more, oh let’s just go and see... It became, time to be a better person/surfer because honestly, it's the only time I am happy at the moment.
Even though I went back to Pebbles beach and had massive amounts of fun, everything changed for me. In the quiet contemplation of being benched on the beach, I saw what I wanted.
I spent all the days surfing with Ride The Tide. Noah was THE guy! I laughed soooo much with him. He even had the pleasure of hearing my bum get smacked by a wave. Disorienting, but hilarious! The first day I had both Jay and Noah, they were confidence boosters and it was sweet to watch Noah surf. On the last day, I was out there catching waves on my own. You couldn’t ask for more really. Sometimes a turtle would pop up and say Hej! as you rode in. Sometimes you would watch the rain pick up and pass you by out on the horizon. Things were clicking, but something was missing on this trip.
We missed the last tour of the cave by one minute because we were too busy watching this Rasta guy get paranoid AF(rance) after smoking 'something' in the rum shop. He went from hugging us and telling us to stay humble, then he disappeared (to work?), came back and told us, "You know what happens when you back a rasta man in a corner?" I'm like, "He, ah, lets his locks down?" He catches my soul and says, "It's like when you back a rat into a corner." Now the scientist in me thinks of all animal experiments I have seen over the years and no one backs rats into corners. I didn't get it. But I looked over to my friend and realised this is not the time for me to question this high Rasta's logic.
All in all, we had a great time. We did so many things, but for the most part, they were: watching the sunset on the beach almost every night, surfing every morning, teaching Material Science back in London for an hour over Skype, exploring the island in the afternoon and a bit of wickedness (I mean partying) in the nights. For 10 days. That was it. End of story.
NB Bajan cures for hangovers: Milk, smoking, coconut punch, and a Greek salad.
Surf trip 6/∞: October 2017
Board: 10' or 11' SUP like board
Breaks: Beach break @ Pebbles and Dover
First written January 8th, 2018