Mark Visser jumping off a jet ski into the impact zone at Jaws…the clip is only a few seconds, and worth a watch. Nuts.
Except it’s not that nuts, if you’ve trained and thought about doing this kind of things for years and years. In the accompanying Magic Seaweed article, he says actually he was always a ‘pussy’ in the water, even when competing in big waves. He was afraid. It’s sensible to be afraid — even small waves can hurt you. But even more sensible to do something about it, which he did. Then he shared it with Shane Dorian, and he approved.
Good enough for me… So I bought the full Ocean Warrior course via MagicSeaweed some time ago (once I was assured it wasn’t just for men!), then things got in the way and I didn’t get much further than the introduction. But I’m back at it now.
When I lived in Cornwall and surfed all the time with excellent surfers, I surfed pretty much anything up to 8ft (at which point I would have made a mistake) including Porthleven, biiig Fistral, sketchy secret spots, dawn raids on my own and some beautiful, crazy waves abroad. I wasn’t scared, and I was. Now I’m just always a bit scaredy… Lack of confidence in myself in general, lack of practice, terrible with the cold, getting old..! The list goes on… But I miss that confidence, and reckon this will go a long way towards getting it back. So if you see me holding my breath and going dizzy, I’m (probably) fine…