I’ve been overwhelmed by the support and goodwill out there in the surf community, after I shared my experience of an unpleasant encounter in the water. Thank you. I am also gratified that these difficult conversations about conflict and surf rage can be had in such a spirit of mutual respect. It has been interesting to read a variety of…
Category: surfing
When surf rage overrides stoke
‘Don’t be sorry. Be better,’ said the surfer, after I apologized for my role in a collision with him. He didn’t look back. I watched him paddle out, his head high, back arched, shoulders squared, with the tips of his toes perched on the tail of his board. Be better? That seemed unfair. I’ve certainly made my fair share of…
Love and Launches
Wow. What a week I had last week. It’s taken me a while to pause and reflect on it. First I had the pleasure of making a trip down to the Cape Talk Studio for an interview with John Maytham. To say I was nervous is the understatement of the year. My mouth was dry like the Sahara desert and…
An Equal Share
This article first appeared in the print edition of Zigzag 2 years ago. So much has happened in women’s surfing since I wrote this, equal pay from the WSL for example, Emma Smith on the cover of the Zag, the women’s championship tour invited to JBay and a women’s event scheduled at Mavericks. In some places it is still a…
Book Review – Surfing With Sartre
Surfing with Sartre by Aaron James Did you know that one of the first casualties of climate change might be surfing as we know it? Desert Point could be the first to go. Even at current sea levels it only works on a low tide. Many other breaks could follow as rising oceans swamp reefs. What greater cataclysm could befall…
The chronicles of longboarding
The first time I went out on a longboard was in the honeymoon years. Not the actual honeymoon, but those times when you try to impress your hottie and do things he enjoys even if you are terrified/have absolutely no interest. So he pushed me onto a wave in the shorebreak at St Francis Bay (at the time I had…
It’s Time – Corona Open J-Bay Women’s
Are you ready? Because it’s time. Nearly twenty years ago, in 2000, the women’s event last ran at J-Bay. (You know. The year Tom Hanks talked to a volley ball in Cast Away and Steve Tyler Didn’t Want to Miss a Thing?) Well, down here in South Africa, we can’t wait. And today, we FINALLY got done with…
The pay disparity thing at Ballito
I hadn’t written anything about this because I actually didn’t know where to begin. I’m busy working on a piece on the greater issue, which is not, in my opinion, just equal pay in WSL contests, but the long history of sexism in surfing that has informed opinion of what is okay and what is not. But in the meantime…
How to Lose your Nerve in Five K’s – the wahine guide to downwinding.
Once upon a time I read a terrifying book about a a man who walked alone from Canada to the North Pole and fell through a crack in the ice into the Arctic Ocean. He didn’t die, but the thought of all that water (plus the entire globe) below him haunted me. I realize that I have read or heard…
How to shower and rinse your wetsuit with only 5l of water
I usually have to go to work right after a surf or paddle and, since I work in the beauty industry, sandy feet and salty, mad scientist hair don’t usually cut it. So here is my water saving hack for a post surf shower that includes a wetsuit rinse with a 5l water bottle. We may all need this for…
Melissa A Volker 