When We Were Kelly Slaters

Position. It’s all about your position. You have to be in the right place at the right time. The ability to be in that spot has taken dedication and commitment. The locals know where to be as they start bustling and jostling for position. They also wait, not acknowledging your presence, fully focused on the task before them. At that moment the tube train rushes into the station. The speed of the train as it passes the platform causes you to panic that your calculations are wrong. The locals have readjusted their positions and now have priority. Readjusting you rush to the nearest door just as they open. Bang! The first wave hits you. Knocked off balance you manage to stay on your feet, surging forward at speed. Then, sensing the power in the human wave has almost fully dissipated you kick out onto the train.

Like blood cells traveling around the human body we all have our own tasks and locations to go, to keep the body healthy and alive. But the body is not healthy and alive. The body is decaying and crumbling under our inability to recognize that we are all one with the environment around us and that what damages this planet is damaging ourselves. It’s hard to work out how we have got to this point. And then, like a lightning bolt I was reminded of Elaine Morgan’s Aquatic Ape Theory. We don’t belong in this urban environment. Although we share over 96% of our DNA with Chimpanzees we have many characteristics in common with aquatic species. Our bodies are naked of any fur and use a layer of fat as insulation. We have a conscious control over our breathing and is it a coincidence that we all have a groove in our top lips that when pressed against the nostrils above can seal them off. Not only Surfers, but millions of holiday makers rush to be on the beach and stare out to the ocean like moths to a light bulb every year. Property on the coasts and by the sea is the most sort after by the rich and famous. We are a beach dwelling, aquatic species by nature. The phrase ‘only a surfer knows the feeling’ has never been so true. Every time we paddle out we are awakening 5 million years of evolution, a time when it was survival of the fittest and the Kelly Slaters, not multi national companies ruled the human world.

And now we have come full circle. Maybe it’s because of the Mayan calendar or just coincidence. Kelly Slater continues to rule the surfing world and our collective human consciousness is awakening to the fact that we need to get back to the basic sustainable principles that we as surfers live by once that deep spiritual connection has been made with the ocean. But you never know I might be wrong. Maybe after another 5 million years the release of the latest smart phone or tablet will provide the same stoke as being in the right place at the right time, through dedication and commitment, to be in position to catch that perfect wave.