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Organizations
As a body-boarder my best surf experience, I think,
was a full-moon night at the Rincon in November 1998.
I had been working and teaching all day nonstop, and at
about sundown I thought, I’ve GOT to get in the ocean
or I’ll flip out!
The drive from Summerland, where I live, to Rincon
is short - and the sky was getting dark as I dressed in and
walked down the trail. My need for an "ocean fix" was
so great I didn’t care that it was cold, getting dark, and
that practically everyone had left! Walking into the surf,
I noticed a couple of other surfers still out, but that was
it. By the time I paddled out into the cove, it was
pitch-black dark, but I could see the outlines of advancing
waves against the intensity of light from a full moon about
to rise over the mountains.
Then I caught a wave - smooth and glassy, and,
feeling my way around, I was feeling very adventurous
and fine. Paddling back out, the moon finally burst over
the mountains in the most thrilling universal brilliance I
have ever seen. I was in awe! A wave came, I got into it,
and as I was picked up in this previously dark sea it
became a moving fire that carried me along as it shaped
and reshaped in one long exultation - it was like riding
moonbeams! I’ve never forgotten it!
What was your worst surfing experience ever?
As a 55-year-old body boarder I know my limits,
and my worst surfing experience came about because I
forgot those limits - on Big Friday (October 8,1999),
when the first big south swell (New Zealander) hammered
the California coast. A friend (a very good surfer) and I
went to Hollister Ranch, to Augie’s. I am an amateur,
but maybe it’s because I had just returned from Tavarua
where I body-boarded Swimming Pools (at Namotu) that
I forgot myself. Maybe all the fun I had in Fiji clouded
my brains, after all I was out diving under Cloudbreak
waves to photograph the bottom for Surfer’s Journal!
The great Warren Bolster and I had dived all over
Restaurants! I had just dived Waimea, Avalanche and
Pipeline (also for Surfer ’s Journal) the month before!
Whoopee!
In any case, standing at Augie’s I noticed the huge
tubes down the beach at Rights and Lefts were spitting.
At Augie’s, however, the shoulders of these big breakers
looked slow and rolling, and I thought, fine, I can do
this. Going out, I felt the turbulence the rip, the whole
thing, but kept going. I caught half a wave, and thought,
this is O.K.! Suddenly a 6 to 7-foot set came in, and
there I was, in the wrong place - the impact zone. The
first monster broke right on top of me and scrunched me
to the bottom.
I came up gasping, then realized my wrist leash had
broken and my board was gone (later, when I found it, I
saw the tension on the leash had pulled the connector
into the board itself and I had a wrist burn through my
wetsuit).
Another wave crashed down, and this time my right
ear was impacted and I was seized with a leg cramp.
Coming up, I thought, OK, Hillary, you’re in trouble,
you are on the verge of drowning. You’re going to drown,
just like Mark Foo, and you’d better get real serious about
getting out of here!
Two other surfers were out, and one of them saw
what had happened. Calmly, he paddled over to me, which
was a welcome sight. He held out his board, calm,
smiling, saying nothing. I thought he had the face of St.
Francis of Assisi. Even in my troubled state, I thought,
this guy is a lifeguard. He is purposefully offering
calmness, and he is purposefully keeping control of his
board. One hand on his board for a few minutes, I realized
I would live - which was all I needed. Then I stroked for
my friend, who was paddling out, and together we made
it to the beach. My lifesaving surfer friend, I later found
out, is a lifeguard at Pt. Loma, first name Graham, I’m
trying to find out his last name so I can send him some
roses. He took the time to notice what was going on. He
took the time to help. He took the time. Thanks, Graham!
How did these things change you?
The most wonderful surf experiences are those that
connect you to the heart of nature. It’s not about big waves
and competition and getting the most rides for your time
and money. Surfing is the closest experience any of us
can have with the power and force and movement of the
sea. To be alone at night, feeling my way along
moonbeams was a powerful, near-religious experience.
I have since learned there are others who go out at night,
to feel this same thing.
The perfect embodiment of what I am talking
about here, I think, is my friend Kalia, who uses no
board or bodyboard, only a pair of fins. Kalia is
always surfing at night, because he loves being alone
with the ocean, he uses no equipment because he loves
the feel of being one with the wave, like a dolphin.
This is something I’m still aiming to write a story
about, because this kind of wave-riding is, I think,
what surfing is all about. It has nothing to do with
jockeying for space or competition.
As for my worst experience, well, early on in my
diving career, someone told me, “If you turn your back
on the ocean, it will grab you.” If you get cocky, you’re
going to get it. If you don’t pay attention, you’re going
to be made to pay attention, in a very rough way. Given
my level of wave-riding competence I had no business
being out at Augie’s on the biggest swell of the year. I
had not looked carefully, had not considered carefully
enough. It is very easy to jump in when everyone else is
jumping in, especially your friends - which means you
are not listening to yourself or to any inner guidance you
might have. My personal rule of thumb from now on: if
on the go-out, I find myself diving under waves that smash
me around on the bottom, I get out of there.
What has surfing done for you?
I feel fortunate that I grew up on living on the beach,
at Miramar, and from the time I was very small the ocean
has been an integral part of my life. There isn’t a day
that goes by that I don’t get into the ocean in some way -
swimming, riding waves, bodyboarding, at least a
contemplation of the sea at a spot on the beach where I
can be alone with the ocean. I feel fortunate that I have
been able to make a living from writing about the sea,
about underwater exploration, about sea animals, about