A Paipo Interview
with Charl Van Rensburg My
Life In Water
A Paipo
Interview with Charl Van Rensburg
October, 2009 - Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Autobiographical magazine article
Charl discusses his introduction to surfing, the stoking feeling he found for riding prone while watching a surf movie, Follow the Sun, riding
his local spots and taking regular trips to Jeffrey's Bay and Cape St.
Francis, drifting away from surfng in early adulthood, and then
rediscovering his love for waveriding during bodysurfing sessions. The
desire to ride prone on a wavecraft prompted him to start riding paipos
and surf mats, and regularly building new wooden paipos to enjoy and
experiement my modifying designs and test riding in differing wave
conditions.
It was a Friday
evening, early in 1984, a year that would later be remembered for the
introduction of the first Apple Mac Computers, the first CD players,
the AIDS virus was identified for the first time in ‘84, and we all
were singing along to WHAM’s “Wake me up before you Go Go”.
And that is the song that was
playing over the PA-System as I followed my brother Jaco into the
Holiday Inn Hotel where the lounge had, for that night only, been
converted into a Movie Theatre. The lights were low, cigarette smoke
was hanging thick in the air and young teenage eyes were looking around
nervously and sipping surreptitiously on beer bottles which were hidden
beneath their chairs.
The occasion was the screening of
the latest Surf Movie to be released and all the who’s who of our
town’s surfing talent was there. At the time I was oblivious to most of
this and stoked simply at the fact that my older brother had invited me
along: for me, it was a big occasion.
In the Lounge itself, on that
night, Wake me up before you Go Go, would never be allowed and instead
someone had brought along their Ghetto Blaster with a 60 minute TDK
cassette recorded full on both sides with the songs that would be the
anthems of our generation. We listened to songs by Bob Marley, The
Cure, New Order, Sonic Youth, U2 and The Clash.
The lights were switched off as
the last lines of “Rocking the Casbah” faded and everyone hurriedly
found their seats and, for a moment, all you could hear was the
whirring of the projector. Then the screen lit up and we were all taken
on a journey around the world to places I didn’t know existed, seeing
people and coastlines I had never heard of. As the screen exploded with
the best surfing action from around the globe, I sat there transfixed.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the thing that probably most
impressed me that evening was the sense of brotherhood that existed in
that room.
We were watching Follow the Sun,
a film by Scott Dittrich, featuring Surfers like Tom Curren, Mark
Richards, Simon Anderson and Cheyne Horan. As awesome as it all was,
the thing that riveted me that night, was a few seconds of footage
showing some guys riding bodyboards, doing 360’s, El Rollos and pulling
into some pretty big tubes. Seeing that footage on that night, and for
the first time realizing what was possible on a bodyboard changed me
forever.
Up until seeing
Follow the Sun I had very often interrupted my walk down to the beach
with my bodyboard to chat with some friends and ended up using my
bodyboard as cricket-wickets, never even making it to the beach. This
all changed though after watching Follow the Sun and soon I was begging
my folks to buy me a new board. Reluctant that this might just be a
passing whim, they agreed to help me pay for a second-hand Mach77 by
Morey Boogie. I bought the board from Andrew Dicks who, I learnt later,
was regarded as one of the best bodyboarders in our town. He, and his
brother Bobby, were early pioneers of the sport and they, together with
a hand-full of mates pretty much ruled the bodyboarding scene. The
board I bought from Andrew had a black slick bottom which was quite
unique and red fins. Soon I was not only bodyboarding on weekends but
sneaking off after school and later started joining my brother for
“dawn patrols” in the morning’s before school. I also quickly removed
the board's fins.
I was hooked. There is a quote I
remember hearing long ago about surfing which sums up how my life
changed at that time: “The feeling you get after a good ride is so
intense and personal that you have to hang around other Surfers because
only they can understand.” I gradually stopped participating in all
other sport, no more tennis, cricket was on Saturdays so that’s out,
and the swimming team had to do without me.
Pictures of
bodyboarders from around the world doing all kinds of amazing moves
replaced the BMX posters on my bedroom wall, and the Tycoon owning most
of the real-estate space on my walls was Mike Stewart. In the 1980’s
and through to the 1990’s Mike Stewart dominated the international
bodyboarding scene. We all wanted to be like Mike.
I was in the
fortunate position that my brother was older, didn’t mind having me
around and had a car. So I went along whenever he went on surf-trips.
Our hometown is located in a bay and we lived on its right-hand corner.
This allowed us to relatively easily travel into the bay when
conditions were right, surfing spots like The Pipe, Blackbottoms,
Avalanche, Millers, Baked Beans and my favourite bodyboarding wave, The
Fence. Then, when the winds blew cross-shore in the bay we’d make our
way to the Wild Side which was out of the bay, where it would be
off-shore and we would surf at spots named Non-Com, Bullets, Lookout,
Main Rights and Craters. Travelling to the Wild-Side holds the best
memories for me. At least 4 of us would cram into my brother's “Beach
Buggy,” which is a Volkswagen Beetle chassis and engine fitted out with
a fiberglass body, making it light enough to travel effortlessly over
dunes and beaches. This was the mid-80’s in South Africa and there were
no restrictions on protecting sensitive vegetation, or if there was we
were oblivious. The fiberglass body would greatly amplify whatever
music was blaring through the speakers and we would all sing along to
UB40’s Baggariddim or Midnight Oil’s Diesel & Dust to get us amped
for the surf.
We lived less than 90km’s
from Jeffreys Bay so many a weekend would see us traveling to J’Bay for
the day or even the weekend, camping in the Caravan Park. Got up to all
kinds of mischief there, but mostly we just surfed our brains out.
Later, when my brother went away to do his National Service in the
Navy, I’d join my mate Grant and his family at their holiday home in a
place called Cape St. Francis a few kilometers from J’Bay, riding waves
up-to 4 times a day.
Malcolm Gladwell writes of the 10,000 hour rule in his book Outliers. He proposes that the single most
common trait shared by people who excel, in any endeavour they choose
to pursue, is the fact that they had all spent in excess of 10,000
hours honing their skills at it. In those years, I was clocking up
serious hours in the water… I had an aptitude for bodyboarding and
this, together with all the time I put into it, meant that I started
doing well in competitions, from there I managed to secure some
Sponsorships and became one of those privileged youngsters who was
given boards, wetsuits, swim fins, clothing and the opportunity to
travel to competitions in other parts of the country.
Back home, when the onshore
Easterly winds raged for days on end, and whip up swell, Grant and I
would grab our fins and head out to a spot called Clubhouse which would
serve up churning close out bomb-barrels and we would bodysurf for
hours, often being stung by blue-bottles and then having to go to the
Life-Savers’ Clubhouse so they can put vinegar on it to soothe the
pain, only to go back out again once the sting had gone. Once, while
bodyboarding at Clubhouse, I duck-dived a wave and as I pushed through
and broke the surface behind the wave, a mass of blue-bottles wrapped
around my face and neck. Grant helped guide me up the beach and home
and I remember being red and swollen all-over for days.
Our lives were pretty much
dictated by the weather and days when the swell was flat, we’d watch
surf-movies. Then, in 1989 I finished school and had a 6 month break
before my own stint doing National Service in the Navy… and the halcyon
days ended. I didn’t bodyboard or bodysurf for 12 months and ended up
being sent to a base situated 800km’s from the Ocean. This was followed
by 4 years at University and then my work-life started. During this
time my water-time had decreased to one or two surfs a month and some
months I would never even make it to the beach.
A number of years had passed and
I moved to another coastal city called Cape Town, which is situated on
the southern-most tip of Africa and bisects the warm Indian Ocean and
cold Atlantic Ocean. We settled on the Atlantic Ocean side and with
water-temperatures hovering at around 13°C there was not much to
motivate me to get back in the water. All this time my brother had
continued surfing as often as he could, and we now lived around the
corner from him. He’d often invite me along, but somehow I’d find more
reasons not to go Bodyboarding than to actually paddle out, you know
that “been there done that” feeling. Now in my Thirties, I realised
that I need to do something to keep in shape. I’ve never really been
into working out in Fitness Clubs though and running also does not
really appeal to me, so I turned to the one place where I knew I’d get
a good work-out but also feel at home.
I committed to myself to spend an
hour each day bodysurfing, irrespect of what the waves were doing and
that I would do so wearing only my swimming costume and fins, no matter
what the water temperature might be. After just a week or so, something
had been re-ignited in me. I had rediscovered the simple joy of riding
waves, though this time it had nothing to do with performance and
simply is about what I believe is the essence of true wave-riding.
Feeling like you have connected with the ocean, being part of something
that is at once bigger than you but also part of you. The benefit of
experience and an understanding that this is not just something I do,
it is who I am.
As one invariably does, I
started seeking out others who share this passion and I’ve found there
are many. Bodysurfing resides under the radar, it is a sport
over-looked by the main-stream media and probably as a result has never
really had any cash-injection from big name Sponsors or Institutions.
The term bodysurfing is actually a much too wide brush and the fact
that someone who once or twice a year wades in waist-deep in their
local beach break and rides some foamies to the shore can stand
alongside guys like the Wedge Crew, who are extreme Athletes and
regularly risk life & limb at their local break, and all say they
are bodysurfing seems almost bizarre. Or is it? Perhaps the fact that
the simple joy of bodysurfing is available to such a wide demographic,
and able to be enjoyed by people of all ages and aspirations is exactly
why it is so special.
Soon I started looking
beyond my local break and started surfing the Internet looking for
other bodysurfers, I joined some forums and made contact with guys
around the world who all share the same passion and on these journeys
into cyber-space I have found some inspiration for my bodyboarding
also, and with it have started exploring some alternative wave-riding
craft… this inspiration has not come from line-ups packed with kids who
have sun-bleached hair, industry Sponsorships and a lot of attitude. My
lifeline for Bodyboarding came from the periphery, the edge, the place
where Heretics, Hippies and Intelligentsia reside (or have been
banished to).
There is an interesting phenomena
(which I call the “Centripetal Force of Popularity” – CFoP), which
basically predicts that activities, practices, fashion, music etc. that
were once scorned and banished to sideshow status is, over time, drawn
into mainstream society to the point of becoming fashionable, popular
and lucrative. Here are some examples: Tattooing was once regarded as
vile but is now uber-cool, as are piercings. Punk-hairstyles can now be
seen on 10 year olds in shopping malls, Heavy Metal Music is used in
Bank Adverts, Rap Music, Skateboarding, Surfing, The Osborne’s I can
carry on.
The point is that
if you want to know what could potentially be the next big thing, you
need to look at the fringe, and that is where I have come across some
of the beginnings of what I believe could be the birth-canal for a new,
more ‘holistic’ approach to the sport of Bodyboarding, a second life,
so to speak, since in my view Bodyboarding has found itself in the
doldrums since the 1990’s.
The first element then to
deconstruct as it were when critically looking at the state of
Bodyboarding, is the board itself. At present it is widely believed
that Bodyboards must be made of Foam. The fact is, long before the
invention of the Morey Boogie Board in the 70’s, guys were
“Bellyboarding” on all kinds of boards made of all kinds of materials.
Probably the most common of these was Plywood and other woods such as
Koa or Paulownia. These boards were called Paipo’s and had radically
different designs to the Bodyboards we now see, but were instrumental
in its evolution. Boards made of surfboard-foam and sealed in resin
were also common as was boards made of composite materials. Yes these
boards were hard, sometimes uncomfortable, had hardly any buoyancy, but
they were fast (very fast), very manoeuvrable, very durable plus very
easy and cheap to make. One of the most inspiring
short-films I have seen recently is The Life of Ply by Ocean Motion
Pictures.
I just love the
stoke of the person in the clip, it resonates with wave-riders all over
the world. Dot, featured in the clip, lives in the UK and I recently
met someone who knows her, named Sally Parkin. Sally owns a company
called ‘The Original Surfboard Company’ (http://www.originalsurfboards.co.uk), a UK based business manufacturing traditional plywood boards. Wow,
they are amazing to ride. Not made for tricks, just down the line speed
and pure joy. I now ride waves all the way to the beach.
Another alternative to the
Bodyboard is the Surf Mat. This is an inflatable board usually made of
rubber. On the face of it these boards are similar to Bodyboards due to
their buoyancy and safe, comfortable construction. The key differences
though are that Surf Mats do not have rails and that the rider is able
to control the amount of buoyancy by how much air it is filled with and
then further by exercising control over the Surf Mat while on a wave
through compressing or releasing the Mat, thus increasing or releasing
buoyancy. The idea is that you are “Riding on Air.” Watch this YouTube
Clip of Surf Design Legend George Greenough and Paul Gross riding waves
on Surf Mats:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljNxUhRQWWM). This is way back in the 70’s, there are no flashy
moves or tricks, just good wave-riding. I am especially amazed at the
speed they generate and how well they are able to get through sections
on the waves.
Check out this
YouTube clip of George Greenough (respected wave-rider and surfboard
designer/shaper) discussing the intricacies of Mat-Surfing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igN3FqwC29E.
Speaking of Surfboards…. there is
one man who has become synonymous with wooden boards and also a drive
to more sustainable practices in board manufacture. Tom Wegener is an
American now living in Australia. He has made a serious impact on the
surfing world and has one of the coolest websites around (http://www.tomwegenersurfboards.com/). Together with a small band of Surf Vigilantes, Tom has been heading
up a revival in understanding surfboard manufacture and wave riding. In
a project undertaken in 2007, entitled “Surfica Musica” Tom and 9 other
like-minded Surfers (Tom Carrol, Derek Hynd and others) experimented
with alternative ancient surfboard designs. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urtbRmPuLpk.
Of special significance is that
Tom Wegener teamed up with the one and only Mike Stewart to produce a
limited edition wooden bodyboard, which is also called an Alaia. The
boards were released in 2008 and all were numbered and signed by Mike
Stewart. Check out http://www.mikestewart.com.
Even if riding Surfmats, wooden
Paipo or Alaia boards is not the Panacea for Bodyboarding’s woe’s, I
love the fact that I can make my own board (very cheaply), make a bunch
of boards each with a different design, know it is environmentally much
friendlier than bodyboards and ultimately it represents a challenge to
me because they are not easy to ride, but if you’re willing to work at
it you may also find, as I have, that Wood is Good, as Tom Wegener
would say, and that water is not only a source of life for your body,
but it also gives life to your Soul & Spirit.
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