No Motive
1st January 1970
Ever lost your mojo for bodyboarding? You're not alone. Can a weekend of good waves bring it back?
This aint gonna be your average roadtrip article. Heck, what more is there to be written about when you get the same old crew going to the same old place, scoring the same fun waves and getting up to the same old antics? This is piece of writing is going to be more personal, from the heart so to speak.I’m talking about a topic that isn’t really touched upon in any bodyboarding media throughout the world. Mainly because it’s the negative side, but it happens. Not only does it happen in Bodyboarding, it happens to everyone at some stage of their life in a number of different facets. I’m talking about loss of motivation.
When it comes to bodyboarding, I’m one of the most amped you’ll ever come across. Since my fist session on a Scott Crystal at Karitane Back Beach on new years day in 1993 I have lived, breathed, eaten, slept, shat, farted and burped bodyboarding. It has determined my career path. I’ve sacrificed earning a decent wage and owning a nice car just so I could live a life of surfing when the waves were good, which down here can be an evil trap as the waves are always bloody good somewhere. Nothing I've done has compared to the feeling you get. Nothing ever will.
So why is it the last few months my views on bodyboarding have changed? I’m no longer amped to brave the cold. I no longer check the buoys down the coast cause I can’t be fucked traveling. I hate duck diving. The thought of getting into a wetsuit, dry or wet makes me sick. I don’t like even talking about bodyboarding. Even when the waves are good I fool myself into becoming amped but once I’m out there all I can think about is coming in, finding a decent job, getting a better car, even moving from cold Dunedin. It’s a terrible situation to be in. It’s the first time it’s ever happened to me but I've seen it happen to all my friends. They’d often go through patches where they just couldn’t be fucked and didn’t really care anymore. I just couldn’t believe that that could happen to someone and I thought it would never happen to me. They always got their mojo for bodyboarding back, but me, I can’t see it happening, but I'm sure it will. All it takes is one good wave – which is something I haven’t had in months.
Anyway, the weekend is fast approaching. I’m getting bombarded with txt messages about how good the Deep South will be this weekend. With my motivation still on empty I don’t even reply to some txts. I’m talking myself out of this trip. Everyone else seems so amped. I’m jealous.
Chris Garden has just forked out close to $10,000 on a new SLR camera and housing setup. It arrived in the post the other day. The closest its come to getting wet is the sweaty packaging it came in. His motive for this weekend – test the new housing, get used to the weight, get some cool angles and hope he doesn’t loose the farken thing. He can’t wait. The reason for his motivation is obvious.
For the last few years Mitch Frew as been my number one surfing buddy. Together we’d hunt out the best waves in the region. Lately however, Ringworm (his new nickname) has been working full time, trying to save those flash new coins they have now in the hope of traveling to some warmer waves. Every weekend he’s amped. This weekend is no different, after a long hard week his motivation levels towards bodyboarding are at bursting point.
Someone that’s always seems to be motivated these days is Mr. Sam Wells. This weekend though I sensed a tad more motivation than usual. Maybe because the roads were extra muddy after the extra rain we had received lately meaning he could push his 4x4 to its limits on the dirt roads, or maybe it was because its his first surf back from a 6 week mission to Australia where he scored epic Zone and Shark Island in the company of Mike Stewart, Ben Player and Andrew Lester and was keen to show the others what he had leant from the experience.
The other guys? Who knows what keeps them motivated. Just the chance to get fun waves and catch up with old mates maybe? That alone should be enough motivation.
All I know is I didn’t get that one wave that would change my perception of bodyboarding. I know it will come though. Life sucks without Bodyboarding. Don’t you ever forget it.
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