Our editor, Luke Kennedy, received an email last week from Darren Broadbridge who runs the Seignosse Surf Camp in France. When Darren’s not working or surfing at his beloved Hossegor, he enjoys to write. The frother even won a Tracks short story competition in the 90’s and picked up a free surfboard for his efforts.
Darren shared with us another short story a few decades later about the friendships you garner from sharing a love for surf and travel. Cheers Darren.
Kale and I said goodbye yesterday.
The other day Paul and I went and visited our favourite haunt. I’ve known Paul for 15 years. We are comfortable in silence, but more often than not, we ramble. We were talking about our boys ( we have five between us ) and how we hope they can enjoy surfing as much as we do.
We spoke of the most precious thing surfing had given us. Surfers travel in search for perfect waves and cultural enrichment. A while ago, it was an incredibly complicated adventure. We spoke of the famous contact notebooks. Complete with contact numbers of friends on the other side of the world. Young travellers who’d visited your home and invited you to visit theirs. Phone numbers of friends of friends. Addresses of people you had never met. An assumption that you could turn up at their doorstep and say you were a mate of Johnno and have a bed for the night. Surfing could take you anywhere, and you had something to do when you got there. You wouldn’t buy a postcard but create a lifelong memory. I met Liam through Dibble. A friend of a friend. I wanted to go to Hawaii, and Dibble said to look him up. He can find you some accommodation. He’s an incredible human, Dibble said. Later Liam would say the same about Dibble. Their mutual admiration for each other and trust opened a door for me. My experience of Hawaii was so much richer, thanks to Liam. Liam is now in my little black book as I am in his. Like Noah and Paddy are. Young greenhorns from the Sunny Coast have me in their little black book as a guy to look up.
For some, Kale Brock is a surf coach. For others, he is a social influencer. For me, he is a surfer who’ll ping me a message at 8 am asking for a surf report ( despite the fact he was 7 km closer to the beach than I am ). Kale is in my little black book now. Hopefully, one day I can look him up way down under where the sea life is scary. Then, we might share a session at an off-the-beaten-track slab. I’ll meet a mate of his and give him my number for future reference.
And the cycle repeats…
