At first, it doesn't interest you at all. You look at the sea - wonderful! Beautiful, smooth swell of two metres outside, a handful of surfers letting off steam, and inside, cute little waves lapping up on the beach just before the shore and lathering the sand a picturesque white. So in we go! Off through the foam, board in, rig up, shorebreak! Suddenly it looks much higher - boom - washing machine and you're back on the beach with all your gear. "Nothing broken?" shouts a kid. "It could cost you a few thousand loops". Little smart arse! But now, with the right technique, it works. Board and rig over your head and off you go! Break comes and rrrumms, The Rock's fist thunders right into your twelve, everything spins and you're back on the beach. At the feet of this brat. "That's what I said," he says.
Don't let up. Different technique, backwards. I've read that this also... doesn't work. "Atlantic waves are 20 times stronger than yours at the quarry pond". But now he has to watch out, the snotty sod. Another sideways technique, board placed on the rail... Noooo, first it sucks you up, then you hit the beach flat and shortly afterwards 1000 kilos of salt water crash into your back. Sand in your nose, ears and eyes for free. Bloody dirty wave. "Give up", shouts the cheeky bastard. That's out of the question, I'm not going to fly 3,000 kilometres and not surf for a week. "Then mast and sheet break!" Very funny.
Hmm, maybe with diving technology like the surfers? Partly works, then the rig pulls like ten oxen to the shore. Quickly clear the 20 shovels of sand out of the suit and back in again. And out. And in and out and in and out again... Then someone in a wetsuit comes along the beach. "Everything ok?" he asked, "really nothing broken?" - "Nope, tried a thousand times, nothing happened a thousand times." - "Unbelievable!" - "Tell me, how do you get out of there alive?" - "Very easy, there's a nice channel to surf in and out of one bay further on, everyone knows that." Hmm, when technology fails, knowledge helps - and it made ZOOM.
