Chris Bertish - Stoked!: An inspiring story about courage, determination and the power of dreams

Published by Zebra Press
an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd
Company Reg. No. 1966/003153/07
The Estuaries No. 4, Oxbow Crescent, Century Avenue, Century City, Cape Town, 7441

www.zebrapress.co.za

Publication Zebra Press 2015
Text Chris Bertish
Cover images Craig Klesky (author image); Jason Murray (wave);

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

PUBLISHER: Marlene Fryer

MANAGING EDITOR: Ronel Richter-Herbert

EDITOR: Bronwen Maynier

PROOFREADER: Ronel Richter-Herbert

COVER DESIGNER: Sean Robertson

TEXT DESIGNER: Ryan Africa

TYPESETTER: Ryan Africa/Monique van den Berg

ISBN 978 1 77022 764 4 (print)
ISBN 978 1 77022 765 1 (ePub)
ISBN 978 1 77022 766 8 (PDF)

Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to credit the correct person for the images used in this book. Where we may have omitted a name or been unable to find the copyright holder, we ask that the relevant party contact us in order for their name to be included in a reprint edition of this book.

Dedicated to a legend

I would like to dedicate this book to my dad, a true waterman, a great father, a hero, a friend and a legend. Thank you for showing me there was always another way and for teaching me to follow my dreams.

To all of you out there who have the courage to follow through on your dreams, you are my heroes, because to truly live is to live with the courage to try.

Stoked (1) Amped, excited, filled with crazy enthusiasm; pure joy, infectious energy, wild exuberance, adrenaline-fuelled, totally thrilled, naturally high on life.

(2) The feeling you get when you catch your first wave.

(3) The feeling that you just HAVE to catch one more and that it should be even bigger and better than the last

Dedication to the big-wave brotherhood

Big-wave surfers are a unique breed.

We are drawn to the big open ocean swells that come with little warning, that call our names and lure us to the challenge, to brave them, ride them, tame them, to be in tune with them. We plan our lives around the ocean. It runs our daily life, our yearly calendar.

We have to be ready, all the time. In the same way that a firefighter waits for the call for a fire, were on standby 24/7, 365 days a year, for those swells. We wait, we watch, we plan, we prepare, never knowing when, where, how big or how dangerous they will be or when they will come but when they do we will be there waiting, waiting and ready, physically and mentally prepared to drop everything and just go. Some of us will travel halfway around the world and back to find that perfect big wave. Its just who we are and how we are hardwired. Its an obsession that can ruin lives, relationships, jobs and anything else that tries to stand in its way.
But there is nothing else quite like it.

We are the gladiators of the deep, we are the warriors of the sea, we are the big-wave brotherhood.

This book contains a very special flick-book animation by artist Chris Brehem. Flick through each page in quick succession to follow big-wave surfer Chris Bertish as he paddles into a wave, takes the drop, rides the wave and gets barrelled on his way to fulfilling his dreams of glory. Give it a try and enjoy watching Chris surf the wave of his life

Chris Bertish tries to explain it this way:

Imagine that you and he were, for whatever reason, forced to face the fastest and most ferocious cricket bowler in the world. Like you, he would probably be terrified. But imagine if both of you had played cricket all your lives and had progressed to the point where you had the skills not just to face the bowler, but perhaps even, on occasion, to dispatch his deliveries to the boundary. This, he claims, explains why he is not terrified of 60-foot waves. He has been in the ocean all his life and what he does today is simply a result of all those thousands of hours of observation, wisdom and practice.

But, at least for me, this explanation does not really work. For while like many I have played cricket and even batted against quite fast schoolboy bowling without great fear, I once surfed a six-foot wave and was immobilised by anxiety. When the surf was any bigger, I stayed on the shore. There is something about the ocean and the power of waves that transcends anything humans can do to one another on the sports field. While many play cricket and perforce must bat against ferocious fast bowling, there are very, very few who travel the world seeking to impose themselves on the largest breaking waves on our planet.

And fewer still who, as you will learn in these pages, do it in the manner of Chris Bertish.

Such men and women are very different from the rest of us. And they are different not just by way of the physical person that each has become through their practising and training, but, more importantly, because of what each has done to their minds.

I recently met Diana Nyad, who had swum for more than 50 hours in her successful completion of the 160-kilometre ocean swim from Cuba to Key West, Florida. Four times she had failed, succeeding on her fifth attempt at age 62. Sometime after the swim she participated in a research study to determine how her brain responded to a simulated life-threatening emergency. The researchers were astounded her brain was utterly untroubled as she logically and unemotionally worked through her options in a manner they had never before observed. She exhibited what Chris told me is the first rule of big-wave surfing: When you panic, dont panic. As you will read in his book, that approach has saved Chriss life on more than one occasion. Without fear, there is no panic. But how some can train their brains not to fear a 60-foot wave is the mystery that compels us to read Chriss story. Is it possible that we could all be like Chris if we worked each day as he does on the mental and emotional sides of our being? Not just on the physical?

But, like Diana Nyad, there is another, even more compelling reason why Chriss story is so engrossing. I thought of this as I watched South African cricketer A.B. de Villiers in his single utterly unbelievable innings that has completely redefined what is possible in cricket batting. In just 44 minutes, De Villiers broke the shackles that have held the minds of cricket batters captive for more than three centuries. As I watch the grainy images of Chris Bertish surfing 60-foot waves at Mavericks or 35-foot waves at Jaws, I experience the same feeling. So tiny on the waves that he seems to sometimes disappear, I am overcome with this thought: Humans do not belong here. It is impossible for a human to survive what is about to happen. And when he does survive because of the manner in which he has prepared himself for more than three decades, we realise that our definition of what is possible is constrained only by our own fears and lack of imagination. And by our feeble choice not to push the boundaries of human achievement beyond the safety of the mundane that most of us accept as our designated lifes destiny.

What is it about these men and women who do not understand why the rest of us put such unnecessary limitations on what we believe to be possible? That is the greater question that this book begins to address. I do not know the answer, but my knowledge of Chris suggests some clues.