First Trip to G-Land

This tale incorporates a 5.7 Rocket, full commitment, almost the wave of his life and a dislocated shoulder on Day Two of a two-week trip. Read on…

THE PEOPLE YOU HUNG WITH

The people were epic. It was a great crew. I have been working for my first year of internship at a hospital in Cape Town, and the doctors there are very academic and very intense. I was getting bogged down by that mindset, and going from that to this crew of surfing doctors, who are so lovely, welcoming, and relaxed, was a very cool juxtaposition. It gave me a lot of confidence and motivated me. It showed me that doctors do not always have to be intense and serious. Very cool crew, and I am keen to link up with them again in the years to come.

PARENTAL INFLUENCE

My parents are not the biggest surfers, so when I told them I was going to spend all this money to go to G-Land and Indo, they asked if I was sure I wanted to do that and suggested I go somewhere more local. I told them it was for a doctor’s conference, and they said that was very cool. They were stoked, and love adventure, and understand the risks of going to places like this. When I told them what happened to my shoulder, they said at least it wasn’t my neck or my head. Now they’re pretty keen to do a trip like this themselves.

EARLY SURF TRIPS

I have not been on too many surf trips. I have done all the local stuff like Elands and J Bay, and when I was seventeen, I went to the Maldives, which was epic. In Cape Town, you are so used to freezing water, wearing a 4/3 wetsuit, and surfing punchy beach breaks. Then suddenly I was in boardies, surfing perfect rights. It was a dads-and-lads trip, so it was cool to share those moments with my best mates and their dads. I also go to Mozambique quite a lot, usually to Tofo. On my last trip, I took a week off and went alone.

I arrived just as a cyclone swell hit, and I surfed Barra, the African Kirra. It is a long sand-bottom almost-point when the swell gets really big. For five days in a row, I surfed these perfect rights with maybe eight people out. I snapped all my boards but came out unscathed and had some of the best waves of my life.

RICH HISTORY

Being in a place like G-Land, though, with such rich surf history, felt very special. I spoke to a guy who has been coming for forty years, and he reckoned it is one of the few places in the world that has not been gentrified or changed by tourism. There are only four camps and no big hotels. It has kept its purity for all these years. To surf a place like that with so much history felt unreal. All the best surfers in the world have been there and walked those shores. You look back, and it is just jungle, and you think of tigers and leopards, and in the water, you have dugongs and sea turtles. It was epic, and I definitely got a little hooked. I will have to go back, redeem myself, and catch some bigger waves.

GO-TO BOARD,

I only brought two boards, and I think I arrived a little unprepared. The first was my sister’s board, a little five-seven carbon fibre Rocket that I have surfed a lot around the Cape. I have had no problems with it, and it feels so comfortable under my feet. It does precisely what you want it to do. I also brought a six-foot Kelly Slater Sci Fi as my step-up, but I never got to surf it because I messed up my shoulder before I took it out.

For first-timers, bigger is definitely better. G Land is not really about doing technical turns. It is about feeling the power of the wave and getting into the right position to roll into the big ones without flicking and flapping too much. On the five-seven, I kept finding myself trying to hold back because I was getting too much speed. Even in perfect offshore conditions, it felt like a piece of cardboard against those big walls. So I would say go for a bigger board even if you are not used to it. Just take one out. They also have a bunch there if you do end up snapping something.

TIPS FOR FIRST TIMERS

I came unprepared, but that is how I like to travel. I prefer to stay flexible without too much stuff. Bring a proper rash vest because I got burnt to a crisp. Bring reef booties because my feet got cut up. Bring a bigger step-up board, as I mentioned earlier, and understand that G Land is beautiful, but you are there to surf. Some people just chilled, but really, you are there for the waves. There are plenty of other options, like Tiger Tracks, which is a bit softer, but you still need to be prepared because this is a surfing destination.

THE SHOULDER INJURY

It was a tough pill to swallow on day two of a two-week trip, but honestly, if I went back, I would do it the same way. You have to commit fully to these things. I committed fully to that wave, and you cannot live your life in fear. I’m getting a bit philosophical now, but what a place for that to happen! I was surrounded by a bunch of doctors. They relocated it perfectly, made a makeshift sling, and an intern later helped me figure out which exercises to do.

I still managed to travel around Indo for two weeks, ride a motorbike, and swim with turtles with my arm in a sling. When I got back to Cape Town, they found a bad fracture and some nerve damage, so I had to have an operation. The op is done, and I am feeling positive. I cannot lift my shoulder yet, but in six months, I will be back in the water and stronger, and then back to G Land.

FINAL THOUGHTS

All in all, it was such a great trip. Meeting all those Surfing Doctors and joining that community was an honour. For the rest of my life, I will go to these conferences and meet these people. It is inspiring and motivating to speak to them and hear their stories.