I am old enough to enjoy some of my surfing vicariously now. I do not need to catch every wave anymore.
If you catch the wave of your life in front of me, I can share some of your joy.
When I see local surfers like Vaughn Driesel, Bonny Hanafey or Taralyn Mclean break through to new levels, I am nearly just as thrilled as they are.
Thus it is that I am greatly entertained by new grommet John Rance discovering surfing for the first time at the tender age of 47.
As part of the Rance Timber Group, he has reasonable access to resources.
He can engage in pretty much any sport that he would care to, but his current thrill is the simple act of going surfing, especially with his family.
I can remember my grom days. The giant excitement of beginning to understand the waves, the water, boards, wetsuits, wind and weather, and piecing it all together to feel that surge from behind, the tail of the board and feet lifted up, the nose of the board dropping down the face and the beginning of the slide.
Rance is a great outdoorsman, and the church of the blue open sky is where he loves to be after a hard week in the office.
The thrill for Rance is only partly the hunt but mostly the entire gamut of sunrise or sunset, bush, forest, earth, sky, plants, rocks, trees, ocean, birds, animals and insects, and he appreciates life of every sort and form
As a professional hunter/guide, he spends some time in the bush with guests, responsible for their safety and success, sometimes under the pressure of big game like buffalo.
He is no stranger to calculated risk and high responsibility.
On other occasions, he might take friends out deep-sea fishing.
He knows and understands the ocean well, and again, big game is some of his plan.
As skipper of the craft, the safety of all on board falls on his shoulders.
This he does not mind because vicariously he is able to enjoy the thrill of his guests when they bag a good hunt or a good fish.
The thrill for Rance is only partly the hunt but mostly the entire gamut of sunrise or sunset, bush, forest, earth, sky, plants, rocks, trees, ocean, birds, animals and insects, and he appreciates life of every sort and form.
He is thrilled that a good many youngsters he has introduced to hunting and the bush have become full-time conservationists.
Part of the rapture of surfing for Rance is when he grabs his board and paddles out; it is often just him and the wave. Simplicity.
He is not responsible for anybody’s safety other than his own.
It is just him and the absorbing challenge of the next wave, the adventure of the ocean and the abundant blessing of the big blue.
Rance has long been drawn to the ocean and has always wanted to give surfing a go, but along with the pressure of business and competing other sports and outdoor interests, the vivid imagination of the threat of sharks has kept him away.
Only this last July at the Corona JBay WSL was Rance finally lured into the water by the unbridled enthusiasm of his girlfriend’s son, Josh Crawford, whose infectious love of surfing knows no bounds.
Standing 1.95m and weighing in at 105kg Rance has a good enough physicality from water polo to get well started.
After a bit of death-staring from other surfers and the odd ambitious paddle out at dangerous point breaks, Rance took on some surfing lessons from top local surfer Wayne Monk, and he is now on a happy tangent to success.
There are some “rules of the road”, and the right introductions can take you a long way.
It is a tad unfortunate that only six months into the game he suffered a meaningful bump from a shark and had to stay in the water to chaperone his son and friend out of the water before he could step on terra firma.
He has come to rationalise that buffaloes do as buffaloes do, and sharks behave like sharks.
When birds are diving at the point, Beachbreak might be a better option.
In Rance’s own words: “I find God in the wilderness. You will never find me in a church.
“It is in the quiet moments in the bush, in the water and under the sky that I feel small relative to the greatness that surrounds me.
“It is soul-fulfilling and my soul feels recharged.”
Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. See you in the water.
Daily Dispatch
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