Robin Sharma, in his book The 5am Club, suggests it is a great idea to wake up at 5am, do 20 minutes of exercise, 20 minutes of planning and 20 minutes of study to start your day.
Zoë Steyn likes to wake up early and go surfing. She is a fierce exponent of what surfers call the dawnie.
Mom Erica says “Zoë exhausts all of us around her — very few are the mornings she does not get up for the dawnie”.
The first-light surf is something of a proud border tradition and Zoë is in good company.
David Malherbie, Greg Emslie, the Johnson Family and Andre Malherbie are all dedicated dawnie surfers and they all have strings of national competitive surfing results.
Zoë does not have much time to read but she could just about write Sharma’s book for him.
“Zoë has more determination than anyone else I know,” says mom Erica and she related to me a story: when Zoë was about three years old she came home in a huff one day after a friend’s party because the friend could swim and she could not.
She instructed her mom that she was going to learn to swim, forthwith! And she instructed mom into the pool.
From the steps she swam to mom and then got put back on the step. Mom was told to stand a little further away and again she swam to mom, repeating with a little more distance each time until she could swim across the pool.
All the while Zoë was somewhat in charge and clever mom was allowing the reward of “independent” and self-driven success.
It is no surprise then that 16-year-old Zoë is very self-motivated and does not much need to be told to take care of her homework.
She pretty much runs her own home schooling programme, very successfully thank you. When she hits the water these days, national surfing trophies start to tumble, camera’s click and sponsors are rolling in.
Zoë is SA’s youngest ever open ladies champion and a fine representative of our Green and Gold.
Zoë has a neat, tight and quiet sport psychology about her.
“I always try to be the best version of myself,” she says.
She has chosen good coaches and mentors in the likes of Greg Emslie, Andre and David Malherbie.
Boxer Mohamed Ali used to win half of his fights with his mouth. Zoë is a polar opposite. She lets her surfing do the talking. Dad Roelf is an ex 70.3 Iron Man competitor so the sports ethic is dynamic in the home although Zoë is a first generation surfer.
A good number of Border juniors doing well at the moment are second or third generation surfers like Joel Fowles but for Zoë the pathfinder pioneer spirit is working well.
She has just returned from the ISA world championships in California and on Monday will jet down to Cape Town and then on to Taiwan to the WSL world junior championships.
“Surfing is different from any other sport I have ever done. Ever since I started, I have not wanted to stop,” Zoë tells me.
Dad Roelf explains she was smitten from day one.
Indeed it is fortunate that the Steyn family chose to live at Nahoon Mouth when they came from inland to the coast.
Brother Ben is a passionate deep sea fisherman and Zoë is one of the most dedicated and decorated mermaids you will ever get to meet.
She tells me she is going to surf the WQS and tour the world and I believe her.
Weekend weather
Today, Saturday is a good day for surfing. 10 knot south west wind is forecast on a 1.9m swell at a 10 second wave period.
Low tide at 11.32am is a great time to paddle out at Nahoon Reef and enjoy the reason why East London is regarded as one of the most consistent waves in SA.
Blow me down; Sunday is also forecast for west wind, a bit stronger than Saturday and a 1.7m swell of 11 seconds period.
A full weekend of west wind this well into summer is a welcome blessing. With a little bit of luck you might be able to catch a few waves with Zoë just before she goes jet-setting again.
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