Only surfers know what it feels like

“The sea converts force in a motion. With its ever-changing tide: each day unlike the next, each wave barrelling straight through the impossible, clear as day and black as night. But no matter what swell direction or wind conditions, it is always moving forward. It is funny; sometimes when you’re surrounded by the hollow tubes of angry turning water, when the wind is roaring past your ears like a typhoon and you’re chasing that lit up exit – that’s when you find the world to be at its most silent. That’s what it is to be a surfer.” – Locals Only – Tinley to Salmon

It’s 06:08 on a crisp Monday morning. The sun has not shown her face yet; the world is still bathed in that eerie blue glow, before first light. But Braiden Coats’ alarm has just gone off, beckoning him out of the comfort of his bed into the icy abyss he has come to love. A bowl of cornflakes will suffice before Braiden swaps his sweats for a lime
green wetsuit and begins the ritual: waxing his board slowly, methodically, carefully as the sun rises over him. Then, shouldering his beloved board Braiden trots down the sparsely populated street, his feet fast leaving the gravel to land on soft pillows of beach sand; the sharp scent of salt fills his nostrils. He is home.

Braiden stars in the video Locals Only – Tinley to Salmon, a collection of footage from the North Coast Board Riders, all of which crests on a single philosophy: what it is to be a surfer. It is so much more than grabbing a board, wading into the ocean and slicing a wave for kicks – to this closeknit community, surfing is a lifestyle, a commitment and passion…it has to be if it gets a 17-year-old out of bed before 7am. I met Braiden at his home – which was not
difficult to spot, what with the surfboard peeking out from the entrance window – and he is a strapping dude who greets with a cheerful grin and a “Hey, how’s it going?” The Destiny Life Academy learner started surfing when he was six years old, learning the basics from his father, Chris. “It took a year for me to stand up properly. I felt like
a boss when I got that right,” he laughs. “But really, I was stoked. It’s the first step to becoming a surfer. As you improve and you start to actually ride and develop your own manoeuvres it becomes better than anything you could imagine.”

Braiden, as I’m beginning to believe is the case with all surfers, believes the sport takes him away from reality, almost
into another world. “I can’t put it into words…the way I feel running down the beach and into the ocean. It has taken me years to train myself to wake up as early I do, but it’s the surf that drives me. That short burst of adrenaline I feel when I first get wet explodes when I grab a wave. After that I’m so amped I just want to get back in and do it again.” He surfs nearly every morning with a group of dedicated surfers and, as he puts it: “we surf until we can’t move.”

Surfing has also taught Braiden and his mates that you can’t always get what you want, but you can make the best of it. “The sea is never the same, which makes surfing such a thrill. If it’s a bad day then we’re happy we at least got in and got wet.” His involvement in the North Coast Boardriders keeps Braiden satisfied for now; he is not keen on competitive surfing. “As a team we do a bit of charity work, recently surfing to raise funds for xenophobia. Matric is keeping me pretty busy, so I surf purely for enjoyment.”

The video was shot by Tim Hay, also a surfer who displays the same peaceful passion that Braiden does. “Surfing, for me, is about being in the company of like-minded people; that’s why we shot the video – to show how crazy locals are about surfing. Catching a wave is the shortest exhilaration you’ll feel but it’s so wild that you can do it over and over again.” Tim has been surfing since he was 10 years old, when his mother traded her washing machine in for his first surfboard – a pink number from a second-hand store. “I’d go as far as calling surfing a religion of sorts…like church on Sunday”.