Get Motivated

It’s strange what motivates you. I had a bizarre email this morning and at first I thought it was someone taking the piss, well it did have the word ‘Fan’ in the first sentence and from how I read it, it was a reference to me! Plus I was also sort of puzzled on how he got my email address. Thinking about it, it probably is a piss take but as I read and re read the email and the thoughts of who it actually might be crossed my mind I decided to blow caution to the wind and reply anyway. It was from a young surfer who is just about to have knee surgery, I won’t go into details but it made me think back to this photo and how I ended up there.
This was my first ever water shot published in a surf mag which Tim Nunn took in Sri Lanka at a BPSA contest, this was 6 months after my first ACL knee reconstruction and at the time I was working for a UK surf clothing brand managing one of their shops. They had a ‘Pro’ surf team which all ripped yet no matter how hard I tried, pleaded and sucked up they just wouldn’t sponsor me, I didn’t want much just a sticker for my board and a clothing package maybe but I couldn’t even get a tee off them, ok I was getting paid to manage their shop but deep down all I really wanted was to represent them in the sea too cause I knew I was capable. Anyway it never happened, although I always tried my best managing and getting sales in the shop it also motivated me to get my shit together, almost like giving them the finger.
After the trip and contest I went back to work and when the mag came out no one from the company ever really mentioned it to me and more amusingly from what I can remember none of their pro riders actually had any shots in there either, which seemed to make it somewhat more ironic.