It all began with the magic of surfing

No words can fully explain what it feels like to stand up on a surfboard and ride a wave. There’s excitement, fear and adrenaline, sure, but there’s also something else – something more primeval and powerful.

As gravity, speed and momentum take over, you hurtle down the face of a wall made of water. You quickly realise that you’re part of something much bigger and more powerful than yourself.

You’ve become part of the movement that creates waves: vast currents of wind on the surface of the oceans that create swells which can travel thousands of miles before they reach shallow water, and start to break on shorelines all over the planet. You’re riding pure energy, which has transformed the sea with its power. It’s a great example of nature connection.

Before I learned to surf, I’d already developed a close bond with the natural world. As I young child I helped out every day after school on a nearby farm and would spend entire weekends wandering the countryside alone with just a bird identification book and a pair of binoculars for company. In that respect I was lucky to grow up in the 1970s; when it was entirely normal for your parents to turf you out of the house in the morning and not expect you back until teatime. I spent my childhood playing in the woods, riding horses and getting to know the local flora and fauna.

But as I grew up, left home and went to university in London, nature took a back seat. The excitements and new discoveries of the city started to become more important and it wasn’t until I started learning to surf in Australia – more than a decade later – that I realised what it was that I’d left behind.

I carried on living in cities for many years after that because my work kept me there. But I always felt pulled away, back to the land and the ocean. I would escape to the coast or the countryside whenever I could, at weekends and holiday times. Surfing had become something of an addiction and eventually it became more important than my job.

So I moved to from London to Brighton and the next phase of my life began. It was urban but at least it was by the sea and I could escape out on to the South Downs easily. Plus I was back in Sussex – the place where I was born.

Part 2 coming soon!