The office: endless blue. The deadline: the surge of a killer wave. That’s how bodyboarding champ Andre Botha knows he’s made it
THE KICKED AS HE FELT THE TIDE TUG on his legs, angling his body towards the horizon of sand and construction on the coast. And with a sudden surge he was hurtling through the water, his body board cutting lines of white foam in the green currents. “That moment,” says Andre Botha. “That’s when I knew I was hooked.”
It was a short ride as the foaming breaker spent itself in the shallows, but he’d already glided almost effortlessly into his first and most important epiphany. This was 20 years ago, and the future world champion was just a young, tanned kid finding his sea legs.
But he had spent his youth in pursuit of meaning – a chase that saw him jump from board to board, skating, surfing, and finally, here. “That’s the thing. You can surf for years before you’re good enough to take on a big wave. But with body boarding, you hit the waves and you start to fly right away.”
Andre is a bearded Durbanite with his roots in Cape Town. When he speaks you can hear what 20 years of living in salty water, on exotic beaches and breathing in nothing but ocean air can do for a guy. In a word: he’s mellow.
It’s an attitude that infuses the slow cadence of his speech and the “ays” that punctuate his sentences, and that clearly shows what happens when you do what you love, no matter what. Andre thinks back fondly to that moment when he chose to body board. Like pulling a sword from a stone, his cheap Pick n Pay board was a vehicle for self-discovery. Within weeks he had progressed from greenhorn to great, earning a name for himself among the 20-odd body boarders who congregated around the Piers in North Beach.
“Once I got hooked, I was full-on obsessed,” he admits.
Esta historia es de la edición December 2016 de Men's Health South Africa.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición December 2016 de Men's Health South Africa.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
INSTANT PROGRESS THE 28-DAY PULLUP PLAN
JUST 10 MINUTES A DAY FOR A MONTH CAN PUSH YOU FROM PULLUP ZERO TO YOUR FIRST GREAT REPS.
THE MH INTERVIEW STARTER MUSCLE
THE FIRST STEPS ON A NEW FITNESS JOURNEY ARE OFTEN THE TOUGHEST. BUT WITH A FEW TWEAKS TO YOUR THINKING, PT AND PART-OWNER OF MOTLEY CREW CROSSFIT TYRON HATCH WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO STRIDE TOWARDS THE LOFTIEST GOALS.
15 SMART WAYS TO GET AHEAD IN LIFE (BY DOING LITTLE THINGS BETTER)
Self-improvement needn't be a slog. You can make gains-both marginal and meaningful-simply by approaching your day-to-day tasks with a little extra know-how. We raided the MH archives to compile these truly life-enhancing tips from our expert contributors. It's time to level up.
LOVE & LIKES
WHEN DOES SOCIAL-MEDIA FLIRTING BECOME CHEATING? LET’S TALK IT OUT.
FORCE OF NATURE
THE SAS SOLDIER TURNED TV SURVIVALIST HAS MADE OUTDOOR ADVENTURE HIS BUSINESS. BUT WHAT LESSONS DO HIS METHODS HOLD IN OUR INCREASINGLY URBANISED AND ONLINE WORLD?
COLOGNE BUT WITH
YOU BUY COLOGNE TO STAND OUT. SO WHY NOT REALLY STAND OUT? THESE BOLDER SPRITZES SMELL AWESOME AND LAST LONGER, WHICH MEANS YOU CAN USE LESS. OUR PICKS LEVEL UP IN INTENSITY AS YOU MOVE ALONG THE SPECTRUM.
THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO RUNNING LAPS AROUND THE ECONOMY
CATCHING UP WHEN INFLATION IS ALWAYS OUT TO SET A NEW PB CAN FEEL IMPOSSIBLE. PUT THESE 11 EXPERT-APPROVED LESSONS INTO ACTION TO DUCK AND WEAVE AROUND YOUR MONEY WOES
WHY 30-MINUTE WORKOUTS WILL WORK FOR YOU
LESS IS MORE WHEN IT COMES TO EXERCISING FOR FITNESS, STRENGTH AND HEALTH.
UNFREEZE YOUR MIND
ALL MY LIFE, I THOUGHT I WAS A COWARD. THEN I DISCOVERED THAT THE REAL NAME FOR WHAT I'D BEEN FEELING WAS ANXIETY- AND I WAS IN GOOD COMPANY.
DARK PLACES
For any surfer, taking on the monster waves at Nazaré in Portugal is a death-defying risk. For Matt Formston, there's another consideration: he's blind.