Kerrie Houston Reightley has always been sporty. Three years ago, she was on holiday in Maui, Hawaii, with her husband and their son, then 18. “We were walking along the beach. There were all these things you could do – snorkelling, trekking. And I was like: ‘Learn to surf!’ I want to do that.”
The 64-year-old is a writer and substitute teacher, and clearly believes in research. She went back to the hotel and started watching videos on how to surf. “I was standing on the bed, trying to balance,” she says. But out on the water, it was a different matter. She was out of her depth, in all senses. “I’m athletic. I do spin classes, I cross-train, I row and I play a lot of tennis. I do a lot of things. I thought: I ought to be able to do this.” Photographs show her “crashing and burning”. She never got up on the board – but vowed to go back for more.
