Before they enter the water, surfers will study the ocean. They consider wind and tide conditions. They analyse currents and patterns, break points and swells. They try to read the waves. I have travelled across oceans and a day to sit here on Tamarama beach in Sydney on a high-tide weekday morning in 2024. A notebook and pen lie beside me on the sand as I, too, attempt to read the waves, to find meaning in their unfathomable churn.
These past 10 years, this beach has loomed large in my mind. Even when absent, it’s as if my face has been turned to these waves and I have been buffeted, sometimes staggering, sometimes falling, always bracing for the next set to roll in. For I have learned that all it takes is one ocean, one day, to come along and knock you off your feet.
