Chasing WavesThere’s nothing more us ladies here at Stash love than a hot guy. But a hot guy that can surf is always a plus.

Greg Norman, 26 from Devon, is one of Britain’s top Long boarders ranking in last year’s top ten division. I caught up with him as he came back from another surf adventure this time from Taiwan.

Written by Suzanna King Photographs by Zac Gibson

Having not spoken to Greg in quite some time due to his recent gallivanting, we obviously started off

with the formalities of asking after one another’s health, family etc. Once this was out of the way I

was ready to get some of the juicy gossip of what his surfing career has been like.

Being a bred Devonian he explained to me what it was like growing up and learning to surfing around

the southern coastline, “ I brought myself a board and a wetsuit and just got stuck in and living in

North Devon it just seemed natural to get in the sea.” He carried on with mentioning some of the

errors wannabe surfers make when they’re starting out. As to not look like a fool in front of the locals

when I next hit the waves, I quickly noted them down.

He reminded me of the days when surfing wasn’t his priority when it came to sports and that he was

an avid cross- country lover when he was younger. Recalling the ruthless training, how monotonous

it becomes after a while and how with surfing your practice for a competition is always going to be

different as your never really know what wave your going to end up getting, “That’s what I love

about surfing, every wave is different. There is so much variety in North Devon alone. I love heading

to places I have never been to before and surfing a wave for the first time”. I nodded agreeing fully

with him remembering the times I’ve stood on the side of the beach chucking up streams of salt water

whilst hot surfers boys stand and

laugh. Beautiful, I know.

After my little moment of reminiscing

the conversation moved swiftly over

to the fact that recently he has spent

a large amount of time traveling and

scouting out some perfect waves;

“The boat trip in the Maldives earlier

this year was insane. There are so

many flawless waves; no need for a

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wetsuit and the food was amazing. I have a great group of friends, who I surf with, travel with and

surf against in comps. Nine of us have just booked a boat in the Maldives next summer, there should

be heaps of banter and some epic waves.” In my mind I saw a lads on tour situation but Greg was

quick to set me straight. Making sure I knew that it was more about how many waves they could

grab, not how many numbers “A surf trip is primarily a surf trip. If there are waves we will always be

up at first light and surf till our arms fall off. Although one trip a few years back a group of us went

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to Feutreventura, after a couple days of good surf

Mother Nature decided to make the ocean go flat.

We therefore resorted to hitting up all the bars,

clubs and generally being

a standard group of young

Brit tourists.’

We continued to chat

with the conversation

flowing from one topic

to the next. He briefly

mentions how he once

surfed the same set as

World Longboarding champion Taylor Jensen,

surfing the tourist season in Devon, how he finds

surfing strangely addictive and how taking his

adorable boxer puppy out on walks is part of his

training regime. It’s a hard life isn’t it?

But not all of the surfing lifestyle is glittering

beaches and perfect set ups. He started to tell me

about some of the darker sides of the surfing that

he has experienced. Including watching a rogue

triple overhead bomb

set land on his head,

snapping his board.

Rather him than me

that’s for sure, “I had

a sketchy over the

falls wipe out that did

involve smashing my

kidney so hard that

I had blood in my piss!” Again all I could think

was I was glad it wasn’t me.

I asked him what the locals were like when

surfing, as I always heard some rather peculiar

stories from other surfing buddies of mine, “It’s

pretty laid back at home to be honest, if you take

“I love heading to places I have never

been to before and surfing

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too many waves, snake or drop in, you are gonna get a bad name for yourself, but acts of violence are

few and far between. Saying that, I did witness a Dutch guy get ordered out the water in Morocco

where a young angry local with a golf club then attacked him. It was pretty full on, especially as this

was on a busy beach in front of loads of people.” I swiftly noted to not piss off the local in Morocco

next time I fancied catching a set.

The look of shock on my face meant the conversation was promptly changed to the future aspects of

his career. After suffering a bad ankle injury I was unsure whether to ask Greg how far ahead in the

game he saw himself but with competition season over he reassured me he’d have his mojo back in time

for next season, “Personally I want to continue what I’m doing, surfing heaps, travelling to amazing

destinations and having fun with my mates. I’d love to land a major title and hopefully compete in a

few more European events.” He explained that he was lucky enough that his boss is pretty supportive

of his surfing, which allows him to squeeze in some dawn sessions and a few after work but with

winter coming the lack of daylight is obviously going to make that harder. I decided from this to

ask him the same question everyone gets asked when at an interview, where do you see yourself in a

year? “In a perfect world, I’d have won the lottery and be getting barreled off my nuts somewhere in

Indonesia.” Fair play to the lad, I’d want the same but maybe with fewer nuts.

For more info check out: http://gregnormansurfer.blogspot.co.uk

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