Jamie Whittle's Blog
Lossi’i broth
The swell washing in from the North the past few days has been hitting the Moray coast with fizz bombs. Lossiemouth beach was positively effervescent yesterday with only about 5 seconds in between each breaking wave. Looking from the hill overlooking the beach, you would have seen five to six lines of waves fill the 60 metre space between the high tide mark and the end of the breakwater wall. A handful of brave fishermen stood along this wall casting out into the surf, periodically getting soaked by breakers obliterating against the stone. From time to time, surfers would try to squeeze between the fishermen as they tiptoed along the wall with their boards (trying not to spoon the fishermen into the sea like some Buster Keaton prank) so that they could walk with relative ease rather than paddle to the outside of the surf break.
Until a few years ago, surfing in Scotland seemed to many an act of lunacy. Perhaps it still does to some. Now it is a sport – or lifestyle – that has found a hold and is becoming increasingly popular. If yesterday’s high tide snapshot at Lossie beach was a yardstick, I counted at least fourteen other people in the surf in less than ideal conditions. There is a well established surf shop in nearby Elgin (ESP - http://www.espscotland.com/) which has been serving the people of the North East since 1992, as well as other surf shops, instructors and clubs around the coastline and in some of the cities, and focal points such as the Scottish Surfing Federation (http://scottishwaveriders.blogspot.com/) and competitions that include the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Scotland at Thurso East/Brims Ness (http://www.oneill.com/cwc/scotland).
It was hard work in the water yesterday. The short period between waves, an increasing onshore wind, and strong undercurrents pulling you eastwards towards Spey Bay. But with a big, buoyant longboard it’s possible to make the most out of the soup-like conditions. If Cullen has its skink, maybe Lossie has its broth. And a salty one at that. This morning, the body feels as if it has had a thorough workout, the face weather beaten, and through the oceanic pummelling a sense of wellness.
I’m not someone who has many regrets, but I wish I had started surfing when I was much younger. Like telemark skiing (which I only started two winters ago), it is a superlative sport. Yes, the exciting thing is that I have so much of the discovery and learning ahead of me. Then I think that of earlier travels where I spent extended periods of time in California, Tahiti and Costa Rica and where I only dabbled with surfing and wasted golden opportunities. I came to it more through surf kayaking which a friend introduced me to on Tiree in 2001, and which (especially when I learned to Eskimo roll) I came to love with a healthy respect for the power of waves and my place as a potential rag-doll in the sea. It was when I got spooked by a wave a couple of years ago that seemed bigger than anything I had been in/on before, as it folded in on me from both sides and sucked me out of my kayak, that the idea of being on a board rather than in a boat became all the more attractive. Then the day I bought my wife an engagement ring, she returned the ritual by taking me to a surf shop that afternoon and buying me a longboard.
Like telemarking with the simplicity of a free heel, riding a longboard is an experience pared down. There is an old school quality to both telemarking and longboarding which draws me to their ways. Maybe they respectively tap into spirits Scandinavian and Polynesian (I have for some time schemed of visiting the Aleutian Islands, as I sense their Arctic-Pacific wind cradle could be a crucible of these geo-cultural lines). These ways of flowing with the natural world, slipping into elemental forces. I think of that line of my heroine, Dolores La Chapelle, when she wrote about how there is bliss when we conform with the Earth. A wise man with dreadlocks and a funky beard who could ski backwards at high speed once taught me that to be a good skier you need to practice in poor conditions and not just blue-sky-powder days. The same applies to surf. Practice when you can, and then, when the peachy times come, you will be ready for their gift.
So Lossi’i and its origins? A passing, goofy thought when I was trying to think how Scotland could re-brand itself to promote a surfing lifestyle, with coastal locations having an alternative Polynesian-sounding name like Hawai’i or Kaua’i. Maybe Lossi’i, Bucki’i, Tiree’i, Thurso’i, Strathi’i… Aloha!