I rarely write this blog any more. Woe is me. The lack of writing is not through lack of interest in surfing but because these days I am always too busy. What am I busy doing? Why, all kinds of thing, but mainly working, which means writing, but not this kind of writing, which is a shame, for me anyway, because when I write this kind of writing I write like some sort of fool which is what my headmaster once called me, or rather asked me, for his words were: "Wade, are you some sort of a fool?"
I always enjoy thinking of this question, which was prompted by a terrible crime. The head was a maths teacher and asked his class to stand up and swivel round in an anti-clockwise direction. I was about 13 and a total dunce at maths. Like a fool, I swivelled clockwise. The head promptly tore into me. He and I had what could best be described as a relationship of cordial hatred; he assumed I'd swivelled clockwise deliberately, to subvert his class.
How I wish this level of cunning had been mine! But it wasn't. I was just an idiot. But what was the head getting at when he asked "Are you some sort of a fool?" Surely one is a fool, or one is not a fool? What sort of a fool was he thinking I might have been?
The answer, perhaps, is a writerly fool, someone who insists on trying to make a living out of this most doomed of professions despite the clear mathematical, not to mention anecdotal, evidence to the effect that a career in mathematics is less foolish.
But there is also honour in foolishness, which is why I remain stoked to be writing Winter's Tale - Waves, Swords and Wisdom - The Story of Russell Winter. Russ and I have had a couple of decent chats and the writing is underway. Tim Nunn sent me this great pic the other day, and it neatly encapsulates why Russ is not some of a fool but instead the UK's most successful ever surfer.
