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Interview: Surfer Will Lamb

Surfing in Uist is, uh, is great. The things that make it great are – and I hesitate to even speak about it – because the first thing is, the most important thing, the lack of crowds. Uh, at the most you’re going to find, usually, about five people out. That’s like record numbers. Yesterday we had seven people out, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before in Sollas – maybe once.

Um, usually, especially as the winter comes in here, you’ll be surfing on your own, or you’ll just have maybe two other guys out. Um but uh, yeah, so surfing here is great because you don’t have the crowds to fight with. The other thing that makes it great is, apparently, we’ve got the most consistent swell here, particularly in the summer months, but uh you know you can almost always find a wave. It just depends on what the wind’s doing, so there’ll be a lot of times that, um, the waves will be coming in but the wind’s coming from the wrong direction. So that spoils things an awful lot.

I mean tonight, for example, I’ll go out in a place called Baleshare. Baleshare works if you’ve got a northern or an eastern wind, and obviously you need swell. Uh, the place we were at yesterday, in Sollas – Sollas won’t work with a northern wind. That would make it what’s called “onshore”. You want the wind, if you can get it, you want the wind going against the waves, or at least somewhere within that kind of ninety degree range against the waves. As soon as it crosses the threshold, actually as soon as it gets close to kind of crossing that threshold and going over it starts spoiling the waves.

I mean usually if there’s a wave to be had then my life stops. I do lots of different things, I wear lots of different hats, but that currently has the top rung. So nothing can compete, you know, a lot of people in my life, uh, are at me all the time like “Get your priorities right”. I’m like “I got my priorities right, you know. You’ve got yours wrong.” So, yeah, the most that I’ll be out there, you know, I would say would be four times a week, something like that. The, you know, minimum – I try to get out once a fortnight. Um, in the wintertime, winter months, it makes it difficult sometimes to even get out, you know, once a fortnight – because what you have in the winter months here is you get swell all the time. The waves are great, but the wind is the factor. And even if you have the wind coming from the right direction, if it’s too strong, not only does it make it dangerous, but it also makes it sometimes unsurfable. It holds the waves up and it stops them from actually breaking, so it’s very difficult to actually get into the wave itself.

The thing that makes it dangerous is – and I actually had this happen a couple of weeks ago for the first time – when the wind’s going against the waves, which is what you want – that’s called “offshore – um what happens is as soon as you come off your board – which, let’s face it, sometimes happens when you don’t plan it – um what happens is the wind will pick up your board and transport it, usually over your head, sometimes right in your face or on your head. So, you know, you can pop up if you’re not careful and you can get a faceful of board, and there’s lots of terrible injuries that happen because of that. So that’s the most dangerous thing about surfing, and it’s a thing you need to be aware of, and it’s intensified as soon as the wind gets strong and offshore.

The summer months – it really depends on what’s going on with the weather systems. Last year it was incredibly settled. Um I think I surfed once or twice all summer long. I actually specifically didn’t go back to the States last summer because I wanted to surf here in Uist. And, it’s not that I regret that. I had a nice summer here. The weather was gorgeous, but there was no surfing, and, given the two, I’d much prefer to take rotten weather and great surf.

So that’s the summer for you. It can, it can be good and it can be bad. Um, winter’s always going to be good. If you can just be bothered getting on your wetsuit then you’re probably going to find a wave if the wind’s right. This time of year, the autumn-time, is the best, I would say, because the water’s still warm. It’s about fourteen degrees centigrade. Um if you have even a, you know, probably a good three millimetre wetsuit, definitely a four millimetre, then you’re fine. I just wear a five millimetre all year round. That way I only have to buy one suit. The spring is usually good as well. The last good waves that I remember last year stopped, kind of, or happened, I should say, in uh in April, mid-April.

Well, I’ve done lots of sports in my life. Um I was a competitive swimmer before – and that’s probably the most taxing thing I’ve ever done, but um of all of them surfing is the most enjoyable. I mean it’s crazy – you’re on a wave – here in Uist if you get a ten second ride you’re, you, you think you’ve had the best time in your life, you know. There’s places in the world that you can be on a wave for a minute or two. Two would be pushing it, but a minute for sure. So it’s a short ride, and you spend maybe two hours trying to get sometimes three, four, five, ten, you know between three and ten rides like that. But when you’re on the wave it’s pure adrenalin, it’s pure bliss, and it, it’s like a two-week holiday condensed in ten seconds. I mean how can you, where else can you find that? You know, um, you’ve got the spiritual element of being out there on the water, particularly if you’re on your own, you – it’s – everything in your life stops. It’s, it’s only about the waves, and it’s about the sky, and you know, some people go to church. I surf, you know, and I think a lot of surfers, um, have that same connection. It means something a lot more to you as a person.

Um, and let’s face it, it’s just a great sport. I mean you’re working out the whole time, you’re pumping your arms. You know after – I mean the first time you go surfing you’ll probably only be able to stay in for, like, half an hour, because your arms will be wiped out.

Yesterday I think I stayed in for a little bit over two hours. And we actually did loads of swimming yesterday, so, um, that’s a really good workout. So you can stay fit, and you can just have a all-encompassing, you know, fantastic physical spiritual experience. Where else can you get that?

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