Barbados

Returning to the love of freesurfing

- Bernd Roediger

Barbados is the living effigy of the Great Caribbean Dream. Here the water is as crystalline as Shakespearean prose. The Sun’s rays lay upon the old fish markets and coconut groves in a sensuous way, like old sails unfurling off their mast. The sea is bright and alive, the equatorial seasons make living easy for stunningly diverse reef-dwellers. And, the waves… oh the waves.

The east is by far the most popular coast for surfing: the Bathsheba district is home to Soup Bowl and Parlour. To the west, the surf breaks off outer reefs—you can paddle out from Sam Lord’s old Pirate Castle. The north is, well, in Game of Thrones terminology, “Beyond the Wall”: No one really surfs there, as it’s only accessible by boat. Overgrown mangroves give way to massive cliffs and beautiful point breaks. Local legend waterman Brian Talma has this part of the island wired. The man also owns a shop, “deAction Beach House” in Silver Sands on the south coast. This is headquarters for the Beach Culture World Tour.

Talma’s Beach Culture World Championships! It is here that we are vying for the coveted title of Beach Culture World Champion! There are so many ways to achieve victory beyond just surfing, but ultimately it’s the person having the most fun who claims the win. Making that old cliché a reality is the core principal of Brian Talma’s tour. It’s what sets the event apart from all the others out there!

I’m fortunate to have been windsurfing, surfing and paddling for most of my life. I started doing contests on Maui basically when I started going to school. Maybe that’s why, even now, I find so many correlations between the classroom and competition.