Watch: Robyn // Surfing in your 70’s
Robyn began surfing in 1963 and was one of the first female surfers in the area. This short film captures Robyn's love of the ocean. It celebrates her gratitude for the simple things in life, like living by the sea and surfing every day. Music: Headland - Neska Polita "Pretty Girl".
Comments
A zest for life, nature, free and enjoy it, enough said.
Absolute Gold! I've tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, thanks for sharing.
Not a bad wave to live near if you want to surf in your 80s.
Our windblown rock monsters wont be so kind to my bones.
This is awesome.
Great stuff
Go Robyn.
Good luck on getting those beautiful Octogenarian waves.
I was interested in Robyn's paddling technique having recently suffered a pinch nerve in my neck, reputedly aggravated by arching my head back while paddling. Looks like Robyn keeps her head down all the time and thus reducing neck strain. Perhaps one of the reasons she can still keep surfing in her 70's.
Lovely.
Thanks for posting it.
So right Robyn that's what it's all about. That's why I've been surfing for 42 years.
Love it. Absolute gold. You go girl!
Great little clip! What a gal, and nice to see Albe Falzon in the water giving her a bit of encouragement.
Appreciated the clip, but geez I hate the term you used in the intro text "surfing every day". No-one surfs every day, so using the phrase sounds stupid to me.
I surf basically every day or if flat got for a swim or snorkel. A couple of others around who are the same like Wazza at North Steyne. Would probably only miss 7-14 days or so a year in total, not including trips to say the snow etc. Have a board for most conditions.
So you go into the ocean every day.
Maybe I am being pedantic, but for me the term conjures up an image of someone going out with a board every day no matter what the conditions and I don't think anyone does that.
Yep that's me. Surf everything..
Ha - OK, I stand corrected. I must just lack committment to the craft.
It's an addiction, for sure. Sometimes not for the best but it's all about expectations. When it's junky aiming to just get one turn in makes it fun. The annoying surfs are when it looks really fun or good and when you get out there it's far from it. Good to keep in sync with the weather and swell patterns as well.
You’re a lucky bugger.
The infatuation is half the fun. I remember days when I’d commit all kinds of sins just to fit a 20 minute surf in somewhere. Literally 20 minutes.
I was blessed with some unbelievably indulgent bosses / girlfriends when I was younger. My first boss as an apprentice was enduring a very trying time in his life and told me to surf as much as I could. I’d be working away and tell him the wind had gone offshore and he’d smile and tell me to get out there. Pretty cool behaviour from a bloke who’d never surfed in his life.
I wound up having a total of three months off just in that first year chasing swells before he started getting stroppy. By then his business was going down the toilet due to non paying customers so he made me come to a Master Builders awards night in order to network with other builders in preparation for my needing another job.
I’d have rather be kicked in the nuts than spend a night away from my girls , mates and bongs , but he insisted so along I went. The awards night had a lucky door prize which I won . $2000 travel voucher from a travel agent !
I was off to Indo a couple of days later.
My point being ......the love for shit waves can wane . Nowadays I’ll not surf if it’s garbage on the assumption that I’ll be near good waves sooner or later.....problematic ! Hold onto it with both hands as long as you can. Wait till you see how many crew fall by the wayside when they start losing the drive to surf crap.
Don’t wind up a non surfing statistic.
Surfing’s a source !
Yes very lucky, I may get more picky with time but there are no signs of that just yet! Mixing it up with trips also helps keep the flame alive. Hell even surfing the next beach over..
Felipe Pomar runs residential sessions on how to surf to 100. I seem to remember Phil expressing particular interest!
Greenough surfs every day and is past 70.
Yes she is terrific and looks an idyllic spot compared to down south in mid winter. Craig says he surfs everyday however I reckon there must be many a snorkelling day on the Pacific. I have often seen it flatter than Port Phillip Bay which astounds me how such a massive body of water goes completely flat coming from the MP where you might get, maybe one flat day a year. Greenough also comes from those warmer climes. You still see some old diggers out in the water down here on a calmer day and I will do some digging on who is the oldest still going down here.
Yeah as Steve said, it's rare the Tasman goes completely flat. Usually only under those strong frontal passages that bring lots of snow and gusty offshore winds to the East Coast. This happened maybe one week last winter, otherwise there's been a wave everyday if you can work the tides and have the right equipment.
I can't tell you the last time I swam, so that tells ya something.
The East Coast is unique in that way. I'd not be surfing the same poor conditions back in South Oz, it just doesn't have the same quality when small to tiny and onshore. Deeper bathy helps IMO on the East Coast.
Fair enough Craig we sometimes pray for small if it has been 6 foot plus for two weeks non stop and average winds. Small is not a problem down here and are fun to surf, it just hardly ever happens. Nowhere near as user friendly as the East Coast but still love it.
It's actually quite rare that the Pacific goes really, unsurfably flat.
Especially if there is S swell exposure.
I've been in Craig's camp this summer, been surfing every day. Despite generally shitful conditions.
Sometimes twice a day because my son is keen.
Craig and Freeride, I'm on your programme too.
Wellington will go absolutely witch's tit flat for weeks, but it hasn't for a long time, thankfully. If there's anything rideable, I'll go out and try to make something out of it. So often it's more fun than it looks, and you always feel better afterwards.
Just came in from my local. 20kt onshore, and nobody else showing any interest, but it was 3-4ft and had good power. Sunny and warm.
I just came in from surfing the Pass. It was 3ft, cross shore and junky. 5 million cunts out.
Walked past a French chick with chocolate skin and pierced nipples drinking champagne from the bottle, surf schools etc etc.
My son got someones legrope caught around his neck and almost got choked out.
We had a ton of fun.
They say Byron hospital is really busy because of so many incidents at the pass.......got a mate who had 6 weeks out of the water due to a loose mal fin chop to his knee,could have been his face or eye.......your keener than i am FR
I don't surf every day, but go out more now on occasions when you could take it or leave it. I started to do this after about 5 years ago a fella at our local asked me why i'm not going out, i said not that great, he said you never know when it's your last, so i went out. He died aged about 70 about 6 months later at a longboard contest at Snapper of a heart attack. That will be with me till the end.
I suppose you’re all the same....get a bit cranky if you don’t get in the water ?
Can’t be overstated how much of a tonic for the soul going for a splash can be. Any exercise is good , getting in the ocean is gold , but when you feel the energy of that wave lift you and you get up on a plane , there’s a resetting of the clock that money can’t buy.
100% agree.
Energy impact from being in the ocean, paddling n catching waves is priceless.
And, yep, I too get grumpy n irritable if not surfing at least every few days. My wife n our now 13yo gidget both comment and tell me I need a surf!
After about a week without surfing blowin my wife says i start to get noticeably more irritated at small things, grumpy, tense about pathetic stuff.
Its hopeless isn't it.. Its playing in the ocean ffs!
Putting it simply yes it is just that. But we all know it’s more than that. Energy is being transformed and released and we’re part of it.
Definitely something more than just the purely physical 'exercise' aspect.
I wonder if a session in a 'wave pool' park or complex will produce the same effects?
Great video,beautiful lady.location unreal.Really encouraging for a bloke my age!
That was so good. Well done Robyn, it would be lovely to be surfing as well at 70 as you do. The place is magic, I remember as a grom (coming from WA) being absolutely gobsmacked a little wave could peel for so long on a point and you could use a log to go for what seemed forever. Thus developing style.
As for everyday surfing, totally, it is something to aspire to, even if junky waves (that's why you surf a full quiver and surf some beaches that others might pass up on). I'm in the water most days, always packing a board in the car. Sore ear this week means... Swellnet Time!
I had a morning surf check and called it off “bit too windy....” came home, watched this, read the comments, gave myself a good talking to and went surfing. So glad I did, reset and refreshed.
Great story, lovely lady and a wonderful place!
What beach is this
Been out now for 2mnths after compressing 2 vertebrae in my thoracic spine. Still swimming 1k + a day though & hoping to go surfing again soon. Robyn inspires me too, great to see & fully agree with her thoughts on the benefits surfing delivers. Swimming is enjoyable but doesn't deliver anywhere near the stoke that surfing does!
gregor... I believe Robyn is surfing Crescent Head.
Presenting [Crescent Head Surf Chix Longboard Double Feature]
Crescent Head 2018 Womens Mal Classic courtesy of Swellnet forum.
Old Photo of perfect lineup note Footbridge over Killock Creek.
https://www.screenhunter.com.au/locations-aerials/
2008 Crescent Head National Surf Reserve is mecca for old crew.
http://www.kempsey.nsw.gov.au/archives/media-releases/2008/mr20080528.html
http://www.kempsey.nsw.gov.au/archives/media-releases/2008/mr20080616.html
gregor I think only you & I have yet to surf here as most East Coast crew idolize it.
Hence why they wish to keep their replies on the down low!
This Vid shows the new path & Surf Club as in Robyn's Showcase.
Final vid is a Drone Flyover from creek to mid point
Love how the Creek stokes the Point that also looms larger to greet the sea. Classic!
How Robyn scampers a sea of rocks like a teenager is beyond me!
Robyn's local knowledge fools us into thinking Crescent Head is all too easy. Magic!