Today, the SUNDAY SUN’S surfing aficionado Heather-lynn Evanson takes a look into the life and times of wonder girl surfer Chelsea Tuach, who excelled both at home and abroad, to be voted as the NATION newspaper’s 2013 Sports Personality of the Year.
She will deal with the dry hair; she can laugh at the sun spots that may develop on her skin over time but if there are two things Chelsea Tuach does mind – it’s doing without flying fish and macaroni pie.
Back home after a highly successful tour on the international circuit, the recently turned 18-year-old sat down with NATION SPORT for a candid interview.
Long gone are the days when she needed the help of a caddy to push her into the waves.
But the joy of paddling out, catching a wave and shredding it to shore still remains. Now she is hassling older, more experienced surfers and beating them at their own game.
It was her first competition at age eight that cemented her love for the sport she has chosen as a career.
“It was at Maycock’s and they were pushing us into waves and I remember having so much fun,” she said. “It was a great experience and whenever we caught a wave everyone on the beach would be clapping. I won that heat, and that was the first competition that I won and it was a great feeling – that feeling of winning.”
Back then, she was in a three-way competition with Chelsea Roett and Ametza Nicholls and she says they pushed each other to be the best.
Then the Common Entrance exam loomed and Queen’s College was to be the next phase of her life.
“It was time to buckle down at Queen’s. It was a lot of hard work to keep on top of studies and on top of classes but I think it helped me to be more focused,” she said, admitting that she could not have done as well as she did without the help of her four best friends.
The six grade ones and two grade twos justified her decision to focus on her studies instead of her surfing in her CXC year.
“I really did enjoy school and I pretty much liked all my teachers and I think that helped,” she said looking back at that time.
But at age 16, Chelsea took the bold decision to leave the home she has always known and move to California in the United States.
By then, she had made up her mind that surfing was the career for her.
She had watched enough movies and had done enough overseas tours to know that a living could be made from the sport.
“I wanted to travel and I wanted to surf because there is no better feeling than when you’re surfing, when you’re out, when you’re catching waves with your friends and I wanted to do it every day.”
“I was homesick for sure,” Chelsea admitted of her move to California. “I missed the warm water.”
But the move to the United States was necessary – the break, which was in walking distance from her house, was one of the hardest breaks ever, and it was much cheaper to get from California to anywhere else in the world, when compared to Barbados.
“In Barbados we have good waves. Barbados waves gave me a really nice style but I needed to go to California because they have really bad beach breaks and most of the waves on tour were really bad.”
“Also I learnt how to deal with crowds,” something, said Chelsea, which was not a problem in Barbados.
And the family there was like her family in Barbados – she even had an older brother.
Homesickness has become part of her travelling life.
“I will leave Barbados for a week or two and it’s like omigosh I want to come home, I wanna surf Soup Bowl, I wanna eat some flying fish.
“That’s what I miss the most, flying fish and macaroni pie is my favourite. I gotta learn how to make a good macaroni pie,” she laughed.Chelsea admits that many people don’t see surfing as a sport or as one where fitness is important.
“You think surf a couple hours and that’s it, but you feel it in competition when you’re paddling like 20 minutes or half hour.
“But your diet and your health are important because you’ve got to be fit to be a surfer. I don’t think some up-and-coming surfers realize how fit you have
to be. We’re athletes. Surfing is not an easy career. If you want to be the best, you have to be the fittest,” she stressed.
When she is in competition mode, a typical day starts at dawn with a run on the boardwalk; a workout in the gym and then surfing.
Diet is also important.
“Definitely no carbs. No bread, a lot of protein and a lot of fruits and vegetables.”
Chelsea feels the island has a bright future where its surfers are concerned and while the next generation of female surfers is only 11 years now, she feels the next bright sparks are Che Allan and Josh Burke.
“A lot of people are going to hear about Barbados and they are starting to already. Barbados is getting up there, Barbados is competing against the best and we’re beating the best,” she enthused.
“Hopefully, in a couple of years we won’t see one, we’ll see plenty of Barbadians ‘cause it’s a great feeling when they are calling out the final result and it’s Australia, USA, Hawaii and Barbados.
“We’re going to trample some big names, I think, because we’ve got the waves to do it.”
What she wants is for the Government to throw its support behind the sport because the island’s surfers were putting the island on the map.
Looking ahead, Chelsea notes that while she intends to surf as long as she can, she knows she “can’t surf forever”.
And that’s why even as she surfs she is pursuing an online degree in nutrition.
“That’s why I chose nutrition because if I make it in surfing it’s going to help me, but if not, it’s such a great field to get into now because a lot more people are health conscious. Everyone is trying to get on a health programme.”
Today, the competitions stretch in a long line behind her and a room dedicated to her trophies.
In her last competition she placed third in the world in the Association of Surfing Professionals World Juniors after getting a fourth place finish in the International Surfing Professionals World Juniors.
But for the surfer who ended the year as the top-ranked junior surfer in the North American junior rankings, her life is not all about surfing. She candidly admits that what keeps her grounded is that none of her close friends are into surfing.
“So my life isn’t all about surfing. When I’m surfing in a contest or travelling it’s all about surfing, but when I’m home and I’m with my friends surfing does not come up.”
But what does the future hold for Chelsea?
“It’s hard to know, but I’m just going with the flow. I’m travelling a lot. I’ll going to be surfing every day, training every day, doing the competitions I need to do and just see where it takes me,” she said.
But there is one thing she does know. “I don’t want to be stuck behind a desk. I’ve got to stay as close to the ocean possible,” she said.
