My salt water addiction as I call it was passed to me by Dad I feel sure. He’d emigrated as a kid to Australia and found a love for all things water during his time there. His Mum never really settled so much to his disappointment they’d had to come home. Ever since he and my lovely patient Mum made sure that having fun in the sea was a major part of our upbringing. We’d swim in storms and have fun in the various craft my Dad would fix and repair to keep the salt water fun going. I learnt to swim by jumping overboard off Flamborough Head and would waterski miles in all weathers with Dad around Bridlington Bay, doing our own version of early tow-in surfing on my mono ski and wakeboard into large swells off Fraisthorpe Beach.

Unfortunately my first go at surfing didn’t last long as Bridlington Bay isn’t renowned for it’s surf. I was desperate to be a surfer so Dad and Mum took me to Withernsea to buy a surfboard for my 12th birthday. All I can remember is the board being really small and in the small chop of the bay I just could’t get it going. I got a canoe instead which I called “Fang” (letters from an emergency fire sign!) and me and my best mate Dave would drag that thing miles on a trailer Dad welded to spend days at the beach.

As you might have gathered, I was never a girly girl. Always hanging out with my mate Dave, my Dad and my brothers and preferring skateboards and risk taking water-sports over clothes and makeup. This has never changed and at the moment I’m really psyched about a new Snugg wetsuit due to land in January and the prospect of winter swells!

As a teenager, when Dad worked away for a time, I knew I had to get water borne under my own steam and saved up by strawberry picking to buy a windsurfer. There were no windsurf schools in those days and nobody really doing it much back in the early 1980’s so I had to get a book as well and taught myself. Through grit and bloody determination I got the hang of it and got completely addicted. If the wind was blowing I had to be out there and started to compete. At a qualifying event in Portland Harbour I managed to get a wild card entry into the International Speed Week and the rest is history. At my first couple of events I begged and borrowed speed kit. I was rubbish and could hardly get down the course but I was determined to do better and get better gear. I worked really hard to improve and the results started to come in.

With the results came the sponsorship'; Gul wetsuits, Oxbow, Oakley, Neil Pryde and eventually the highlight was getting my boards custom made by Jimmy Lewis in Hawaii. I became British Champion 8 years running, British Women’s speed record holder and competed on the World Tour, getting 3rd twice But as a Brit competing on an Eddie the Eagle sort of basis, having to work still full time at BT, it made it almost impossible to push through to first place, coupled with an ever deafening maternal body clock, I knew I’d like to start our own family.

Since meeting my husband Steve in 1982, he’s always been incredibly supportive and gone along with my dreams. He was my roadie when I competed and he has continued in this vein ever since.

Our two sons Brad and Ben have grown up with salt water in their veins, having wetsuits from eighteen months and throughout Steve has been supporting me and them. When the boys were little of course I had to keep our water adventures limited to the shallows, I’d play with them in various blow up craft at the water’s edge and even bought a family kayak. We enjoyed our fun together but I did sometimes find it frustrating and lacking in adrenalin but the time and patience were worth waiting for.

Then in 2008 a life changing event happened and we went on a family holiday to Cornwall. On the way down we’d bought ‘Surfs Up’ for the kids to watch on their TVs in the back of the car. The boys loved it, especially Brad and he spent some of his holiday money on a Carve mag from the service station. By the time we got to Cornwall Brad was desperate to try surfing and we hired him a foamie. He developed his own technique of jumping on the board from the side but he got up and riding the shallows and loved it. Ben was younger at six so I spent my time pulling him around the edge on a bodyboard.

I remember being in tears though when we got home, called in at Gary’s and priced up kitting the three of us in full gear and boards. Looking back at the moment now, of course we were going to have to build it up slowly and steadily, and slowly and steadily we did. At the end of the day once you’ve got your gear, there’s no membership fees or entry to pay so it wasn’t that bad after all. Until you need just another board or suit…

Always an adventure, Sam with her two young boys

We’d drive from Northallerton to surf along the North East Coast several times a week, whenever there was swell. Through freezing fog, ice. If there were waves, we’d drive. After school and college. I can remember those years changing out the back of the Mondeo, in tears some days when my feet were so freezing I’d put them in a bucket of coffee out of my flask. I have Raynards and had to stop half way home sometimes to try and prod my feet back to life. The lads were doing well and improving. They both went to surf club and were really getting hooked. I was hooked but not very good. At nearly 6ft I found sucking my legs up and popping up in one just about impossible. Never having a lesson, I developed my “hands, knees and upsidaisy” technique which Steve lovingly, if not annoyingly, called it.

In fact, at this point I very nearly gave up surfing but thank goodness I didn’t. Instead I decided my board was just too narrow and small and so invested in a better, wider, bigger board with more volume and set about working really hard on my flexibility, power and strength (with a bit of help from You Tube and; Chris Mills Surf Coach!) Steadily I was doing better. Steve treated me to a one to one lesson with Richie and that was revolutionary. Suddenly I was going down the line and turning. Today I still am working on trying to pop up faster and have Richie and Evan’s tips of looking down the line to where you want to go in my head but sometimes I just seem to clean forget. I’m a work in progress shall I say, but oh was fun work it is. At nearly 6’, popping up has always been the toughest thing for me and something I’ve had to work really hard on. Coming from a water-sports background where my speed windsurf boards were actually smaller than my surfboards helps. Likewise waterskiing, skateboarding and wakeboarding definitely help once I’m up but it’s getting up quick enough to keep speed and flo that I still am working on today.

Another key moment in our surfing journey (and I remember having hair stand up on the back of my neck) was the first time Brad ventured out back . Thanks to sessions in Surf Club, Brad had grown, not only up, but in ability and confidence and on one big day in particular, he finally decided to paddle out the back. The tables had finally turned and instead of me trying to encourage them to come just a little bit deeper and perhaps out of their depth, there he was hollering me, “Come on Mum”. He does still do this on bigger more full on days. On a couple of times I have looked at it and said to him “Are you quite sure”. “ Yes Mam come on, lets go”. Though there have been a couple of days I’ve gone and he’s given it as miss. We encourage each other shall I say, though I do think they’ve still got more sense than their Mam.

Now 12 years later we have our own “Boardroom” at home and have moved from being landlocked in Northallerton to within 250yards of the seafront at Saltburn. I’d lived next to the sea as a girl and found it really hard moving inland for work with Steve. It took twenty five years to finally return to live at the sea but the wait was definitely worth waiting for and just shows your dreams can come true if you keep believing.

It’s not been plain sailing though for the last five years our youngest son Ben has been ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME). One day when he was twelve, he just just came home from school feeling really ill. He’d developed CFS on the back of a mystery virus and a once energetic, full of beans young lad ended up spending nearly a year housebound and unable to leave the house. The illness has challenged his health on many levels, physical, educational, emotional and social and it’s taken incredible strength and belief from him over these last five years to slowly fight his way back. He is a source of huge inspiration to me to lose his health in this way but still manage to keep smiling, except for on his really dark days.

When he was really poorly I gave up work as a newly qualified teacher to become his carer. Looking after him was now our main priority. Continuing to surf while he was really ill and unable to surf himself on his Visionary Longboard was one of the hardest things ever. I was racked with guilt going sometimes and even considered giving it up. If he couldn’t surf then perhaps I should stop until a time when he could again. He’d tell me to go as he didn’t know if that time would ever come again. I’m glad I kept going now because I realised it helped me get through a really difficult time and I always came home in a better place than if I hadn’t have gone. On the ocean, normal life seems to drift away for a short time. And I had to remember I had two sons, at this time Brad needed his Mum as well and that quality time I had with him surfing was just one the best things ever. Also the amazing Salty community of lovely surfers and surf businesses, are always there with a friendly and encouraging smile, a hello or a wave. It doesn’t matter what sort of day you’d been having, suddenly it all disappears and the surf chat takes over. I have loads of lovely friends through surfing young and old from all walks of life, all with the common love and joy of the salt. As he thankfully began to improve I knew I just couldn’t go back to the old way of life and instead slowly grew my own dog walking business which he helps with me today and which I truly love “Salty Paws of Saltburn”. It’s great to be working outside in nature with animals, and it wraps perfectly around the swell. My lovely customers know that if the surf is fab in the morning I’ll be walking slightly later and if it’s good later, I’ll be walking earlier or I might get two or three surfs wrapped around my walking!

Sam shredding on her Visionary Longboard

I find it fab now to see many more women out on the water than in my youth. Not only the North East women charging King of the Point and the reefs but those charging internationally Nazare and Jaws. But also I have equal respect for the local women out in all weathers, for whom 2-3 is a challenge who are all pushing their own boundaries. It’s just great to see and share the stoke of wave ridden and enjoyed be it of any size. What is important is the joy to that individual surfer.

As a woman of fifty six I increasingly get people surprised that I surf saying, “Do you still Surf?” I say “well hell yes. Why shouldn’t I?” I hope to surf for as long as I can walk. I’ve taken up longboard skateboarding this year again as my lockdown project as it just makes me feel good when the swell has gone. I’m working on my carving and my cross stepping.

I love the ocean because for me and many of my friends, it’s my happy place. I just love the feeling of the sea on my face be it the middle of summer or an icy morning. The anticipation as you wax up ready for the forthcoming joy. The sun’s reflection, rain and hail. The giggle at the latest crash or in my case ‘Captains salute’ as I go down. It just makes you feel alive especially when it’s bigger. The open face when your realise you’ve made a bigger drop and the pure elation of a long flowing ride and maybe a crossstep or two. When I’m surfing I’m a kid again. I think keeping playing like a kid is very important not only for your physical health but your mental health as well.

These days one of my greatest joys is having both my boys or should I say young men (18 and 20) sharing my passion at my side. They love it just as much as I do. Ben is just about 100% back to where he was pre CFS and surfing better than ever. Just lately me and my boys have had a couple of amazing sessions taking it turns and whooping each other’s long rides. Brad saying Ben has priority and then calling for a party wave. Long may it continue and long may our salt water addiction continue. My ambitions and hopes for the future and to keep surfing for as long as I’m physically able. Brad says he’ll take me on his back if my legs give out which hopefully will never happen or at least won’t be for a very very very long time. Even then I’ll get immense pleasure hopefully watching them surf together from my lovely campervan “Moby” which Steve is patiently converting thanks to the power of You Tube. Another dream come true. Behind every surf family is a rock . Ours is Steve. Thanks mate and best friend for helping to make all our dreams come true.

Surfing has brought me such great joy and happiness these last 12 years. It’s improved not only the physical and mental health of my family but the outdoor time and connection with nature. It’s led to a relocation to live in the beautiful seaside town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, the creation of my own dog walking business and the conversion of our own surf van/mobile beach hut “Moby”.

I am a calmer, happier and healthier person with surfing and the ocean in my life.

Sam Metcalfe - My Saltwater Addiction