Search for the White Whale

“It is not down on any map; true places never are.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

Having recently finished journalist Chris Dixon's impressive book "Ghost Wave: The Discovery of Cortes Bank and The Biggest Wave on Earth" it occurred to me that out there exists, as I tap away at the keyboard,  a wolf pack of surfers scouring weather maps and levels of ocean floor in search of giant waves. Slithering whales emerging from the sea and juggernauting their waves and fury onto reefs and sand. Outdated salty-wrinkled surfers counting ripples at their local shore break waiting for their set to come in, displaced over the decades by geography, the Internet and low-cost airlines. The advent of tow-in surfing (surfers towed onto larger waves by jet skis) and a maverick element of cutting-edge big wave riders has transformed the peaceful Endless Summer existence into the X-Games.

I loved this book. Its characters and spiritual aspects seep into the soul. The colourful personas that emerge from the chapters are all, not unlike Captain Ahab from Moby Dick, in search of the White Whale - the biggest wave on earth. It haunts them and feeds their very existence. As it gives their lives meaning, with the snap of a wave-lip, it snaps surfers in two. And yet, these men strapped to bindings on their surfboards, launch themselves over mountains of water in order to chase The Ride. 

It struck something within me. For those few who succeed and slay their White Whales, returning to their log cabins with withered skin and fragile bones, what form of future methadone would ever replace the real thing?           

White Wales
Paolo Coelho said it better than anyone else in his cult-creating book, The Alchemist. "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person realise his dream". 

The thing that always stood out for me in that sentence is not the conspiracy or how the universe would wangle together the realisation of a dream. I mean how would the universe even know your dream if you kept shtum? The thing that stood out was the SOMETHING that was the subject of the desire. What is that "something"? What is its tangibility? Is it the secret of life, the calling, the addiction? Is it the "One Thing".     

Curly from City Slickers said it best: 

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?

[holds up one finger]

Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.
Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"
Curly: [smiles] That's what *you* have to find out.

In early 2000, having recently survived Y2K, I was overwhelmed with the sensation that the trajectory of my legal career had strayed from its path. The reasons behind this cataclysmic shift were many and had a lot to do with the potentially destructive elements of the profession and the characters which walked its seedy corridors. It was with this sense of emotion that I found myself searching with my eldest brother, Alberto, for flights to Bilbao and cheap bus fares to Pamplona. The search for my White Whale had begun and, I decided, this would take the form of the running of the bulls. I would run it. Once. And then all would be revealed. When a person really desires something and all that.      

Having barely and gratefully survived La Corrida, it became clear to me why Ernest Hemingway would dedicate large portions of his waking hours writing about the bulls, the blood and the spectacle. Everyone finds a book in them after running with los toros.

What the Corrida did for me was The One Thing - it showed me the place where the whales live. As the mist cleared from my foggy mind, I sensed that chasing white whales with friends along to share the experience and some vino rojo for courage, and your life opens up to a series of adrenaline-fueled and mind-altering adventures. The perfect antidote to counteract an alternate life spent fighting the couch and TV remote.    

Bring me that horison,
~RobbyRicc

Summits

Summit Numero Uno

I recently finished the audio book "No Shortcuts to the Top". The author, Ed Viesturs, writes about his adventures in being the first American to climb all fourteen of the world's eight thousander mountain peaks. Without the aid of supplemental oxygen. Not being a mountain man myself, this book cemented the fact that not all summits need to be climbed. Some should be left alone.
 

The Unrelenting Richard Laskey and the wannabee

It was at the time of reading the book that I was asked by my good friend, Richard Laskey, to run up and down the Westcliff Stairs in Johannesburg two hundred times. This equates to running up to the height of Everest from sea level. Money raised would go to a good cause namely The Sunflower Fund (Leukemia). Never having seen the Westcliff stairs, I welcomed the challenge and immediately volunteered. It was then that they told me that this wouldn't take the 2 hours as I had expected, but rather around 36 hours. It turns out the distance is about 97k's. I immediately declined the invite.



Sibusiso Vilane - one of the select few
to complete the Explorers Grand Slam
aka The Three Poles Challenge:
reaching the summit of Everest,
South and North Pole.

Still, being a noble fellow and good sport, I put my name down to assist and do some stair repeats on behalf of the challengers not gunning for the full 200 repeats. One of the chaps on whose behalf I ran was Sibusiso Vilane. It turns out that he is a seasoned explorer, certainly one of South Africa's most renowned explorers, with credentials that would make a living Sir Ernest Shackleton blush. He has done it all: Everest, North Pole, South Pole, the 7 Summits. And here he was adding the Westcliff Stairs to his repertoire. On one of my descents, I had the chance to speak to him. He said something that was very interesting and resonated with me.

"No-one ever goes up Everest to get stronger". 

This struck me as profound. People spend their entire lives chasing summits. They miss out on things like warmth, comfort, desk jobs, use of their fingers and toes, happy marriages and happy meals in order to chase a summit dream. They train like warriors, endure like monks, conserve like prisoners, plan like dictators, foregoing life's earthly and bountiful pleasures in the all consuming pursuit for the top. Relationships are tested, resolve is tempered, discipline is endured. And it turns out that once you get there, it'll probably kill you if you stay there for too long. You have a window of opportunity, and you better get up and get down. As much as the summit adds life, just as quickly it'll snatch it away.

The agony of the stairs allowed me the opportunity to juxtapose my life against that of a friend, Lloyd Scott Hudson, who happened to be running in the opposite direction at the time and was on his way to completing the full set of 200 reps. Lloyd is an adventurer and currently on his quest to complete all the Summits on the world's continents. He has already bagged 5 and is on a clear path to achieving all 7. It's very inspiring and enlightening to hear him talk about his quest. He is a true explorer and makes the world a brighter place.

Lloyd Scott Hudson finishing his 200th rep

I thought of my own summits: my annual quest of balancing fatherhood; working hard and well; listening out for my muse; training to be the best I can be; being a good husband, family guy and friend; having the principle aim of turning my children into virtuous citizens.

It may not have the clarity of an Everest summit, with its leading base camps and Hillary Step and risk of death on all sides, or of a quest to achieve a university degree, or of giving up addictions, or raising enough money to buy a house or pay off an ex-spouse. But whereas the ascent of some summits may not make you stronger especially as you near the top, the summits contemplated in others, and certainly in my life, hovering like peaks poking out of silvered clouds on the horison, add backbone and perspective, injecting a steady drip feed of daily mojo into my being and guiding me along the path of *happyness*.

With it being a new year and all, I wonder how many out there have openly declared war on their summit?

That's me and my two youngest on the bench,
surviving another birthday party.
Many summits to climb.

Attack the summit,

~RobbyRicc

PS For those of you who cannot simply let sleeping summits be, here are - depending on which mountaineer you ask - the Seven Summits:

1. Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa)
2. Mount Everest (Asia)
3. Aconcagua (South America)
4. Mount Elbrus (Europe)
5. Carstensz Pyramid (Oceania)
6. Vinson Massif (Antarctica)

7. Denali/Mount McKinley (North America)

I was reading this book while running the other day....

Time, so they tell me, is precious.

As a father of three awesome, motivated and active kids; as a generous and loving husband (collector of more hubbie points than anyone in my neighbourhood); as a busy and very important lawyer (in certain respected and well-spaced circles); as a member of an elite crew of crazy Cow people; as an inspired sportsman; as the 78,065,385,909th person (more or less) to have ever lived on planet Earth; I find that I don't have much free time, let alone experience spare time to read.   

Sure when I lived in the UK it was easy. Lock me in a tin can called The Tube two to three hours every day, give me access to a postal system that drops bundles of books at your front door within 24 hours of purchase, and I tend to make my way pretty rapidly through quite a few books.

However now I reside in the playground called Johannesburg (South Africa of course - look at the bottom of the African continent) with my rabble of children who require my undivided attention, and I find that ingesting literature is a luxury. I have a sorry stack of books next to my bedside table which look at me longingly and with disdain. As they gather dust. And sulk.

Not to be overwhelmed by my current state of affairs, with surrender an unlikely option, I have embraced my technological age and allowed for an iPod to be acquired for me. This gadget coupled with my sporting engagements, which involve lots of sweat and time for reflection, has allowed me once again to re-enter the literary world.

There are plenty of books out there. Some are horrible and, although I hate unfinished business, if the author fails to keep your attention for the first few chapters (100 pages at most) then alas that book should be jettisoned into a heap and set alight. Even blogs should fit into this category. Except don't set them alight - that'd be logistically tricky and potentially dangerous. If you can't get through the first 5 paragraphs of a blog without a glimpse of enlightenment then you should banish the blogger to the cyber bin. And that goes for this blog too. Unless you are my friend. Then you should stay on. It's the right thing to do.

So word-of-mouth recommendations for books is an absolute necessity. A sieve to ensure that you maximise your reading pleasure. Here are my recent books I have had spoken to me via my iPod whilst running.

11/22/63 - Stephen King
I was never a Steven King fan during my youth. This was mainly because my brother Stef could never get over watching The Shining and seeing all that blood seeping out of the walls. That stuff affects your childhood. 11/22/63 came recommended by my online bookshop. They've seen what I've read and knew I'd like this. Very clever people. The story is about a guy who travels back in time and decides he is going to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating JFK. It's like Back To The Future mixed with the History Channel. Faction at its best.

When you are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
A good friend of mine from New York, Blair Fethers, a photographic artiste of note, recommended David Sedaris to me several years ago. Blair knows me well. Since then I have read everything Mr Sedaris has to offer. I have an automatic notifier every time he releases a new book and, to date, I have never been disappointed. WYAEIF is another pearler of a book. He writes like you think Hemingway would write, before you actually read Hemingway. He shows a humorous side of the world and an introspection that is bee-oo-tee-ful.

Flanagan's Run - Tom McNab
This book was inadvertently recommended to me from a runner's Ultra Marathon race report on the Barkley 100 Miler. If ultra guys remember the name of the book, chances are it's a good read. Flanagan's Run is a bit like Chariots of Fire goes Cross Country. It helps if you like running or books that make you google whether it actually happened or not.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing

The same Barkley runner spoke about Lansing's "Endurance". For all you polar sadomasochists out there, this is a must read! It has everything from ice caps to frost bite to imminent death at every turn of the page. You'll never complain again about the cold or hunger after this book. And this confirms what I have thought for some time now, Man is getting soft the more he evolves. 

Boomerang - Michael Lewis

My brother Stef recommended Boomerang. It's an informative read about the world's economic crisis that makes you feel intelligent and provides you with an arsenal of anecdotes that allows you to speak to bankers and economists at dinner parties with ease. You'll never look at Iceland or Greece again without thinking of this book. 

Happy reading and happy trails,
~RobbyRicc

Running Books

Tough times require a tough mind.

When I lived in London, I used to commute in my black Renault Megane (aka The Black Beast) with the heater on max. And this was during summer. I was getting ready for the Swiss Ironman at the time and was trying to acclimatise to the European heat. Sweating in my work suit did pretty-much-zero in making me a better athlete, but did wonders for my mind.

I love the whole concept of placebo effect, psyching yourself up before a race, visualisation, oiling the mind. I could go on. And the seeds are gathered from experience or other people's experiences. Another reason why books can inspire - by allowing you a brief glimpse of the mind.

Enough said. Here are some great books which have done just the job. I have read quite a few books on the subject but have included only those that planted seeds in my mind. I must acknowledge Gordo Byrn , a voracious ingester of literature (and UltraMan World Champion), for his recommending many of the books.

Deep Survival - The slogan under the title seems pretty ominous but is a great read of what goes through the mind of people who have been to the edge.

Running with the Buffaloes - a look at cross country running and people who live running day in day out. What it takes to get to the top is often too much for mere mortals.

The Lore of Running - a reference bible for anyone who wants to dig deeper into what makes a person go faster. Some great programs and philosophies of great runners who have been to the top. Tim Noakes is a South African sports scientist and The Guru in running. If Arthur Lydiard and Bill Bowerman had a love child, Noakes would have been the spawn.

UltraMarathon Man - this is a must-read based purely on Dean's pizza delivery guy story. A great story of how a drinking office worker converted himself to an ultra-lean ultra-marathon dude.

Bruce Fordyce - Comrades King: - Bruce is as South African as boerewors and pap. An interesting and informative biography of the greatest ultra runner of all time. In my view. Which counts.

The Climb - what goes through the minds of expedition leaders in getting high paying consumers up Everest. Inspiring and frightening.

Happy reading,

~RobbyRicc

Hooking back up to the Matrix

For a while I had detached myself from the Matrix and was free-falling in some weird world filled with soccer stadiums and boiled boerewors rolls. I was surrounded by people on a mission: pseudo-friends clad in colourful warrior garments representing a kaleidoscope of nationalities and varying ethnic flavours. It's taken me a week of Caveman detox to reattach myself back into the Matrix.

The Caveman rules:

• Never go hungry. Starvation is not the aim. Plan ahead for the day.
• Food is not Love.
• If you fail one day, start again the next day.
• Drink lots of water.
• 5 fruit and vegetable helpings every day, in between or with meals.
• Wait at least 10 minutes between helpings.

For those keen to take it up a notch:

• No processed foods including sugar
• No caffeine or other stimulants
• No dairy
• 1 x morning cup of HTFU (Google or click here if you need details)

Consider eating anything that a Caveman would eat: lean meats, chicken, eggs, rye bread, honey, salads, soups, nuts, dried fruit, fruit, veggies, brown rice, 1 x glass red wine permitted, cous cous, etc.

One week on that and my caffeinated brain nearly exploded. I added the cup of coffee a day and I feel as though I am back on the grid. Morpheus said it best:

The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

Not only was caffeine a requirement in my daily commute, but my iPod began to malfunction and access to my audiobooks was refused. There's only so much Radio 702 one man can listen to without wanting to resign and go on a crusade to save the world.

I let the batteries go flat and started again from the beginning. The iPod was resuscitated. To celebrate I downloaded "Matterhorn". It was recommended to me by Audible.com because of my previous purchases. Interesting to note as my previous reads were "Cry the Beloved Country" (political novel written a few generations ago however still relevant today), "Blink" (decisions you make in the blink of an eye), "The Tipping Point" (work hard enough and things may happen), "The Climb" (how not to climb Everest), "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (the many things you can do to an individual if they screw you over). Somehow, all these titles suggested that I would enjoy Matterhorn, a novel about the Vietnam war. I didn't think too long and hard as to how they worked that one out, so I downloaded it.

There's something about warfare and the stories I used to hear from my friends who were conscripted into the South African Defence Force during the days of *war* with Angola and its version of terrorism that makes this book hit home. I'm not sure if it's because I am a male, or because I have kids that I would fight and die for, or because I work in a large organisation with varying soldier levels. Whatever it is, Matterhorn is, so far, an impressive and detailed look into modern warfare written from the eyes of the soldier on the ground. It also makes you question what your perception of pain and discomfort really are. A good solid book. Somehow the guys at audible.com know me quite well.

I'm not ready to be unplugged from the grid - just yet.

~RobbyRicc

Good Tidings Good People

Here's one of my favourite Christmas articles by my favourite author, David Sedaris.

Merry Christmas everyone,

~RobbyRicc

Books and Philosophy

Mich, my brother from another mother, sent me a book from the UK. There's nothing quite like a book suggested to you by someone who knows you, and your tastes. Mich was spot on.

The book was Haruki Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running".
Here's a passage which really hits home.....

"I've been in this race a few times, so I recognize a few of the participants. As we wait for the race to start, we shake hands and chat. I'm not the type who gets easily along with others, but for some reason with other triathletes I have no problem. Those of us who participate in triathlons are unusual people. Think about it for a minute. Most all the participants have jobs and families, and on top of taking care of these, they swim and bike and run, training very hard, as part of their ordinary routine. Naturally this takes a lot of time and effort. The world, with its commonsensical viewpoint, thinks their lifestyle is peculiar. And it would be hard to argue with anyone who labeled them eccentrics and oddballs. But there's something we share, not something as exaggerated as solidarity, perhaps, but at least a sort of warm emotion, like a vague, faintly coloured mist over a late spring-peak. Of course, competition is part of the mix - it's a race after all - but for most of the people participating in a triathlon the competitive aspect is less important than the sense of a triathlon as a sort of ceremony by which we can affirm this shared bond."

Stay the course,
~RobbyRicc

Feel Strong

Sometimes you read the book first and then see the movie. That's always been my preference. You are able to dig deeper into the psyche of the characters and follow more closely the path down which the writer leads. Books are rarely limited by pages, movies are always limited by time and the director's ability.

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was a fun story to follow on paper, rather dull on the silver screen. Most of John Grisham's (older) books do well on paper, less well at the cinema. With the exception of the Green Mile and the Shankshaw Redemption, all of Stephen King's stories do him justice in ink.

Recently I pilfered a book from a good friend's house, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. It was quite a few years old and sitting snuggly in a waist high book shelf when it caught my eye. It peered up at me like an old friend. I removed it careful not to damage the cover and opened the first page. Within a few lines I was in a trance. I closed it quickly not to destroy the moment and asked if I could take it for a read.

I had seen Into the Wild on an inbound flight from London to South Africa. This is relevant as I was privy on that flight to aeroplane emotions, a sensitivity heightened by jet travel and stirred homecoming nostalgia. The movie took my fancy, not just because I had read Krakauer's Into Thin Air, but because my friend Duncan had recommended it. To put Duncan into perspective, although currently based in Greece, Duncan wants to do a 100 mile race in California because they give you a belt buckle if you finish the race. His suggestions are not taken lightly.

The movie stirred something within my core. A pursuit of Spartan zeitgeist ideals where one has to abandon what one loves in order to truly appreciate it. The Mosquito Coast, The Beach, Fight Club all touch on this sliver, which lies under everyone's skin, of walking away and turning on our lives and seeking something beyond. In the case of Chris McCandless, the book's protagonist, it is the search of the Alaskan wilderness. I arrived at Oliver Thambo international rejuvenated and inspired by the adaptation hewn by the talents of director Sean Penn and Emile Hirsch, the actor who portrayed McCandless.

Aside from teaching you that anything can be achieved on very little, the movie's soundtrack written and performed by Eddie Vedder, is nothing less than incendiary. The fury and feral strains undertone and colour the movie perfectly.

Based on the quality of the movie, I opened the book with the trepidation that I would be disappointed. However, as the story progressed I sunk deeper and deeper into it and devoured it within a few days.

What can an athlete or other mortal take from this? Well let me throw out one of the many memorable quotes from the movie:

I read somewhere.....how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong.

Feel Strong,
~RobbyRicc

Books and Boats

I love books. The smell, that first page, the end of chapter. It takes you to another place and allows you to feel and live through someone else’s emotions. It churns the mind forward and opens new doors you didn’t realise existed. Legitimised LSD.

I’m preparing my study at home and having a think of where to put my books. A wall to wall shelf, floating shelves, piles on the floor? I’m thinking of all options. I need a home for my well travelled books. My collection speaks bounds about me, my vanity and my ego. Plenty of Wilbur Smith books reveal my South African roots. An occasional David Sedaris might show that I am humoured and well travelled. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and similar books, will reveal my introspective psychologically deeper side, to which Natalie would agree. My sports books will show that I am an athlete who takes serious this dark forgotten art of Spartanship. I am not defined by my books, it seems, and yet if I think too much about their position on my shelf and in my life, I may well be. A book is just a book and by its cover should not be judged.

But the books that will be missing from this collection and which will stare out at me are the ones that are no longer there. The books that were once special and meaningful which have since been borrowed by friends, acquaintances and to those people who have made a difference in my life.

You know those people.

Someone you have just met and whom you will never see again. But, and this has taken time, I have learnt to treat books like ex-girlfriends. Once I have been there, I have to move on. And, I have to let it go. Books need to be released out into the world where change is always possible because it may do more in the hands of another rather than being pompously perched on a dark stained bookshelf.

“Pedalling to Hawaii” was my latest pulp sports paperback that I picked up while attending a good friend’s Stellenbosch wedding earlier in the year. An interesting and sometimes startling read of two unorganised guys who pedal a pedal-boat (as you do) from Europe across the Atlantic to the US, and then from California to Hawaii. This is something I will never do, of that I am certain, and then it struck me “I have to send this to someone who will benefit.”

And that’s where the guy below, Peter van Kets, comes into play.
Peter spoke at our running club earlier in the year. My brother, Alberto, arranged that he sat at our table during dinner. A wise move indeed. He is the reigning champion of the 2007/2008 Atlantic Rowing Race which and his racing partner won on their first attempt. That wasn’t enough and he agreed to undertake the 2009 Atlantic Rowing Race solo. The first time round it took him 50 days. This time without the blessing of a partner, and the sleep that a partner provides, I can only guess that it’ll take him easily more than double the time. I hope he proves me wrong.

Pete is one enlightened individual and a man on a mission.

Anyhow I gave Pete the book. He’ll need some light reading on his transatlantic jaunt while I build my bookshelf.

Row row row your boat,
RobbyRicc