Local Surfer wins Nz Surf Mag "Letter of the Month"

Nelson "New-Comer" Bary Kingston wrote this heart-felt letter to Nz Surfing Magazine a couple of months ago and ended up recieving a prize for letter of the month.
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Dont ever say that you're "Done" with surfing. - Barry kingston

Auckland 1970, I lived and loved surfing, I was 17 and my Dad told me to "get the f^#k out of the family home".
What better excuse could there be for going to live at Whangamata !
Where has the time gone? 34 years pass by and surfing became a mere memory.
That burning flame that woke me each day to check the weather and swell conditions had gone out. (Had to know how to read Isobaric maps those days)
2005 my daughter gives me a book, Gone Surfing, The Golden Years of Surfing in New Zealand 1950 – 1970 by Luke Williamson.
Forward by Gary McCormack writes;
I will never forget the first couple of rides - surging forward on
a wave!
It was such a wild idea. Nor should you forget, if you have had the good fortune to experience it.
It will be the defining moment of your life.
Even if you succumb to the pressures of a family or career and drift away from surfing, it will come back to haunt you. You will either curse the fact that you left it behind, or take it up again.
How true this is, where there is smoke there is fire…….
the sight of waves in blue dresses and white frilly lace, dancing before the land, the smell of the wax on your board wafting with the sea mist, the salty taste on the tongue and the feeling of indescribable exhilaration paddling out through walls of water…….. was just smouldering under a pile of damp disbelief waiting for that puff of oxygen to ignite it back into life.
Its 2009, I’m 56 years old and totally addicted, with an inextinguishable desire for surfing again.
Now swell maps and surf cams are priority web sites visited in the morning before other less important activities like business,
(I still check the Isobaric maps).
I’m so obsessed, I have a board at Mount Maunganui (business trips in the North Island) and one in Nelson where I live.
Mangamaunu on the Kaikoura coast is my favourite spot.
I get a real rush going out with the young guys, becoming totally
absorbed in the moment and lost in the time.
My advice is "don’t ever say you are done with surfing. Keep your board, wax it from time to time, get the NZ surf magazine, ready for that day when the flame ignites, your blood rushes, adrenalin pumps and once again you become in tune with the power and serenity that comes with being back on a wave".
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