Page 16 of Ride the Wave

Interesting. Clearly, there’s some guilt there about everything that happened more than a decade ago, or perhaps she did him some kind of favour. I make a mental note to tease that out of him at some point during our interviews. Which Iwillget.

‘But her assistant said it would be a quick chat,’ he continues, frowning at me. ‘Then I discover that a journalist has been flown from London to shadow me fortwo weeks. This isn’t what I signed up for. I’m meant to be focusing on Bells Beach, not my mum’s image.’

‘What aboutyourimage? Don’t you care about that?’

‘I care about surfing,’ he snaps.

‘Great, then surf,’ I say, shrugging. ‘I’ll take care of your image. If you choose to work with me, it will make things easier, but if you decide not to, then I’ll get what I can from other sources. I can easily learn about your surfing from what I witness from the beach. This morning, you seemed okay out there. Alotof falls – wait, what do you call them? Oh yeah, “wipeouts” – but you have time to work on that before the contest. I’m sure you’ll improve.’

‘There were no wipeouts,’ he counters.

‘Sure there were! You fell off all the time. Don’t be disheartened. You’ll get there.’

‘They weren’t…’ He looks at me, aghast. ‘Those falls were medismountingthe board safely after catching a wave.’

‘Oh. I see. Sure.Dismounts.’ I tilt my head, giving him a sympathetic smile, lowering my voice to a hush. ‘Fake it’ til you make it, right? Love that. You tell yourself what you need to; our readers will totally relate.’

I wink at him. He glowers at me.

‘I should make a note of this, actually; it’s all good insight to your character,’ I say, rifling through my bag for my notepad and pen. ‘I think it’s nice that you’re starting out with those gentle waves today. Build up your confidence.’

‘I’m not… Look, you try to surf every day, no matter what, even if the waves are small. It all matters to the training, the feel of the board and the water, even if it’s not the level you’ll be facing in a contest and—’

He stops talking abruptly. He stares at me, wide-eyed.

I smile up at him sweetly, pen poised.

‘Oh,’ he says, nodding slowly, ‘you’re good.’

‘Good at what?’ I say innocently.

He folds his arms across his chest. ‘Okay, Iris Gray, not bad.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

He sighs, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. ‘Shit. You’re really not going to let this article go, are you.’

‘No,’ I confirm. ‘I’m writing this piece with or without you.’

‘Is that because of who my mother is?Studiois one of hers.’ He tries to appeal to me with an exasperated expression. ‘Do we really need to go through all the motions of this? Can’t she just tell you what to write? Then everyone wins.’

‘Firstly, no one wins if a journalist is being told what to write,’ I say pointedly. ‘Secondly, wouldn’t you rather have some say in what’s going to be written about you? If you don’t talk to me, I have to go on what I’ve experienced, which is currently kind of… stand-offish.’ I hesitate. ‘But Marina tells me you grow on people.’

He allows a small laugh, his face relaxing a little.

‘But honestly, Leo, out of everyone involved in making this happen, I thought you’d be the one who wanted this article the most.’

He tips his head back, lets out a loud ‘HA!’ and then looks back at me, amazed. ‘Why would you think that?’

‘I thought you might want to let the world know that not only are you back, but you’re back to win,’ I say calmly, looking him dead in the eye.

His jaw tenses. My words have struck a chord.

‘I want to be the one to tell your story, Leo,’ I say in a low and serious tone, desperate not to lose one inch of the ground I’ve made here. ‘Help me to tell it properly.’

He doesn’t say anything.Come on.

‘You might inspire someone, you know,’ I add hopefully. ‘A young kid out there dreaming of mastering the waves. Or someone who feels they’ve lost their way. You can be the guy who gets to show them it’s okay to not have all the answers straight away, and that it’s possible to find your way back to something you love. You could inspire them to get back on that board and ride the wave to see where it takes them.’

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