Surfing
沖浪

by Nik Peachey
尼克.皮奇著

"I've spent most of my entire life surfing, the rest I've wasted." (Anonymous)
我一生中的大多數時間都在沖浪，其他時間都浪費了?。涿?/div>

It seems that the oceans of the world have become many things to many different people. For some the ocean is a source of food and income, for others a source of inspiration and fascination, for some a beautiful garden with hidden depths to explore and for others a dumping ground for their toxic waste, but of all people the ones that probably appreciate, admire and perhaps even understand the changing landscape of the ocean best are surfers.
似乎這世上的海洋對于不同的人來說，意味著很多東西。對一些人來說，海洋是食物和收入的來源，對其他人來說，海洋是靈感和魅力的來源，對一些人來說，海洋是一個可以探索的深幽的美麗花園，對其他人來說，海洋是一個有毒廢物的傾倒場，但是，在所有人里面，能夠最好地欣賞，贊美，甚至是了解海洋風景變化的人是沖浪者。

Surfing, which is thought to have originated among the Polynesian peoples of the Hawaiian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, has been around for quite some time. The earliest recorded account of it was made in the journal of Captain King, a contemporary of Captain Cook, in 1779, but there are pictures of surfers carved into volcanic rock that are thought to date back much further. Surfing was regarded by the Polynesians as the sport of kings. The Chiefs used surfing and other Hawaiian sports to display their strength and agility and even the types of wood used for the boards was determined by the person’s rank in society.
沖浪，被認為是起源于太平洋夏威夷群島的波里尼西亞人。關于沖浪，最早的紀述是1779年，來自于現(xiàn)代版的庫克船長--國王船長的日記中。但是，火山巖上發(fā)現(xiàn)了的沖浪者的雕像，使得沖浪的起源被追溯得更遠。沖浪，被波里尼西亞人視為國王的運動。族長通過沖浪和其他夏威夷的運動來展示力量和敏捷的身手，甚至是用以做沖浪板的不同種類的木材，也是由一個人的社會地位所決定的。

Nowadays the hierarchy between surfers is determined more by their courage and none are more courageous than the surfers who brave the jaws of Maui, where 20ft is considered an average sized wave and big can go up as high as 60 or 70 ft. The huge waves of Maui are created by a mixture of unusual circumstances. There is a huge ridge deep below the sea's surface that was created by the lava flow from a volcano. This combined with the presence of a reef not far to the north of the island and swells created by winter storms some two thousand miles away in the Aleutian Islands can create the kind of waves that make a surfer's heart race. The people who regularly surf there are almost religious about the spot and they frequently monitor weather forecasts and wave readings from buoys for days in advance to calculate when the best conditions will be. A ride on the jaws of Maui can last less than half a minute, but for surfers who fail to keep pace with the 25 mile an hour waves extreme danger awaits. Trapped inside a wave they can become totally disorientated with little sense of which direction takes them up to the surface. They also have only seconds to head for the safe zone of calm water before being crushed by the next big wave. A British surfer who had this experience described the sensation as like having your whole body pulled in every possible direction at once.
現(xiàn)今，沖浪者的等級更多是由他們的勇氣所決定的。沒有人比沖浪者更有勇氣，敢于面對毛伊島的魔爪。毛伊島的海浪的平均高度是20英尺高，最高的可達60至70英尺。毛伊島的巨浪是獨特環(huán)境的融合所造就的。海平面深處有一個巨大的海脊，那是由一個火山的熔巖流形成的。這個海脊把離毛伊島北部不遠處的暗礁和兩千多英里外的阿留申群島上冬季風暴所造就的隆起地連接在一起，造就了可以讓沖浪者驚心動魄的沖浪比賽。定期去沖浪的人對這個沖浪點幾乎很謹慎。他們往往會通過浮標監(jiān)測天氣預報和海浪信息好幾天，事先計算好最佳的沖浪時間。沖浪者可以在毛伊島的狹口上漂浮的時間不到半分鐘，但是對于那些跟不上時速25英里的海浪的沖浪者來說，等待他們的將是極大的危險。如若困在海浪里，他們將完全迷失方向，沒有方向感，不知哪個方向可以將他們帶出水面。在下一波巨浪來襲之前，他們也僅有幾秒鐘的時間朝靜水安全區(qū)奔去。據一個有這種經驗的英國沖浪者的描述，那種感覺就像你全身同時都被各個可能的方向拖動著。

The idea of surfing, however, with its images of sun-tanned youths and tropical beaches, has always seemed to me somehow at odds with the weather and culture of the UK, yet nothing could be further from the truth. The UK, being a collection of islands, has no shortage of coastline and rugged seas and is reported to have an active surfing community of some 250,000. Most of the surfing centres around Croyde Bay in North Devon and Fistral Beach in Cornwall. It was in fact, at Fistral Beach in 1989, where the world record for the most surfers on one board was broken, when 12 surfers rode on a 37-ft longboard. Britain was also home to the first ever University degree course in surfing to be offered and even has its own surfing film. 'Blue Juice', which was filmed in the south west of Britain, is a light hearted tribute to the lifestyle of Britain's surfers and counts Welsh girl Catherine Zeta Jones and Ewan McGregor among its cast. The lifestyle and the people it portrays are very different from the stereotypes of muscular bronzed young men listening to The Beach Boys as they wax their boards, but beneath the surface it is clear that there is still a common link that runs between them and that is their love and admiration of life and the sea.
沖浪這個想法給人的印象是皮膚曬得黝黑的年輕人和熱帶沙灘，然而，對于我，總覺得沖浪跟英國的文化和天氣不大一致。然而，事實就恰恰是這樣。英國是由許多島嶼組成的，它并不缺乏海岸線和洶涌澎湃的海浪。據報道，英國有25萬個活躍的沖浪社區(qū)。大多數的沖浪點都集中在北德文郡的克羅伊登灣和康沃爾郡的費司球沙灘附近，事實上，1989年，在費司球沙灘上，一塊37英尺的長沖浪板上站了12個人，這打破了一塊沖浪板上能站多人的世界紀錄。英國也是第一個提供沖浪課程大學學歷的國家，甚至還拍有自己的沖浪影片。在英國西南部所拍攝的一部電影《藍汁》，是對英國沖浪者生活方式的輕松愉快的贊美，威爾士女孩凱瑟琳.澤塔.瓊斯和尤恩.麥格雷戈也出演其中。它所描繪的人和生活方式，跟那些老套的黝黑肌肉男青年一邊聽著《沙灘男孩》，一邊個給自己的沖浪板打蠟的形象很不一樣，但表象之下，很明顯他們之間仍有一點共同的關聯(lián)，那就是他們對生活和海洋的熱愛和贊美。