“I then saw our guide had his Uzi out and was hiding behind the one 4×4, our translator was behind the well ,gun draw and another one of the armed guards was lying on the ground a little back covering the three men with his AK-47. This was when I began praying to God that this didn’t turn into a gun battle.”
Interview by Bruce Meissner
1) Where were you born?
Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
2) You’ve got a passion for traveling I can see, How did you get this passion?
My family always were travelers , taking us all over South Africa, so as soon as I got a chance to explore the world God has given us I was all over it. I love it…… AHHHOOYYYY…..
3) Can you tell us about one funny experience youve had while travelling?
Wow, one, I have a million. Most of them were scary at the times and sucked but when I look back on them they are pretty funny.
ooooo this one was a hectic one….
I was in Yemen and we had just found a spit of sand that lead us out to an insane set up. A beach between two headlands on one side a sick ledging left reef with a running right. Then a wedging left beach break on the other side. This is still one of the best undiscovered beaches I have ever found.
We had also found an old well and camp area of some nomads just down the beach. We had missioned to get down to the surf spot all morning and then surfed all day and were exhausted. So after our baby goat, slaughtered on the spot, dinner, Stuart Butler and our Photog got into their tents and hit the hey. I preferred my sleeping bag under the stars and pulled up a bit of sand near the fire. Just as I was drifting off I heard some Arabic screams and a car came flying over the sand dune behind us and stop head lights right on me. (A little background, we had three armed guards, one translator, one guide all three who were armed to the teeth)
Before I could sit up I saw three Arabs come jumping out the car (with AK-47’s everyone in Yemen has AK-47’s) and before I could jump behind a big pole next to me our number one armed guard was running out to meet them.
As I sat listening to our armed guard and the Arab men give each other hell in Arabic I noticed no movement from Stuart and the photog’s tents. I then saw our guide had his Uzi out and was hiding behind the one 4×4, our translator was behind the well ,gun draw and another one of the armed guards was lying on the ground a little back covering the three men with his AK-47. This was when I began praying to God that this didn’t turn into a gun battle. I also scanned the area how I would escape and I realized I was finished being in the light and all. The shouting went on for ages and every sudden movement from our armed guard and the other Arab men made me think it was about to begin.
Eventually the men got in their car and left. On their departure the translator came to me as Stuart and the photog emerged from their tents, as if they would have protected them. As we walked to the top of the dune see them departing I noticed two sets of car lights and the third armed guard coming towards us out from the dark from where the cars had left. Then our translator explained what happened. The armed guard who was out front talking to the Arabs was a crazy well know Chief of police/arms smuggler. He is supposedly protected by Ala due to being shot 12 times and not dying. The Arab men were the chief of police for this area and wanted money to let us tourists pass through their area safely. Our guards would not pay and therefore they were fighting. Eventually the guard out front said do you know who I am and when he told them they all left. The second armed guard, translator and guide hid so that they never knew how many people there were and covered the main guard. The third guard ran over the hill to take out the men in the second car who where the three Arab men’s back up.
GOOD ENOUGH MMMMMMMMMM
Oo ja we got sick waves the next morning too.
4) How did you come to know God personally?
Well I have been brought up in a Christian family but never truly believed in God. I got a whole lot of really good guidance and when I look back my parents were the ones who’s fruit really let me to the Lord. But as most people who have been brought up in something I tried looking for the real God I knew evolution was a joke and seeked a higher power but just never knew what. So for a while I studied the Koran, The Bible, The Vedas and studied a lot of different religions and the history books of historians. The Bible ended up being the only one the was 100% spot on with history and so I really start diving into it. It seem to be the only religion that said question everything, call God out. So I did I called God out and he really directed me to Jesus.
I realized what people had always said that Christianity was not a religion but a relationship between me and God. That was not my real turning point and even though my mind had been won over to Jesus I still had huge control over my life. I decided what was good for me what I should be doing with my life etc… I had one foot following God and another doing what I wanted and I thought I was doing great. Until all my supports that i had built on me and not God came crashing down. It was the after party for the Pipe Contest and our mate Damian King had won the World title. It was a huge party and the guys were having a great time till the cops came and broke it up. All the bodyboarders were leaving the house and me and a group of friends jump on our bikes and head out onto the street. I stopped for a second to chat to a mate who want to get a lift on my handle bars when all I heard was some one shouting and saying call 911 call 911. I had a cell phone and just began ringing as I darted into the street only to come across my good friend Paul Jenar lying in a pool of his own blood. He had tried crossing the road but being and ozzie he looked the wrong way and pulled right out infront of a mini van. I could barely get the words out as I watch my friend lying on his back to tell the officers where to come. I remember just looking at him and him looking back at me with fear in his eyes as he tried to breathe and he couldn’t. Blood was everywhere and we all never knew what to do so i just dropped to my knees and began to pray. The ambulance was there in minutes and he was loaded in and sent of to the hospital. I motored on my bike back to the house to grab his passport, parents numbers and medical stuff. I made a quick call from the house to get them his info but when I called the lady passed me on to a friend who had followed the ambulance who told me that Paul had passed away on the way. I couldn’t believe it. My 18 year old friend was gone, I remember jumping on my bike and riding and riding and riding until the sun came up.Finally I stopped and the whole time I felt a huge weight on my heart that I hadn’t been there for Paul and shared enough with him and I just was crushed. I really felt like it was God condemning me. I remember the next few weeks as a blur I just remembering cursing God and throwing my Bible into the side of the room and saying that’s it I want nothing to do with a God who does this to his followers. I starting drinking and barely surfed cause I had to ride my bike past where Paul had been hit every day to get to the waves. I just drank all day. I remember being miserable and deep down could feel God telling me to come back to him to rely on him but I had cursed him and wanted nothing to do with him.
As I was spiraling down and really reaching a low point in my life, I had to go into town to open a bank account to help get Paul’s body back to Australia. While I was in line in the bank some random guy walked up to me and was like hey Brandon how you man. I didn’t recognize him and was like oo hi man. He went on to tell me he remembers me from a bible study I used to go to last year. He said that this week they had guest speaker talking and that I should come. I said no thanks man and he was super persistent saying I will come pick you up man so I had to be rude and just No Man…. I thought it was weird that he had approached me when I had really reach the bottom of the barrel but went about my business and headed back to the north shore. The next day all the SA bodyboarders moved house into a real ghetto. As we had settled in I sat exhausted on the couch and the phone went. I looked around and said who has our number boys and no one knew, so I picked up and on the other side a voice said my name. It was a friend I hadn’t seen in a while from that same bible study claiming that I must come to the bible study. I said to him maybe and hung up trying to figure out how he got our number. It turns out that someone had run the phone line from an apartment two down from us that I had stayed in the year before and he had got my number last year. I just remember even my non-saved mates going man you better go man Gods calling you. Ha. Well I went still hesitant but kind of excited. I got to the study sat in the back and my mate Jessy, walked in from Californian he was the guest speaker. Jessy is the maker of Tear Devils, The Outsider and a number more insane surf flicks.. He spoke to the group about how he had almost taken his own life cause he had been deceived by the devil who had put scales on his eyes and he then read the verse that tells of a farmer plowing his field with one hand on the plow but keeps looking back at the world. He can be going all fine but as hit a bolder in his field and there are always bolders the plow falls dragging the farmer down. The moment I heard that I began to cry and realized my whole Christian life I had done that never grabbed both hands on God and trusted him totally with my life. From that day on I now will never totally rely on myself again.. THANK GOD….. YEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
5) Has God shown you anything rad while traveling?
To many to count I would not be the person I am today if it hadn’t been the traveling what God has shown and taught me along the way. First this is one beautiful place and so the beauty but then also the heart ache of the world and how we in first world countries have it so good. He has shown me the need for him in humanity and the opportunities that he has given each of us to do his work on this planet how cool is that.
6) Whats the wierdest thing you’ve ever eaten in another country?
MMMMMMMMM… Cockroaches, monkey, dog, snake, sheep brains, human foot Im crazy like that. When you hungry you eat anything…
7) Whats your favourite country?
South Africa (without the crime) 100% but Iceland is a close second.
8) Where have you got the best waves?
Australia, Iceland and Hawaii are probably the three best spots.
9) If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Ha, a dolphin. You ever swam with them and you will know why. THEY COOL.
10) Why are there such wierd bad vibes between stand-ups, bodyboarders, and longboarders? Do you think its lame?
Well straight up lets say this why is there such bad vibes between surfers and long boarders/bodyboarder. I don’t know why but most surfers think they better then anyone else for some reason. I meet thousands of people around the world and surfers are extremely supremacists. The entire idea that surfers portray themselves as care free, what ever you ride or do man its all cool, is a lie. Even when they just joking about you being less a man because u don’t surf or surf the way they do, there is still a little truth in all they say. Im just sick of it man. Bodyboarders surf the heaviest waves in the world hands down. I mean Ive done surf trips to Cyclopes etc.. and the surfers just don’t even come close to what the bbers are doing at these places. The for even these guys who see the bbers to turn around and still call us kooks. I really have given up. I don’t even care anymore, I stay away from them all together if possible. I just surf by myself and hang pretty much with people not involved in surfing. It’s just hard to be around people who are supremacists so I don’t do it anymore. There are way to many good people in this world to have to hang with the negative ones.
11) Do you have any rad encouraging words for anyone reading this?
Well I have really been amped on the story of Enoch from the Bible latterly. He is only mentioned briefly but it talks about how he walked with God every day and was pleasing to him. So I encourage all your wave riders walk everyday with God and try be pleasing to him and o ja don’t care what the guy next to you is doin or riding.
