Before the Break Bodyboarder

Artist’s Statement: D J Wilson, LRPS

This photograph was taken at Onrus Beach, Hermanus, during the National Bodyboarding Championships in September 2023. On the day, the sea presented both opportunity and threat — long, powerful sets breaking close to shore, demanding precise judgement and absolute commitment from those who entered the water.

I was drawn to the solitary figure of the bodyboarder framed against the weight and movement of the ocean behind him. In that instant, the image became less about competition and more about courage and timing — the quiet resolve required to face the sea on its own terms, knowing that hesitation can be as dangerous as recklessness.

Just two days later, a once-in-200-year storm struck the Western Cape, reshaping this coastline and leaving the beach unrecognisable. In hindsight, the photograph has come to represent a fleeting balance: between control and surrender, calm and violence, human ambition and the enduring power of the ocean. It stands as a record not only of a sporting event, but of a moment when sea and surfer briefly met on equal footing.

He waits where courage is quiet,

board tucked close, eyes on the darkening line,

counting breath against the pull of water

that owes him nothing.

Behind him the sea gathers itself,

old, patient, unpersuaded.

Ahead, one chance —

take it, or be taken.