Nikita Robb – Gardening For Surfing
South African surfer, Nikita Robb, battled hard to get where she is today. She tells fellow surfer, Stacey Guy about funding her stint on the World Qualifying Series by working as a gardener.
It’s a sunny May afternoon in Cape Town and Nikita Robb is standing with a craft beer in one hand and a trophy in the other. Four months of training and preparation and she has achieved her goal. When I quiz her about how many South African national titles she has won she looks puzzled, “Uh… I dunno, like somewhere around 8” comes her somewhat forced answer. Through her tone I can sense that I’m asking a stupid question and that to her, all her previous titles don’t really matter. The only title that counts is the one she’s just earned.
Nikita is a special kind of wave-rider. Very few surfers are talented enough at surfing to be able to pick up any sort of surf-craft, paddle out and rip from the first wave. Each surfboard is different and it’s a special gift to to be able to understand the differences and to control them. For us normal folk, it can take a few sessions to understand a new surf break or find that elusive ‘sweet-spot’ on a surfboard. Nikita does it first time, every time, whether it be a longboard, an alaia, twin fin or single fin, big wave or small wave. It kinda pisses me off. While I’m digging rail and bogging turns, Nikita is flying high and carving hard with her trademark casual style, arms slung low with front-footed speed and power. A household name in her home country of South Africa and always smiling with her cheeky grin and sharp tongue, Nikita has travelled a very different path to your run-of-the-mill female professional surfer.
Nikita, you were born and grew up in East London, South Africa and spent most of your life living in a hotel?
Ya, I have lived in one hotel my whole life and my parents still live in a hotel. It’s pretty unusual huh? The on duty receptionists used to babysit me when I was young and I’d sleep under the concierge desk. My dad was the general manager of the hotel so I got away with being a cheeky little bugger.
How cheeky?
I once hid in the pot plants and shot guests with a mini pellet gun. I didn’t get away with that one though. Big trouble.
When did you start surfing?
I think I was about 12 years old, my mom loved to tan at the beach during summer and because I was an only child I would be bored to tears. I completely hated it. To help keep me entertained she got me a body board, which soon became just as boring. Then she enrolled me in a surf lesson group and I loved it immediately. By that stage I had tried everything from ballet to ice skating to piano and was shit at most of it, but surfing stuck and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Do your parents surf?
My mom does. She started a little while after me, she’s cute, she loves it. I don’t like to surf with her though because I get so stressed out. She’s not scared and just goes on any wave and she’s very accident prone, the other day she ended up with a black eye from her board hitting her. But I’m so proud of her, there are very few 50 year olds who surf three times a week. She’s a 5ft 1inch Portuguese lady with a massive personality and an even bigger zest for life.
So your family is Portuguese?
Just my mom’s side of the family are Portuguese. They are a typical Portuguese family, they love food and entertainment and we are all very close. I’m also a Portuguese citizen, although at this stage I surf for South Africa. I grew up here and my roots are here.
The town you grew up in, East London, has produced many of South Africa’s most successful competitive surfers, why is that?
I think it’s because there’s a super strong bond between the surfers in East London. The surf conditions are wild and can be damn scary at times. Rosy Hodge and I grew up surfing with the boys and they would push our performance level during every surf session. They often pushed us to go out in big scary surf and even though I was shitting myself at the time but it has definitely made me the surfer I am today. There is a unity between all the ‘Slumtown’ surfers that you don’t see very often, the older guys pass on their knowledge to the younger crew. It’s good to know that somebody is watching your back when you are in the surf, especially in big conditions. I think the wide variety of waves in the area also helps mould top competitive surfers, we have everything from beach breaks and point breaks to slabs and reef breaks. It’s also pretty sharky, if you have a look on YouTube there’s a video of two sharks attacking one surfer at my local spot, Nahoon Reef. It was the first ever video of sharks hunting in a pack. It’s a bit gnarly.
What do you feel is the strongest part of your surfing?
Probably my backhand. I really like doing big backhand re-entries, guess I’m confident because I’ve grown up surfing right hand points. I like a bit of size when I surf, I still feel good in the small stuff but I definitely prefer when there is a bit of size and power in the waves. I’ve also been working on my forehand lately; I’ve always known that it needed a bit of work and have been putting in the hours over the last few months. I moved to Cape Town almost a year ago and there are a lot more lefthand breaks on offer here, so it has been a nice change.
What inspired the move from East London to Cape Town?
My parents were moving from East London, SA to a town about four hours away called Knysna. I’d hardly been at home for the last few years because of all the traveling that goes along with being a competitive surfer, so my room had been transformed into an office/storeroom. I used to hate Cape Town because I thought it was always cold with freezing surf, but I spent a month here during the lead up to my parent’s move and loved it. So I made a spur of the moment decision to get an apartment and
move here full time. It’s great, there is always good surf somewhere on the peninsula, fantastic restaurants and bars and interesting friendly people. I love that in the same day you can hike to the top of a mountain, go for a bike ride through the city, visit a wine farm and get amazing waves.
What’s it really like surfing on the World Qualifying Series?
It’s a lot of fun, the people are great and you meet and make a lot of friends. Most of the time it’s a big party, most events you go to are during the ‘party season’ or the contest is part of the biggest beach festival of the year and there is a lot going on. To actually do well on the World Qualifying Series is difficult, you have to learn to not get involved with the party side of things. It is cut throat; there are no friends in the water during a heat, its every woman for herself. It’s weird because even though you are there for yourself you still want to see your friends succeed, but then you also want to be the one to win the contest, that’s the whole point of being there right? It can also be really expensive, especially when traveling on the South African Rand. It all adds up. You have to make sure you keep fit and healthy, and that can be really difficult when flying between continents. I try to take my creature comforts along with me to help create my little home on the road. I always have my laptop and hard drive for the downtime, training equipment and then little bits and pieces that remind me of home. I’m kinda superstitious as well, if I do well during my first heat, I have to stick to exactly the same routine before the next heat
You based yourself in Australia while you were competing on the WQS in 2009?
I lost my major sponsor at the end of 2008. It was horrible they just said ‘sorry we can’t renew your contract’ without any notice at all. It was awful, I had finally got my seeding up and was in a good position for 2009, I had been training so hard and my whole world came crashing down. I did some soul searching and decided I would try to go it alone. I needed to work somewhere with a strong currency to make enough money quickly and it worked out best for me to base myself in Australia for the first half of the year as the women’s tour starts there and there are a few big events. I got a job in a nursery doing gardening and used my wages along with my prize money from the Australian leg to get to the following leg, I think it was Brazil. There was a ton of pressure on me at each event to do well just so I could get to the next one. At the end of the year I finished 9th on the WQS and then had to wait until the last World Championship Tour event to finish so that ASP could work out the seeding. Basically, for me to qualify, Rebecca Woods had to make the top 10 of the World Championship Tour, and she did in the final event of the year so I was in!
After qualifying for the World Championship Tour at the end of 2009, what was your first year competing against the top sixteen women like?
It’s very different to competing on the WQS, everyone is very serious and on their own mission. You’re at such an elite level and I don’t think I totally got to appreciate and take in the World Championship Tour. I never felt my worth and wasn’t confident and never really gave myself the chance to show how I can really surf. You work so hard to get to a certain point and no one tells you that you’re going to have to work even harder once you get there. It’s kinda like ‘Yeah I qualified! But now what? Where do I go from here?’ You have to mentally prepare yourself and make certain sacrifices and push yourself in every area of your life.
Do you think that you having no major sponsor ended up affecting your performance?
Yes, I think to a certain degree it did but most of all it was my own self confidence. I had qualified by the skin of my teeth through the World Qualifying Series, and I guess I didn’t ever feel like I had made it onto the tour with merit, I had just been really lucky. With hindsight though, I guess it doesn’t matter how you qualify, it just matters that you did. When you have a company that’s willing to support you, you don’t have to worry about the small things and can just focus on the task at hand, preparing for your heats having good nights sleep, not worrying about how you going to get down to the beach, what you can afford to eat and what not. I was very lucky to have parents who supported me and gave me every opportunity to achieve my goals.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently living in Cape Town, surfing and coaching young girls. I ‘d like to get a part time job just to get in a little extra cash but otherwise I have a few sneaky surf trips planned to get some epic waves and footage. I’ve been doing a bit of work with the RED Cap foundation which has been awesome, and also with Surfing South Africa’s development program, helping teach under privileged children how to surf. I also have some plans to surf new and exciting waves and push myself to get into some big waves. I’m very keen to surf some of the massive winter swells that hit Cape Town, there are some crazy big wave spots around here! I also love to longboard and ride different kinds of boards and setups, I have just got a little hand plane so have also been doing some bodysurfing! All in all, life is good! I have a great group of mates and family and I’m so happy to be able to surf every day. I will surf for the rest of my life and I’m pretty stoked about that.
By Stacey Guy. Portraits by Jax Burgess. Suf photography by Chappypix.
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