While pregnant, surfer Gill Hutchison voluntarily ‘beached herself’. Her return to the waves required a new type of balancing act
I was in my late 30s when I fell madly in love with a fellow surfer. The relationship was tumultuous, but because the biological clock was not ticking in our favour, less than a year in we decided to try for a baby. Weeks later I stared in disbelief at the double lines of the pregnancy test. First try – I was one of the lucky ones. What was life going to look like now?
As an avid surfer for five years, I tried to continue in the first trimester. But the motion of the ocean made me feel ill, my breasts hurt as I paddled and the low-lying fear of being eaten by a rogue shark, swamped by a rogue wave, or knocked out by a rogue surfer, ratcheted right up. The thought of paddling out triggered a cascade of possible catastrophes in my mind’s eye; every surfer was a potential physical threat. I decided to beach myself.
