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You had a bad run-in with drugs a while back, how did that happen?
It started off in 1996 with just an ecstasy tablet, a friend of mine that I grew up with introduced me to it and I had just a quarter of a pill. I had been anti drugs from the age of 17 till 22 because all that I wanted to be was a professional surfer. I started smoking cigarettes from 12 years old and I had smoked dube once and got sick so I never went to that, I had drunk alcohol and got drunk probably twice before the age of 17 and hated that and from the age of 17 I said that I didn’t need that stuff and just wanted to surf. And I got super fit and healthy and then at the age of 22 I had been really giving it a lot(surfing) and had sacrificed a lot (I used to work in nightclubs as a bouncer at the door from the age of 17 to help support my dream to be a pro surfer) and then got into drugs. I had a quarter of an E tablet and it was such a great feeling that I thought it can’t be that bad. Then it was 3 months and I took a half this time, a little bit more bolder, and I enjoyed the feeling of it and over the next 3 to 4 years I slowly got more and more into the mix. In the first 2 years I probably only took the drug about 6 times and then in 1999 there was a bit of a twist in my life because then cocaine came into the picture and I started indulging in coke. I still managed to compete competitively and there wasn’t too much happening in my surfing in fact I was actually starting to get better. I didn’t see the drugs as a downfall but more of a social thing and going out and having fun but the problem is the addiction started getting stronger and the going out more frequent and the surfing less. By 2001 I was pretty much going out every week, 3 times a week and doing cocaine and ecstasy and it was just crazy. Then I met my current wife Melain and we decided to call it a day. I just said that I had had enough. Barry Wollins invited me to church at Glenridge and I gave my life to God four weeks later. That was 2001. Then I got heavily involved in crack 4 months later after that which is absolutely phenomenal because the same friend that introduced me to ecstasy was on crack for a long time and I didn’t understand it. There had been a lot of times when I just didn’t understand what he was doing and why he was doing the things he was doing and I thought that I was pretty confident and could say “you know what, you can get off any addiction”. After coming off the cocaine and ecstasy addiction and becoming a Christian I thought “Hey I can help you” and little did I know how effective that drug was and it took me down the hard way. I lost like 17 kilograms. I fought with that addiction for 3 to 4 years and now I have been fine for over 3 years.
How did you get off it?
For me I realized that I had a problem and I had to sought it out and I left for Cape Town where my mom and sisters stayed. I just thought that I had to get away from the slippery surfaces that I was on and if I didn’t want to slip then I mustn’t walk on those slippery surfaces. I went to my mom and it was a hard fought battle and I had a couple of slip ups along the way. Joshua was 4 and I was facing a full crack addiction so it was heavy. But those things made me stronger and I only realized now that God let me go through all of that to be a better person and now I can relate and understand other people who have the same problems and I can try to help them. The only way you can get off an addiction is by submitting yourself to God because I believe that He is the only solution and to put yourself into an environment where people care about you and do not want to just use you. Quite an experience but I had to go through it for God’s reasons. The frot decision that I had made, God turned into a better decision.
Now you are a family man, how are you going to keep your kids from going down that same road?
I can’t say that they are never going to got that route as now days there are 11 and 12 year olds taking drugs so how do you stop that. I think that their parents are completely blind to it or peer pressure finally takes it’s toll. The best thing that I can do is educate my children about it and say that it is not where he wants to go and how bad it is based on my own experiences. It’s a matter of just observing and seeing how your kids are and the friends that they are with and keeping them in a safe environment. Bring them to the beach, this is the best place to be. Surfing is an addiction but you get good addictions and then bad addictions. Being addicted to God is the best thing, you can’t go wrong with that.
What role does Christianity play in your surfing, do you try spread the word?
God opens up the opportunities, I am not a Bible puncher but I know the Gospel and believe in Jesus Christ and if the opportunity arises because God has placed it on my heart or on somebody else’s heart then I speak freely. I am a living testimony. I cannot believe in something that is not real and I believe that this is real as I have experienced it. I mean look around you this is beautiful and only God could have created this(another beautiful day here in Durban).
Did you get any help from the surfing community?
Yes I actually did. In Cape Town I started working for my brother, Gary, as he gave me an opportunity and I managed to secure that and I started making money. I then spent it on the right things like putting it into my wife’s, Melain,(girlfriend at the time) account for her to look after Joshua who were living back here in Durban. She is one of the reasons why I am here now, she was the light in my life back then. I then came back to Durban as I wanted to make it right with her and my boy, Joshua and she wanted him to have a father and I wanted to be his father. When I came to Durban Spider Murphy gave me a job in the export area. That didn’t pan out too well and I started working in the retail section for a couple of months and then Mark Collins got hold of me from Gotcha and he stuck me as marketing and team manager for Gotcha. That was when I really started excelling again but the breaking point was when Spider offered me a position. I made the Springbok team in 2004 to go represent them in Equador at the World Games so things had turned around for me. Gary Freeman was also very instrumental in helping me with a lot of my problems. Gary’s heart and family opened up to me. Barry Wollins was also very instrumental, he didn’t have to say much but what he said made sense and it helped me. I look up to him a lot. The eyes were on me and people were just waiting for me to fall and I knew that but didn’t want to give them the glory. A lot of people have supported me and I am working now in the industry that I love. I am working with Phillip Gouws, he is in the Quiksilver division and I am running the Fox and Volcom division as Gary Green has given us the license to do that. I handle that and do the concept stores and I have been working there for 2 years now and I love it. I love my job.
Are there drugs amongst surfers or can it not be narrowed down to the sport?
You can’t stick it to surfing because it’s the kids that don’t really do anything. I call them the mall rats because they hang out in malls and unfortunately get up to things that their parents don’t even know about. When I look at the young kids who are surfers like the Cain Bennyworths(excuse spelling), little David van Zyl, you look at Jordy or Travis is a good example, those guys have never touched drugs and probably never will, hopefully, but I think surfing and if you understand it and embrace it and don’t get caught up in the night life scene then you will stay away from drugs. If you have a good foundation and good support and you have an ambition to achieve your goals and desires then the drugs will not be an issue especially if you commit yourself to your passion.
I see it as the drugs being an escape as there is something lacking in your life.
Sometimes it is just to fill an empty void but sometimes it is just meddling and all of a sudden you realize that, hey this is not so bad. I think that the best thing is that if you don’t know about it then don’t do it. If you don’t want to slip, don’t go on a slippery surface.
And now you don’t have any desire to go back that route?
No. It is actually amazing as it took time to actually overcome the desire to want to go back to drugs but the longer you fight it the more difficult the addiction becomes. Mike Ward was very instrumental, he helped Melain and I with our marriage and a whole lot of other things. He has been my spiritual father and he has been phenomenal with me with the wisdom that God passed onto him and has given me. So the addiction, I can just laugh at it right now. It’s that simple.
Shane tells me how he was “randomly” selected 3 times at the World Games and SA Champs for drug testing so be warned as they even do testing for surfing!
Thanks Shane for being so open so honest and we all pray that you can stay off that “slippery path”. |
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