Randolph Benzaquen

Randolph was born in Casablanca in 1944. He is the author of “La Piste,” a travel story in a still virgin Africa, and “Tourbillon de Vie,” “Les Offerings du Désert,” and “Le Second Souffle,” a series of adventures experienced around the world, particularly in the mountains, the desert, and the ocean of a deep Morocco.

For more than fifty years, Randolph's companion was surfing. Through this story, he wants to convey the immense satisfaction felt while experiencing it. In his eyes, this sport remained a way of living, despite the multiple dangers he encountered.

This contact, so intimate with the liquid element, revealed to him a message of survival for humanity and deep respect for this living being that is the Ocean...

...I had a lot of philosophical thoughts when I was alone in the ocean, with the big waves, feeling a bit scared, all alone. I would talk to the seagull, saying: “Hey, I'm here, if something happens to me, help me!!!  That seagull followed me everywhere. There's a beautiful story called Jonathan Livingston The Seagull, have you heard of it? It's about a free seagull. She doesn't want to fly to eat; she wants to fly for the sake of flying, for freedom. So once, when she's flying at 100 mph, the Seagull Council calls her in and she thinks they will admire her. But they tell her: “Either you stop, or we expel you.” “But it’s my freedom, I like it.” says the seagull. “Stop! You will fly to eat! Not to play!” She says: “Then expel me.” And she becomes completely solitary because she is different. If you’re not on the path of life, society sets you apart. It fears the very free man...

...even the Sahara didn’t give me the personal adventure I was searching for, but I lived by the sea. So every morning, I would go to smell the waves.

The Atlantic has a strong scent, unlike the Pacific, which doesn’t have this smell. In Oceania, you don’t get that scent either. The Atlantic gives you that smell, and I don't know why. Sometimes the waves weren’t blue; everything was white. When you see one wave, it’s about half a meter high. Two waves mean 1-1.5 meters. White breaking waves, three to four waves means 2-3 meters, but when you see 1,2,3,4,5,6 waves stretching into the infinite white, it’s 8-9 meters high.