The Australian author published in 2003 an extensive autobiographical account entitled This oceanic feeling, has become a great classic in surf literature. We met her in Melbourne and tried to learn to surf in her wake.
By Adrien Gombeaud (text) and Annette Ruzicka (photos) for Le Figaro Magazine
Fiona Capp’s car pulls away from an Australian morning, carrying a large plank on its roof. Released fifteen years ago, This oceanic feeling remains one of the great texts of surfing literature. Fiona tells about her return to sport after several years devoted to motherhood. At the beginning of the book, her goal is to surf the Rip, a formidable wave erected like a harrow at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. Her quest will lead her to the roots of her country and the waves that shaped the woman she has become. At the end of spring, the writer offered to accompany her on the beaches of her youth and, why not, to try to catch my first scrolls. So Melbourne moves away.
Fiona’s life is punctuated with planks: “as I progressed, I evolved towards short, light, fast surfing… Today I return to the long and stable boards of my beginnings. I no longer have.
