A sailor’s up-close tale of the South Pacific
More than 10 years ago Liz Clark left Southern California aboard a 40-foot sailboat. She had recently graduated from UCSB with a degree in environmental studies and was headed south to Panama and then across the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti. She sailed with friends and family at times but was mostly alone — eventually joined by a cat. Once she arrived in the South Pacific she spent several years sailing and surfing among the islands. She met fellow travelers and local families and became increasingly aware of the fragility of the marine environment. Her sailing log became the foundation for a memoir, “Swell: A Sailing Surfer's Voyage of Awakening,” published this year by Patagonia. She also produced a short documentary, “Steer With Your Heart: A Film From the Voyage of Swell.” Clark discussed her voyage; our conversation has been edited. Both the book and the film describe an environmental awakening. You had an academic background in science, but it does seem as though your awareness of environmental issues sharpened over the course of the voyage. Can you describe some things you encountered that influenced your perception of the environment?
I constantly saw plastic pollution in bays and ports as well as out at sea. Every sort — bigger items like plastic bottles, balloons, discarded fishing nets and buoys, along with smaller bits of brokendown plastics that would swirl in the borders of currents. I saw overfishing and decline of fisheries — from giant tuna purse seiners, to smaller boats poaching in marine protected areas, to disregard for fish size or breeding times by local fishermen. It made me realize how selective we must be as seafood consumers if we want our grandchildren to be able to enjoy seafood. I’ve watched coral reef health decline in the Pacific — drastically in the last five years with the bleaching events from our warmer, more acidic oceans due to climate change. And I’ve witnessed sea levels rising and island populations having to mitigate higher tides and saltwater contaminating their groundwater sources and facing having to leave altogether. These are all reasons that I’ve chosen to use my voice more and more for activism for our planet and for these people who are being affected but don't have a voice to influence change. Not everyone can experience what I've seen first-hand, so I feel a responsibility to spread awareness and be a leader in the movement for sustainable, earth-conscious living. You sailed to Tahiti, paddled out at Teahupo’o and describe a wonderful session with surf legend Raimana Van Bastolaer. That’s pretty amazing.
Yea, having Raimana's encouragement was everything out there. The most surprising thing to me about Teahupo’o was the amount of water that moves through the wave and lineup — it's incredible — and how the swell just seems to spring up like mountains out of nowhere just in front of the break because of the way they hit the reef shelf out of very deep water. Both the book and the film relate a voyage that is enlivened by personal growth. Was there a point when the narrative became clear to you?
Early on in the voyage I realized that I wouldn’t succeed at my sailing and surfing dream unless I faced the things about myself that I needed to work on, so personal growth became a big focus of the journey. Living on the edge of safety and certainty all the time pushed me to seek to understand my connection to the universe and alignment with my truth. In seeking self-awareness and doing the work on myself, I felt connection to something greater than myself that binds all of us together, and soon intuitively felt that my growth was/is a big part of my “purpose” here on Earth, and everyone's purpose. So it felt right to make this a significant part of the narrative. Can you describe your writing process?
My writing process for the book started with a lot of procrastination, haha ... and by looking back through my blogs and personal journals and chronologically piecing together significant stories that either played into the personal-growth theme, or into the adventure, surfing, sailing, love, or the story lines about my relationship with my parents, etc. Thankfully I worked with a fabulous editor, Sharon Avrutick, who really helped me shape and structure the narrative and chapters effectively. I wrote the book mostly on my boat, and at a desk in the forest that my partner built for me. I would surf in the morning, then try to write until I couldn't sit still anymore.