Did you think it was Reubyn Ash?
The British are known for many things (India, Rolls Royce…) but not their surfing acumen. Until recently, it had been thought the best surfer the country had ever produced was Surf Europe editor-in-chief Paul Evans followed closely by aerialist Reubyn Ash but new evidence has come to light. The best surfer in British history is famed mystery writer Agatha Christie!
Christie, who died in 1976, has sold over two-billion books but what really turned her on was the shred. In 1922 she became one of the first Britons to shred, getting her boogie on at South Africa’s Muizenberg Beach.
“The surf boards in South Africa were made of light, thin wood, easy to carry, and one soon got the knack of coming in on the waves…” she said at the time. “It was occasionally painful as you took a nosedive down into the sand, but on the whole it was an easy sport and great fun.”
Months later, in Honolulu, she moved from riding prone to standing up, just like Dion Agius. She wrote of the experience in her autobiography, “I learned to become expert – or at any rate expert from the European point of view – the moment of complete triumph on the day that I kept my balance and came right into shore standing upright on my board!”
Just like Dion Agius!
Here is Ruebyn Ash, Britain’s third best surfer:
