Finding The Balance – By Brett Shearer

Check out another rad entry in our Write to Surf competition, which has some great prizes up for grabs (see below for details).

***

FINDING THE BALANCE – by Brett Shearer

In this day and age, many people have the wits, talent and creativity to manifest a lifestyle which blends and balances fun and passion between hours of solid and challenging work. Many others fall into the rutted tracks of screens, desks and coffee machines with only two out of seven days to satisfy the road tripping, fun-loving, late sleeping cravings.

Sean ‘Stif’ Koch has found this balance. In spite of being a Kommetjie special who once worried his friends and family with his particular brand of utterly hilarious weirdness, he has grown into an “on it”, open and loving chap. Finding surfing at a young age, the natural rhythm of the sea tuned him into music and he began playing the Djembe drum and the guitar. He also found an inner poet and this led to constructing songs written out of inspiration drawn from personal experiences, the surroundings of mountain, family, friends and sea.

A couple of years back the reality and necessity of earning a living kicked-in, as it does, and following advice and encouragement forged a pathway to the black gold Oil Industry, as a rope access technician otherwise known as a R.A.T. After a few rotations offshore, he bought an amp and a microphone. One day I got a message with a phone recording of his first track, written and performed in what is widely known as “The Cabon”. The next three recordings popped up on SoundCloud and everyone loved it. Then he got a call from the much loved and well-respected Ryan of The Little Kings, “would he like to open for them at The Cape Farmhouse?” Hell yes he would!

So, one windless, sunshiney day in the Deep South on a wine farm tucked into the Red Hill mountain a couple kilometres out from Scarborough village, Sean strummed, picked and sang his first real live show to an excited and appreciative audience made up of friends, family and the colourful crowd that culminates at these popular events. Being a bundle of nerves, he had to restart a couple of tracks but I personally think it’s also because he’s a bit of a perfectionist and wanted the sound to be just right.

The crowd responded really well to the soulful and clean sound he brings, which had an instant impact, bringing young and old to their feet for a mellow sing-a-long wiggle. It was the perfect way to begin his live music journey and the support and love he got was characteristic of what he puts out in his music and his personality.

And there you have it. A light that has been burning for some time has ignited into a steady flame and may it grow into a blazing bonfire.

As Sean’s brother Ryan always says, “Live the life you love, love the life you live.”

Sean living the life he loves.

Click here to check out all the entries so far >>

***

THE FINEPRINT:
Send your stories to calvin@zigzag.co.za. One submission will be selected every six weeks to appear in Zigzag magazine. The selected submission will also receive a hamper from Billabong. Zigzag retains the right to use any work submitted for the Zag Surf Journo competition on www.zigzag.co.za as outlined in the rules and terms of the competition. Zigzag reserves the right not to award a published winner in the magazine every six weeks, depending on the quality of entries. Zigzag is not obligated to run any and all entries submitted, either online or in print. Zigzag retains the right to edit all work submitted for brevity and / or clarity.

For the next three issues the Billabong prize hamper includes: 1 x Billabong Wetsuit; 1 x Billabong Boardies; 1 x Billabong Cap; 1 x Von Zipper Sunnies; 1 x Set of Kinetic Racing (KR) fins. After which the hamper will get a shake-up with new product of equal value for the following three issues.