21 November, 2013 21 November, 2013

Knysna local seeks safe return of his beloved Bushman

As surfers we can grow tight bonds with our surfboards. Especially if they’re a ‘magic board’ that dances on waves like no other. We also grow attached to them for emotional reasons, like our first board ever, or if they were given to us as a dying wish by a good friend.

Knysna local Martin Hatchuel is desperately seeking the return of his foster son Kyle’s beloved Bushman. The board was given to Kyle by a family friend, Ross Taylor, a young Southern Cape surfer who passed away from illness, and who’s memory lives on with the annual Ross Taylor Memorial surf contest, a popular event held each year at Buffalo Bay.

Martin continues the story below:

Ross Taylor has a habit of giving boards to our family.

Shortly before he died, he gave his 5’11 Bushman – which Bushy shaped for him, and inscribed to him – to my foster son, Kyle. Ross couldn’t get out of bed by then, and the two of them spent an hour together, talking quietly, and it was the last time Kyle or I saw him alive.

Bushman_Text

Kyle never told me what Ross said, but he made me take him straight to Buffalo Bay afterwards, and he rode that onshore slop, and screw the conditions.

Then last year, we won a Firewire board in the raffle at the Ross Taylor Surf Contest, and as Kyle said when he saw it for the first time, it’s pretty much the same shape and size as the Bushman.

Bushman_Shape

This year, though, the Bushman was taken from where Kyle was staying in Fishhoek. Stolen perhaps. Or maybe the dude just borrowed it on a long-term basis and kinda forgot to return it. Whichever.

Please, if you have Ross Taylor’s 5’11” Bushman board, get it back to the family. If you bought it from someone, you’ve bought stolen stuff – let’s talk. If it was you who took it, give us a shout, and we’ll arrange to have it collected.

It means a lot to us.

Thanks.
Martin Hatchuel
martinhatchuel@gmail.com
084 951 0574

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