Passion is an emotion that takes complete hold of the mind. With it you don’t pursue a goal, you crave it. Reason can switch off, and you sometimes even put yourself in danger. But you feel no fear. Because it isn’t fear that pushes you to your limits. Rudy Ghiara tells MEN about his passion. The Italian is a professional surfer. He rides waves that reach the height of six-storey buildings. «Surfing is my passion. Surfing is my life», says Ghiara. «Riding waves always gave me a good feeling.»
He started surfing as a 16-year-old. «It gripped me from day one. It has fascinated me ever since. That’s why I never stopped.» Driven by his passion, he plunged into the waves – and onto ever bigger ones. «You have to throw yourself into an adventure like this. You have to believe in yourself. You have to tell yourself you can do it.»
This style of surfing that Ghiara lives is called big-wave paddling. The wave, that mountain of water, is climbed by sheer physical strength alone, without the help of a jet ski. Ghiara has already tried to break world records. He won’t be beaten. «Last year I officially rode a 15-metre wave. Unofficially there was surely one that was more like 18 metres.» In January 2021 the swell at Nazaré, a Portuguese town on the Atlantic, was historic. The waves rolled in up to 20 metres high.
Moments of Terror
Rudy Ghiara isn’t afraid of such monsters. They can still give you a fright, though. As they did a few years ago, precisely at Nazaré, when a wave caught him off guard and the mass of water plunged him into the depths of the Atlantic. «For a few seconds I was gone. I probably knocked on heaven’s door …» Ghiara recalls a few moments of terror. There’s no avoiding them. Back then in Nazaré he made a young surfer’s mistake, he admits today. He had spotted the waves, paddled out and surfed, again and again, tirelessly, even though he had ignored safety precautions. «After a few hours out there in the water I felt drained, so I wanted to let a wave carry me to shore. The one that caught me was only about five metres high.» Even so: such moments can never be frightening enough to keep Ghiara from surfing. Next time he’ll surely be better prepared.
His passion for surfing and his courage to take on ever bigger waves have also deepened his fascination with the element of water and its incredible power. Water, says Ghiara, has become a teacher to him too. «The ocean changed my life. Fundamentally! I learned to focus, to be present with myself, to train and to point my life towards a goal. I feel better today, in body and mind.» He still draws on his last adventure, his last great test of courage, long after the adrenaline has stopped surging through his body.
A Good Feeling
With passion you move mountains, or ride – like Rudy Ghiara – waves as tall as six-storey buildings. Without passion you’d surely be scared stiff. «Surfing is the most beautiful experience you can have on this planet, a foretaste of heaven.» This fine surfer’s quote is said to come from the Irishman John McCarthy. McCarthy travelled the world, enjoyed success and, back home, founded a surf school. Surfing as a school of life. In MEN’s presence, Rudy Ghiara said: «Of course big waves appeal to me. But fundamentally, surfing simply gives me a really good feeling. No matter how high a wave is.»
That Alone Isn’t Enough
A Car of the Year that lives up to its award: many strengths, no real weaknesses. That was AUTOMOBIL REVUE’s verdict on the Jeep Avenger in issue 38/2023. The front-wheel-drive car is no berserker like its big brother Defender. The Avenger supports the lifestyle. An SUV, in effect, of the kind around when the model was launched: taller than other road users’ cars, but not as mighty as Land Rover or indeed Jeep once were. Their opulent bulk is matched today by almost every SUV. That the Jeep Avenger runs on electricity, frankly, hardly bothers. Even the over-50 who wrote these lines had fun on the test drive.
Granted, it helps an eternal combustion-engine driver and motorsport fan when the other over-50 in the passenger seat has already broadened his horizons a little. When he knows how to recuperate with an electric car. Winning back charge soon becomes a challenge, a bit of fun. Just as when you surf the bends of a country road in a combustion car and watch the fuel consumption drop a little again.
Rudy Ghiara likes the Jeep Avenger too. Partly because it supports the shift in personal mobility. The Italian is a surfer and an outdoorsman through and through. «I think it’s very good that cars like the Avenger exist. They help to ease the burden on the climate», he says. But the surfer boy and model athlete also cautions: «Electric cars alone aren’t enough. We all have to ask ourselves what contribution we can still make personally.»
This article appeared in MEN issue 2/23 (November 2023).
