Taking the ‘plunge’ turned life around for surf champ James

‘Surfing’s the source. It’ll change your life, swear to God’.

When I think of surfing, that line from the 1991 movie ‘Point Break’ starring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, which was actually taken from Kevin Nunn’s novel, Tapping the Source, always comes to mind.

And it’s quite an appropriate one when it comes to Castlederg native James Garvey, who has made a life and career out of the sport.

The 31 year-old was one of Ireland’s top wave riders as a child and teenager, earning sponsorship deals with the likes of Billabong en route to winning numerous titles.

But surfing was never just about competition and winning for James, it’s about so much more and he has built his life around it, from traveling to every corner of the earth to turning his passion into a flourishing business at his spiritual home, Rossnowlagh.

His story isn’t entirely straightforward, however, with a family tragedy playing a massive role in how his life unfolded and how his personal philosophy on how to live it developed from the age of eight when he sadly lost his father, Jim, to a road accident.

And while that heartbreaking incident has left a mark on James, it seems to have been a surprisingly positive one as he hasn’t felt sorry for himself and he has used it to see his life as an opportunity to go after his dreams and enjoy his passions to their fullest.

“My dad died when I was eight,” he explained. “We [he and his siblings] were all competitive swimmers and we swam in Strabane and City of Derry four mornings a week and some afternoons too.

“But when I was eight and my sister [Amy-May] was 10, he dropped us off at the pool and he’d always go off for a cycle. The week before he had a flat tyre on his bike and he was so late collecting us and the next week he was very late collecting us but he actually got hit by a lorry that morning and was killed.

“It was bad, a tough time. It’s a tough age to deal with death, for anyone. No age is easy and everyone gets dealt that hand at some age or later but we had to deal with it at a very young age

“It’s a big perspective changer for the way you live your life and I’m sure that, in some way or other, that had a big part to play in me choosing to start my own business because you never know when it’s going to go and you value that time you get to spend with the important people and doing the important things in life so much when it’s taken from you too early.

“So, I always grew up with an appreciation for the important things in life.

“Now, they mightn’t have been the things that my teachers or my mum thought were important!”

James’s priorities in life have remained constant since his primary school days – swimming and surfing being two of the key ones – and while he acknowledges education is a necessary evil, traditional forms of study, like for many others, weren’t for him and initially it looked as though he may just drift out to sea without a rudder.

“When I finished school I was just obsessed with surfing, obsessed with swimming, obsessed with surf-lifesaving and just sport was where it was,” he explained.

“I did OK at school, in music and stuff but I went to Lumen Christi [College in Derry] and you had very high expectations of yourself and what your teacher thinks.

“But I left school [in 2012] with those obsessions and I took a gap year because I just didn’t have that fire inside, I had no idea what I wanted to do. No course [at university] could help me find that fire I wanted to feel that I had for the sport.

“And I thought there was something nearly wrong with me because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I now know that’s completely normal.”

It was after what, at the time, felt like a wasted gap year and a short stint at the University of Ulster studying business that, at the age of just 19, he decided to take the plunge – literally and metaphorically – and start his own surfing school.

“I took a gap year and before I knew it I had basically surfed the whole year away,” he laughed.

“But I decided the next year I’d go and study business at the University of Ulster via a talented athlete scheme.

“That was 2013 and because I was always very money focused and I knew if I wanted to go to university I didn’t want to waste that money, especially on accommodation, I drove from Rossnowlagh.

“But it got to the point I was surfing in the morning, running up to college and sitting all day in lectures just listening to the lecturers speaking, who were very good, but the quote that comes to mind is ‘you can’t make a fish climb a tree’.

“I’m a practical person – always in life if I want to figure out how to do something I have to go out and pick it up, give it a go, fail and then learn. I can’t do much from someone telling me what to do or from seeing it in a book, I need to feel it or do it.I know what you’re saying but I need to practice it.

“I was going but I didn’t have the fire I needed so I waited until the Inter-varcity Cup was on, the universities surfing competition, which is great craic, but I won the competition and then I realised I wasn’t in this, it wasn’t for me.

“I was listening to a lot of philosophy at the time and I know this sounds ridiculous but there was this quote that just stuck with me and it pushed me into the corner to do what I wanted.

“It goes like this: ‘What would you do if money was no object? How would you enjoy spending your life? It’s a good question to ask yourself. If you like what you’re doing, no matter what it is, eventually you can become a master at it and charge a good fee’.

“So I was like ‘f%^k it, I’m starting a surf school’!”

leap of faith

It was quite the leap of faith for someone yet to reach their 20s but it’s one that James has flourished at, developing Rossnowlagh Surf School into one of the most highly regarded in Europe and expanding what it offers.

And while he admits that being self-employed has its downs, the positives more than outweigh those and he’s so happy to have jumped into it with both feet in order to turn his ‘vision’ into reality.

“It’s one step at a time and then the wee questions and issues come up and you deal with them as they do, but having that big vision to focus on at the end is so important,” he added.

“Being self-employed means you’re working 24-7, you don’t come home and forget about work. You’re always thinking, you never switch off but aren’t we lucky and able? It’s a privilege and an opportunity denied to a lot of people to do that with your life.

“It’s not easy and there’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes – staff, accounting, all sorts – but it’s brilliant and what a way to learn business. Instead of going to university you can learn practically and that was the only option for me.

“And now we have the surf school, which is one of the top surf schools in Europe we have the best kids camp in Ireland, we now have a café, we’ve expanded into outdoor kayaking and paddle-boarding tours.

“Everything falls into place if you go step by step but the self employed world is a journey – you’re having an adventure and you’re behind the horse, deciding where you are going.

“It can be very exciting and when you’re in charge of your own time, time is your most precious commodity, so when you’re in charge of that it’s a great way to be and I love it.

“I still have days where it all goes wrong and it all falls on me but it’s still not too bad.”

Finding himself with a successful life and business in Rossnowlagh bookends James’s life so far perfectly.

The County Donegal seaside resort is where he first discovered surfing and he admits his parents decision to build a property there many years ago was ‘the best choice they ever made’.

“My dad was a GP in Castlederg and when he got there, mum [Carmel] and dad heard about everyone going down to Rossnowlagh, so they were like ‘we better check it out’ and they ended up going down and falling in love with the place and a little plot of land came up for sale and the rest is history!,” he explained.“It was the best choice they ever made!

“From there when we got off school or dad got off work, we were straight down the road to Rossnowlagh and that’s where we had our life, our time out for holidays.

“It was the best thing ever for me when I was a kid.”

From those first brief visits to spending more time in Rossnowlagh and developing their skills on the waves, James along with two of his sisters, Amy-May and Ayesha, became three of the best young surfers in Ireland.

And while James still competes on occasion, the purer nature of the sport – being on his own with the waves – is what continues to draw him to the ocean rather than the pressure of trying to achieve ‘success’.

“I still compete but I surf to enjoy it these days. The business has brought me all over the world, to the edge of the earth and that’s what I love,” he explained.

“I enjoy coaching, but I’m not into competing myself so much now. I’d rather head off and go to a deserted island and surf all day by myself.

“That’s my best idea of surfing, it’s a pure passion.”

‘wasn’t worth it’

James did enjoy the competitive side of the sport for a time but he reached a point where the pressure to achieve results ‘wasn’t worth it’ but continuing to travel, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures is something he never wants to stop.

“I used to be sponsored growing up, I was sponsored by Billabong and a few other companies, but it’s not worth the pressure,” he said.

“My competing days went well, though, I was Irish champion, we won the Celtic Cup for Ireland over in Scotland, I won the senior’s and the Inter-varcities.

“But for me it wasn’t worth it, I’d rather go and travel, see the world and I have been all over the world. I’ve competed in World and European Championships too but the most favourite times in my life were going to the back end of Mexico, travelling to New Zealand in the off-season and that’s something I’d say to kids – there’s so much to learn in the world, things you’re not going to learn in books.

“Get out there. If you don’t know what to do, go traveling, go talking to people from other places, discover other cultures and you’ll very quickly see we are only a tiny spec in a massive thing.

“You have to ask yourself ‘Are we chasing the right things?’ I’m as guilty as anyone but you have to ask yourself ‘are you chasing the right things?’.

“I’ve been very lucky, I’ve got to tick of some bucket list places I’ve always wanted to go. I’ve been extremely lucky because I’ve literally travelled the whole world surfing and hiking.

“And that’s the thing about surfing, it’s such a great thing for people to get into. It’s a great sport, it keeps you so fit, you learn so much about yourself because, say you go to Rossnowlagh on a bigger day, you’re getting hit on the head 40 times before you get out the back behind the waves, so it builds character and you can pick up your surf board, you don’t have any membership fees, and you can go anywhere in the world with a coastline and you’ll fall in with people where you have something in common with them straight away.

“It’s amazing and the people are so lovely and you could be invited in for dinner, it’s such an adventure and I’d recommend anyone to come and give it a go with us because it’s really made my life amazing.”