Wilding Fifty: Surf Tales
Wilding Fifty: Surf Tales
It's the Stoke with Jamison "Ratty" Johnson
In this episode with Jamison “Ratty” Johnson, we discuss how living in a van has allowed him to simplify his life so that he can focus on his passions; surfing, travel and yoga. He shares some helpful tips for beginners and reminds us why we are all here, it’s the stoke.
Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Life in a Van. Keeping things simple to keep it real
[04:05] Staying Light. Intermittent fasting
[06:05] Ratty Stikx. Crafting a logo and surfboards
[07:45] Surf Tips. Pop up and paddling
[12:01] Stoke the Fear.
[16:29] The Challenge is the Way
Quotes from Ratty:
"Surfing is so diverse and there's always a challenge. I've been pretty good at the sport ever since I was a kid, but I was always like the second, third, or fourth place guy. There's always something that you work on that you personally wanna do better."
"The van life thing has worked out. I'm really comfortable. I don't feel like I'm lacking anything, to be honest with you."
"You have to have that stoke. Once you've had a good wipe out and you overcome those fears, you're like, that wasn't so bad."
Get in touch with Ratty
- Instagram @hattailratty
More about Christine Foerster
- christinefoerster.com
- Instagram @christinefoerster
(Opening Quote) Ratty: Surfing is so diverse and there's always a challenge. I've been pretty good at the sport ever since I was a kid, but I was always like the second, third, or fourth place guy. There's always something that you work on that you personally wanna do better.
Christine: Hello and welcome to Wilding Fifty. I am your host, Christine Foerster. In this podcast, I will be interviewing surfers for my local breaks and beyond following the surf session, whether you are learning to surf, like me. Keen on new adventures or in the mood for a good conversation. I hope you will find some inspiration with these surf tails in this episode.
In this episode with Jameson, otherwise known as Ratty, we discuss how living in a van has allowed him to simplify his life so that he can focus on his passions, surfing, travel, and yoga. He shares some helpful tips for beginners, and he reminds us why we are all. It's the stoke.
Christine: Good morning Ratty.
Ratty: Good morning Christine
Christine: So your van is the real deal. I see three surfboards that are strapped to the ceiling. They look like mini or like larger skateboards to me because they're so small. You have a solar panel that powers your fridge, a deck on top, and generally a really cozy aesthetic, especially now that I'm sitting inside. Can you give us a little tour of what’s going on here?
Ratty: Well, I just bought the van. It was a cargo van and I just decided to put, put the bed in it and, some foam and see how many surfboards I could fit in it, basically, and just make it home, you know. And solely but surely, it just came together with the cooked stove and the being able to fit my electric bike on the back and the surfboards that I need generally on a daily basis and then the fridge came later after spending too much money on ice. I’m always needing ice. I just put the pieces together. I always have surf trips in mind with the van. Baja was definitely a big one cuz it sets pretty good, it sets high, you know what I mean? It's a cargo van, it's not a standup standing head room style. But you know, I always had the Baja trip in mind. And. so I take it down there. We could talk about that later. But I took it down there last winter and spent two months in it, and it was perfectly comfortable.
Christine: Yeah, incredible. So, it strikes me that you have paired down your life to the things that have real meaning to you so that you can surf a few times a day. You can pick up and go to Baja for two months. You sometimes go to yoga at noon. Am I missing something?
Ratty: No, no. That's pretty much it. You know, I have my life set up right now. I made a few good investments when I was a little bit younger and I just have a little bit of money coming in, being semi-retired, and I'm able to just kind of do what I want and I live a really simple life with the small amount of money that I have. So that's worked out, you know, the van life thing. I'm really comfortable. I don't feel like I'm lacking anything, to be honest with you. Yeah. So it's kind of, it's working out.
Christine: So what does the day to day look like then?
Ratty: Day to day is like, you know, I park, I have parking spots around the harbor and in Carlsbad, near the beach, you know, so I basically wake up, I look at the surf report, figure out where I'm going. You know, usually I'm here at the harbor. It's kind of like my spot where all my peers are. I usually come down and park in the morning and go surf. And then go to yoga and come back and go surf and I do other things. You know I do other small things. I go over to my buddy's Palm Farm. I go there and hang out a little bit and, you know, help him if he needs it. But usually it's just kind of hanging out.
Christine: Yes. I was thinking about this, that you may be one of the most evolved human beings in this way, because you really, I think a lot of us get caught up in things that actually don't matter all that much. Right? There's that strive to buy things, I don't know, have a bigger place to live. All of this nonsense sometimes, right? I mean, for some people maybe it makes a lot of sense, but if you really were to just be honest with yourself and say what really matters to me, and you could take that kind of honesty and then redesign your life to it, I think a lot of us could be a lot happier.
Ratty: Yeah. Health and surf are the big things for me, you know? I try to stay healthy, eat right. You know what I mean? I have my little flaws too, but I for the most part try to eat and do the right things, so I can stay in the water basically.
Christine: Yeah. It's all about keeping the surf going. So what, what does that look like, if you don't mind going into a little bit your health regimen?
Ratty: I did intermittent fasting pretty solid for, I used to be overweight a bit and not in the best shape. I intermittent fasted. three years, but really intensely for two years. And now I don't really, sometimes I eat during the day and I'm not as strict on it as I was. And sometimes I'll eat before my body goes into ketosis and all that stuff, you know, to get and all the health stuff. But generally I just do it normally any ways. Now I don't eat in the morning, I have a low sugar intake and then around two or three, I'll probably start eating something. I’ll have some quesadillas or you know, something kind of lighter, maybe some, some vegetables or a little veggie taco or something like that. And then my main course is usually, a lot of the times it's rice, sardines, and vegetables.
Christine: Yeah. I've been experimenting with all of that. With fasting. And, definitely the intermittent fasting and it is really something. I used to be so excited for my bowl of cereal in the morning. And then at a certain point I thought, well, cereal kind of turns quickly to sugar in your body, so get rid of that. And I also, I was such a sugar-aholic and so I took the sugar away. And you feel better, you feel clear, you feel light, your body feels better. And then when I eat, I eat well, obviously, like I'm really into like a lot of protein and vegetables and stuff. Your body kind of learns what you, what you give it.
Ratty: Yeah. Plus, you know, surfing, especially if you're gonna surf a couple of times throughout the day, you wanna stay light, you know, you don't want to be bloated out there by any means and you wanna try to stay light.
Christine: It makes sense. I wanted to ask you about your logo because all of your boards say Ratty and…?
Ratty: Stikx, Ratty Stikx
Christine: Okay. So when did you design this logo? And just tell me the story about this name.
Ratty: Uh, well the Ratty thing came along when I was, cuz I started surfing when I was like, 10 years old, younger, even really body boarding, but actually surfing a hard board, around 10 or 11. So back then I was really small, I have a really small stature, kind of had bucked teeth back then too, so it was like the Ratty thing, you know, it was like surf rat, you know, and it just, it stuck.
Christine: And now you've embraced it.
Ratty: Now I've embraced it. Have to, and the logo, the logo, you know, was just, I make these boards myself. I do everything basically. I get 'em, uh, the blank and then I get 'em cut through on a computer, a,CNC machine, and then I fine shape 'em and put the fins in them and paint 'em and glass 'em.
Christine: Oh, that's great.
Ratty: My logo is just, I have an artist friend that I just said, do something really simple. And that was it.
Christine: So what's the difference between the three that you have here in your van?
Ratty: This is a twin fin 5’6”. That's a 5’11” quad. That's another 5’6” twin fin. I had another blue one but I broke the fin on that one, the other. I broke the fin on that. But generally I like try to keep at least, two of what I call my daily riders, which are like 5’6” twin fins. Just in case I break a fin out. Right? You've gotta have your spare ready to go or for a surf trip, you know what I mean? If you're going somewhere, you want to have an extra board, you know?
Christine: So I appreciated the other day when we set up our surf session, because you got right down to business, you said, Okay, we're gonna start on the sand, we're gonna work on your pop up. And then we'll get some paddling technique. Bring both of your boards just in case. Yeah. We're gonna have some fun. So it sounds like you've done this before.
Ratty: Yeah. You know, my buddy had a surf school named Safari Surf School and actually he'd left me a note one day on my, when I was traveling on my, at my little place at the time. And, cuz I used to have a little surf shop. It was called the Board Exchange. It was a used board shop that was way ahead of his time. Now they're really popular. Just like the Surf collective. There's a couple others that are local in town. It's a popular thing now and, but he started his surf school and he was one of the first surf schools in San Diego. Safari Surf School once again.
And, they're still down there in Mission Beach and he's a lifeguard and he had a really good curriculum for teaching people how to surf. I was a commercial fisherman at the time, and I'd come home from fishing and I'd start getting into trouble on my days off, you know, I'd be out at sea for four days and I'd come in for three days, and I decided to go down there and help him, you know, do some surf lessons, and try to stay out of trouble. So yeah, I learned his curriculum and how he does it and basically most of the other schools do the same thing. But it was funny how he has, he was the first one in San Diego and it was really cool. So I learned a little bit about that there.
Christine: We started our session on the sand and working on my popup. And you mentioned that a lot of beginners start with too narrow of a stance. So can you go into that a little bit?
Ratty: Yeah. You know, people. They see surfers get up on waves and doing their popups, and of course timing is of the essence, you know, usually the waves are breaking really quick and you have to get up, you know, and start rocking down the wave. People get in too much of a hurry to try to get up and their feet are in the wrong place, and then they fall off. They're out of balance, and then they fall off. So it's generally easier to get started with a little bit slower popup, which I showed you. The technique that I showed you, we actually called that the chicken.
I don't know why, but it's usually just getting your front foot under your chest, in between your hands and slowly get up and rotate your back. Instead of just popping up and your feet are in the wrong space. And generally, if you could start doing that and getting used to having your feet in the right space with the chicken pop and then you develop getting up quicker. And you did a good job by doing that. It seemed like you got up pretty good.
Christine: Oh, thanks. I think that once you're out, when you're actually trying to catch a wave, it all happens so quickly. You do probably need to practice a lot on the sand or at home or something, just to make sure that it feels really automatic.
Ratty: And plus being on the sand on the board, and having somebody there to say you're a little bit far back on the board, you're a little bit far forward on the board. Generally, you want to have your toes kind of just right on the tail of the surfboard. If it's a really long surfboard, then maybe just a couple inches. You know, north of the tail, but you don't want to be too far back. You don't wanna be too far forward on the board, depending on what's the length of the board is, like I said. So you wanna be in the right spot. So when you do get up, you're in the right spot on the board too. And that, that's also with the paddling. You want to be evenly balanced with the board. You don't want the nose of the board proning into the water, you know, while you're trying to paddle or you don't want it going up in the air. Paddling is one of the biggest things in surfing. To have a strong paddle is like the main thing almost.
Christine: The day we went together, I felt like the majority of what I did was paddle. Right? That's what you do. But it was all I could do, just to keep up with you. And you're riding this really tiny board again from my perspective. And you were just charging out there and I was just like, the rabbit following the carrot, like, keep up with Ratty, whatever you do. So what is your technique when you're paddling on such a small board?
Ratty: I mean, strength. You have to be a strong paddler.
Christine: So if you were on a larger board, would you be able to go even faster?
Ratty: Yeah,
Christine: So even then, you're just charging out there.
Ratty: I'm known as a really strong paddler, like even in my peer group,, they know that I paddle strong, I get a lot of waves because of it.
Christine: I don't feel it quite as bad. I got all this prep to learn to get stronger out there and I can barely, barely keep up. And I'm sure you were going super slow.
Christine: I have a question though about confronting fear because, about 20 years ago I had a really bad body surfing accident where I went out with some friends at night, so stupid. It was hurricane season and I really, I didn't see how the waves were slamming so close to the shore and I took one in and I just did a really bad face plant. I'm lucky I'm not paralyzed now. But, it really rocked me. Like my neck has never quite been the same and now I can fairly well catch 'em right when they break, but it's when I try to go for the open face, I'm still, when I feel the wave lift me up. I think I just replay that incident over and over again. So do you have any strategies for overcoming that fear?
Ratty: Well, you just, you want to have the end goal in mind. Most people wanna go out there and catch waves. They want maybe a bigger wave. They want to go to a more advanced surf spot, maybe so to speak, or advanced wave. So it's like you have that in mind and, in the back of your mind, it's just like, I'm gonna have to take some wipe outs to be able to learn and to be able to get over the fear, you know what I mean? And generally, most of the time, if you really think about it, and this is even like on bigger surf and like on what we call hold downs, you know when you take a wipe out and you have a hold down, generally it's only four or five seconds.
Christine: It can feel like an eternity, right?
Ratty: It can feel like an eternity plus your body, you know, you just got done paddling out, then you paddle for the wave and then you stand up on the wave and whatever you did on the wave. So you're exerting energy and breath and all this other stuff. And then if you take a good wipe out, sure, you're kind of like at the end of your line. You know what I mean? So four or five seconds can seem like a lot, but when you take wipe out, just remember to relax. The fear thing is you just gotta overcome it. You just have to have the end goal in mind. That's, where the stoke comes in.
You know, the word stoke can be used for a lot of things, you know, But it's like you have to have that stoke. Once you have a good wipe out and you overcome those fears, you're like, wow, I did it. I, That wasn't that bad. You know, the post traumatic stress disorder part of it, it's unfortunate, but we all have that, You know, I’ve probably had more near death instances, then you could count on your fingers and toes, you know what I mean? To where it's like, I thought that that was it. In big surf and surf of consequence, which could easily happen. And it does happen to people, but you know, you realize it's like, hey, I overcame it. And it keeps you going.
Christine: Do you have one moment in particular you could go into?
Ratty: I mean, I have a bunch of them. I've had a couple of moments and I can remember one in particular at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. It was really big. I was going upside down inside the tube, on the wave, and I just thought that, that was it, you know, that I was done with and it was easily 20 feet out there. And I just thought that it was it. You know, I popped up and I paddled back out and I remember that session. I paddled right back out and I got even a better wave right after that. So I just concentrated too. I knew to stay more at the bottom of the wave, you know what I mean? And, cuz it was tubing out pretty good. And the first wave I got too high in the barrel. And then in the second wave I do just tried to press down and, stay down.
Christine: It's a really intense focus, isn't it? I mean when I walk out there, I tell myself, Okay, Christine, focus, be calm, breathe, and obviously what I'm doing is so simple, right? But, but it is that, cuz I think when you let your focus go, that's when you can, even in the shallow water, the board can come back and hit you or there's all kinds of things if you're not ready. If you’re not in the present.
Ratty: There's a lot going on in surfing, more than people think. Well, just by watching it. You have to think really quick. I remember reading a book in the library when I was really young and when I was starting to surf, and it was just like, to have quick reactions, is to be able to think quick, have quick reactions is a huge thing for wipeouts, for catching the waves, for pretty much everything.
Christine: Especially when you, when you do wipe out, you gotta cover your head. Right?
Ratty: You try to ball up a little bit. You wanna try to maybe try to cover your head a little bit. I have a lot of facial scars from getting hitting the face with the board a lot.
Christine: Par for the course. So you are a really good surfer. I've seen you, and every time your name comes up, people say that about you. Could you just talk a little bit about when you began to surf and how you became so good?
Ratty: Well, my dad moved, my parents got divorced when I was really young, about seven, and my dad moved to Southern California. And, when I went to Huntington Beach and I seen the surfers back in the seventies, I was enamored, you know, I wanted to get out there and so I just had the stoke right from day one, you know what I mean? I just knew that that's what I wanted to do. It just went from there basically. I just haven't looked back really. I've had some moments in my life where I didn't surf a lot of cuz of work. I was a commercial fisherman once again, and out at sea and stuff like that. And so it cut the surf time down and then when you get in from fishing, you're tired and you wanna take a couple days off, you don't wanna just go paddle right back out in the ocean. I didn't at the time, but, the stoke has always been there, you know what I mean?
Christine: It’s the enthusiasm and putting the time in.
Ratty: Yeah, putting the time in. And then it becomes second nature.
Christine: Did you have any specific challenges? Technical, personal, situational, anything at all? Or do you even feel that there were challenges?
Ratty: Yeah, I mean there's challenges as far as style and what you do on the wave. I've been pretty good at the sport ever since I was a kid, but I was always like the second, third, or fourth place guy. That's the thing about surfing. You can always, there's always something that you personally want to do better. Maybe you want to go somewhere and ride tubes, ride somewhere that barrels out and tubes out and you want to be a good tube rider or you just want to go be a better long boarder where it's just small and mushy and you wanna learn how to ride the nose. You know, be a nose rider. So it depends on what your personal challenge is, you know what I mean? Everybody will, and surfing will have 'em. Surfing is so diverse and there's always a challenge you can harbor personally.
Christine: It seems though what you're saying is really interesting to me. I think some people feel that a challenge comes and it's almost imposed on them. But what you're saying actually is that you're almost seeking out the challenge because you’re saying, well, where do I wanna go with this?
Ratty: And that's surfing. What can keep allowing me to evolve? That's
surfing. I don't see it getting stagnant with anybody. Once again, for the listeners, we’re in the van right now, but with my buddy Casey, he got hurt snowboarding and he's in a wheelchair, but him and his wife, they still got out there and he does the paraplegic contests and, so I mean, there's a challenge for everybody out there.
Christine: Yeah, there absolutely is.
Ratty: Hey, Casey
Christine: Thank you for taking me out the other day. I think I caught the longest wave so far, so I really thank you for that.
Ratty: You're welcome. So you had some progress?
Christine: Definitely. Every day is progress, no matter what happens.
Ratty: See, there you go. That's what I was talking about the challenges of surfing. Everybody has them and then you can overcome 'em. You know what I mean? Everybody has something they wanna do.
Christine: Good. Thank you for taking the time.
Ratty: You're welcome.
Christine: Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and if you feel inclined to leave a kind review, I would greatly appreciate it. I hope you'll stay tuned for the next Surf Tale on the Wilding Fifty Podcast.
