Azerbaijan & Caspian Sea Surf
Azerbaijan & Caspian Sea Surf
by Sam Bleakley
Andrew Byatt
& Tom Butler styling in the Caspian Sea. Image courtesy of relaxedsports.com
Hinged on the
east by the Caspian Sea at the triple crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and
Asia, oil-rich Azerbaijan is currently a promised land for ambitious
international sporting events. It has just hosted the inaugural European Games
in style at the cosmopolitan capital city of Baku. Azerbaijan literally means ‘land
of eternal fire’ and Baku is known as ‘city of winds’. Baku is on the south
side of a distinct promontory, the Absheron Peninsula, that pokes into the
Caspian Sea like an eagle’s beak fishing for sturgeon. So when I was offered
the chance to work in the European Games’ water safety team, I mind-surfed my way around
the points and coves of the Caucuses on Google Earth, dodging Caspian seals and
pike, knowing that wind-whipped waves would rear up at many spots following
strong onshores. The secret to such short-fetch conditions would be the bends
and bays where that same wind would blow cross or offshore.
The Caspian Sea coast extends a full 6,380 kilometres
through Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Russia and Iran. Some of this is documented in Surfing The Wild East with
Ian Walsh. The unique geology positions Baku as the largest city in the world below sea level (at 28
metres) so that you imagine the water will rush into the streets from the
overflowing bath of the oil dark waters, particularly ominous at night. But this body of water –
between a sea and a giant lake – has no tides. As the welcome cool of dusk switches
off the dipping sun’s rays (at midsummer the temperatures rise to 40°C), the streets fill up under a rising moon that
hangs like a silver sword but exerts no tangible pull on the body of water.
In Baku’s dry
bath, patterned rugs are brought out for sale in the shade of early evening. The
old town is a maze of labyrinthine streets that seem made for parkour and free
running, converging on the Maiden Tower, a tapering 29 metres’ high stone beast
(the summit is sea level) built in the 11th century. This beating
heart soon opens out into Baku’s lungs - wide boulevards with pavement cafes and
classy shops strung out like pearls. The very old and sacred meets the very new and
brash. The postmodern Flame Towers vie with the moonlight through technicolour displays. Baku
is a restless city, unable to sleep because of the nagging winds.
Azerbaijan is tightly
governed to maintain order in a potentially politically turbulent part of the
world, with Russia to the north, Iran to the south and Turkey to the west. It
is a proud and ancient culture, celebrated for poets and philosophers, the
first Islamic democracy and an early centre for women’s rights. For a long time
a part of the Soviet Union, historic heartlands have been lost in conflict with
Iran, and there has been a bitter territorial war with Armenia. Today the
nation is at peace and the economy is growing at breakneck pace thanks to unprecedented
reserves of oil and natural gas (first discovered in the late 1800s). Now
Azerbaijan is looking to spend some of its wealth on ambitious architecture (like
the Flame Towers) and élite sporting events (like the European Games). And
perhaps, if managed sustainably, these celebrations of sport and art can not
only facilitate positive cultural exchange, but also help pave the way for a
better future for the people and environment of this nation.
The European
Games was envisioned at London 2012 by Irishman Patrick Hickey, head of the
European Olympic Committee. He wanted to launch a European equivalent to the
hugely successful Asian and Pan America Games. Baku stepped up to the plate,
already proposing Olympic bids, hosting a Formula One for 2016, some Euro 2020
football matches and the forthcoming Islamic Games.
The majority of
the event staff had worked either in London 2012 or the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow
in 2014. Cornish born company Event Water Safety - run by Ben Granata and Llyr Faragher - had delivered such a stellar water
safety service to the kayak and canoe events at London 2012 that they were
offered the job to provide water safety teams for the entire aquatics events in
Baku, the triathlon at Biglah Beach, just north of the capital, and the kayak
and canoe races in Mingachevir, five hours inland.
6,000 athletes
from 50 countries convened for 20 sports, including a few experimental
disciplines like beach football and three-on-three basketball. The aquatics
event (where I worked) was for Juniors only (attracting the rising stars of
diving, synchronised swimming, water polo and swimming) as it clashed with a
Senior European Championships. Many other events provided crucial Olympic
qualification for Rio 2016. Team GB alone sent 160 athletes. As a long-time
professional surfer on a world longboard tour, I could not help but wish for surfing
to be brought on board. And I firmly believe that with the latest advances in
Wave Pool and Wavegarden technology, surfing will soon be in the mix at events
like these. Indeed, it is currently being considered for inclusion in Tokyo
2020.
In the spirit of
cultural exchange and generating a legacy of local skills beyond the event, the
respective Event Water Safety heads of the triathlon (Ben Granata and Llyr
Faragher), lake disciplines (Jonjo Stickland) and aquatics centre (Dan Graham)
were tasked with training up an Azeri crew of lifeguards. It wasn’t easy, as
Dan Graham explains: “There are many challenges when working with a
multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-national, multi-generational team made up
of an eclectic mix of 18-year-old British beach lifeguards, to 50 year-old
military divers from Azerbaijan. But the shared enjoyment of water, and the
mutual interest in water safety is a powerful bridge between people worldwide.
So all those challenges are outweighed by the pleasure of watching barriers
fall, connections forge and minds open."
Dan speaks from rich experience as one of the
three co-founders of a brilliant non-profit organisation called Nile Swimmers driven to stop drowning in the Nile-lands
of Africa by training young leaders in countries such as Sudan and Uganda as
instructors in swimming and lifesaving skills. This is vital work for community
livelihoods, safety and sustainability along the Nile. Dan adds: “In Sudan a
pool lifeguard programme is being developed and it will be piloted in October
with the coaches of the swimming federation. Beach lifeguard training is now working its way into the standard civil
defence training. Currently we are in the process of targeting 50,000 Sudanese
kids through the schools to deliver water safety information. It’s a slow
process, but worthwhile.”
Ben Granata and
Llyr Faragher carried the torch of bridge building as Event Water
Safety trained up a solid Azeri team in pool, beach and lake safety skills and rescue
techniques. As the events kicked off and rifled through a gruelling schedule of
competition, the biggest treat came to surfers Tom Butler and Andrew Byatt working
at the triathlon Bilgah
Beach. After a solid day and night of north wind, set waves grew out of the dark green Caspian Sea and peeled for hundreds
of metres down the dry backbone of coast with spuming whitewater. The surfers
paddled out on the single-fin rescue boards to test the waters.
“In preparation for the triathlon the
local organisers had moved tones of sand and boulders,” explained Andrew Byatt.
“As the wind swell arrived we realised they had inadvertently created a super
bank, peeling for a full kilometre down the bay towards Baku. Long chest high
lefts went on and on. We couldn’t believe it. I caught the first wave and had
the honour of naming the spot Caspers. The local crew said it was the first
time they had ever seen anyone surf here. It was such an amazing experience to
ride waves somewhere for the first time.”
These longboardable
peelers in Baku proved that the European Games could have had an ocean surfing
discipline with enough of a waiting period. But clearly a Surf Pool and
Wavegarden event would be more reliable. Yet to really allow surfing to flower
in the Olympic environment, I believe that the contest format needs to change.
One idea could be surfing to music, a bit like ice-skating or synchronised
swimming. If surfing can be more choreographed, with surfers riding waves to
music of their choice, performances can be electrifying. In this way, a single
ride, or even a full session, can form an elegant and complete whole, from take-off
to kick-out, rather than a set of isolated, dislocated manoeuvres.
Imagine it.
Judges positioned. Music begins. The line-up is empty and the Surf Pool sends a
razor-edged peeler. The take off is critical. You make the drop with panache as
the music’s theme kicks in. Water moves rhythmically, the board grips, cymbals ride
and the snare drum snaps and the tom-toms roll as a gruff tenor saxophone sets
out on an improvised solo. You follow, arcing out of a bottom turn, stalling,
walking the board – cross-step in tune with the pulse of the bass, and then you
hang under the lip in apparent free fall but with just enough rail and fin to
catch - the music influencing your footwork, weighting and un-weighting the
board in rhythm to create trim.
The right tunes
will allow you to surf so much from the heart where the music infects both you
and the audience at once and brings your skeleton out to dance. This is the
aesthetic life, the life of the senses. If music dulls you, as an anaesthetic,
something is wrong or sense-less. You want music, and surfing, and sport, and
performances to be killer, to literally take your breath away.
Watching the
performances of up-an-coming Juniors at the European Games aquatics events certainly took my
breath away. I hope that these same athletes share the arena with Olympic team
surfers very soon.
Andrew Byatt
rides a kilometre long left in the Caspian Sea. Image courtesy of relaxedsports.com
