Taralyn Mclean sparkles, but even more so when she is talking about surfing.
Warm, energetic, good-humoured, sensitive, athletic and inquisitive, a key love language for her is the great outdoors.
A kinetic personality, she needs to be moving and constantly learning, discovering new horizons, engaging new adventures and tackling new boundaries to be happy.
Married to cricket player and CA Gary, Taralyn and her family are very sporty.
Son Cole, 13, plays Border squash and daughter Grace, 11, is an open water swimmer and likes to go surfing with mom.
I suspect these two youngsters are going to be champion of the universe one day.
“I am very well aware of how privileged I am to be able to enjoy surfing, the beach and the ocean as much as I do,” Taralyn said.
“I am grateful for the health, access, support and resources that allow me to be at the beach so often that many South Africans do not have, or who choose not to use opportunities available to them.
“Surfing, for me, is a break from mundanity. It is a pure escape into the ocean and the waves.
“A mental checkout, a psychological and physical reset. I always feel better after a surf, oddly energised and deeply calm,” she said.
Taralyn has many outlets. A regular open water swimmer, she has completed the Robben Island to Cape Town swim, ±7.5km.
She has done half an Iron Man, Two Comrades and runs trail with her crew twice a week.
She is training for the Karkloof 100 mile trail run. She regularly swims with the East London Open Water Swimmers club and then the cherry on the top is surfing.
“I have to pinch myself often. How lucky am I to live in a place with so many opportunities?” she said.
A list and boxes to tick make her happy for both work and sport. Plan, execute, tick. Happy.
When she was three years old, her mother ran her first Comrades Marathon.
When Grace was three years old, Taralyn completed her first Comrades Marathon.
She cried when she crossed the finish line. Mom has run 18 Comrades. Taralyn has run two. Felt like the box was ticked. Done.
She decided to run the 24-hour charity for The Guardians of Hope Childcare.
Happily trotting the course and enjoying the laps, 16 hours later she had 100km in the bag. Then she went home for a shower.
Small in stature and trim of build she may be, but you’d be wrong to underestimate her.
When she decided to tick the box of surfing Taralyn started lessons with South African surfing legend Wayne Monk, and the bug has bitten hard.
So much so that she had to ask herself “Is this normal? Am I addicted to surfing?”
Researching addiction and surfing on Google, Taralyn found the book THE DROP — by Thad Ziolkowski which she has loaned out to this writer (book review in near future) and I am currently enjoying it.
Taralyn is a qualified, experienced, expert copywriter. Ziolkowski is a PhD in literature from Yale and a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Your At The Beach writer is very cheeky to think that he can put today’s story to paper. No pressure.
Taralyn is a little pensive that she has discovered surfing so late. Surfing is her thing now and it consumes her. Could she not have found it earlier?
But then she might not have had her two lovely children and superb husband.
Grahamstown, a degree, overseas travel and so many other adventures might have drowned in salt water.
Perhaps the timing is just right. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. The ocean as a teacher.
Taralyn is loving the beach, stepping into a new language, culture, community, history and people.
She is not unaware that she is living the dream.
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