Chris Bertish – Dream it, See it, Believe it, Achieve it!
Certainly one of the best events on the St Francis Events calendar for 2015 was the book launch and motivational talk by Chris Bertish a Cape St Francis Resort on Friday evening. For those who did attend, one could say we were all enthralled by the story of this “skinny kid from Kenilworth, Cape Town”. To those who chose not to attend because they really didn’t see what could be interesting about a talk by a ‘surfer’, well too bad for this was a story of 15 years of courage, dedication and an absolute desire to achieve.
A lesson where anything is possible
A story where the words ‘can’t’ and ‘impossible’ were thrown into the trash can, never to appear in his dictionary or vocabulary again. A story where in spite of having trained to be able to hold his breath for five minutes, he was dragged for over a kilometre underwater by a massive wave rendering him paralysed from lack of oxygen and just seconds from certain death when plucked from the water by the rescue team. A story where courage and a determination to achieve, took him back into the cauldron of 60 foot monster waves that had earlier almost cost him his life, to go on to claim one of the most coveted titles in the world of surfing and achieve his goal set years earlier.
If there was a negative to the evening was the lack of youngsters attending for it was mainly the older generation in the audience; note we did not use the word elderly. Certainly there were a handful of those in their mid to latter twenties but the those starting out in life in new jobs are going to university certainly could have benefitted. And kudos to Chris for engaging a few very young kids in his talk for who knows maybe one or two of them will remember this evening and it inspire them to go on to set and achieve goals and maybe achieve greatness.
Those readers who have sons and daughters in their late teens or early twenties who could not or chose not to attend, if you see a talk by Chris Bertish advertised anywhere in your area in the future, take your family to listen to this inspiring ‘lesson in life’. And if you cannot get to hear him live, buy his book ‘Stoked’ as a gift for your youngsters for maybe it will inspire them to accept that anything is possible. (There is a link at the bottom of this article or possibly it is available at the Book and I in the village.)
And if you are a corporate or school looking for an out of the ordinary motivational speaker for a conference or teambuilds, look no further than Chris Bertish.
To go into all that Chris represents in a news article of this nature is, well, it’s possible but we are not going to do that but instead we will let Chris tell just a part of his story himself by giving you a couple of links to his website.
Chris has now also turned his hand to film making and his movie “Ocean Driven” has already scooped numerous International accolades from the Best Feature film, Honor award and Audience Choice Award at various International festivals the world over.
Thank you Chris for a truly enjoyable and enlightening evening and thanks for reminding this scribe, if not the majority of the audience, that we are never to old to be setting ourselves goals and working tirelessly at achieving them.
A big thank you to Cape St Francis Resort and to Fiona Malherbe and Anita Lennox for inviting me to this inspiring talk.
To buy the book – http://chrisbertish.com/book/
To see the movie “Ocean Driven” trailer – http://chrisbertish.com/film/
To find out more on Chris as a motivational speaker – http://chrisbertish.com/speaking/

Photo from chrisbertish.com
fabulous tale. Hopefully he will be back in July next year during the surfing week in J Bay. A must hear and see.
What an absolutely inspirational talk it was and so well covered by you Colin. We too commented on the fact that there were so many adolescents (our own grandchildren included!) who would have benefited hugely from Chris’ enthusiasm, motivation and his resolve to never give up. An attitude we can all aspire to follow
Well done Colin. Could not have “said it better”! Chris hopes to be back in July 2016. Maybe you can help inspire others to attend then. Privileged to call this wonderful man our dear friend.