Waking Up at 6.30am with Professional Surfer Paige Hareb

By Anna Lee
Viva
Paige Hareb. Picture / Supplied

"I set my alarm anywhere between 6.30 and 7.30am, depending on what I think the surf is going to be like that morning. I have to keep in mind the tide, too, so I’ll work it all out the night before. Most mornings I’ll usually hit the snooze button for 10 minutes at least once — I’m not really a morning person.

While I'm in bed I'll usually have a scroll through Instagram. I follow a lot of adventure and photography accounts, my favourite is @asenseofhuber! I also love checking out @mattcrump, @wrdsmth and @humansofny — an Instagram full of pictures of random people in New York City  who have been asked random questions, but the captions of the photos  just have their answers. Sometimes I can figure out the questions, sometimes I can't — it's just nice to see and read about everyday humans and their lives. I like the fact that they don't have to be famous to be inspiring. This account has also printed a cool coffee table book of all their photos too, which I have.

Over the last month or two I’ve just started doing a log or a diary. Every morning before I get out of bed I write in my diary about how I’m feeling, what I did the day before and what I’m planning to do for the day. I just kind of write down something little that I’m appreciating and it sets me up for the day. Sometimes I’ll write a couple of pages and sometimes I’ll just write a sentence. If I write something in the morning and I don’t end up doing  it during the day, I kind of feel a little bit guilty so it is a bit of a motivater. If I write it down, I have to do it!

Then my dad will drive down the road and get me a takeaway coffee from a little caravan called Hightide, which is really popular in my hometown — Oakura, Taranaki. I get a large soy flat white. I don’t really have breakfast, I’ll usually just have a coffee.

After my coffee I’ll brush my teeth then wash my face with whatever I can find really. I’ll put on makeup if I’m going out, but it’s always pretty natural looking. But day-to-day I don’t wear it, as I’ll just be sweating it out or I’ll be in the water, so I just wear sunblock and zinc. Right now I’m using a babies’ one so it’s really good for sensitive skin! My hair gets pretty knotty and dreaddy, so I go through lots of conditioner. I condition it every day ... just because I have to.

Sometimes I shower 2-3 times a day, because after a workout or a surf my hair is so salty. Then I’ll make my towel into a turban to let it dry for a little. My hair is so straight I don’t need to straighten it and I just let it try naturally.

Then I’ll either decide to do a workout or go for a surf. When I work out I’ll try do a bit of everything, but it’s usually a circuit or a run. I share a Spotify account with a good friend of mine, so we make playlists to together. We have a playlist of old school music such as the Rolling Stones and The Doors, more alternative stuff like Florence and the Machine, London Grammar ... then more mainstream radio stuff as well — it just depends how I’m feeling. I find listening to music while running motivates me a lot, and I try to mix it up so I don’t get bored while I’m running.

I live right across the road from Oakura beach so I can see it from my house which is really handy, even though it’s not really the best spot in Taranaki. Even in the last 20 minutes before it gets dark I can run across for a quick surf. I try and mix it up so I can surf everything in every kind of condition though, the whole Surf Highway 45 coast is cool because there are so many surf breaks!

My main priority is surfing every day, because it’s the best  way to get better at it. We have competitions in every kind of conditions, so even when its bad and ugly and I really don’t want to go out, I kind of have to. So I do surf everyday ... even if somedays I procrastinate and do a workout before I go!"

PAIGE'S WORKOUT PLAYLIST:
Erase it (Daichi remix) by I'm Your Vinyl
Runnin' (Lose it all) by Naughty Boy
Alive by Sia
Magnets (ft Disclosure) by Lorde
Rumor Mill by Rudimental
Headlights (ft Ilsey) by Robin Shulz
They Don't Know by Disciples
Slug a bug by Opiuo and Shapeshifter

Share this article:

Featured