South Africa's Sarah Baum makes the most of a second shot at pro surfing – now with a Paris 2024 ticket in hand

A lot can happen in sport in five years. South African surfer Sarah Baum experienced her biggest transformation as an athlete in the half-decade when she was not competing.

Headed to the top from an early age, Baum trained alongside future Olympic silver medallist Bianca Buitendag and almost qualified to the Championship Tour when she was a teenager.

But after a couple more disappointing near misses, Baum made the choice to step away from surfing. And it was in that time away from the sport that she discovered the athlete she wanted to be.

"I feel like I'm actually at my pinnacle now. The last couple of years, I've started to better myself and I'm learning so much more about myself again," Baum told Olympics.com. “I've grown so much more than when I was younger, so I feel like now is the time to do it and everything's kind of falling into place."

Back for a second shot, 29-year-old Baum comes armed with new strategies that give her an edge on her younger self: meditation, journaling, proper nutrition and a support network that transcends continents.

Already qualified for Paris 2024, and given a wild card for the J-Bay Championship Tour stage in July, Baum is determined to put female surfers from South Africa back on the world map.

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A childhood by the water and raw talent

Baum grew up surfing on the South Coast of Durban. The ocean was a part of her life since the early years, whether that was surfing, swimming, bodyboarding or playing on the beach.

“At home,” Baum said about how she feels in the water. “If I'm having a really bad day, I know I just need to get in the water, whether it's a swim or a surf or whatever it may be. Just diving into the water, I feel free and I'm almost flying. It’s definitely my home. It's my comfort. If I go on a trip somewhere that I'm quite far away from the ocean, I get kind of jittery and I feel a bit out of place.”

Baum not only enjoyed the ocean, but excelled in ocean sports as well. She started competing in surfing internationally at 14, often with her teammate and future Tokyo 2020 medallist Buitendag.

Her first near miss of making the Championship Tour came in 2011 when Baum was 17 and on the Women’s Qualifying Series.

After missing the Tour a few more times, Baum decided to take a break from being a full-time athlete and was off the grid for several years until making her comeback in 2019.

“I needed to find myself a little bit, so I had a few years off,” Baum said. “I did one or two events back in Australia and the fire just started to burn again inside of me and now I'm back trying to pursue my career and my dreams of being a professional surfer.”

Sarah Baum: Second take at surfing, a stronger mindset

The Sarah Baum who returned to the competitive circuit in 2019 was different from the one who entered her first Qualifier Series event almost a decader earlier.

“I was pretty young. I was 17. I'm pretty sure the first time that I was pretty close to qualifying I was just surfing and going along with (it),” she said.

“And then (in) the years that I took off, I started to grow up and mature in my age and in my ways of thinking on my body, just understanding everything, what I'm eating, all that sort of stuff, which I didn't know at such a young age. Maybe if I knew that sort of stuff then, I would have qualified then. But I'm happy with where I'm at now.”

Baum’s new, mature approach to surfing includes paying more attention to nutrition, hydration and recovery. Her partner is an exercise physiologist and has helped Baum build a science-based fitness routine.

The surfer has also developed strategies to strengthen her mind, such as meditating before heats and post-competition journaling to organise her thoughts.

“It's how I'm feeling pre-event, during the event, after the event, everything, just so that on the day that I am feeling a bit down, I can go back to an event which I know that I've done well in or an event where I've had the same feelings,” Baum said. “If I'm feeling negative, I can go back and see how I got myself out of the slump. It's a nice little way to look back on memories and just to know that you're down the right path.”

In addition to her journal, Baum finds competition-day inspiration in external sources, such as Gary Mack’s 2001 book, Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence.

“They have some really awesome quotes in there,” Baum said. “The other night I went back and I read one when I was feeling in a slump and I went back to my coach and I was like, ‘I feel so much better after reading this’. The quotes and stuff that is in there, sometimes you read it and you're like, ‘Oh, why didn't I think of that before?’ Or ‘That's a really good perspective to see something differently’.”

Physical and mental hurdles are not the only things standing in Baum’s way on her journey to the top. Financing the comeback has also proved a challenge.

With her family home in South Africa, her residence in Australia and competitions taking place around the world, flight tickets alone put a major dent in Baum’s finances, even with the help she gets from sponsors.

In August 2021 her friends started a GoFundMe page to support the athlete, quickly reaching the target total of AUD $10,000.

“The cost of travel at the moment, it's crazy. It makes it quite tough trying to get to each location and also the pressure of having to do well in those locations to make sure that I have enough prize money and funding to get to the next event,” Baum said. “To do the GoFundMe and have people donate just a dollar or $50, $100, it's so amazing. To have that kind of support, it's very heartwarming.”

Waving the flag for South Africa

Baum’s GoFundMe page launched on 22 July, three days before the start of the surfing competition at Tokyo 2020 in which her compatriot and childhood friend Buitendag took silver in the women’s event.

That moment got Baum reflecting on how their paths have diverged since the early days on the surf.

“I grew up surfing with Bianca. We're always neck and neck in each event and back then, we always thought that her and I would be on this on the Championship Tour and maybe at the Olympics at the same time,” Baum said. “We kind of just went on different paths, so I still feel like I deserve that.”

Baum will get her own chance to represent South Africa at an Olympic Games after earning a ticket to Paris 2024 as the top-ranked female surfer from Africa at the 2023 World Surfing Games in El Salvador.

There have been few milestones for female surfers from the country since Buitendag got on the Olympic podium.

Baum hopes she can change that and also lead the way for the next generation of local surfers.

“There's definitely quite a few up-and-coming younger girls, which is super good to see,” Baum said. “Although, there aren't that many events in South Africa, which kind of sucks. When I was growing up we had so many events back to back and I feel like that's what built us to be the surfers that we are now. So if we had more events there, it would be super awesome and hopefully they can grow just like we did.”