Sitting by the ocean as the waves gently lap on the shore and the sun shines brightly in the blue sky is a perfect setting to tell you my little story - a story of creativity, the sea and of following the hearts truth.
I’ve always loved the sea. My dad was a yachtsman and many of my early memories of the sea were from the deck of dad’s yacht as we sailed along our local river, out towards the ocean. I grew up on an island off the bottom end of Australia, so it was inevitable that ‘when I grew up’ I would want to be close to the water, with the ocean in view.
Life growing up was idyllic. Our family was always close to nature, spending holidays camped by a river under a mountain. After school my brothers and I used to ride our bikes for hours on end, making cubby houses in the bush that surrounded the back of our family home.
Winters on the island were cold and summer would come and go quickly
By the time I became a teenager I knew I wanted to surf, but hardly anyone in my home town did it. Winters on the island were cold and summer would come and go quickly. Against the odds I decided to buy a bodyboard and I recall getting ‘washing machined’ on a cold, windy and grey winters day and coming out of the surf scared but exhilarated at the same time.
A few years on, at the age of 17, I was to have my first experience on a stand up surfboard. I scored an old and dodgy 6ft something at a garage sale and at the same time my best friend found one too - we were stoked! We packed our boards up in the car and along with my friend’s dog, who accompanied us everywhere, we hit the beach. I don’t even recall catching a wave at all that day. What I do recall, however, is the feeling inside my soul as I hit the water with that board underneath my body and the laughs and joy that my friend and I shared that day.
Years went by and I started full time work. I used to often think about the feeling that I experienced that day as I went about serving customers in my mundane 9-5 existence. I moved interstate, then back home again and in between I traveled, all the while longing for a life of freedom and creativity by the sea.
No Comments