Blogs

Grey skies have opened their arms to this latter segment of January. I don’t like to complain as we are much more comfortable in our current house on rainy days compared to our comrades on the Yeti farm…but I am a sucker for some sunshine.

Banging out deadline after deadline I find myself craving for Ben Harper’s voice to kiss my ears, singing “she’s only happy in the sun…”

I’ve always found it amusing the way humans communicate with each other about the weather. Conversation starts, mood breakers, silence stoppers….

Read more

India Surf Festival

Two years have passed by since our first expedition to India. Those who have followed my blogs and our Surfer’s Eyes website have seen the photos and heard the tales of golden sands and slick warm waters, India as host to liquid gold without the crowds. As we foot stepped our way around the west coast, surfing with the tiny handful of locals it never once crossed my mind that a couple of years later India would host a Surf Festival. Well, that time has come.

Read more

Kuni was reminiscing of his first days learning the ropes of photography. His sensei, ‘Akira’, sent him out to shoot anything he liked under the theme ‘passion’. Kuni took him back a bunch of photos representing his theme and from there he learned the basics of how to blend individual creativity with skilful photography.

The theme ‘passion’ is a great one to incorporate into our daily lives. With passion life becomes a blank canvas for us to decorate with each step we take towards our dreams. As surfer’s we can relate to a universal passion for the ocean, nature and that special feeling of riding over traveling water.

Sometimes it is worth reminding ourselves of our own interpretation of passion, so I decided to put together a little photo essay that gets my passion flowing!

Read more

Recently we bade farewell our Japanese friend Kazuya who is off to take on the half-way-round Australia ultimate surfing road trip adventure. Having done this ourselves only last year, and spending hours with Kaz going over maps, giving advice and telling tales, I thought it fitting to do a blog giving you all some tips for the East to West round trip.

CAR

What a great place to start! Unfortunately, if you want to really get to know OZ and her surfing secrets, a car is totally essential. A 4WD will take you well off the beaten track and to some of this country’s most hidden wonders.

Read more

There are all kinds of places in this vast, diverse world. And currently there are all kinds of changes taking place. You don’t have to believe in the end of the world theories or even all the current data concerned with Global Warming to at least acknowledge that our precious surf points face or have experienced dramatic changes in recent times.

I was privileged to look through some previously un-published photos from John Witzig’s collection just this week and there were images of local Australian breaks that just don’t reel like they used to. Not to mention the dramatically different landscapes surrounding these once almost deserted beaches (although if we are lucky enough we can stil find some untouched waves, the more reason to protect them).

I have blogged before regarding the importance for surfers to take responsibility for the future of our planet in order to maintain the balance and at the simplest level preserve the beauty of our beaches, marine life and delicate waves.

Read more

Sitting here at the computer today working on my article for BLUE magazine, I busily flicked through photos Kuni has taken over the years of really inspiring surfers. Young to old, we've been priveleged to work with numerous wave sliders from timeless heroes to underground soul surfers and aspiring kids. Having been kept out of the water myself for the duration of my current pregnancy due to the disaster in Japan, there are days when I am about to crack and feel desperate for the chance to grab even the simplest of waves. I find my looking at Kuni's shots and re-reading interviews I have conducted over the years helps ease the tension of my temporary life on dry land, encouraging regular 'mind' surf sessions that are inevitably food for life.

I'm dedicating this blog to those who have contributed to us putting food on our table, but mostly for their profound addictions to living the simple life and connecting to nature through surfing. Without these people I would no doubt have jumped in contaminated water by now!

Read more

With all the negative hype surrounding Japan at the moment, and possibly a lot more to come, I thought it might be time to take a look at some of her remaining beauty. For surfers, avoid Fukushima and surrounds like the plague, but if you like the idea of heading a little south and further offshore than rock-bottom ticket air ticket sales to the island nation will surely attract your attention.

I’m calling this blog series ‘Journey Japan’, and will do a succession of posts relating to safer surf travel destinations in the South. Remember the Fukushima situation is one that will take years to contain, so please travel safe and use this only as a guide. At the end of the day, trust in your own instincts and don’t go anywhere you feel might not be safe.

Read more

Most of us can remember how we got into surfing. We remember our first wave, our first board, our first wetsuit and our first surf trip. The stoke of surfing is embedded under our skin as our lives gradually begin to change to welcome our new lifestyle. For some surfing takes over, for others it’s a regular friend on the sidelines of life. But what about where surfing came from? What do we remember? What do we know?

I was born into a family with a strong surfing history, yet my direct parents never surfed. Luckily, my aunty, uncles and cousins took me under their wing and from a young age surfing crept into my blood. Naively, I was swept up into the thruster generation, ignoring my own heritage for most of my youth, following a false hunger for competition and the attraction of surfing’s star class. But it was all half assed really and I guess deep down I never had that competitive streak under my skin, preferring instead to chase waves along the south and south west coasts of South Australia; the beginning of a love affair with wild surf travel that has led me to where I am in life now.

Read more

There couldn’t be a better time to get away. With so many uncertainties in the world right now, perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves ‘what is this life all really about?’ A little too deep? Maybe…but really, for us surfers it’s times like these that can draw us to the chase of surf across the globe, searching for those peaceful, blissful moments when we are nothing but one with nature.

Read more

World travellers, surf destination searchers, team photographer and writer couple; how were we ever going to keep up our dream lifestyle once the little one came along? As we began to start hoping for our first child, these thoughts were constantly running through the back of my mind.

Read more

No matter what your personal taste and budget New Zealand will have a camp site to suit. Listing the 'best of' anything will always be subjective as individually what we seek varies but I personally use the following criteria to decide:

• it must be somewhere beautiful
• it must be cheap
• there must be surf immediately accessible or nearby
• it must be uncrowded

The Best Two

In my book there are 2 camp sites which far surpass any others in New Zealand. They tick all my criteria boxes and then add a great deal extra; in both cases offering something that can't be found anywhere else in the country. One is way up north on the North Island and the other is as far south as you can go on the South Island.

Read more

The shuttle tales part 1.

There was a time when surfers roamed Australia in beat up old rust buckets, hand made skateboards and even the trusty old foot sandal. Oh those were the days of empty lineups, nude babes waiting on the beach and camping out with friends right there on the sand.

The cars got better, the nomadic surfers were able to wander further, and more points were discovered. For the surfer, domestic travel was a wonderful thing. What a lifestyle it was, and the surfie sub culture blossomed throughout 60s and early 70s, an attractive movement welcoming free spirited, natural souls around the country.

They made clothes that suited their surf style, rubber suits to keep them warm down south, toyed with surfboard design and construction in backyard tin sheds and nothing made them happier than testing out their gear in the water. They had their own media; magazines, newspapers, movies. New films were welcomed by sold out audiences in quaint theatres and surf scribes aired their expressive opinions without restraint speaking out about politics, the environment, Yoga, drugs, DIY home building and of course, surfing.

Read more

New Zealand is a great destination if, like most surfers, you dream of deserted beaches, uncrowded waves and sets lined up to the horizon. Finding all three is easy if you are prepared to get off the beaten track and fortunately, New Zealand's system of Department of Conservation camp sites offers many options for the travelling surfer on a budget.

What are Department of Conservation camp sites?

The Department of Conservation (DOC), a sector of the government, owns, manages and leases large tracts of land throughout New Zealand. It has over 250 camp sites on these lands, always in the most stunning of locations and often providing absolute beach front situations.

Read more

Once upon an ideal time a surfer could hitch his board under his arm, jump on a plane and jet off to wherever he chose, relatively hassle free. In the last few years all that has changed and travelling surfers have been hit hard. Baggage limits became stricter as airlines responded to the soaring cost of aviation fuel and the days of 'super-friendly' airlines for surfers are gone.

Travelling surfers need to do their research to avoid either high excess baggage fees or arriving at the airport to find their airline no longer accepts surf boards at all.

The number one piece of advice is to check directly with your airline before you go. Don't rely on a third party booking agent to give you the correct information – from personal experience I can tell you that this can be a costly mistake. Be aware that airlines change their policies on a regular basis so be prepared to check for up to date information periodically.                       

Read more

Here and happy in Byron Bay healing town. My one-year-old son Ryder and I together with friend Tomo and her two kids escaped wintery Japan just in the nick of time with the barometer dropping low as we were boarding the plane to sunny Australia a few weeks ago.

To my surprise the usually humid climate of Australia's east coast had copped three months of solid rain prior to our arrival but the clouds literally fled the morning we drove into the bustling surf town providing us with welcoming clear blue skies and steamy sunbeams.

Read more