Making Friends With The Neighbours

I really should change the wax on my boards more often, huh. But then, I look at this kinda gross ball of filthy wax and think of all the fun I had building it up - all the footsteps, sunscreen, sweat, sand and salt - and I can't really be too bummed out. Kinda gross, but kinda awesome too. Thanks summer!

This summer I have surfed more than I have surfed in a really long time. And I've basically only surfed one break! Seriously, I haven't even checked anywhere else the entire time. Isn't that terrible? Well, it would be except the waves have been so incredible that it's hard to feel bad about it. The sand and swell and winds have been lining up to create long, clean, clear waves that break from the point all the way into the beach. And for some reason, things have been lining up for me, so that I catch a wave, paddle back out and then catch another and another and another. It feels as though something has lifted - a weight, a fog, a sadness, a darkness - that has opened me back up to this place and to surfing in a way that I have not felt for longer than I wish to admit. It has allowed things to come together in ways that I can't really explain here. I wish I had the words and the courage to explain it - maybe I'll try to find them sometime soon. But for now, w...

Look what I got just in time for summer... 9'6", roll bottom, half-inch cedar stringer, hatchet fin, joy! Thanks, Tony. Thanks, Woosley !

I spent a couple of days with my 4 1/2 year old niece, Mame Diarra, this week. I've talked about her on this blog a bit before - mostly about how much she loves the ocean , and how unspeakably happy that makes me. Mame Diarra loves being in water. She can't swim yet, but she has no fear whatsoever so when you take her in the ocean or a pool, you have to watch/hold onto her her really carefully. The other day, we were in Brisbane, so I took her and she was in heaven. She was straight in there and jumping off the starting blocks and insisting that even though she can't swim, I let go of her so she could try. When I let her go she kicks and thrashes her arms and juts her chin out and smiles as wide as you can imagine. Oh man, I love her. After our swim we went to the park where she climbed high on all the equipment and made me climb up there with her. I gave up after a while and sat on the swing, so she started pushing me higher and higher. Then she got my phone and took p...

Where I'm from, we have a lighthouse that is a pretty central feature of the town. Built in 190, it sits above the town on the headland, shining it's light across the bay and the hinterland. The light spins methodically, flashing across the town every 15 seconds. It's mesmerising to sit and watch it wash for kilometres and kilometres out to sea and along the coast. Apparently, the light has a range of 50 kilometres ! It's also the most powerful light in Australia. The clean blue and white colours are striking, especially when the sky is as clear blue as it was this morning. When you drive into town from the north, it's the first thing you see of the town. The highway is a bit different now, but when I was a child, you would come over this one hill and the you would see the lighthouse and the town and the ocean in front of you. My family made a sport of being the first one the yell, 'I can see the lighthouse!' when we drove back from Brisbane or the Go...

I'm back in the city but everywhere I look, I see waves in things...

I've told you about my crazy nice, Mame Diarra, in the past. Her growing relationship to the beach and to the ocean has been something that I have taken great delight in , and which I have been stoked to see happen on the same sands and in the same water as my own oceanic life began. This summer, her love of waves has become fully fledged and it is almost impossible to get her to the beach now without her little foam bodyboard - her 'surfboard' - in tow. I take her into the shorebreak and choose 'big ones' for her to catch into shore. She kicks her little, not-quite-four-year-old legs to keep her momentum going as the whitewash carries her across the shallow water and into shore. Mame Diarra can't swim, but that doesn't stop her as she fearlessly runs back out to me, standing waist-deep in the water. Her brother, Falilou is the same. He paddles out the back to catch unexpectedly big waves on his bodyboard. The biggest thing holding him back is me, as I s...

We've been getting up and surfing early every day that I've been home, which makes me incredibly happy. The mornings have been clear; the light and colours soft, golden and warm. So lovely. My friend, Jono, has been taking pictures...   (This one is this morning, at my home beach.) Considering how taken I am with looking at the colours, light, forms, and contrasts of the sky and the sea, early mornings and late evenings are pretty happy times for me.

I just spent a wonderful few days at home, where surfing is as ubiquitous as christmas... Izzy , Ryan, Sarah , Murray and I had some (frustrating) fun on this afternoon. Santa and his reindeer getting sick fairylight pits! (Thanks J.Ware)  Cheesy backpacker van.

(gif via  El verano sin fin )

No ideas where this image is from, but I got it in an email today from my buddys at Brisbane Boardriders .

My friend pointed this poster out to me in a a Brisbane shopping centre the other day. It was sitting in the window of a picture-framing store. Ah, pop culture. How I love you. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) [R2-D2 and Chewbacca are playing the holographic game aboard the Millennium Falcon] Chewbacca: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh!  C-3PO: He made a fair move. Screaming about it can't help you.  Han Solo: Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a Wookiee.  C-3PO: But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.  Han Solo: That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.  Chewbacca: Grrf.  C-3PO: I see your point, sir.

As previously described at EBNY

Three surfing moments from my week so far... Huon and I went down the coast on a mission on Tuesday. It included on-shore winds and felafel, and was a lot of fun.  I saw this t-shirt on sale in a department store yesterday.   Dodgy at-my-desk lunch. This is happening as I type.

Could Katharine Hepburn get any cooler? Apparently, yes. (Image via Tomboy Style , via Jessica Williams )

        Blogging is a funny thing. On the surface, it could appear like this totally self-indulgent and highly individual thing to do. Blogs can seem like a form of public journal-keeping, and at their worst, they are. But over the years that I have been keeping this little 'self-indulgent, public journal' operating, I have found blogs to be so very much more than that. I have, in fact, found that they are all about relationships and community.          You could flick though this blog and see me writing about women and surfing, which I do. But from my perspective, writing the blog, it is all about who is reading it, how they comment, the ways my interests connect with other bloggers, and seeing your ideas and experiences turning up in the most unlikely places from around the world. Although companies have jumped on blogging to promote their brands, products and surfers in seemingly unobtrusive ways, my experience of blogging has been ...

Izzy and Ryan are driving and camping down the coast to Sydney, where the winter is somewhat less kind than it has been in Byron. With a lack of surf-able waves to amuse them, t exts flew fast and thick from Izzy, as her and Ryan surf-checked their morning away. As you can tell from the picture she sent me, they had little success . Izzy: No waves just whitewater.

My sister sent this photo of my niece to my phone a couple of days ago. Little miss continues to love the beach and the ocean, which continues to fill my heart with joy. And I love, even more, that it is my sisters and I who are central to sharing all that with her.

Many thanks to Maia for the surf check and coffee hang.  xx