Green Peace Oop

On my wall I have a big motivation montage; a collection of pictures, images and quotes to prompt me to get on and do the right thing. On it there's a photo of Trevor and Margaret, a really lovely couple who I did some work for when a big macrocarpa tree (monterey cypress) came down on their small holding on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf just off Auckland in New Zealand. They'd been involved with Greenpeace since way back when and Margaret had been the cook on the Rainbow Warrior when the French Secret Service planted a limpet mine on it and sunk it in Auckland harbour, killing a Portuguese journalist who was trapped on board. In big red letters next to the image it says "make sure you end up like this when you're older".

They fed me a lot of soup whilst I was chopping up their massive tree, and in the evenings I copied out a lot of recipes from Margaret's files. My favourite was this one, I've renamed it "Green Peace Oop". It's real easy and you can mess around with it heaps, here's how you make it:

• Dried green peas
• Onions
• Vegetable stock

Boil these together in the vegetable stock until soft (but watch it as it can foam).

Puree it and then add frozen peas or green beans, diced red pepper, chunks of ham or gammon, whatever you've got in the fridge or cupboard. Get fuelled and then go chop some wood.

Happy Catch a Wave Day

Little longboard peelers at Malibu, California.

Kim Bowra running down an early morning line, Burliegh Heads, Goldcoast, Australia.

Unknown invisible - some guy enjoying one on his guts (seriously, I have a lot of respect for good bodyboarders, I'm only teasing), North Shore Oahu, Hawaii.

Drew sweeping up on his SUP. Flat day training, Jeffreys Bay, South Africa.

Now depending on who you listen to and where you read it, either today ( Sunday June 19th) or tomorrow (Monday June 20th) is International Surfing Day. It's a bit of a hallmark day; dreamt up in 2004 by the folks at Surfing Magazine and the Surfrider Foundation and now also run as an industry day in Europe, it's meant to be a day when surfers can take stock of how lucky we are, celebrate it and give a little back.

There're normally a few competitions held in various spots across the globe, beach-cleans, movie screenings, free surf-lessons and stuff like that which are sometimes accused of being a little overly corporate. But lets boil it down a bit: A day to enjoy and celebrate sliding around on waves, sharing the oceans energy. We should be thankful for it everyday but perhaps sometimes it just becomes a bit normal so it's no bad thing to take a day and think about it. Remind ourselves just how good it really is.

What would you be, where would you be, who would you be without surfing in your life?

So either take what's left of today, or make a plan for tomorrow, and take a moment to enjoy surfing. It's a couple of days off the summer solstice here in the Northern hemisphere so you've still got time to get in there now. Go get in there and catch a few waves, be it on a shortboard, longboard, squishy board, no board, with a paddle, whatever. However you harness the Ocean's energy to move you back towards shore be thankful for it. And on your way back up the beach pick up any litter/trash you see and stick it in a bin, so that the Oceans remain nice for everybody else to enjoy too.

Thank you surfing.

Big Sur

There are roads, and then there are roads.

I damn near drove off the edge of the cliff a few times along the Big Sur stretch of California's Pacific Highway 1 because I was trying to peer over the edge and take in the view the whole time instead of just being sensible and keeping my eyes on the road. This is looking south across Bixby Bridge (as featured in Jack Kerouac's Big Sur) in the late afternoon - beautiful light on a beautiful stretch of coast with a huge NW swell rolling in and throwing up loads of mist and spray.

The Good Life

Hay Bale Kiss

Wedding Day Wellingtons

The seed tray of wonder, finding some sunflower seeds for the sunflower growing competition that I am most definitely losing.

"Wouldn't it be nice to take the inspiration for what you're going to wear in the morning from a pheasant; a red hat, iridescent blue scarf and a brown jacket...I might try it"

Sarah won "Most Valued Player" when we built the composting toilet. Nice medal.

Watering the ducks.

The wood shed.

In my head I have three places that I think of whenever I need to feel better about the world: The Eden Project, the Finisterre offices, and my friends Rob and Sarah's little slice of the good life on an organic herb farm in a beautiful corner of Somerset.

They live in a walled garden with a lovingly tended vegetable patch, some apple trees, three Shetland sheep and some chooks and ducks pecking around. I go up to visit them every now and then and try to time it so that I can help out in some way or another to make up for all of the times that I get in their way sticking my camera in their faces. We made a composting toilet last year and a month or so ago I went up to help them move some sheep from their newly planted orchard back to the walled garden for lambing. They feed me home-made bread and soup, eggs from their hens and on my last visit we went foraging for wild garlic and had hedgerow risotto for dinner. I never fail to come away with a smile on my face and a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing that there are people out there doing the right things for no other reason than because they are the right things to do. Not shouting or making a song and dance about it, or doing it because it's fashionable, Rob and Sarah just live a beautiful and wholesome existence for their own peace of mind and good health.

Inspiring hey, I need to take a leaf out of their book, or off their tree I guess.

We all should.

http://www.organicherbtrading.com/

In Hope...

I like the irony of this image.

I shared a shed with Sam on Oahu one winter a few years ago and I shot this candid one over his shoulder whilst he was flicking through a copy of Monster Children magazine that I'd been carrying around in my bag for months since leaving Australia. The article's entitled "Ten Things I Hate", which contrasts kind of nicely with the ink on his wrist which reads "In Hope".

Glass half full or half empty? You've gotta look at things one way or the other, I liked the way Sam kept a reminder of which way to view things in plain sight all times.

Lucky Grommets

Just look at this. It really is no wonder that Western Australia churns out so many sickeningly talented surfers is it?

Check the kids walking back up the track here with their sponges tucked under their arms and put yourself in their shoes (hypothetically though - they're barefoot): A Sunday afternoon at a world class wave with just some mates from school and a few other local surfers who probably know their Dads and will call them into waves. And that's not unusual. When I lived around here it wasn't uncommon to get up for the dawny and the only other people in the sea would be the town doctor, the pharmacist, the local elementary school teacher and the wildlife warden.

It's probably not bad odds to bet that at least one of these kids or their class-mates will end up making a career out of going surfing, and a couple more will get some sort of coverage in the surf media at some point as an "underground" charger. It's just the way it works around here where the ratio of great waves to surfers is so stacked in the surfer's favour; you could pick the most distinctly average grommet in the class and yet if you transplanted them to any other spot on the planet they'd be a standout.

Lucky grommets.

Ten Tips To Take With You

1) Take the airline blanket. It's free like the food right? Warmth, a spare towel, picnic blanket, bunk-bed privacy and surfboard padding are just a few of their many uses.

2) The travel uniform. After a lot of trial and error, I've boiled it down to a combo of a black t-shirt and camo shorts or dark jeans. This get-up'll hide several days worth of travel grime, sweat and spills. The only time this has failed was when I hitched a ride in the back of a builder's truck full of cement dust at midday in Central America, when nothing could've disguised the road on me. Just don't wear white, tie-dye or some 'safari' costume.

3) Take half as much stuff, and a bit more money (twice as much would make a neat sounding phrase, but who's got that much coin?). Whatever it is, you can probably buy it there, and it'll probably be cheaper.

Which leads on to...

4) Go Loco. You don't take food with you right, so why take toiletries when you can buy toothpaste and soap when you arrive. Immerse yourself that little bit more and enhance your experience, and you probably won't get sick either.

5) Flag towel. If you've got to bed down in a hostel, backpackers or any other sort of communal accommodation then get yourself a flag towel. As long as you're at least partially proud of where you're from and it won't get you lynched then this'll avoid you losing your towel from some washing line. They're bulky and heavy so there'll always be a few people who'd rather half-inch one than carry their own, and they're much less likely to take a distinctive towel that's the flag of a country or region that they're not from because it's kind of a give away.

Smart hey.

6) Go Overland. Either when you get there, or even just to get there in the first place. Catch a bus, hop a train, climb aboard the local supply boat or rent a moped. Just don't get in an air-conditioned minibus whatever you do.

7) Say "YES" to everything. Within reason, and using your good judgement of course. Try it: Good things'll happen, opportunities will present themselves and you'll have a much better time.

8) Make memories. Keep a journal, carry a camera or collect your tickets to scrapbook. If your memory is even twice as good as mine then I'll bet that in ten years time you'll have forgotten at least half of the names, faces, places and events that you never thought you would.

9) Take a pen on the plane. You're bound to get handed an immigration or customs form to fill in and there's nothing more annoying than having to ask to borrow one or not getting your mitts on one at all until you're at the desk.

10) Do it all with a SMILE. It's a universal language and makes the world a better place.

But most of all make the most of it, breathe it all in and just get amongst it.

The World's a beautiful place so go see it.