Diamonds for the poor

Hidden Between the Sand

—> To start: the beach. what is it about the beach that attracts countless numbers of tourists, what is it about the salty air that fills our lungs with excitement and eagerness. why is the water so cold? does there have to be a breeze today? just to name a few.

—> Status update: still learning about different cultures in this world and adjusting to their pace. I think the only accurate term for how keen I am to educate myself of the southern hemisphere way is: sponge. really the goal here is to make myself a better person from being away from where the heart is. so far, all seems to be going well, this country never seems to stop impressing me.

—> Reason for the post: surf and turf. The atlantic has never been known for its amazing surf waters and nor is it known to be the warmest either, so being deprived of the ability to become one with the water gods has always been a bit out of my grasp. until I came here. Manly beach was the sight, yes, manly. The day was gorgeous, the sky: cloudless, the wind: ever so slight, the car ride there: pounding dubstep, in other words, the anticipation was looming over my head. Upon my first encounter with the pacific ocean, I realized that this world is much larger than i ever thought. Here in Australia, it seems so open, so ambiguious, so omnipresent. It’s relaxed and mannered, with clean sand added to the mix. The beach was gorgeous in other words. Resembling my mental image of tuscan country in Italy, the shoreline seemed to look more like a desktop background than anything else. Never the less, my need to experience the water was beyond me. As you can imagine the water was a bit less than pleasing. still too cold to be comfortable. But the feeling of accomplishment that came with the first dive was expert. Atlantic and Pacific combined at this point in time to me. It put things into perspective that i’m a long way from home.

—> To comfort my brief episode of homesickness, i decided to surf. so after walking for what seemed forever and slipping into my first interestingly tight wetsuit experience, i grabbed my board and the rest is history as they say. it’s quite a humbling feeling floating between shoreline and open ocean, knowing that the next thing that i could hit if i drifted would be South America.

—> I’m not about to be overly metaphysical with this experience, but i cannot help it. Catching my first wave was excellent, the wave gently picks you up and takes you along for the ride, from there it is all in your control. While the waves seem to be chaotic and rogue out at sea, they seem to regain control close to shore, to just greet the sand awaiting. I was part of this. with a smile gleeming i had done it and continued to do it over and over again. the experience was simply amazing. given the opportunity, i would gladly repeat the occasion each and everyday.

—> if it’s anything that i have learned from my beginning steps to becoming a professional surfer it’s this: life may have it’s ups and down and life may become a hurricane at times, destroying everything we know and love, but one thing that helps my mind rest at night is that all we need to do in this existence we are given is just keep swimming.