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Crowd.

I found myself in Byron again on the weekend. I went for three days and stayed for a week, My feet lagged slightly behind my body, heavy with the build up of dirt and water on my badly designed shoes, eyes peeled in the darkness, a twitch of panic in my stomach, searching for the back of a head I had just lost sight of in the 40 000 rich crowd carrying me. Splendour in the Grass was ridiculous.…

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Mick Fanning punched a shark and even Lady Gaga cared.

A kid got bumped off his ski by a shark in Burleigh yesterday and his mum was the only one that noticed. He left the water unscathed and no one cared because Mick Fanning, in a showdown with fellow Aussie Julian Wilson, got into a punch up with a shark and won on live TV. In the final of the Jbay Open. You could not have scripted this shit. The contest started well earlier in the week, but after…

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Street sounds.

I bet it’s the sounds of the city that drive people crazy. Not the hours spent in traffic or constant trudge, robotic, staring at screens, to and from grey jobs. Honestly, lying in bed in the morning, blocking the sunlight, forlorn at the thought of leaving my warm bed –  overly excited birds squawking in a desperate preparation for a chaotic day of flying, cars braking over and over, the bin…

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And then I moved to Sydney and it was totally cool...sought of

You know that feeling that you sometimes get. That clammy palm, itchy feet jitter that there is something awesome just over the horizon? Well I got it. A few weeks ago. And drove to Sydney, via Byron and pumping waves in Noosa, to see if it was true. Staying with some relatives I’d never met before, right on the beach in Mona Vale in the northern part of Sydney, and doing three days a week of…

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You Even Byron Bro?

Two hours into a ten hour drive to Sydney we decided to head an extra day up the coast to the famous tropical hipster land of Byron Bay. Byron is this intoxicating blend of bearded, long-haired people publicly announcing their alternativeness, driving vans full of unusual shaped singlefin boards, German backpackers and dudes that moved here back in the day to live in a commune and escape the…

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Fin.

It’s my last week in icy paradise. The final few days in the house by the beach. Cold air Warm hearts. I don’t feel ready to leave. To be honest. It feels like I only just got back and although I am always keen for a new adventure, it feels like nesting here for the winter is something I would prefer than moving to the big city up north. Sunset Glory It’s only a days drive from the place that has…

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Curve Ball.

The pictures on my skin remind me of certain things.

Certain times.

Some drawn on. Some imagined.

Certain people.

They remind me to do away with my own suffering, to be the broad shoulders that share the burden of others.

And to know my own pain. To feel the fever of a past life.

To know the place of a curve ball. And allow myself to wallow in the dark cavities of my own mind.

Of abstract sadness.

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Inner Paradise.

Today I felt like I had brain junk I wanted to get out.

Addicted to the page.

But I don’t really have a whole lot to say. In earnest. No travel story. No fodder for thought.

But, after a decision to embark on a spontaneous afternoon road trip, I think I learnt something of great importance.

The weather outside reached hyperthermic levels, the wind doing great things for jacket sales in town and…

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Wednesday.

There’s a dark patch in my soul.

A spot reserved only for the call to run.

Sometimes I hate it. That little spot.

Lingering there, making me dissatisfied.

Displaced.

A constant reminder that in the end, I am completely and entirely alone.

A dark temptation to isolate myself, cut the people that ask questions from my conscience. Lock the doors of my bedroom and lose myself in the chaos of my own…

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Tofo Chicks let Loose in Indo

http://thesardine.co.za/2015/05/01/saltwater-pilgrim-tofo-chick-let-loose-in-indo/

I touched down in Bali at one in the morning. A small guy, probably called Made, flagged me down and drove me into the wet streets of Denpasar and eventually a dark complex somewhere vaguely near Dreamlands.

I was greeted in the driveway by Renet, Plettenberg bay native and stewardess of international waters and…

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Laters Indo

I finished my two weeks in Indonesia in a fish market sitting at a crooked wooden table. A table covered in a vast selection of seafood – oceanic delicacies that would break the bank back home.

The husky sounds of a tanned South African guy’s voice fades in and out of the conversations, the other Saffas at the table tapping and singing intermittently.

I had that overwhelming sense of belonging…

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Lest We Forget the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels

Today marks a hundred years since the youthfully optimistic Australian and New Zealand soldiers sailed to their own versions of hell in World War One.

Today we honor the service people that fought, died and returned home in each war since. Today, we get up before the sun and listen to the same bugle we have listened to on the 25th of April every year for as long as we can remember.

Recite the…

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Indonesia.

dreamy. always.

That weighted scent of incense as you step of the plane,

Hot and heavy on your skin.

Voices either side, ‘taxi’ ‘taxi’

Unmistakeable. Addictive.

Welcome to Bali.

I’m flying on Saturday.

I got flights so cheap that I couldn’t say no. I’ll be meeting some friends from Africa that I cannot wait to see. They’re already there, frothing out, going to parties on the cliffs of Uluwatu.

It…

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The Legend of Larry the Llama

http://www.surfinglife.com.au/news/sl-news/13380-the-legend-of-larry-the-llama

It seems appropriate, that on the last lay day of the Ripcurl Pro Larry the Llama has been found.

In the hands of God.

After a sex change and a new alias ‘Tina’.

The only real reason anyone from the Bells Beach area actually likes the pro coming to town is the hordes of ridiculously good-looking people that make…

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Hells Bells

Easter is upon us.

Tomorrow is the kick off for the oldest surf event in the world; the classic, memorable and ever freezing Ripcurl Pro.

Along with the drastic escalation of talent on  tinder, our windy paradise has been flooded with surf industry egos and dudes in their “50 years of Bells Beach Pro” jackets worn to bluntly announce their local status.

That they were in the first event. Or built…

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Plans.

I bought a planner today, to fill in when my university assignments are due and feel overwhelmed about how many there seem to be.

Also to schedule my next destinations. Quick trip to Bali.

Girls trip to the middle east.

Maybe Norway.

Eventually back to Africa. Beloved Africa.

I’m not sure when it will be. Sooner rather than later.

I have spent a lot of time lately laying on my bed, eyes clenched…

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Raging feminism - Happy International Women's day bitches

Here’s to the women doing their thing.

The women climbing the corporate ladder,

The women owning small business

Or big business.

The women who travel to dangerous countries

The women who paddle out in the lineup with fifty men, get dropped in on or snaked because their ability is doubted due to gender, but stay out anyway.

The photographers, the sports writers,

The magazine editors

The women who…