As a House & Petsitter I am blessed to stay in so many gorgeous seaside towns and villages along the East Coast of Australia. During the winter of 2012 I landed for 2 months into the sunny seaside town of Scotts Head on the mid north coast of NSW. Scotts Head, from the outside, looks like any other small coastal town, but over the next 2 months I am to find out that there is much more to this little patch of paradise than meets the eye.

Upon arriving into 'Scotts' for the first time I am greeted by a beautiful right hand wave peeling down the sandy point and a long golden beach graced by trees. Everyone I pass as I paddle out to catch my first wave here smiles and says hello to me. I am welcomed immediately and I am stoked. It is like I have just rewound to the 1960's. All the older guys are riding mals with such grace and style. I am mesmerised and I realise I have found a little piece of surf history and heaven right here. Little do I realise at this point that I have also just found my passion for longboarding that will emerge from my experiences with the surfing community and the ocean here in Scotts.

Over the next few months I surf every day, and on the days when there is no surf, I am still at the beach - collecting shells, walking along or meeting people. I think that is what has drawn me here the most – the people. Every single person I meet in Scotts has a story, and not only do that have that story but they are willing to take the time to share their story with me.

The spirit of the surfing community here is strong. Everyone looks out for everyone else in the water and shares waves. You just rock up at the carpark with your boards on the roof of your car and even if you don't know someone then someone else will introduce you, and it is like you have known them forever. In the water more often than not I would hear someone call out 'Party Wave' and about 5 people would catch the same wave together! How could you not have fun when everyone is so stoked?

Since that first trip to Scotts Head (where I ended up buying my first longboard) I have returned time and time again. Each time to smiling, happy and genuine faces. It is communities like this in little coastal surf towns that truly inspire me to continue my travels to other little communities, and to spread the stoke of surfing.

The 'Aloha' in the water is still well and truly alive, maybe one day too you can come and share a party wave and experience the aloha for yourself.

Breathe

Laying on the warm sand I breathe.

I look out towards the crystal ocean, not a breath of wind stirs her perfect shimmering surface.

There are people around me but all I can see is the blue of the water and all I can feel is the warm sunshine on my back.

Sometimes when I am busy I forget to breathe.

Until I stop and I look around and it is then that I don't want this moment to pass me by.

I breathe in, I breathe out. I am blessed to be here.

In this perfect moment I breathe.

“For whatever we lose like a you or a me, its always ourselves we find in the sea' - EE Cummings

How can one ever know the deep significance that a single quote can carry until they have truly discovered the meaning hidden within that quote?

It wasn't until I happened upon this quote 2 years ago that I was provoked to think about the significance that the sea has had on my life.

Growing up in Tasmania, an island off the bottom of Australia, I have always been surrounded by the sea. The ocean has been a part of my life since I was born. Mother Nature is at her finest in Tasmania. The seasons are distinct, summer is short followed by the orange and red hues of autumn and winter hits you quickly and without much warning. The winds are fierce and icy. The ocean turns ferocious and for months on end all you can do is dream of the day that summer will arrive again. For the lucky ones, an escape up north or overseas becomes an annual ritual to escape the grey skies and incessant rain.

Surfing in Tasmania exposes you more than anything else directly to these fierce elements. It's not unusual to have to hike to the beach with all your gear psyching yourself up to hit the waves because you know that the freezing water temperature will chill you to the bones if you are unprepared both physically and emotionally. When your body hits the water as you enter the ocean you have to paddle fast to keep your limbs moving. In some lonelier places you are often the only person out there in the ocean, surfing with the mountains towering above you and your company a lonely gull, as he circles above in the sky looking for his next feed.

This lifestyle is definitely not for those who love long warm summers and tropical waters, who dream of escaping every winter to spend months on end surfing clear water and soaking up the winter sun on a grassy headland while eating fresh fruit. For so long I dreamed of warm winter days where the swell was consistent and I could longboard to my hearts content. I dreamt of integrating myself into local surfing communities, meeting people who had lived through the early days of surfing and I dreamt of all the stories they would share with me. I dreamt of paddling into the ocean, smiling and laughing in just a bikini or short wetsuit and catching waves off a point, wave after wave after wave after wave.

And then one day I woke up and I just stopped dreaming. And instead of dreaming I just did it! I designed my life so that I could spend my summers at home in Tasmania and escape north to the NSW coast for the rest of the year. I designed my life so I could move from town to town regularly, a life where my itchy feet would always be satisfied. A life where I could choose to be somewhere warm, where there was always a wave and most winter days were sunny and I could lay on that grassy headland after a surf feeling happy and smiling up at the sky.

It has now been almost 3 years since I designed this life. I am the happiest, the healthiest, the most content I have been in my whole life. I wake up every single morning excited for what the day will bring, and at the end of every day I feel gratitude for being blessed with the moments that make up this beautiful life.

The sea life truly has me enveloped in her heart. The sea is my heart. And I now fully understand from deep within my soul that 'Whatever we lose, like a you or a me, It's always ourselves we find in the sea'.

~ for whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea ~ ee cummings

 

Ocean heart healing - Connection to the sea

It is a sunny mid north coast winter afternoon when I find myself driving along a dirt road with my boards on the roof and an unsettled heavy heart.

As the trees whiz by my mind drifts to just how perfect the surf will be when I arrive at my destination. The car buzzes along as an old tape whirs on the stereo. As I approach the ocean a few moments later I don't realise just how significant the chain of events that are about to play out today are going to be.

Today is my healing. Today my heart will open wider than it has in a long time and allow the sunshine to penetrate to the depths of my being.

I open my car door and the fresh ocean air envelops me. The sunshine warms my bones as I gaze out to the horizon melting into the turquoise of the perfect ocean as the waves dance and call me, the ocean casting me under her spell.

It has been too long since I have truly felt from a place deep within my mermaid connection to the ocean.

Surfing alone makes me slow down, unwind and be completely in the moment. As I glide along the face of each wave my hand reaches out to touch the velvet sea. I am in a state of bliss, dancing upon diamonds glistening under the warm winter sun.

As each moment passes and with each wave I catch, my heart opens more and more.

Finally, I am returned to my lover - the ocean. I am home.