Solo travel is something I would scrawl on a prescription pad and hand to the nearest person suffering from a mid-life/existential crisis. It’s the perfect cure for the twenty-first century burnout. After years of avoiding or ignoring your issues, I guarantee you solo travel will make you confront them. Although for me, the whole…
Last night the Canadian born, Hawaiian-raised Paige Alms took the crown for women’s performance at the 2017 Big Wave Awards. Flanked alongside a pool of adrenalin-junkie men, Alms is one of the fearless females leading the charge in the ladies big wave arena. Her ride, a monstrous bomb at Jaws, was just a depiction of…
Tia Blanco represents the new generation of water women. A surfer, social influencer, vegan and yogi; Blanco is one of the faces redefining women’s competitive surfing. I first stumbled across Blanco through YouTube. It was a video of Blanco in the kitchen whipping up her pre-surf smoothie and discussing veganism. I was impressed – a…
Books: Allanna Mitchell, Seasick I cannot recommend this book enough. It’s suitable for both seafarers and landlovers alike as it explores the current issues affecting the ocean. The book follows Mitchell’s journey in from an island off the Great Barrier Reef to a submarine in the darkest depths of the sea. She speaks with scientists and…
Travelling through Western Australia makes you aware of space. Wide open space.
You can drive hours through stretches of sleepy seaside ports, towering Karri forests and flat, red earth and pass very few people.
It’s New Years Day in the Australian outback town of Ceduna. The locals are drinking beer in the 42 degree heat. I sit on the roads edge swatting blowflies and trying to study the map. We are about to begin our quest to conquer the Longest Stretch of Straight Road in the World, the Nullarbor…
A thought came to me as I was trying to sleep. I’m the only person staying in a guesthouse on a surf break in Indonesia. The owners don’t stay here so it’s just me.
I start thinking how I normally hate the feeling of an empty house; the shadows the quiet. But right now I am at peace.
I guess you could say I’m ‘green’ when it suits me. A pseudo-hippie. I only realised this in the last couple of months…
Natasha Brooks likes to hike through valley passes and swim in the bone-chillingly cold water.
Watch as she tells her story.
I have a question for my fellow female surfers:
Have you ever had a stranger give you pointers when you clearly did not ask, nor require them?
Has a guy you don’t know ever yelled out “paddle, paddle” to you in the surf?
Or have you ever experienced being repeatedly snaked, or dropped in on when no one else in the water is getting the same treatment?
Ten years ago, scientists from Dalhousie University released a paper that predicted the end of all commercially fished species by 2048.
That signifies the end of the ocean as we know it in only two decades time.
And what has been done?
For me, hitching always begins with butterflies. It’s a mixture of morning coffee jitters and stomach-knotting uncertainty. Will we end up in the right place? How long will we be waiting? Should we just get a bus?
I live in a country whose media is fuelled by shark hysteria. The fear of the Great White Monster of the deep, the lurking predator – a creature that can smell blood from kilometres away. This time of the year our news headlines perpetuate an inherent fear of sharks – the summer killer. Shark…
The average trip to Malaysia normally involves some Borneo jungle trekking, nasi kandar overload and getting lost in the sprawling metropolises of colour and smell. But something that you may not have considered are the waves!
Today marks the day of the survival of Aboriginal people in Australia, despite a past (and present) of wrongdoing and the efforts to “smooth the dying pillow”. Australia was, is, and always will be Aboriginal Land. If you’re in Sydney and want to avoid the throngs of celebrations, I suggest taking this self-guided walk from…
wet. 