Additude Adjustment

School has really got me down lately so I thought I would comprise a list of things that make me happy to try and counter act the negative feelings I'm having towards school.

Puddle jumping after rainy days

Cozy toes in wool socks

Really big pom-poms

Extracting blackheads

Taking the wax off my surf board

Crossing things off To-Do lists

Picking hair out of the drain

Looking up flights to places I want to travel

Making homemade soup

Writing and sending letters

Receiving letters is great too

Curling up in flannel sheets and napping

Discovery coffee (beverages & people)

Riding the bus in the morning

Doing beach clean ups

Sucking pennies up with the vacuum

That vacuum has two U's in it

When my roommate bakes

Eating food from the garden

Putting Maple Syrup on everything

Day dreaming about my love life

Always calling people by their names when they're wearing name tags

Licking salt rocks (those pinks ones)

Poking fires with sticks

Watching marshmellows expand when you through then in the fire

Thinking about how there is a skeleton inside me

Post-surf nasal drip

Jumping in big Autumn leaf piles

Saying "Thank you driver" when I get off the bus

Getting pruney fingers from being in the water for a long time

When cats do silly things

Eating stale popcorn

Awkward moments

Getting jittery when I drink to much coffee

I feel much more relaxed, and in a better mood after thinking of all these things that make me happy. Mission accomplished.

My Hobby(Addiction)

It begins with the hunt. You get to the beach of choice, slip your dominant hand into a glove, and with bag grasped you're off scouring the sand and cobbles. At first it's hard to find any garbage and you catch you're self thinking, "Hey, this beach is pretty clean, there's hardly any garbage here at all!".
When you find your first piece however, all of a sudden you find another, and another, little bits of coloured plastic, Styrofoam, a paper cup, a piece of rope tangled in a pile of bull kelp. Everywhere you look you see something geometrically shaped, these unnatural shapes and colours buried in the sand, wedged in between logs, hiding in the dune grass. A shiny object catches your eye, a beer can, pieces of soft plastic, a glass bottle reflects the light to get your attention.
You look at your bag and are surprised at how much trash you've already found and you've only walked 20 meters down the beach. There are big objects like boat floats, just about enough articles of clothing to make an outfit, a tire, an old lawn chair, then the amount of small things add up so quickly, you can't believe you've found enough cigarette butts to fill the grande coffee cup you found earlier. 
You finally get to the end of the beach and turn around thinking you've gotten everything, but you quickly find you missed so much, how could that be? Garbage is the best at hiding. It knows all the best spots to squeeze into. 

With every piece of garbage you pick up, you notice something; The act of picking up a single piece of garbage holds an immense amount of humanity, and at the same time is instantly satisfying. The removal of anthropogenically produced trash from the beach makes you feel good about yourself, but it also holds so much more meaning:

Respect for your coast, responsibility for human behavior, as well as being personally rewarding. 



    

Being Liquid

What does public access to our beaches mean to me?

This is something I've been given the opportunity to really think about.

When I am out in the water, I am a part of it. I am the Ocean. I feel the tides ebb and flow, I feel the currents run through me, I move with the breaking waves as one. 

This is the most intimate relationship I have ever experienced. Having access to this liquid being is essential to all life.

My life.

I have the utmost respect for the Ocean, it's power, beauty, and life are of the greatest significance. Humans have tried to understand, own, and control the water, but you can't, and they never will. 

Our coasts will not back down. The Ocean will always fight to be free.

I will not back down. I will always fight to be free. 

When the Ocean is Free,

Only then am I Free.  

Come Paddle Out!

Surfrider's South Vancouver Island Chapter is having their 3rd annual Paddle Out for Public Access Sunday at Jordan River from 12-3! There will be a beach clean up, a BBQ, yoga session, speakers from the TLC Land Conservancy and Dogwood Initiative, music, wetsuit changing competition, awesome prizes, and of course the Paddle Out!

Everyone is invited! Ocean enthusiast coming together to celebrate our coast! 

ReCharged

A terrifying wake up by four alarms is a sure way to get one out of bed. Two cell phones, a clock, and watch, all each others backups. Not trusting if our cell phones would automatically change the time back an hour for day light savings.

Starting the day at 4:45 in the morning is always a little tough, but when you know you're headed for the water every second of sleep you lose is worth it. Stumble to the bathroom, throw on some pants, boil water for coffee, and Kim's already making oatmeal with dates, there was frost outside of every surface. On every blade of crunchy grass. The two of us standing in the drive way, boards on the lawn, feet in wool socks waiting in the dark for the guys.
On the road by 5:30, out of the city, a sigh of relief.

I can breath. 

Sing alongs starting soon after the sleep's been rubbed out of half closed eyes, no sign of first light until Jordan River.
Onward along the twisting paved path through rainforest to find a gravel parking lot filled to the brim. It was going to be a busy day in the water, with swell on a weekend it wasn't exactly a surprise.
Suited up with boards underarms, the decent to sea level was made with quick feet, and in time for sunrise. This could have been the end to the day and I would have been completely satisfied.

This was my first time at this wave, I had only ever surfed at other parts of the beach before. The swell was great, the water was crowded, more so then I have ever experienced, which was intimidating at first, trying to figure out how the line up was working, and how and where this wave breaks. The guys here are more aggressive then I'm used too, and after awhile of letting everyone else go for everything I got into the pocket and took some of my own. This wave was nice and easy to paddle into, but after a few nose-dives (my specialty) I got a nice right I rode to the beach. The number of people about doubled and it was getting cold waiting in the water, so we headed back up to change in the cold air, and attempt  to warm numb toes and fingers with coffee from a hot Thermos, and packed snacks.

Layered in sweaters, scarfs and jackets, returning to the beach, we watched the numerous collisions and party waves.
We met friends from the Surfrider Foundation for a beach clean up, and found a ridiculous amount of beer cans. Kim and I did a 50 m transect of beach face, and scoured this area for the garbage analysis.
Again we went up to the parking lot, this time getting in the truck and headed back to the city with the heater on, and finally having feeling coming back to my fingers and toes.

I hold my breath.