Hovering Neon Droplets: a moment between the sea and me
Despite a day of gray, the sun refuses to depart unnoticed, surprising me and the thickly-clouded sky with a lavish splash of reds and pinks. The heavens then toss the light down onto the sea, where it warps into a hypnotizing tango with the water’s evening shadows. A dark line appears ahead. I study its […]
Sidetrip to India! Beyond the Surface Film Project…
It’s amazing what comes along when you live wide open… Last year, I was sailing through the Marquesas when my sea-going friend and fellow Patagonia ambassador, Crystal Thornburg-Homcy, inquired as to whether I’d like to be involved in a film project in India!? From what I gathered it would be a combination of unique surfer […]
Free, so Free to be Me.
“However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.” -Einstein A few days after my arrival back to Swell in January, Poema du Prel walked into the boatyard wearing a huge smile. Mutual friends had been long trying to connect us, but both of our rigorous travel agendas had precluded our […]
From a day in the ‘Vortex’
Somewhere in my subconscious, I know its dawn. Force my eyes open, I roll out of bed for a peek…What? It’s pumping, again?! So much for sleeping in…Part of me hoped it would be flat after the week or more of non-stop swell… I wonder if my arms can take another day of this? Of […]
Legally Challenged
I popped my head out of the hatch around 10am after another brutal passage east from Bora Bora the prior day. Just then, the big gray French police boat pulled into the bay. My heart lurched. I had a letter from the yard stating that Swell was ‘unsuitable to take to the sea’ until the […]
Don’t Kill the Star!
And the next day at ten o’clock sharp, Jimmy circled Swell on his stand-up paddle board. “Come aboard,” I called. “I’m nearly ready!” He descended into Swell’s cabin, eyes wide, taking in all the quotes and photos and details. I showed him my book collection, hoping I could give him one of my favorites, but […]
Ketchup on the Presqu’isle
Here is a bit of everything from the last two months on the Presqu’isle… between my engine woes, the WCT circus, my recent submersion in a writing assignment (check out the upcoming October issue of Surfer’s Journal), a bout with Dengue fever (or Beamish flu?), a last minute haul-out, and the Ahuna-Marotta wedding in Hawai’i… […]
Big Waves Heroes Save the Sea Nymphs
Just then, Greg Long and Twiggy “Grant Baker”, two of surfing’s big-wave heroes, paddled out for the sunset session. Twiggy, the cheerfully fearless South African, quickly caught a wave. Andy and his ‘sea nymphs’ still frolicked in the impact zone. I felt a pang of anxiousness. “You should take those girls in,” another guy called […]
Teahupo’o Fog
Session after session I gained confidence at this beastly wave. In the afternoons the crowd would thin and the circus of photographers and spectators would run off to find food and shade. With just a few locals out I began to sit deeper and understand which waves I wanted and which I DEFINITELY didn’t. One […]
