8/19：Yani makes a wooden board - Alaia with Aloha

Yani's first ride on his Alaia board with dawn glow.

Yani and Pacha now go to the same, local, public schools that I went to over 30 years ago. They are good schools - providing opportunities to learn within their conventional parameters. When Yani's grade (6) had their school excursion to our faraway capital city of Canberra, we decided to stay behind (we regularly go to Canberra to visit my brother anyway and the trip was a little expensive).

Instead, Yani, just a week after his 12th birthday, went to stay with our friends who live 2 hours away in Evans Heads - able to freely surf, skate, play music (he's been teaching himself the didgeridoo) and let his spirit dream and grow. He said it was one of the best weeks of his life.

He came home with a deeper self confidence and understanding of the lifestyle that truly makes him happy. He came home with many 'first time' experiences, including being just about to go out surfing when a local man was attacked by a shark at that very beach (Evans Head)! This experience has deepened his appreciation for life and raised his awareness of his own intuition about whether or not he chooses to go out in the water or not.
He also came home with a self-made, finless, wooden surfboard - an 'Alaia', based on the inspiration of the first known surfers, the Hawaiin indigenous peoples.

His home stay host had worked with his friend who runs a local Byron Bay sawmill (Wooden Anchor) harvesting sustainably grown 'pawlonia' trees and had a spare 'blank' that Yani could work on. Yani thought deeply about the design and came up with something quite unique and so artistic - an asymmetrical design with a concave bottom, specially made to take advantage of the kinds of waves we surf on the Gold Coast on our point breaks. Yani made a little video clip about his experience that you can see here: Yani's Alaia project

Pacha and I both basked in his glow of happiness when he had his first try of his hand shaped creation - nothing can match the deep sense of contentment when you have made something with your own hands and realise that it can bring you (and many others) so much joy!  He said he did his own little ceremony to introduce 'her' (he named her 'Glide') into the ocean - invoking the spirit of earth and water and making the sound of a didgeridoo through his clenched hand...deep, soul connection...Now, every time he, or Pacha, uses it, there are people who stop them to take a look and ask questions about it - it's such a great way to spread a positive message!

Here on the Gold Coast, there is a lot of emphasis on artificial happiness - happiness that is attempted to be packaged, commodified, bought and sold. It can go hand in hand with a competitive, bullying mentality that sometimes seeps into the surfing here - especially among young surfers being pushed by themselves, their parents and/or their sponsors to be 'the winner' no matter what it takes. It seems to be the opposite of the spirit of 'Aloha' - the Hawaiian indigenous word meaning: “The joyful sharing of life energy in the present”.
Yani, by sharing his 'Alaia' surfboard experience, thanks to the kindness and generosity of our friends, has reminded us of 'Aloha' and the true soul of surfing - giving and sharing the limitless power of the ocean; of nature itself.

When not in the water, 'Glide' becomes a work of art in our home!

Sharing the exhiliration for life!

Front Page Image of Joy in Nature!

It’s just after dawn and I sit gazing at the wild, heaving ocean at Snapper Rocks near my home on the Gold Coast.

Surfing world champions pass by: Gabriel Medina, Stephanie Gilmore, Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson… They are filled with excitement and 'stoke' as tropical cyclone Marcia kisses the tides, whipping up the endless rows of perfect waves.
The construction of the world surf tournament, the Quicksilver/Roxy Pro is underway, but the scaffolding looks puny and insignificant against the backdrop of crashing waves.
Competition or not - these surfers are driven by their soul's yearning to connect with the ocean - it has to be so, how else could you be driven to go back day after day, in sun, in rain, in cold, in heat, in wind... this life of surfing is more than a sport - it's following a spiritual path.
Yesterday, as the cyclone was moving down the coast - the kids were given the option of taking the day off school. Pacha rallied her friends together to meet at the place where they knew the high tide would send the waves over the breakwall where they could tuck under to simulate the feeling of a mighty wave crashing over them. Today the photo was on national news feeds with a caption alluding to the 'risks' of kids having fun in the surf. Later I heard that the photo had made it’s way around the globe.  
Pacha and her friends were showing the world how to live life to the full. Soaking in the exhilaration and power of the ocean and of the storm - humbly finding a way to interact without risking their lives. They intimately know the dangers and where to draw the boundaries - having observed and interacted with the conditions almost everyday for years.

I trust my children - and I trust life. They live in a world of extremities and somehow they have to find a way to survive and thrive, choosing a way fed by joy, not ruled by fear.
True soul surfers may be some of the best equipped humans to navigate the precarious time ahead – learning to be humble, to trust, to rely on their own strength and inner guidance rather than give away their power and reason to the directives of  ‘authorities’.  Nature is always the best guide. 

One of our most favourite places in the world - Snapper Rocks.

Benign Deprivation

By Australian standards. There are so many things we don’t do and things we don’t have, that are considered ‘standard’ in this country. Today I read a list of 20 things that someone claims
(http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/01/18/top-20-things-most-dangerous-to-children/) are most dangerous for your children:

子供にとって危険なものトップ20
1. Mercury fillings 銀歯・水銀
2.Vaccinesワクチン
3.Hot dogsホットドッグ
4. Antibacteri soap抗菌ソープ
5.ADHD drugs ＡＤＨＤの薬～アンフェタミンの類
6. Sports drinksスポーツドリンク
7. Cough syrup and over-the-counter medicinesせきどめシロップと処方箋なしで買える薬
8. Sunscreen日焼け止め
9. Fluoride in the water飲料水中フッ化物
10. Processed milk加工乳
11. Fast foodファスト　フード
12. Antidepressant drugs抗鬱薬・抗鬱剤
13. Chemical laundry detergents化学的な洗濯洗剤
14. Flame retardant chemicals難燃剤系の化学物質
15. Soda炭酸
16. Air freshenersエアフレッシュナー
17. Synthetic vitamins総合ビタミン剤
18. Dryer sheets乾燥機用シート・柔軟剤
19. Baconベーコン
20. Shampoo and bath productsシャンプーと入浴用用品

I would say that even more dangerous than all these things is never even thinking of questioning them. (we could add ‘nuclear power’ to that list…)

I was relieved to see that the majority of the things on this list we never use. This came as a natural result of questioning whether or not something is really needed for good health or happiness or in looking after our beautiful planet. And our minimal income helps us resist these temptations!

It seems to start from a way of thinking; ‘what is most important for life to continue?’ and then goes on to the choices we make everyday about the way we live. But there is subtle pressure everyday from society in general about obediently following what the television says is important; things like smelling like a popular perfume brand, new, fashionable clothes, big new flat screens, cars and houses.

Many of us know how hard it is when our children are teased or excluded because they are not following these consumer trends. It is a constant struggle because we still live in mainstream society - but so far it seems we are going ok. Our lifestyle gives us the freedom, time and energy to get good at things like surfing, dancing, singing and horse-riding which are regarded by mainstream society as pretty ‘cool’. And we still have time to study for school – but perhaps we have more understanding of the reason and context for accumulating knowledge.

Probably, among the many things we don’t have, our lack of a flushing toilet is the most confronting to visitors. It seems to be some kind of measurement of human ‘development’ – to see how far away we can flush our own waste so we never have to face it. Two years after building it, our homemade composting toilet is working well (even without an exhaust fan – until I find another thrown away computer where I can extract the 12 volt cooling fan from inside). I’ve emptied the composted material a few times now and planted fruit trees on it.

We’re far from perfect, and we face challenges everyday about ‘fitting in’, but so far it seems that the things we have ‘deprived’ ourselves of have actually made us healthier, stronger and happier. Perhaps the greatest hope is that ‘one planet’ lifestyles like ours are attractive enough for others to willingly follow…

Atelier non electric

Yani and I made a solar oven to cook our beans in the winter sun. It took about 20 minutes to make. So very simple, so very easy and so very cheap - a (recycled) cardboard box, some aluminium foil, paper glue and a piece of glass to cover it. We left it in the sun for a few hours and then the hard kidney beans were almost ready.