The Surf Yogini: Aropa

A friend recently asked what I deemed femininity to be and in all honesty the question perplexed me.

The 21st century woman is much like a Swiss army knife in that she is multi-faceted and expected to solve all your problems. Meredith Brooks best coined our conundrum with the lyrics

'I'm a bitch I'm a lover, I'm a child I'm a mother, I'm a sinner and a Saint...'

You see women don't really know what we are anymore.

In surfing their are two distinct tribes of surfer girl; the charger and the bikini.

The charger dominates the waves with masculine energy, she is one of the boys and plays down her femininity in order to be taken seriously. The latter on the other hand emphasises her sex appeal and uses the advantages of her physiology to get what she wants i.e. waves, endorsements, sponsorships. She is not however outlandishly provocative she is merely aware of her assets and plays up these attributes.

Real women have surfboards.

Real women have curves and surfboards has always been about Marge Calhoun the housewife and mother who learnt to surf and won a world title. That being said my good friend Rosie highlighted that this statement may exclude women who do not in fact posses curves. An hour glass figure does not define a woman which is why for my t-shirt business I'm having a rethink.

Admittedly I'm attached to this name, its like a house plant I affectionately water and certainly as a curvaceous woman myself the title resonates. My aim however with my business and ethos is to empower which is precisely why I'm back to the drawing board.

Aropa.

Aropa means love and compassion for your fellow human being, its a word which has importance in the Anuta tribe who live on an isolated island in the South Pacific. If I'm having a grey skies kind of day, I reach for my Bruce Parry 'Tribe' box set and pop on series 3, episode 4 - The Anuta.

The Anuta people fill my heart with sunshine and have made me ponder whether 'Aropa' is in fact the name of my business.

What do you think?

The delectable Bruce Parry with the Anuta people courtesy of theguardian online (Sept 2010)

Bristol with the man fellow.

You know what I love most about the UK? The fact that you can drive from one side to the other in under 24 hours. Despite our lamentations we actually have good public transport which is why Antonio and I found ourselves merrily travelling 2 hours down the motorway for a day trip to Bristol city.

Ant is not only drop dead gorgeous, talented and hard working he's also a really great guide, give him five minutes and he'll have a city sussed out in no time. He's great in developing my creativity and since being with him I've enjoyed dipping into the arts world by gallery visiting and attending strange but wonderful events his friends tend to host.

Despite my hogging of the camera Ant has published very few pictures of himself (or us together for that matter) so I apologise that these mostly contain my ugly mug.

World please tell Antonio that he is beautiful and people like to see him in photos even when he poses!