For the love of long boarding...

Home is where the waves are....

 

  

Morocco chewed us up and spat us out again- thus was our surf trip to Tagazhout. Of the 5 days I planned, three were dedicated to throwing up and not being able to leave my bed. When I wasn't sick other surfers were, so my trip passed like time spent in respite, a kind of blur. Thankfully those sick days were studded with moments of wonder - a dawnie surf and on the last day the sunset surf I experienced with my girls (minus a few fallen), where I began my everlasting love affair with long boarding. Long boarding and I are the real deal, we're for life. Everyone knew before I did that I was a long boarder. I thought I could swerve and slice the wave like a short boarder but turns out I'm more mellow than that. 

So I guess I'll leave the swerving and slicing for my time outside the water and stick to being a long boarder serene and steady in the water. Discovering long boarding feels as natural as I imagine coming out of the closet does after years of denying the real you. Even though I still make wipeouts look like an Olympic sport using a long board made me feel like I was skating on the water, or as close to being a Hawaiian princess as this Brummie girl will ever get! 

The sea can sometimes feel like a bad boyfriend (especially when you stand on scorpion fish) but I always come back to it, its an enduring love I guess. 

Until next time, 

Stay strong, surf well

Love

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN COURTESY OF JEMIMA STUBBS PHOTOGRAPHY.

YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HER WORK HERE. 

Hobos & Surf bums.

This is Rose Swarts, she's being traveling the world for the last 11 years and has done so with a very small amount of money, sometimes non at all. You can read her incredible philosophy on life here on The Happy Hobos Travel Blog.

I started traveling when I was 17, I booked a ticket to Croatia where I lived on a tiny Island called Cres working on a vulture project as a conservation volunteer. I was homesick, cried a lot and didn't speak any of the language. Gradually though I began to take long hikes by myself up into the mountains and found trees to meditate under. When I realized I had the strength to not only overcome homesickness but thrive off it I started a life long love affair with throwing myself out of my comfort zone and into new environments.

Since then I've worked in Slovakia, taught yoga on the beach in Senegal, been a humanitarian in Ethiopia and surfed in South Africa.  Nearly every single one of these trips has had some kind of disaster (being dropped off on the wrong side of the Island, losing my bank card, being robbed at gun point to name a few), but every single one of these experiences has taught me something about myself and cultivated an inner strength I never knew I had. 

This year my traveling takes on a new dimension, I'll be traveling for pleasure instead of pilgrimage, in search of waves that will make my surfer heart beat with joy. I'll be going with friends and for the first time ever with the man I love. Soon I'll be going to Morocco and in May Costa Rica, the thought of surfing warm water waves after years of my beloved ice cold north sea seems a luxury beyond belief. I'm broke as hell to afford these trips and sometimes I feel the pressure of being in my late twenties without having a mortgage or any real responsibility but then I see my suitcase by the door and suddenly I don't feel so bad...

I wonder what I'll learn on these trips? 

Until next time, 
Stay strong and surf well 
Love