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What A Stingray Had To Remind Me
Today is Wahine Wednesday. The 35th Wednesday on our road to 52. And, ya know, sometimes things just don’t go as planned. On the way to my plan of surfing this 35th Wednesday, I was stung by a stingray. An occupational hazard when you are a surfer. Tiare had actually been stung on Monday. How…
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Love To Calm A Stormy Sea
Four months ago we organized a small paddle out. The first one I’ve been involved in. A ‘Paddle Out’ is a memorial to honor friends and loved ones that have died. A way for surfers to pay tribute to people they have lost. Everyone paddles out beyond the breakwater where the seas are calm. They…
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Weekly Writing Challenge: Moved By Music
THIS IS YOUR LIFE – ARE YOU WHO YOU WANT TO BE? This writing challenge asks us to look deeper into songs, artists, albums or lyrics that speak to us. That inspire us. That represent us. I have chosen Switchfoot. A band that symbolizes my quest for growth and depth in my life. Whose lyrics…
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“Love would never leave us alone.” Bob Marley
Today in the water was a Bob Marley kind of day. It was a beautiful day with bright warm sun and small gentle waves. The conversation with Candace came easy. I feel surfing and reggae are connected somehow. Maybe it is the prevailing message of peace and harmony that both can bring. Maybe it’s…
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First-The Beginnings of a Surfer
Beginnings….. Like a rose bud that is sheltered from the elements having yet to completely unfurl and experience the warmth of the sun, the first time surfer is just beginning on an amazing journey that comes with riding a surfboard. They have no idea the exhilaration that is about to greet them as they…
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Paddling Into The Fog
Trying something new outside our comfort zone, can make us feel like we are headed into the fog, not sure where we are going.
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The Importance of Slowing Down
Surfing is all about where your mind is. To surf, your mind definitely has to be in the game. Today, I am not sure where my mind was. It was distracted, not concentrating on the task at hand. Wait . . . I take that back. I know exactly where it was. It was…
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Addicted to Surfing
When I first started surfing, I quickly became stoked. This surf stoke turned into a surf addition. Stoked is a word surfers use to express their enthusiasm for surfing. Stoke is synonymous with joy. The slang version of the word stoke(d) is: exhilarated; excited; intoxicated or stupefied as with a drug; high Just as with a…
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Stoke Is A Verb
Surfers use the word stoke a lot. “I was so stoked yesterday, the waves were firing.” They use stoke in place of happy, joy or fun. They use it to describe the way surfing makes them feel. However, a traditional English dictionary version of the word stoke is: To stir up and feed a fire; To tend a…