I’m kinda getting the travel bug again. As if it’s not enough that I’m going to be spending the Winter in San Diego! The thing is, I get a little depressed when making changes – such as picking up and leaving. I’m going back to California on the 27th, and while I’m really excited about that I’m also sad to be leaving here. I mean, it’s kinda silly in a way because it’s just going to be getting colder, greyer, and more boring here as we stretch into the colder months. But still, that’s just the way I am. I’ve always been that way.
Anyway, my method of coping with the slight depression is to make plans and goals for things that I really want to do. Right now that means I’m thinking of some places I want to travel to.
One of my big goals is to surf the Mentawai’s in Indonesia. So recently I’ve been reading and browsing the Kandui surf resort website, drooling over the pictures and videos.
The waves range from user-friendly to advanced. I was looking at the different waves and it’s not like you have to surf deadly double overhead grinders into dry reef. Some of the waves just look like perfect, head high peelers in crystal clear blue water.
I’d love to go to Bali too. Last night I was talking to Katherine, and I had no idea she did so much traveling in that part of the world. She traveled and surfed in the early 90′s when she was my age, and she did it alone. She went to Australia and Bali and the Indonesian islands a bunch of times. I was so stoked to be talking to her, and it was so weird because I had just been thinking up all these crazy ideas about doing some traveling on my own.
I mean, I really would love to travel with friends, but life doesn’t always allow people to simply take off for two weeks and blow money on a surf trip. So, if I can’t latch on to some trips with people this year, then I might consider taking a trip on my own at some point. Maybe not Bali right away, but somewhere. Caribbean, Costa Rica, wherever. I also want to work on my surfing a bit more. I’ve made a lot of progress the past half year, so I’m stoked on that. If I’m going to these places I want to be able to surf and know that I know what I’m doing if I want to take on more challenging waves.
The thought of traveling right now is appealing because I want to live life and do as much as I can before I potentially settle down with a family or whatever. And there’s no rush for that. I really want to have a family, but right now I’m free as a bird and I want to take advantage. Plus, when you get older it’s harder to surf hard without fearing injury too much. That’s just a fact of life as you get older.
I want to take risks and have stories to tell. I don’t want to just live my life in a safe little bubble. Some of the people I respect most are those who get out there and experience the world. People who have crazy stories and misadventures in the far corners of the world. My favorite story to tell people now is about our trip to Mexico and how we had to search in the countryside to find the Ranch, this out of the way surf spot. It was 4 girls in the rental car, 4 boards stacked on the car, and our directions led us to this dirt road in the middle of the woods. I was freaking out, thinking of all sorts of scary scenarios – like getting killed by drug lords and nobody knowing for days. Anyway, the directions said “take the fork that looks more traveled.” So, every time we got to a fork we would sit there scratching our heads. “Which one looks more traveled??” Finally we made it out and into a clearing overlooking an absolutely beautiful point break in the middle of unspoiled wilderness. I mean, it is one of the experiences I will remember my entire life.
Anyway, that’s my plan so far. Nothing’s set in stone. I want to get to CA first and then see where I want to go from there. Gotta get back into surfing shape anyway since I have barely been surfing more than a handfull of times in the past month.