Good People

The morning cracked through my window and the voices of the room came alive like birds. The alarm clock going off at 8:00 AM a few minutes after I had awaken. Sunday morning preparations to go surfing were underway in a casual laid back manner. The backpack is filled with towels, beverages, cameras and is thrown into the surf mobile, along with hostel people and smelly wetsuits. Driving down the hill toward Bondi beach seeing the waves coming and summer like crowds blanketing the beach puts smiles on our faces. There is no worries and only one thing on our minds: surfing. After the hours of the day and our arm strength we go back to the Ford Falcon and begin packing up. I begin changing out of my wetsuit because if I didn't who ever sits next to me would get soaked. At this point I'm naked and hiding myself from the people walking by in the streets with my towel. The engine starts up and I'm the last to be in the car, I panic at the thought of wasted petrol on the behalf of my changing. I quickly throw all my clothes in the back of the car, jump in and fasten my seat belt, away we go. Up the hill the sun pierces our eyes and the front passenger flicks down the visor and it reads Eike (pronounced I-Kuh) the kitchen hand because he is a fully qualified chef this is demeaning. Our favorite before and after surf songs are playing I am ready to close my eyes and have a short nap. Eike's mobile phone rings and he scrambles around like a fish out of water looking for ( a good dance move was inspired by this) he answers and half excitedly, half nervously points at me. I hear him say " yeah, a black backpack with cameras in it, yeah that would be ours," when he is saying this a million disheartened negative thoughts for through my mind and begins spilling out my mouth. Eike hangs up the phone looks back at me and says "you are the luckiest fucking guy ever! This is actually beyond luck,"
"some guy found the back pack and some how called me and now we meet him at Bondi Beach Road Hotel in 20 minutes."



Earlier on during my Australian travels I had my laptop stolen from me and I wanted very badly to make something like this never happen again. When Eike said these words I knew I messed up, made a mistake, I failed. Although a camera is just a device it holds a mountain of intrinsic value, memories. Being at the stage of my life where I'm transfering from a boy to a man I couldn't help but ask myself, what would my old man say? People in the car began talking,
saying things like " if it was me I'm not so sure I would call," and I just sat there feeling lucky but idiotic fool. I think that all the good things I've done in life have come down to this moment. When I met up with these angels of strangers the only thing I could offer is my honest thanks, a hand shake and to buy them a beer; he refused the beer and said he had to go home to the wife. All the terrible things that go on everyday on this planet genuine good people are hidden like gems. I didn't have much to return to this guy but what he gave back to me was incredible. Waking up some days might seem amazing or awful but knowing that there are really good people out there gives a positive boost. I was boyond lucky this day, was it fate? Or was it dumb luck? And that is something I will never know. Thank you kind stranger and all the good people out there, where ever you are and what ever you're doing.

In The Moment

The days are finally winding down to when I have to hop on that plane and fly back to the reality I once lived. The fresh wet cold Canadian autumn with the rain falling and the brown leaves crowding together re-decorating the once green plush forrest. Sometimes it's hard not to be a little nervous to head back home for all kinds of reasons but the main one is this: once you leave the doors of highschool with the cap and gown time has it's way of flying by. Looking back on all of the crazy shit and crazy friends I've made here puts a smile on my face from ear to ear. Here is the hard part, there is a saying that everybody hears from all over the world I imagine "time flies when your having fun," all of the new people that came into my life with no cash in hand but most likey some sort of alcoholic beverage in their hand have made months feel like weeks. Don't get me wrong the partying is fun but that's not the most important part, the day to day life we all live day in and day out. The conversations, the moments and all the learning from each other. For the first few months of backpacking you feel like on top of the world constantly meeting new people, good food and party and party party until the early hours of the next day. Eventually the funds run low and then that's when the real fun begins I think. One thing that makes things easier is when some people around you are going through the same thing, it almost seems like a slap in the face, holy shit man this is crazy but so ridiculous you just have to share a laugh. I've learned a lot about life and myself but this is probably, at the moment, the most important quote I've learned let me hit you with it hard, right from the eyes straight to the brain. "Surfing is not a matter of life or death, it's more important than that. NO matter how low the low was or how fucking broke I was I could always get my board and paddle out the waiting line to wait for that perfect wave to come towards me and then once I stand up and get pushed forward riding it out until it breaks forcing me to fall in the water. The very moment lets me feel free, no worries mate, this is something that makes me live in the moment for once. This is important because most of the time I spend my time worrying about the future or having the "oh well if I did this" thoughts of the past. Fund run and money is just money. In order to keep surfing and other important things like food and accomodation I needed a job. I got a job working in a warehouse it pays well but sometimes it feels like going to my business hours service of prison where I just blank out my mind out doing some monotonous mind numbing tasks for 9 and a half hours. So many thoughts run through my mind when I'm taping boxs and bags over them. It's coming to the end of Australia for me (for now...........possibly) and time is for a lack of better words in my mind fucked up. What will I do when I go back home and be completly surrounded by Canadians, no more 8 bed dorms and foreign dialogue heard on a daily basis. Looking up and having one of those moments of missing something before it's even gone. Going home, coming home which one to say I'm not sure. Sometimes the skies are grey dark and filled with mystery and at other times sunny but each day brings a new adventure. Let's get out there and just simply enjoy the now, it's different for everybody but one thing I will never forget is sitting on my surf board in the water with my new friends from all over the world talking bullshit. Letting me escape the thoughts of everything and enjoying every second of the now and having pure healthy fun. If you a man I would suggest growing a handle bar mustache just for kicks. Have a good day and honestly truly enjoy yourself today as best as you can. If it's possible I will see you soon and strike up conversation completly trash talk bullshit. :)

-Johnny