From the category archives:

The Swim

Protective arms

December 16, 2009

I’ve been back from my world tour for over two months now and I find I only want to stay nestled in the wind grove of trees that surround my home. So much so, that I have yet to go into the water at Roaring Beach, nor even venture down to the beach except for [...]

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Wanting to Mingle

February 7, 2007

Laurie Duesing has a line in a poem that reads: Now I am rapt and looking for the still point between earth and air.
There is also the line: I want to drive spirit into flesh, a desire often confused with sex.
To me, living at Windgrove is an excercise in doing what Duesing writes about. Whether [...]

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What’s next?

January 30, 2006

Last week I celebrated the 10th year of my becoming an Australian citizen (Australia Day 1996).
Yesterday morning, I also celebrated reaching the end of a huge undertaking to learn what I could about my new country (or, at least, the tiny portion of it called Roaring Beach). With a group of friends gathered at [...]

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Three years and counting

October 6, 2005

For three years, the waters of Roaring Beach have been my daily companion. For three years, I have immersed myself into her various moods and, only once, when the waters were a maelstrom of madness, was there a symbolic ritualistic swim; where the water was simply scooped up and splashed unto my face as the [...]

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One thousand plus five

June 30, 2005

Some days just don’t go according to plan.
When I awoke yesterday morning, my schedule had me leaving around noon for the drive to Hobart for a series of appointments, culminating in my giving, that evening, the opening speech at an exhibition of paintings by Faridah Cameron (her ‘Rock Pool Starry Night’ is shown).
Instead of feeling [...]

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A time to sit

June 2, 2005

At the end of this month, June, I will have reached the 1000th Day in surfing daily at Roaring Beach.

Last Saturday, as I huddled next to a disintegrating sand dune while gale forced winds tried to rip the boogie board from the clinch of my arms and breaking offshore 28 ft/8 meter swells were altering [...]

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Big day out

January 20, 2005

Two days ago I had written to a friend:
“Just came out of the water. Love being constantly humbled by the waves, constantly being thrilled. I will sorely miss this human existence.”
Little did I expect that this human existence could have ended earlier than planned as today the surf got me. I was definitely [...]

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Same hands

November 19, 2004

Sorry about the late entry this week, but today is the first day that my fingers can type comfortably. If people have a sense of deja vu looking at today’s photo, they are correct in their assumption that they have seen those hands before.
Just over a year ago I wrote a [...]

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Two years

October 6, 2004

Today, October 6, is the day when, two years ago, I began to surf at Roaring Beach daily.
Not that everyday has seen the water as benign as in the photo. Nor has it always been easy to get into a wet suit when a southerly is howling or when I had the flu this [...]

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Half way

June 6, 2004

Six hundred and six days.
Somewhere in the middle of last week, bobbing alone amongst the waves, I passed the half way mark of “The Swim”. Whether seen as a ritualistic milestone or a ritual turned mill stone around my neck, there is an element of satisfaction for having stuck with it so far.
Half [...]

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