A Trip to the Beach: July 2012

Friday, July 27, 2012

Shannon Shoots More Surfing Videos

Some more recent surfing videos. Surf has been so consistent that I'm in physical pain from muscle exhaustion.

Brockies gets good sometimes: http://youtu.be/TbH2okWb890

Speedy Fun: http://youtu.be/Bjy9AyjXsCk

$40 Yard Sale Surfboard Goes Left: http://youtu.be/fp68IPdFeX8

Yard Sale Board on Big Soft Brockies: http://youtu.be/BWl7enj_DYs

Lazy Lennox Head Photos

Duct tape is essential for travel. This is how
I prepare for every surf session.

Our living room one sunny day this week.

Took Shannon to Quattro for Margherita Pizza
and Bolognese Pasta for her birthday.
World's largest real wood surfboard fin?

This is where we use the Internet and get books. Great place.
It wasn't hear on my last trip in 2009.

Surf has been very good lately. I'm exhausted, but in a good way.

Look out for those rocks!

Do you remember the joys of dandelion seeds?

And home made forts?

Pandanus Trees

Thunderstorm over Lennox Head

Monday, July 23, 2012

One of the goals of this trip has been to make life much simpler for a time and to see how we'd find a more basic way of living. Interestingly, I think Shannon will agree that Costa Rica was most relaxing, followed by Australia, and finally San Clemente. Beachfront accomodation in California and Australia tends to come with large televisions and DVD players, plus easy access to shopping and grocers. In Costa Rica we had only the Internet. In San Clemente, we had access to TV, Internet, Trader Joes, and an automobile.

In all cases we've had:
- no electricity or gas bills
- no daycare bills
- no car payments
- no health club payments
- no Internet or TV bills
- no meetings, appointments, or deadlines

Plus, we had
-lots of time with the kids
-lots of time for exercise
-plenty of sleep and napping
-a wide variety of healthful home made meals
-the nearly constant sounds of the sea and the songs of birds

Each day was spent in walking to town and the grocery, planning dinner and lunch, recreation (surfing, jogging, playgrounds, tickling the kids), email, library, and, in some cases, TV or a rented DVD.

This has all been brilliant and relaxing, but most so when, ironically enough, our TV, transportation, and entertainment options were limited. Of course, the more beautiful and placid the location, the better as well. A rental car gives us more shopping options but then creates more of a shopping chore. Creating simple rice, bean, and chicken dishes and washing it down with bargain-basement cask wine after hiking through the forest to the tiny grocer in Costa Rica was easily more pleasurable than driving twenty or thirty minutes round-trip to the big Coles in Yamba. Reading paperback novels and reviewing the daily news on the Internet in Costa Rica was more relaxing than tuning in to PBS or Once Upon A Time.

The real trick, I think, is to voluntarily limit one's options when living in the consumer and entertainment carnival of urban America. I find it interesting that the peak year of happiness for the American public was 1957. By then we had just about everything we needed. Ever since we mostly got more stuff, more choices, bigger homes, yet no more satisfied with our lives. There's no doubt I've become more relaxed and satisfied after years of discarding all junk mail and all Sunday newspaper advertisements sight unseen. Moreover, limiting my exposure to shopping malls has helped as well. I'm now strongly of the opinion that I need no one else to tell me what I need, least of all a transnational corporation or major retailer. I know when I need a new sweater or jeans or cookware, for example, and I'll get those things and nothing else, often via the Internet, when I need them. Another thing I now realize and this trip only reinforced is that a big, sunny deck is more important than an extra room or a larger house (I sit in the sun facing the sea on the porch as I write this; Catalina is playing in the mud in the yard).

We've lived very comfortably here, right on the ocean, in furnished luxury holiday accomodation for three months for about $10,000 including all food, transport, and recreation. If we were in longer term rentals, back from the sea a few blocks, it would cost much less. If we owned an old car, instead of renting from time to time, we'd save more. In short, I've no doubt a couple could retire to this area and live very comfortably on an after-tax income of about $35-$40k. Remember that basic health care is free here and supplemental health insurance very inexpensive. Annual rent on a 3bd house: $19,000. Food (including eating out) for the year: $10,000. Supplemental health insurance: $80 per person per month or $1920 per couple per year. Used car expenses: $4000 a year.

That's it. What else does one need really? Food, housing, transport, snd and health care covers the basics.

So now I just need to save about $400,000 so that the investment income combined with a small CalSTRS pension make it possible to spend half the year here and half in the States, with an occassional month in Costa Rica. ;-)

One can dream.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Another Blogger Lennox Video

Here I get a bigger, faster right, but should have surfed it more vertically. Oh well. The surf was too much from the south and the faces weren't as bowly as the day before. It was still tons of fun, though.

Lennox Surf Video

Yep, that's Catalina you hear screaming. I was just a few feet off the rocks where they were sitting.

Planet America!

We need this show in the U.S. Check it out. You can watch it online:

Planet America http://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/planet-america/

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Great Waves Lately!

Yesterday morning I got two of the best waves of my life (out of a total of about 10 good rides). One macker elicited hoots from fellow surfers and included three big roundhouse turns off the top. On the other I got in super deep and put the brakes on. Came so close to being fully shacked, but also came super close to being pitched onto those gnarly rocks. Got a long ride after being blasted out of that hollow section. I can't do a proper floater to save my life or it would have been even longer.

I continue to be amazed at how easy Lennox Point is to surf, even when it's as big as 6 or 7 ft. Most of the crowds are smallish, except on weekends, and the vast majority of locals are mellow. There's rarely a nasty current. I've only been dropped in on once this week. It really is surfing heaven, especially now that I've got enough wetsuit! We've just booked on final week in this same awesome apartment so there's no more travel for us, save the drive to the Brissie airport and a night in an expensive Novotel.

Today wasn't nearly as good, but Shannon and the kids showed up to snap some photos. I surfed pretty badly today but there are a couple of videos below anyway. Too bad she wasn't out there yesterday. I really was ripping.

Happy Children!

Shannon shot this from the living room!

Man! It was good yesterday.

They are silly.

That's me on the right on a small wave this morning.

I could have ridden some of these waves better, but it's still fun (and educational) to watch the videos and, yes, that's Catalina you here yelling on that one little wave. I was just about five or ten feet off the rocks where they were sitting. So fun. Unfortunately those same rocks sliced right through my best leash today, ending my session and sending me off to get a new one. The barnacles really are as sharp as razors.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Oz Stuff I Will Miss

When we head home in a month, I'll be excited to get back to friends, family, heat, and Trader Joes, but there's some Aussie stuff I'll be sad to leave behind:

- truth in pricing. If a product is marked $10 then, by golly, it'll cost you $10 at the counter and not a pence more. This includes alcohol, candy, restaurant food, everything. Taxes and tips are always included.
- Planet America. This Australian TV show does a better job of covering US news and politics than any homegrown show. It's irreverant, funny, and educational. Maybe I can download it?
- free propane grills in nearly every public park. Haven't even used one, but I still love 'em.
- birds and so much birdsong
- warm ocean water, filled with fishes
- dominant offshore breezes and glassy waves.
- reef breaks
- chicken curry pies
- children's TV programming with no commercials, 24 hours a day
- spending all day with my wife and children
- good, cheap muesli
- protected headland and beach parks everywhere, all with easy public access
- Larson's Traditional Bread, Settler's Grain. It tastes like good home made bread.