A couple of Dreamers …

Never let it be said that to dream is a waste of ones time, dreams are our realities in waiting, in dreams, we plant the seeds of our future.

Two days back in work after our trip to Newquay and the withdrawal symptoms are kicking in, the sighing is getting heavier and the dreaming gets bigger.

How can you fall in love with something so simple?

Just you, your board and the Ocean is all it takes.

Surfing opens your eyes and heart to a whole new meaning of life, you appreciate everything a hundred times more than ever before.

We don’t particularly like to use the term ‘sport’ to describe surfing as it is much more than that. To be given the chance to take something as basic as your surfboard and paddle out into the ocean is more of a blessing than anything else. Surfing is about enjoying yourself and being happy. The best days are the ones where you get up for breakfast with a couple of friends, put on your wetsuit and surf. No agenda, no rules, no games, just surfing.

Waiting out back is such a relaxing feeling, the waves undulate beneath you, the sun gently kisses your skin and the salt effortlessly curls your hair. It makes you feel so alive.

The surfing community is built up of inspiring, friendly and beautiful people. You meet people who genuinely want to help you, who want to share their knowledge and stories and who want to see you succeed. If you need a spare wetsuit – no problem, you need to lend a board – here have mine, if you need reassurance and advice – just look for the nearest person to you. I swear we’ve met more people out in the Ocean than we have on land, you say hey to the fellow paddler across the way, give the guy ripping a wave a quick shaka and throw your arms up in joy when your homie wipes out big style.

Whilst we were in Newquay, a friend said to me how he admired our determination to succeed with surfing and our plans to live self sufficiently on the road. His comment made me very proud of ourselves and made me realise that our journey could one day inspire someone else to do the same. It was also really cool to hear someone tell us were doing a good job instead of laughing and passing us by. It’s those people who you will never forget, the ones that helped you and believed in you from the start.

Don’t get us wrong, we have an amazing group of friends at home, our road trips and adventures with them take some serious beating. It’s just that we feel so lucky to be creating so many wonderful friendship groups, not just here in the UK but all over the world, instead of losing so many friends to work, early marriages and kids -like so many people our age complain of!

Surfing helps you understand what you are afraid of – is it really rational?

Paddling out into 15ft plus waves that aren’t going to take any mercy upon anyone makes you rationalise a few things.

It’s easy to become afraid of the waves and give up.  The ocean is a power full force that any smart person should fear as it can be dangerous, but if you begin to understand it you soon realise it’s like a person and has a personality that has to be respected as well as enjoy its magnificence.

Take your fears back to basics and tackle them step by step – or in our case, wave by wave. You didn’t succeed at the first step? Fine, do it again. These things are sent to try us and if you don’t put them into perspective and deal with them then they will defeat you.

People will try and tell us that we literally are a couple of dreamers with no sense of reality, but actually, we are the ones with a sense of reality. We’re not afraid to work hard, actually this is all we know but we don’t want life to just pass us by!

To live is real, to feel alive is real, to experience the world is real. Clock watching at a job you just have because it’s convenient isn’t real, walking round with your heads buried in mobile phones ignoring each other isn’t real, watching T.V and believing what the media tells you isn’t real. Well I guess I could be wrong with that statement but it can only be true for those who believe there is no alternative.

DONT BE AFRAID TO BREAK THE MOULD AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF !!!!

This quote from Nelson Mandela really puts our passion and determination into perspective:

” I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid but he who conquers it.

Love H&K

Good Night

x

Newquay Daze

Aloha!

Happy Friday beautiful people!

Ok so since starting the blog only 3 days ago we have had a very exciting offer – we can’t say much yet but it’s a fab stepping stone for us 🙂 We will post more info about it over the weekend so keep coming back!

Anyway, were currently en route to Newquay for the 5th time this winter, so seeing as I’m in the passenger seat I thought I’d tell you about some of our previous trips!

We first came down for Boardmasters in August last year with a big group of friends, we had an absolute blast and caused chaos on the campsite. I don’t know if any of you have heard of the game “flunky ball”? Well if not then I suggest you get researching – it’s probably the best drinking game for big groups and causes some serious belly laughs!

We mostly spent the weekend surfing Fistral which was a dream as the weather was glorious! You just can’t beat surfing in a bikini! We also pottered about town checking out all the shops (which rock) and trying terribly hard not to buy everything in sight! I think our will power was tested most in The Watershed  – this shop is the definition of cool surf chic. The staff will win you over in an instant and the resident pooch is pretty cute too.

We made a couple of friends from Newquay over the Boardmasters weekend which was great – they have helped us with our surfing loads over the months and kitted us out pretty good too! It’s such a beautiful place filled with great people.

A couple of months passed and we were itching for surf release. We decided to head back down there for Halloween. We met up with some dear friends from Feral Surf and partied like animals. It was a great night and you might think that ending it with a kebab is satisfactory? Well it’s not for us – we decided the night was never going to be complete unless we stripped off and got in the sea. We managed to rope a few locals in with us too! To nobody’s suprise it was freezing cold but utterly hilarious. A few handbags and shoes were left on the rocks but realisation of this soon kicked in when the tide started to creep in! All were rescued in the knick of time! Phew!!

The rest of the weekend was a lot tamer, we mainly chilled out and got some good practice in!
November and New Years Eve were the third and fourth trip to our beloved Newquay. November was pretty tame – we mainly surfed and relaxed. One great night out in the Red Lion topped it off for us. Katy and I are like two performing monkeys on the dance floor – we used to go adults gymnastics class so you can imagine the daft tricks we’ve learnt! (Said daft tricks always rip up the D.floor!!)

NYE was brilliant – this time we had 2 other friends with us! As I’m sure most know, Newquay is well known for fancy dress on NYE. We all decided on Ninja outfits which went down a treat! Most people the next day were asking us if we’d seen 4 sneaky ninjas lurking about town haha.

We started January 1st with a great surf which set us on our way for the rest of the year 🙂

Saturday 3rd Jan – I (Holly) knocked half my front tooth out! I’m going to write a short story about this later as I believe there is some skill involved! That or I’m terribly unlucky haha.

We’ve just hit the dreaded A30 Bodmin road so I’m going to rap this up and get back to tide checking duties! Apparently it is going to be big big surf this weekend – hopefully I won’t lose anymore teeth!

Have a lovely Friday \m/

Kolly and Haty xXx

Beached Artisans

Lets introduce ourselves:

Katy Griffin, 29 and originally from Derbyshire, UK!

Holly Mather, 26 from Chester, UK! (way better than Derbyshire)…as if!!!

Or you can call us Kolly and Haty!

Instagram: BeachedArtisans

The pair of us became friends almost 2 years ago through Rowing, it was totally wanderlust at first sight! It’s safe to say that we had both been floating about life not really knowing what we wanted, until that glorious day on the river. (I say glorious in terms of the weather – the exercise not so much). We began hanging out loads and taking random trips most weekends to wherever the beast (Katy’s car) would take us. 1 year down the line Katy decides to book a Surf holiday in France for a week – at first I was dubious as I had never surfed but it only took about 30 seconds of her convincing and I was well up for it. I could write a book on how amazing that trip was but for now I’ll let you use your imagination. The Surf Camp was called Feral Surf Tours – if you’re thinking of going on a surf trip then we highly recommend it! It has everything you could need and more! The waves are non stop and the stretch of coast goes for miles and miles! And the Sunset’ are to die for!

Feral basically changed our whole outlook on life – coming home was probably one of the hardest things we’d ever done! I could not stop crying (wimp). At the point we were about to board the plane home, we both knew that everything was going to change from then on. We began planning all our trips to finish summer ’15 off, we even booked to stay in Newquay every month of the winter season! We had been bitten so outrageously hard by the surf bug and boy were we absolutely buzzing about it! As the King of surfing Kelly Slater once said “Surfing Is like the Mafia, once your in, your in, there’s no getting out”. Those words couldn’t be more true even if Jesus spoke them himself!

The hunt for a Van to haul us from country to country began – easier said than done, but if you know what your looking for and have a good knowledge of mechanics you should be fine! OR – you have and awesome Padre who owns the Holy Grail for every vehicle known to man. After looking through the whole of eBay and all the other second hand sites, my Dad came to his senses and said “why don’t you just have my van” … I would like to take this moment to say that this had been my idea since July 2015, but because my dad is obviously male, it took him 7 months to process this thought – thus thinking it was his idea BUT who am I to tell him otherwise after he has saved us a whole load of cash and hassle! All we need to do now is get it through an MOT and transform it into a home away from home.

 So our trusty steed (who has been sat immobile for a good year) is about to be brought back to life and he is going to be better than ever. His name will more than likely be Big Bruce if Katy gets her way – the reason for this is primarily so she can greet him in an Aussie accent every morning (I gotta say I’m pretty stoked about that too).

So as from today 26th January we have around 4 months and 2 weeks until take off! I handed my notice in at work yesterday which was such a liberating feeling. This is the first time I’ve ever taken a big step towards shaping my future (although most normal people would say that quitting your job and security to go live in a van for the foreseeable isn’t a wise choice, however, I like to think (and Katy also thinks) that it is the best choice I could have made). Life always works out if you want something hard enough.

Katy actually has a very good job (Community Psychiatric Nurse), but she also craves something a lot more meaningful and valuable – that something being the freedom to live a life you will remember. Some say I have a good job as a purchasing assistant but in reality I spend my days sat in an office with no windows dreaming about a better life (and surfing)!

It’s actually really crazy that so many of our friends envy what we are about to do, yet they would never take the risk to experience everything the world has to offer. How so many people conform to society and its stereotypical ideas is beyond me. There are over 9 billion of us on this planet and only a very small percentage break the mould. There is more to life than mortgages and working 9-5, spending most of your days staring at the four walls of your sitting room, your fancy car, your swish iPhone and expensive shoes.

Our plan is to become self sufficient so we can work anywhere we want, whenever we want!

During our travels we will be making and selling jewellery, clothing and surfboard socks!

Katy is a trained Silversmith and I am becoming quite handy with a sewing machine! Its crazy what you can learn in a short space of time – where there is a will there is a way!

We hope the word of our journey spreads and you all can enjoy it as much as we will!

Good Night and Stay Rad hombres!

Kolly and Haty xXx