This is a little story about taking a chance on the "swell of the season." I'd much rather head out on a feral mission looking for a new waves throughout this very over-surfed archipelago rather than going to those well-trodden Indonesian wave areas.

However, due to the choices I have made, I write this while we are stuck in what feels like the middle of the Indian Ocean in howling tradewinds, with no chance of getting anywhere near the island we wanted to check out. The state of the ocean and the pre-mentioned swell is upon us. But how I got us into this predicament is a long story...

Well it’s been quite a rollercoaster lately what with all the award ceremonies, spending a few weeks in Mozambique and J-bay and then finally getting the call for one of the three Big Wave events on the 2009 calendar, namely the Quiksilver Ceremonial Chile.

I’ve decided to something a little different with this blog and to post my speeches from the XXL awards and the SA Surfing Awards a few weeks ago....It was a crazy time for me and often difficult to be accepting awards when I know there’s waves somewhere but as it turns out I had a great time doing them and occasions like these don’t come around as often as we like.

So I was heading to the USA for the XXL awards and my ticket was covered by Billabong so I decided to bring my trip forward by two weeks to catch what looked like a good run of swell for Tahiti as this could be the one occasion a South African could afford to travel there.

It’s been a while since my last blog but I’ve been to a few places lately that don’t have or have very slow internet access and it was good to just leave the World Wide Web behind and enjoy myself without having to worry about e-mail, swell forecasts and facebook.

So as it always happens the swells drop and the wind comes up and the amazing run of cyclone swell becomes just a distant memory, put away in the bank with all the other swells that have come before.

Home, it’s where the heart is and this week just reconfirmed why I love to live in Kwazulu – Natal. Besides the fact that my girlfriend was still mine, my house was still in one piece with nothing taken from it, my garden was growing like a dream and my dogs where as pleased as punch to see me.

So here I am, sitting in London International on a 12 hour stop over (they don’t let you out the airport anymore unless you have a visa thanks to some unscrupulous individuals who abused the immigration laws) on my way home after three months on the road and I finally got to watch the Zeitgeist movie and it made me think of what as a surfer I can do to help guide the perception of other individuals on what’s important in life.

And what is it that’s important?