Life on the Gold Coast Pt. VII

Part VII.

Epilogue:

Time is Up

As epic as that previous week was, it was the beginning of the end. 

We got a couple more swells, and I spent more than a handful of days doing nothing but inhaling food, sleeping, and surfing.  But deep down, I knew something was changing.  After a two week run of perfection, things started to slow down again. 

Eventually, a hurricane hit in late March, flooding parts of Queensland and NSW.  With it came the cold.  The ocean became yellow and brown due to the runoff from the hurricane and water visibility dropped to nothing.  The water got so cold I had to take my wetsuit out again. 

During this time, I also saw my girlfriend for the last time.  Surfing had allowed me to distract myself from the reality of the situation, but as the swell dropped and the cold hit, it slowly dawned on me that I wasn’t ever going to see her again. 

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Indo teasers.  Basically this was blowing up my Insta feed during my last weeks in Oz.  I ended up taking this photo a month later in Indo.  A little preview of what was to come...

During the last few weeks I had begun to see pictures surfacing from around various locations in Indo, teasing my Instagram feed with shots of perfect, empty waves.  The early season swells had begun to hit, and the crowds hadn’t caught on yet.  With the Superbank firing on all cylinders, my lust for waves was kept in check, but as the swell and the water temps dropped, the call to leave Oz for Indo became inescapable.  My Visa was running out as well, and I was going to have to leave the country to renew my Visa anyway, so the call to leave for Indo became unavoidable.  When two of my Slovenian roommates moved out of the house, I knew beyond a doubt that the time had come. 

The Indo quiver.  From left to right:  [The all arounder/pointbreak machine.  The fish.  The step-up/gun.  The go-to shortboard.] 

And so with a heavy heart, I packed my bags, sent off one last message to my now ex, and hopped on a plane bound for Kuala Lumpur, the first leg on my journey to Indo, – alone. 

To this day, I still can’t really put my finger on why we broke up.  As usual, I spent a lot of time trying to work out why.  I kept going over all of our conversations and texts with a fine toothed comb trying to find some shred of a clue, but the more I thought about it, the more complicated things became.  There were many possible answers, all valid, but the more I thought about it, the simple answer which she had given me when we last spoke was more than enough.  She just felt like she needed to be alone.  

The more and more that I think about it, the more and more that I respect her for it.   

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Prepped for Indo.  This lasted me about 3 weeks. 

I can’t really say much except that the woman who I had reconnected with on the Gold Coast was not the same woman I had met in the jungle.  Deep down, she was still in there somewhere, but her return to “the real world” had brought up some ghosts of her past, and she was in a place where she needed to take care of them on her own.  As much as I wished I could help her, I had been in her shoes once, and I knew that introspection is something that at times, needs to be undertaken alone. 

Thinking back on the whole situation though, I couldn’t even fault her for anything.  I’ve had messy breakups in the past, but this time, she stayed true to her word and we both peacefully went our separate ways.  I can’t thank her enough for that.   She was undoubtedly a special little human.  Without a doubt I will love that woman till the day that I die. 

And with that final loose end taken care of and nothing holding me back, I hopped on a plane and took off to Indo.  The adventure I had waited my whole life for was about to begin...  

And that concludes the Gold Coast chapter. If you're itching to find out what happens next, don't worry.... I don't know when I'll drop it, but you can look forward to the Indo chapters sometime in the near future. Until then, if you want a little sneak preview into what happened during my time in Indo, check this article .

Thanks for reading guys!  I really do appreciate the love and support.  Stay tuned for more soon!