Finding Moksha: These are the days!!

We had a little reminisce over the weekend, Heerey came to Palma for a few days so it was the perfect opportunity to remember the old days; especially considering there was a fleet of 20 or so 420's sailing just offshore from our rooftop perch.

I have known Heers since I was about 12 and ever since he has been pretty much my younger brother, so much so that his parents are my second parents and vice versa for him! Like all kids, my best memories of growing up was the school holidays. For me they consisted of going up to his home at Noosa and hanging with him until school went back. Our days would consist of waking before the sun, grabbing our boards and walking to the beach to hit the surf on sunrise, surf for 3 hours, walk home and cook pancakes. Once breakfast was done it would usually be a trudge down to the rivermouth where we would hang for a few hours waiting for the breeze to kick in. At the first signs of wind we would race back home grab our gear and windsurf until nightfall. On average we would usually walk around 10km a day, mostly barefoot and carrying some sort of surf craft, we would be in bed by 8pm and up by 4am everyday. If there was no surf, or no wind, we would find other ways of fun, paddling up rivers, swimming in places that you would think twice about now, or tree/cliff jumping.

Those were the days.

Sailing with him meant there would always be something different going on. Like the time in Adelaide where he had an ulcer on his eye, doing a full national championships with a blind skipper is interesting! I don't even want to mention the time we were winning a race at the World Championships only for him to fall out of the boat on the final downwind. But all in all, thinking back whilst we overlooked these boats on Saturday afternoon, it was a pretty good thing we had going. We went against the grain with a few things and it worked out, we trusted each others decisions on the water and no matter how good or bad things went we would always be best mates by the time we got ashore.

Those were the days.

So after our rooftop beers we went to a little bar where I ran into a good mate in the form of Ben. Who, if you ever want a good night, he is the man to look for. Fast forward 18 or so hours and we find ourselves on top of a cliff about to jump off it! Official numbers put this cliff at 17m (official means a group of us looked at it), and to be honest it is every bit of it. The story with this place is it is very popular with climbers who free climb it and if they fall it is straight into the water.

After a couple of beers some "experienced" lads ran and jumped off the cliff, Ben, Heers and myself all continued to finish our drinks before deciding that we had to match these feats. Walking from about 12m up to the 17m jump point is actually a enough of a difference to think about it a few times. As we scamper up to the top, Ben looks at me and asks "do you want to go first?" not realising how closely his nuts resemble that of an ox, I say no, and before I can say "you can go" he is gone! Leaving me and Heers up there amazed at the fact he didn't just become a rock spider 10m below - he stuffed his jump up, dragged his toe on the ledge and missed a rock halfway down by what would be no more than a metre! Having seen this, all I thought about was the take off, which unfortunately meant I didn't think about how to land or what my body needed to do to stay controlled during this jump of consequence. A few seconds later I'm doing my best impression of a drunk hummingbird that is tied to a brick and somehow enter the water at speed and with the style an 80's one hit wonder. The landing meant my foot had a blow out from hitting the water so hard, claret was spilt but in the end it was an epic jump.

These are the days!

And that's the way they should be! I have had an awesome 20-something years on this planet and there's no reason for it to stop. So many people get caught up with looking to the future, and just as many get hung up on the past that they forget the now. Back at Noosa the biggest cliff we would do would be around 12m, I think people get too comfortable with what they know, they need to find their 17m jump, and not think about it but do it (maybe think about the landing, but thats in a literal, not metaphorical sense). The reason I am doing this whole trip is because I knew that I would regret it in 20-something years if I didn't. I'm not saying move overseas, I'm just saying don't get comfortable, fight your fears, make the jump and enjoy where you land!

Jono

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As a post script to the story, Ben told us over a curry that night that he new exactly what my response would be to the "do you want to go first?" question. Turns out he had been gearing up for the previous 10mins for that exact scenario; that bugger is always thinking 2 steps ahead!