Have just spent the most amazing 4 days up at the Grant family house in Mount Desert Island in Northern Maine, USA. When I arrived the place reminded me very much of Norway and Sweden, the vastness of the views, the trees, the style of architecture, the smell, all very cool!

The first day was spent doing a few chores as I was joining the annual family ‘work weekend’, so I stained the front of the house and painted the benches. Good to get involved in a little manual labour, kinda feel all rewarded at the end of the day with a sense of achievement. We then all cracked open a few tasty beverages in the shape of “Geary’s New Hampshire Ale’, which I only found out was 7% a few days later, would explain my general state of pissedness!

The following day we did a little more work in the morning, and as I was on a painting tip, I painted the back door. In the afternoon we took the kayaks out and cruised across the lake. The water is absolutely freezing, especially when you decide to go for a swim in the bastard. Definitely a good way to wake yourself up, also a good way of getting hypothermia!

That evening we stoked up the bon-fire and all chilled around it with a few beers, me playing guitar and a few games and shit talking etc. All good fun!

Yesterday we cruised on over to Acadia National Park and hiked for a few hours, ending up at a place called Jordan Pond. The views are absolutely stunning here, on one side you can see the lakes and inlets, forests and hills and on the other side, the sea. We stopped at a nice place for “popovers” (like a sweet yorkshire pudding with jam etc) and tea.

The weather was stunning up at MDI, and we were treated to some amazing sunsets, the way the water, air and nature interact up there is just beautiful, and you can see if from the photos I took, as they all look like they have had some photoshop treatment, but they are in fact all natural!

All in all, a wonderful experience and another place to tick off my (ever-lengthening) list of places I have been to! I’d like to just say and massive thank you to the Grant/Boyson family for inviting me to come up and join them at a very special place that will definitely leave me with some fantastic memories!

Another 2 weeks of the dream left, should be home on the 14/15th June now, chance of departure 95%!

For the boys at home, yes all continues to go well and having a cool time and just for the record, am not a hippie (well not just yet), peace!

Had a nice day today at some Country Club in Maine, super nice grounds! Spent the arvo doing a little PB work, then cooked up a storm in the kitchen, currently on the red wine and green, things can only look up!

Added a few more photos from the Maine section of my tour for y’all to check out!

This afternoon/evening Nancy (Elise’s mum) and I headed out for a little bike tour of North Yarmouth and the surrounding areas. It was a beautiful evening, the sun low in the sky, giving everything a beautiful glow and colour. We set off on the 5 towns loop, a little cycle route, which I am not sure is a family route, or an official one. Anyway, we cruised through the countryside, passing by beautiful houses and countryside. The air had a great smell of spring to it, really fresh with all the different trees and flowers in the air! Super refreshing! We had a cool time and by the time we got back to the ranch we had covered about 25 miles, all good!

So it was only a matter of time until I decided to make a list to show off all the places I have surfed since I have been away, so here it is peeps, read it and weep!

• Cape Town
  • Big Bay
  • Melkbos
• Durban
  • North Beach
  • Dairy Beach
• Hong Kong
  • Big Wave Bay
• Bali
  • Kuta Beach
  • Legian Beach
  • Mushroom Lefts
  • Mushroom Rights
  • Nusa Dua
• Noosa (Australia)
  • Main Beach
  • First Point
  • Boiling Pot
  • National Park
• Moololabah Beach
• Bells Beach
• Torquay Beach
• New Zealand
  • Taupo Bay
  • Matauri Bay
• Nagigia Island, Kadavu, Fiji
  • King Kong Left
  • King Kong Right
  • Daku
• USA
  • Santa Monica Beach (CA)
  • Ocean Beach (CA)
  • Half Moon Bay (CA)
  • Saint Augustine Beach (SC)
  • Cocoa Beach (FL)
  • Higgins Beach (ME)
  • Scarboro Beach (ME)
  • Small Point Secret Spot (ME)

Haven’t updated for a while as been too busy having the crack! Am now up in Maine, New England having a blast!

We drove up 550 miles up the east coast on Thursday. Unfortunately hitting traffic in the DC area and also managing to get lost in the Bronx. So by the time we arrrived in Maine it was 3am, 11 hours after we left DC. But it was all good on the basis that it is all a new adventure and experience.

New England is very similar to Scandanavia, the landscape, the architecture and the climate, although it is at a far more southernly latitude. The water here is cold man, 8 degrees at present, making the water in San Fran look tropical!

I met up with a friend of Elise’s family the other day, a cool guy called Adam. He’s originally from New York, but lives here in North Yarmouth now. He is classic, super stoked to be in the water all-year-round and the kinda guy who you can talk about surfing with all day long! We hit the water at Higgin’s Beach yesterday at 6am, after a 5.30 rise. The sky was blue, the sun was out and it was generally one of those morning’s where you are just digging the whole being alive experience. We met one of his mates out in the water, I don’t recall his name, but nice chap too! So the 3 of us traded waves and generally had a nice time! I was back at the ranch by 9am, with the whole day still ahead of me!

It is great when you have those early morning experiences, as you just feel so much more alive, and when the water is onyl 8 degrees celcius, you soon feel awake when you get one on the head!

I took Elise out in the arvo for a surf lesson down at Scarboro beach, she has the potential to get good, but just needs to keep trying at this stage, although for a girl to be in the water at this time of year is respect enough. The waves were clean in the afternoon, with the wind going offshore and the water turning glassy, I guess the only thing that could put a beginner off yesterday would be the fact that it was cold, overcast and freezing in the water!

Today it is brighter, but still kinda cold, off to the gym in a while and then maybe a walk in the fresh air!

To all the boys back home, hope you are enjoying the blog, and didn’t realise that I sounded like a hippy, funny! Will be back on the 7th June (appox.), so get those brews pumping and the BBQ ready!

Just discovered a new load of quality tunes. The chick who appears on Zero 7, Sia Furler has released a load of solo stuff, she has this amazing soulful and soothing voice, definitely worth a look at!

Also on the topic of tunes, I bought the new Chili Peppers’ album “Arcadium Stadium”, it has some amazing songs on there, and I am defo of the view that the quality of their music has improved leaps and bounds since they got older!

Another great day in the nation’s captial! Back home in 3 weeks definitely going to be strange re-adapting to everyday life after these four months of living this amazing lifestyle!

We embarked on a monster driving mission back to DC on Sunday. The journey from Daytona back to DC was about 12 hours worth of driving, through northern Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Virginia and finally into DC and Maryland itself.

Our week in Florida was nice, we got the opportunity to check out some nice beaches: Cocoa, Daytona and St. Augustine and the sun finally came out over the past few days, with the temperatures hitting the mid 80’s to 90’s, all nice!

The tan is topped up a little and I am just getting stuff sorted for my trip up North now to Maine, New England.

The next few days will be spent in DC just chilling out, am hopefully going to see Matt Costa tomorrow evening, which should be very cool!

Am now due back in the UK around the 6th June, just need to change my flights and then I am done!

Just a quick update tonight, I hit Cocoa beach again today for some sun, surf and chilled out vibes with the new Chili’s album. Been hanging out for some new tunes from these guys ever since Fortune Faded. The new album rocks, defo worth a purchase!

Cocoa was great today, ok the waves were lame as, but the sun was out in force, not a cloud in the sky and just super stoked to be soaking up the rays.

Tomorrow Dru and I pack up our shit and hit Daytona beach for some more sun. We then start our drive back to DC in the early evening. Should take us a while as it is a good 1000 miles up the coast.

One cool thing is that I am now going to Maine at the end of next week, so once that trip is done I will have pretty much driven the whole of the east coast of the USA, pretty cool!

Anyway off to bed as have notched up 10 hours of paddle time over the past 3 days! Nice!

Today has been a real cracker! Dru and I decided to hit the beach early, well kinda early, woke at 7am, got breakied up, left the house for 8.30 and made the journey down to Cocoa Beach (home of Kelly Slater).

We stopped off at a few surf shops, the infamous Ron Jons, which actually had a pretty poor selection of boards, but nice staff, and then Cocoa Beach Surf Company. The later had a great selection of boards, and again I was sorely tempted to add a forth board to my quiver. There were some real tasty fish boards, I had my eye on a 5′10, real retro styling, but was strict with myself and opted for a Starbucks frap instead!

Dru and I then hit Cocoa Beach, the wind was up and the clouds were out and the waves were poor, but I got in the water all the same! 5 hours later I had got a whole bunch of (small) waves, gotten a load of sun and then chilled up on the pier with Dru having a beer!

I have regained the tan (well some of it) and all is good! We have just been for a dirty-ass 18 inch pizza and now on our way home to chill the fuck out some more, as after 5 hours in the water I am physically knackered! I met a cool crew down at Cocoa, some young surfers, who were all up for a chat and also dug my little left cut along the wave whilst running my hand along the face.

Lets hope the rest of the week stays sunny and chilled, I love this lifestyle, ok I am not working at the moment so that kinda chills it out even more, but one day I will live and work near the ocean, surf daily and generally be stoked and happy every day, I have kinda come round to the idea that it all isn’t about money and material shit, ok granted you need a certain amount of dough to have a nice house and eat nice food, but fast cars, the latest clothes, fuck that, just give me a house near the sea, and rack full of boards, a good crew, some good tunes, plenty of sunshine and a lovely girlfriend, and I am done! God I think I am turning into either a Californian or an Ozzie! Doh!

Oh yeah I think I have another surf convert, Dru wants to get back into shape and start surfing! Another one to add to the global crew, it’s all about spreading the love man!