“There’s not much that doesn’t get me stoked. I love what I do and am so passionate about it that I get stoked on the simplest things – watching the sunrise, walking on the beach, going for a run through the forest or along the coast. One of my all-time favourite things is surfing amazing waves with my family and best friends.”
Sally Fitzgibbons
I love this quote by Sally Fitzgibbons the Australian professional surfer who is thirty-five and when I was growing up that was sort of like what my life was like.
However, I stopped surfing after moving to the city from the Northern beaches in 2000.
However, when I moved back in with mum about fifteen years ago, I lived right near the beach in Casuarina and started beach walking bare foot first one hour a morning and then built up to two hours a day.
This continued after mum moved to a nursing home in Sydney in Mona Vale and I moved to a studio apartment in Bogangar near Cabarita.
Then after mum passed, I got an inheritance and had been saving for years under mum’s guidance and bought my own one-bedroom apartment right on the beach near Byron Bay in NSWs far north coast.
However, one day last year (2025) I over did the beach walking barefoot as I was 85 kilos and wanted to lose weight but hurt the arch of my right foot and stayed home making drawing collages and comfort eating putting on 15 kilos in three months.
Worried that I would hurt my foot again I started swimming at first a further pool and now the closer one as they were closed in winter for maintenance. Starting about six months ago.
I was getting community transport but now I get the bus to and from the pool and there is also a ten-minute walk at either end of the trips on the bus.
I really miss beach walking and I was doing much more exercise seven days a week and now only go to the pool on weekdays and at the moment only do ten laps after getting right up to sixty laps several months ago and had three weeks out of the pool as I had a skin cancer on my left arm cut off.
“This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can’t see how deep it is.”
Dennis Rodman
I like this quote about swimming and the depth of meditation for me is increasing the longer I swim.
The other benefit of beach walking and swimming is the social aspect as while walking and swimming I often meet people and strike up a conversation and now at the pool there is many people I know by name and some who I recognise their face.
In conclusion there are many pros and cons between beach walking and swimming but I think swimming is the best fit for me at the moment as it’s so gentle on my body and soothes my aches and pains literally and metaphorically. On my way home from the pool while waiting at the bus stop, I usually write some of that day’s essay in the notes of my iPhone while I wait for the bus. Not only do I miss beach walking as that is why I bought so close to the beach but I also miss the sage wisdom and deep kind love of my departed mum Maria.
