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What I've Learnt - Pacha Light · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't heard of Putcha Light yet, remember the name because the rising star in Aussie Surfing is about to be everywhere.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: She's making her mark, changing the world one wave at a time.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: The 20-year-old is currently ranked fourth in the World Surf League Pro Junior Series and is gunning for the World Championship tour.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Aside from an incredible talent, the GoPro Ambassador also has a heart of gold.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Using her significant insta following to spread her love for the sport with young girls and encourage awareness about the environment.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I chat to the Gold Coast native about everything from how she got her start to what a week of surf training looks like.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Growing up in either the forest or on the beach, she loved and felt comfortable in wild nature.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Her mother is an environmentalist, and she spent her first years living in the cloud forest of Ecuador, one of the top 10 biodiversity hotspots in the world.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: She says Mum was working with the local communities to set alternatives to industrial mining, and we were living a sustainable model.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Permaculture, eco-house, solar power, compost toilet.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I learnt about human impacts and threats from a very young age.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Always being aware that you can make a positive change no matter how small.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Surfing means you are literally immersed in the ocean.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: It surrounds you, supports you, and it connects you with this source of life.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: It is only natural that you would want to look after it, she says.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm involved with a number of groups, including the Surfrider Foundation, and do whatever I can when I can, trying to reduce my own impact wherever possible.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So she's a pretty extraordinary young woman and she's at the moment surfing every day for a month to raise funds for surface, as well as travelling around and trying to actually learn and teach others about how we can best look after our world.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Surface geographical focus is on the heartlands of surfing where few visitors but surfers go.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: They go and make their work unique.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: They specialise in working in very isolated villages where the maternal and child mortality rates are some of the highest in the world.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Putcher works with SurfAid to give families the best chance of getting ahead by providing access to health care, clean water and sanitation and improved nutrition.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: She's also travelling around Australia with her boyfriend and their dog to basically raise awareness and to teach others about how they too can look after their own backyard.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very excited to have the gorgeous Patcha Light, who at this very moment is surrounded by nature, blue skies, ocean, and I can see a gorgeous gum tree or something behind you.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome, Patcha.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you so much for having me, Deborah.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really honoured to be a part of this podcast and um yeah, really looking forward to chatting.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me a little bit about your background.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really interested in um how you grew up as a start.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So can you talk to me about that?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, for sure.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So pretty much um I guess we can start with my name.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's very uh quite an unusual name, especially in Australia.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um my mother was doing environmental conservation over in Ecuador, where she met my father, actually um yeah, doing some mangrove conservation.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, she fell in love with the cloud forest in the Andes, the Ecuadorian Andes.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, the quichua, so the indigenous people um over there, they all believe in Pachamama, which means and translates to Mother Earth, and Pacha by itself is known to be kind of universe, and um yeah, it's all about that relationship with the mother, the Pacha mother, Pachamama, and um, yeah, so that's how I got my name.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I was born in a little town called Kotokachi, and um just as a home birth, actually, and we um lived out um two hours on probably the most sketchiest road into the forest, and then an hour's walk from the dirt road to our property, and um yeah, we lived there for the first couple of years, and my mum decided to relocate to Australia to be closer with her family, and yeah, just kind of constantly being moved around, traveling, surrounded by so many amazing mentors, um, as well as nature.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, one of my mother's biggest um philosophies was about deep ecology and that understanding that we're not separate from the earth, that we're all integrated in a part of this amazing web of life, and that we must do what we can to protect her as much as we would care for our mother.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's caring for our mother earth, and um, yeah, that was something that was really ingrained in our whole childhoods, as well as um doing everything and anything out of our comfort zone.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that kind of uh rolled into our time in the ocean as well as the rivers and the forests, but um yeah, I think that really set up a strong relationship with places that may not be the first choice or the most safest.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that was our kind of um yeah, whole perspective on it.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were just in the ocean in the forest, climbing the tallest trees um for as long as I can remember.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, quite honestly, it sounds like the most idyllic childhood.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And do you have siblings?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Were you I've got a younger brother called Yani?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I love I actually just the image is so incredibly um uh clear.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just have this vision as you've just described it so beautifully.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so your earliest memories, I mean, clearly you grew up.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming there was a quite a strong community where you grew up, is that right?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or were you more isolated?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um, well, our neighbors were technically an hour's walk away.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that close.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: That can be a good thing, yeah.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but yeah, there was such a strong um indigenous uh presence, especially before and during my birth.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my my mother's midwife, my yeah, the midwife uh was the wife of the first quichua indigenous indigenous mayor of Kotakachi since colonization.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it was an amazing time for liberation and um connecting back into that deep um beautiful culture.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we were able to work really closely with that community and um yeah, I think it really um was important for both me and my brother to see and learn about where we come from and our heritage, but also the different and intricate um communities all over the world and how that localization and is so so important.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and so from your perspective, how does a girl who's living in the in effect in the Ecuadorian hinterland end up becoming a global surfing champion?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: How did you when did what when did you first embrace surfing?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, man, it's it's pretty, it's pretty incredible to think about, like I guess, yeah, where I was born and and um my twist of fate.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um pretty much we once we relocated to Australia, um, my mum kind of had always grown up around the beach.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were guess surrounded by the ocean always, um, playing with family and things like that.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: But once we moved down to a quite remote um town on the northern rivers of New South Wales, um quite close to Yamba.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I yeah, so we um had going been going to school and it was kind of that time where where kids would kind of uh fall into either netball or soccer or footy or you know, do the after school activity.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um I kind of I didn't click with any of them.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: I loved I loved to dance, but um yeah, we couldn't didn't really quite click with any of them.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um one day we're just driving past the beach and there was a big local board writers contest on the local board writers club, and um, so we went down to the beach, had absolutely no idea, borrowed some soft tops, and were just hooked instantly on surfing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't know no clue whatsoever, but we just loved being at the beach and um yeah, we gave surfing a try.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And um, a couple of weeks later, it was that time where I was like, all right, I need to get my own surfboard.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: We were only using the club's board, so I want to get my own new surfboard.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um at the time we couldn't afford any of um yeah, the specific soft tops, or there's a quite a lot of um yeah, range of surfboards.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: We had no real idea, but um my mum suggested that I raise the money myself and um start like busking because I I just love to dance so much.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I began to dance with a little hat um with a sign busking for a board.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's my favorite music um at every market stall.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: At um, and then one day we decided to go to the Roxy Pro on the Gold Coast.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, probably one of the biggest events kind of globally at Snapper, and we had no idea, of course, didn't know who was competing.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think we had a faint idea of Kelly Slater, but that was about it.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Our surfing world was tiny.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: I love the busking for a board.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have to say, I love your mom already.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just everything about what you're describing.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I love her.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, busking for a board, out you go, uh off you go and save and find a way to get this board.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I used to busk as well.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love busking.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like you and I, we can talk after the pot.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think we can share some busking stories.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Good stories, yes, yes.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, so you raised the money, I'm assuming, did you?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well, so I was at the Roxy Pro and um I was dancing for a while.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of didn't quite know who I didn't recognize anybody's faces or anything like that, but one person came and decided to dance with me.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So um it turned out to be Laura Eniver, who had just won her first rookie of the year.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: She had just jumped on tour.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: This was in um 2011, so right after my 10th birthday and um her debut on the world tour.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, I was just dancing and she came to dance with me.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, who's this teenager dancing with me?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: All right, like, I guess so.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: I had no clue who she was.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um, she left and returned with um her backup board, and she actually gave me one of her surfboards and um told me to never stop dancing, never stop surfing.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you haven't, you haven't, and you've done both.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what a what a beautiful twist of fate as you re refer to it, and it just shows, you know, when you reach out to the universe what you can actually find and how you connect with people.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite beautiful.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, yeah.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we stayed in touch, and um, through her mentorship, she really just became like a big sister and really helps me navigate um surfing and and like just the biggest inspiration.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I was constantly motivated.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we surfed every day, and it was a very tricky board to start on.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was about like five, six tiny, like I think it was 23 litres, just incredibly thin, and usually learn on a very long and very thick board.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: So um I have to say it was definitely tricky, but I stuck on to it.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, we kind of that was it.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Both me and my brother were devoted to surfing and um just lived and breathed it.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, it became a way of life.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's really quite um an extraordinary thing that you actually had you not come to Australia, that talent would never have been um really shown.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you would never have been able to access that.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: It just shows how the twist of fate is a very powerful thing.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Destiny, there you go.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And serendipity.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so from there, obviously, you practiced and practiced, and clearly lots of people practice surfing.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: You clearly did something quite quite extraordinary because what you achieved, um, you know, from from what I understand, at 18, you're ranked fourth in the world surf leaguers pro.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: The surf leagues pro.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So how how did you do you think did you get to master something like that?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think it was a combination of talent, dedication, and practice?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: What what what what gets somebody from literally not knowing barely what a surfboard is to becoming a surfer pro?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I guess it was something, yeah, that I really just fell into.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um that became my my sole purpose for those years going into high school and that early teenager.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody, everybody else was sort of preoccupied and um wanting to do chase other things.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, all right, I have to wake up at 6 a.m.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: because I have to surf before school, after school, okay, I have to go and surf.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: I want to get better, I want to um improve.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when I first started out, um we moved up to the Gold Coast um to live with my grandmother, and um the local school, PBC, had a surfing excellence program, and it was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences to even be accepted in it.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is the same program that paved the way for Mick Fanning, for Joel Parkinson, Jack Freestone, um, the surfing greats.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, I kind of was quite doubtful on my own ability and where I would go in the surfing world.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was just sort of naively stepping into it.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um I was one of the three girls in the whole program.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the rest were just young boys, and because of that, because of that competitiveness, it really gave me so much fire and really ignited this um craving to improve and to be the best I can.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, that led me down the competitive route, and I um competed in lots of local and school state um contests, and it just set me up to learn about the surf industry, learn about the nutrition, the training, um, the whole kind of program attached to it.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um, since then it had become the norm.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: And as I started to travel for World Qualifying Series, um, I think I was just turned 16 when I first um started that out.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: So collecting points and rankings to then be accepted into the world championship tour.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um that part really gave me a bigger understanding of the effect surfing had on the entire world on a global scale, the way it united so many different people from different backgrounds and cultures.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, it just was an amazing way to see um how connected we all are and how small the world is from this love of the ocean and riding waves.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, it gave me um a bigger understanding than if I had ever just just competed at a local stage.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, as daunting as it was to take off and um have those doubts within yourself, um yeah, it was amazing.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so as a as a female, did you find it particularly challenging?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And have you seen the attitude to female surfers change during your time um in the, you know, doing pro surfing, like from that age to now?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, when I first, when I first even um kind of came in, I was sort of like, yeah, I really didn't, I was I'm not a person to back down and um quite got the bit of fire in me.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: So um being surrounded even by I think it was 20 young um guys, all competitive surfing, um, my first year at high school, that pre-pubescent just nerve-wracking everything.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: I um had to really learn how to fight and fight for my place, fight for the waves.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um as time progressed and they saw me improving, there was a lot of that acceptance at first and respect, I'm sure.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, definitely.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um it's incredible to look back now and a lot of these guys my friends, and um we we created that big bond and to see the I guess lineup start to shift, more girls coming out and of all ages.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, this past year I'd been surfing in the lockdown with um a friend of mine who had started surfing in her 40s and she was 60, and she was like, Oh, Apache, do you have any old boards?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Yeah, I've got some old boards.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like some surfing, share some boards with um women of all ages.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was really special.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And and that surfing program now has at least half girls, um, just with their ability and just rising that level.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's because of amazing surfers like Laura, Stephanie Gilmore.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's just so many role models, yeah.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And ways to navigate the surfing industry and to cement a career in it, it's can be a very daunting thing, and um to see so many different uh places, I guess.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's really yeah, inspiring.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's very inspiring.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And what's even more inspiring, which I I mean, just your commitment and tenacity is certainly pretty awesome.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: But tell me a little bit about your traveling around Australia um for a cause, for a mission, the carbon neutral mission.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I just want to understand where this came from, although I I get some indication of your total commitment to nature and to preserving it.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: But talk to me how this came to be.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I met my partner um during that March lockdown um at my hometown, just another incredible twist of fate.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: He had moved to that tiny town that I grew up in, and um we were surfing every day for that whole that whole like vague times in between of 20 2020.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but yeah, he had a vision of traveling around Australia, and um I met him through that time of preparing his his car.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got a um a beautiful troopie that's been decked out over the past two years preparing for the journey.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, he met me and decided, okay, yeah, we can squeeze, we can squeeze on one person in.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually had um adopted a dog as well, and so he's all right, come on, dog as well.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: So just a family, like that's gorgeous, yeah.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Family, and you know, he had definitely came from that come from that background of um taking care of places you love, um, and that includes ocean, every place that brings us joy and brings us life, um, and being mindful about the way that we move and travel.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had started working with a um company called Sea Trees, an organization who are planting mangroves, um, kelp forests and coral beds all over the world, working with local communities um to I guess sequester carbon.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so mangroves right behind me, um they sequester Yeah, they they sequester four times the amount of um carbon than a rainforest.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: And is that right?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but even seagrass sequesters 40 times.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you can imagine how much um carbon is being stored in the ocean and and how it's helping us kind of combat the ever-rising emissions.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess we were setting off with that complete honesty and transparency of okay, we are driving the car, we are um adding to those emissions.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it was an amazing way to be able to really address that and to know that sequestering carbon, you know, may not be a final solution, but it is a way to start those conversations, start that mindfulness, travel.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're able to sequester all of our um emissions through sea trees and through um yeah, planting mangroves in Indonesia and Kenya and all these amazing places.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: And
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just to understand, so just to clarify, so does that mean that you are planting as you go?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what you're is that how you're actioning it?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: How does it how does it work just logistically?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all um online through through the Sea Trees Foundation.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um they kind of work with those local communities.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: I was really lucky to join a trip to a new plantation site in Indonesia um in West Papua, and um got to visit those communities and to really kind of integrate in that process.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, so you do it remotely and you pay for a tree, you get to plant a tree, and then that goes over into that community and plants those mangroves, those kelp forests, those um coral seed beds, and then you can calculate how many carbon, how many tons of carbon emissions?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I understand.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so is it something that if people want to get involved, they can go on the website and they can contribute to that?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: So easy, and it's um so so accessible.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just all on the website, and you can kind of calculate how much carbon you're using and also ways that you can minimize by making small choices, small, small decision chains, a shift of thinking, and um yeah.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And tell me, it's you also do a lot of work with SurfAid, one of my favorite.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's such an amazing charity.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me a little bit about that too, because that is um got a very, very strong global presence and obviously aligns very much with your passion.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: So can you tell me about the work you're doing with Surfeid too?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, um, whenever I guess my whole family travels, um, we try to always bring an extra board bag of boards to donate to local um local board writers' clubs and surf surf shops to and um to be able to work with local communities and to give back in um of yeah, these places that we're enjoying so much and surfing as I think as surfers, we all have a responsibility.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you know we're lucky enough to be able to travel to find ways, I think it's imperative to give back in some form, in some way.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that was just how we operated was to bring extra boards and to give back.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we visited a surf uh surf club over in Mari Baripuram in um the south, southeast of India, coast, coast of India, and um they were doing amazing, amazing work.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: They were actually getting local Grums to fill up a whole bucket of rubbish before lending out the boards.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And if they, you know, if they didn't have enough money to rent the boards, they would just ask them to pick up some rubbish and then okay, you can have the board for two hours, three hours.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it was an amazing wonderful, yeah.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: A really amazing way to get them to contribute to their own path and their own journey and to clean up their own beaches.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, bring that mindful kind of place of okay, we have to take care of this.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: We love this place, we surf it every day, it's our responsibility.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: So um partnering, partnering with SurfAid um was just something that I was, yeah, just made so much sense.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: We both had the exact same the mission um to give back in any way we can.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, they're an amazing crew of surfers, of people wanting to do um, yeah, people wanting to give back.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, we actually had a really conversation about our time and relationship with um Nias in Sumatra.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had been a couple of times with my family and sung some English songs at local schools and um organized for books and a mobile library to be put in place.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I think I'm pretty sure SurfAid have a really strong community base there to helping mothers and um healthcare as well as any vulnerable communities.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: But but yeah, it's um it's an amazing way to to just do your part, and so many amazing people are doing incredible work in in vulnerable, vulnerable places.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think I think it's really what everybody read like everybody needs right now, some um sense that we can still contribute to improving our world.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: How how has the pandemic affected you in terms of restrictions of where you can go?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And also it sounds to me, just listening to you, that as a young 20-year-old, as you would appreciate, there are many 20-year-olds really struggling because they feel locked down and trapped and and unable to do certain things.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm getting a great sense from you that your mission has continued and that you're you know, immersing yourself in nature has been a great um salve or balm to help you.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me how how is that affecting you?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are you limited geographically, I'm assuming, about where you can go, but it sounds like emotionally you're quite open and feeling free.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: So give us some insight into that.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, for sure.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it's really difficult to even begin to have those, I guess, empathy with so many young people and just people in general, just being absolutely locked down, especially in in big cities where it can feel that overwhelming sense, okay, I'm really stuck, you know.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: I can't do what I do, I can't have that freedom.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um at the moment, I guess we're physically completely locked down, and we had dreams of continuing our travels.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, in New South Wales, we're unable to go into any other state.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and my mother and my whole family, my brother, they're all in Queensland at the moment, unable to come down, I'm unable to go up.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um we had our kind of path was to follow the coastline through South Australia into Western Australia.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, I think as our uncertainty of the current restrictions and um future really is kind of at an all-time high.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's it's really important to remember what truly makes us happy and know that it's not as far away as as we think.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: That that reconnection with nature, if possible, is gonna be the biggest savior.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and and knowing that whatever will happen, it's for your greater path.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think that it's it's too, I guess, we can't think the same way that we have thought for the past even 200 years, that time's and that it can it can be an opportunity for a new growth, for a different path.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um during that first lockdown, it gave me the first break I had had since I really started surfing, and it made me realize that I I was giving up a piece of um of who I was to fulfill the contractual obligations and kind of contradictions in what I really want to represent and who I really am and what my heart really wants.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so doing those big leaps of faith for that greater good, for your for your own happiness, I think is is something that's going to be so liberating as this time kind of tells us to really slow down.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, we've been doing um our same intentions of traveling along the road, but we're doing them in one place and getting to know the community, getting to know the traditional owners and paying respects to those to those peoples.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it's so many that one can do in their local area that maybe that's right.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you don't have to move to be what you're saying is you don't have to be in transit to be effective on your mission, and of course you can still do that and contribute, but also I'm hearing from you that it's an opportunity for reset, recalibration, both personally, as you've as you've outlined, but also in the context of the universe.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe the universe is speaking to us, maybe nature is speaking to us.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know yet because we're not through it.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: But there seems a lot of people, while there's a lot of struggles, what I like about what you're saying is in your wise beyond your years, the notion that it had, you know, you have a lot of wisdom, somewhat, you know, prophetic in some ways.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that maybe it comes from your there's a sense of acceptance, but also you've said, well, I'll just adapt to the circumstance and see what it can give me rather than what it's taken away from me.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I yeah, I feel like, yeah, once you kind of start to delve into that, it's just too many things that will arise that will just kind of do that weighing down.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um we're still we're still so lucky.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: We're still so lucky.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we've got the access to nature, we've got the access to good food, to good clean water.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's something in itself.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that that means you are limitless and that you can continue what you want to be doing, you can continue things, finding things that still give you joy.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: And um, maybe that's a change of living, change of thinking.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're in this time of change, so I guess it's it's an opportunity, and we can all look at um see it as that.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've absolutely loved having you on the What I've Learned podcast.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're an inspiration on many levels, and also I think you give a lot of our young listeners, because this is for the 20 Something Podcast, the What I've Learned Podcast, we're launching this 20 Something Podcast with you being the first interview in the 20 to 30 range.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you that you offer hope, wisdom, inspiration, and we're so grateful that you could make the time.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And now you can go out and hopefully have a nice swim.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: That looks really beautiful there.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, thank you so much for having me.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, creating such an amazing space for people to tell their stories and hopefully share their little peace, as well as yeah, being able to speak with you and um yeah, being able to share those joys, especially in the time of uncertainty.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for having me.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Absolute pleasure.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolute pleasure.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: You have a beautiful day.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you too.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: The What I've Learned podcast will now be coming to you weekly with new episodes released every Tuesday.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed to have so many wonderful guests coming on the show.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: So check out my What I've Learned Instagram for updates.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, stay tuned, kind and curious.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Love deck.