I lost one of my best mates on a surf trip once. We were coming back from Jeffrey’s Bay and we had a car accident. He died, his brother lived. I lived. For this I am eternally grateful. I was 17 years old.

At first it was like a dream to still be a live, I’m grateful to have had a 21st birthday on a tropical island. One of my best mates and I sat on a beach in front of  a perfect left and right reef pass and watched the sun go down. We shared a bottle of Cape Red wine out of the bottle and we spoke about our lives, our fears, our dreams, and our friends we had lost along the way.

I’m Grateful to have fallen in love for the first time years ago. She was cute and used to come and watch me surf all the time. She didn’t mind my broken down bakkie that used to belch out black smoke and backfire and embarrass us by breaking down or running out of petrol all the time in the most awkward situations, or having the canopy fly off on coast missions.

I’m Grateful to have experienced bizarre surf at an unnamed West Coast beach break. I paddled out alone, only to find the sets to be very much bigger than what they looked like from the beach. I hooked into my first wave of the first set in the shore break, dropped in and saw a huge exposed sandbar in front of me as this wave sucked off the bank. I bottom turned what felt like inches away from the edge of the bank and instinctively pulled into the barrel. The wave opened up and I got spat out of a tube for the first time in my life. The beach was empty. I came in after one wave, fully spooked. While watching from the beach the swell quickly went out of control and every wave that came through simply collapsed and closed out over the sandbar.

I’m thankful for surf travel. For Java and Chile and North Avalon and Lennox. I’m grateful for Ireland and early morning offshore, for warm water, for good shapers, for girls that make me laugh.

For St. Leu and Dungeons and Nias and Maccas. For J-bay and dunes and Elands and Yellows and The Spot. Im even grateful for Muizenberg and Sandy Bay and g-strings and Black Label Quarts.

I’m truly grateful for the small things. This morning I really needed a cup of coffee and I made a strong cup. The milk was sour and smelled a bit like my ex, but a friend of mine had stuck a half-liter at the back of the fridge last night without telling me. I was so thankful to her. And for things like Aircon, sunscreen, sticky bumps, happy hour, pink milkshakes.

Dawnies and sunsets and those big winter storms that burst down the West Coast. Relentless swells that pour endlessly over the perfect reefs of the mentawais. The wonderful people who have enriched along the way, along this rocky road the surfing world takes us.

I’m grateful that I still have the memories of my mate Greg, who died in the car accident.

Don’t ever forget your mates. Memories are sometimes all you have.

I’m grateful for guys like John Whitmore. He taught us a few things and without him, quite possibly, none of these things would have happened to me

I’m Grateful for the fact that subconsciously many years ago; I must have made a decision to follow this surfing life till the end of the line, wherever that may be.

Jarvi

You gotta be grateful for what you have sometimes, people seem to moan and complain way too much. shit even i do it most times but if you stand back and count the little things in life its really not that bad!