One of the fundamental tenants of freedom and democracy is Government by the People, for the People.

The operative word being ‘by’. ‘By’ being synonymous with participation.

The very real and emerging alternative is Government by the Corporation, for the Corporation.

That’s called (and is the definition of) Fascism.

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
Franklin D. Roosevelt April 29, 1938. Message to congress.

Fascism is bad – every year we remember the millions of men and women who gave their lives fighting fascism is the 1940′s and earlier. We lay reefs of flowers, salute, and proclaim ‘lest we forget’.

Seems we’ve become a bit complacent in the ‘lest we forget’ department. Fascism is alive and well in the USA/West and it’s making aggressive inroads into our freedom.

SOPA and PIPA are prime examples of Fascism (starts with what seems like a good idea at the time). They must be defeated and the proponents of this legislation removed from office.

No one’s saying that online copyright violations are not an issue, we’re just saying find a way to deal with it without destroying the Internet and/or making us all criminals.

One of the concerns we have with the ‘by’ part of ‘by the people’ is the sense that we can’t make a difference anyway, so why bother?

That’s a cop out. The way I see it is you can’t take freedom for granted, your participation is required. It doesn’t mean you have to run for office, it simply means being aware, participating in a political dialogue, and voting judiciously, either with your formal vote, your wallet, and/or your feet.

The Internet communities’ reaction and response to the SOPA and PIPA issue is nothing short of inspiring.

“This is altogether a new effect,” Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing “an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically” in the last four decades, he added.
New York Times

If you’re convinced that your voice can’t make a difference take a look at these stats. Seems that 13 million people think differently and, as a result, these bills, once considered a slam dunk are now on the ropes.

People (you) can make a difference. Freedom is worth fighting for. At this point SOPA and PIPA have been postponed indefinately but the fight needs to go on.

In any pursuit there comes a time when, in order to achieve your goals, you have to step up, step out of your comfort zone, confront your emotions, and excel in the face of immense challenge.

Check this out, one of the most fearsome waves on the planet, and these pro surfers will be facing this monster, starting tomorrow, (August 20th,Tahiti time) at the Billabong Pro Tahiti, Teahupoo.

All forecast indications are that Teahupoo will be pumping this year. Imagine having to step up to this?

Surfing, for me at least, is a love hate relationship. A relationship where I love the ocean, and the stoke that comes from Surfing, and hate myself, because I suck.

Sound familiar? Ok, maybe I’m being a bit hard on myself here, but I think most people who surf have, sooner or later, had to make a breakthrough from being that person that walked back up the beach with their tail between their legs, wondering why everyone else is ripping, and you’ve been floating around out there, lucky to catch one wave, maybe having to do the dreaded ‘paddle of shame’ back in more times that you’d care to mention (or admit).

This was me a few months ago. It’s a very frustrating place to be, but, if you can relate to that, there’s good news.

Surfing, like any sport or endeavour, is challenging. It takes time to master, during which you have to deal with your physical fitness, mother nature, and most of all, your mind. It has the tendency to be mentally uplifting (stoked) and terrifying (shitting yourself) at the same time. I think that why we love it. The point in the learning process where you realise you suck is the point at which you’re about to make a breakthrough. Here’s why.

It is said the we go through four stages of competence when we’re trying to master something;

1. Unconscious Incompetence – You suck, and you don’t know you suck.
2. Conscious Incompetence – You suck, and you know you suck.
3. Conscious Competence – You’re confident, enjoying your surfing, pushing your limits and developing new skills (all of which go through the same cycle). Your wave count is good, you’re riding bigger waves and getting out of the water stoked more often than not – You don’t suck.
4. Unconscious Competence – You rip effortlessly in all conditions and it comes as naturally as putting one foot in front of another. You’re high–fiving with the pro’s at 25 foot Cloudbreak! – You are a legend.

Some time ago I made the decision to put my effort into getting to stage three – Conscious Competence – at least in conditions I was comfortable in (1 – 6 foot), I knew I sucked. I wanted to increase my wave count for each session, surf bigger waves, feel confident in the line up and, most of all, simply enjoy surfing and making progress.

I have some things working for me, good friends (good surfers) providing inspiration and encouragement, close to the beaches so surfing every day is no problem, I’ve been practising Yoga for a long time so fitness is good, but I was thinking that a coach would be good so I went looking at the source of all knowledge – Google.

I found SurfCoach.com by Martin Dunn, Australia’s most successful and innovative surfing coach, and things began to change for the better.

I learned things like ‘Breaking the Ledge‘ and simple (in hindsight) things like not paddling for waves you can’t catch, raising your leading arm, the board follows where you look. All things I wish I had known when I was younger but are now giving me something to focus on in my surfing development. I’m not exactly tearing it up but I am catching more waves, in bigger surf, and I’m a lot less frustrated. I know now where to go to get focused on the next challenge and where to get the information and technique to master it.

If you are feeling frustrated with your Surfing I highly recommend SurfCoach.com

Chad Hamzeh shared a video with me today that was timely and inspiring, so I thought I’d share it too (thanks Chad).

It seems we all get it a rut sometimes when it comes to staying focused and motivated. It also seems cliche saying you can achieve anything you set your mind to and take action

Here’s some proof…

Success isn’t the first word that springs to mind when you find yourself, as I did, unemployed. Even more so when the job you’ve held down for the past three years happens to be managing your own business!

It’s a long and convoluted story, probably best left untold, but the fact is these things happen. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had life throw them an unforeseen curve ball in the past few years. Then again, don’t know anyone who has succumbed, or gone under, as a result. More often than not the eventual outcome is positive. It seems that on the road to success, failure, unfortunately, is a common occurrence, and when it does occur you have no choice but to deal with it.

How you deal with it determines how quickly you get back on the road to success.

Sure, when confronted with a failure, especially a major one, the shock, the unintended consequences, the anger, fear and negativity can be overwhelming. In my circumstance I found it particularly hard playing “happy dad” with my kids while dealing with all this, then again I also found it a strong motivator to get over it.

…and you have to get over it!

So what exactly is success anyway, and how do you achieve it?

I believe we’ve been conditioned, through Hollywood, the Media and Advertising to think of success as a noun, a label, signifying who, or what, you are, indicated more by what you have than what you do. You could be forgiven for thinking that success is some magical nirvana you stumble upon, out of sheer luck, after which life is all Champagne, Ferraris, Super Models and Mansions. Something we spend half our lives chasing, like the carrot in front of our noses, the irony being that carrot is always just out of reach.

Success is not who, or what you are, it’s something you do, an event. It’s a verb, therefore attainable on a daily basis…unless of course you think it’s something synonymous with the trappings of wealth (more likely the trap of debt) in which case it’s going to be a lot harder. Stack up a higher balance of success events vs. failure events and you are, by definition, a successful person.

I was inspired to get back in the success mindset, after confronting failure, by Chet Holm?s book “The Ultimate Sales Machine” where he discusses setting a maximum of six goals a day and approaching them with “pigheaded discipline”. It’s very much what I’ve been doing since to get refocused, and what I’ll be writing about more on this site.

In the meantime here’s my thoughts on getting refocused on success.

Work out how much time you have to play with.

It’s natural to go through a full range of emotions during, and immediately after a crisis like losing your job. It’s been said that the extent to which you are financially independent can be calculated by how long you can survive without an income. Work out exactly how long that is and give yourself some of that time to simply get back in touch with yourself. In my case it’s three months to get it together, first thing I did was go Surfing.

Put the failure into perspective.

Putting things into perspective means you can identify what exactly you need to do to get back on track. What was lost, what are the real implications? When I did this, after the dust settled a little, I realised I had lost two things, my income, and a dream. There was no other significant impact. That means two problems to solve, otherwise business, or life, as usual.

Re-establish the Dream

In my experience the alternative to living a life of purpose, intent, and vision, is to be depressed. That’s not an option. My dream is a business I can run from anywhere with a laptop and an internet connection. It’s already re-established.

Take action

I’ve found that dealing with moving on from my previous business, rather than being the scary thing I once imagined, is in fact a very creative place, with new possibilities, an opportunity to re-educate myself, brush up on my technology skills, and be in more control of my destiny.

Don?t look back

I haven’t

Peter Ryan’s (acting Premier, VIC) published remarks in the Herald Sun, after the government’s announcement of the Carbon Tax plan on Sunday, strike me as a shining example of the banality of the whole Carbon Tax/Climate change argument, and to a large degree the calibre of the people ‘leading’ it.

I’ve said it a few times now but my position on climate change is that, at the very least, and notwithstanding any arguments for or against Human induced changes, taking action will result in a cleaner world. If Climate change doesn’t kill us all, pollution, and poisoning of our atmosphere will. It’s best we do something, it’s a win win situation.

Victorian Acting Premier Peter Ryan said the federal carbon tax announcement showed Hazelwood was clearly “in the gun”.
“This is an absolute stake in the heart of those at Hazelwood,”
Herald Sun – July 11, 2011

Now, where’s the connection between the Carbon Tax and Hazelwood being “in the gun”? I would have thought that having an old, brown coal burning, station, producing 17,247,970 tonnes of carbon emissions annually would have meant it was “in the gun” whether there was a Carbon Tax or not? It’s time to turn these things off.

What gets me is the notion being implied here that we can keep operating these plants – doing the same thing over and over, spewing tons of carbon into the atmosphere, relying on, and burning, coal instead of adopting and embracing new technologies, for the sake of a few hundred jobs, and thinking that we just keep on doing the same thing over and over and somehow manage to solve the climate change issue.

Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?

I expect more of my politicians. I expect the Peter Ryan’s of this world to shut up, stop playing “Henny Penny” politics, get on with dealing with the demise of dirty, and antiquated, last century infrastructure, and solve the ensuing employment issues in the Latrobe Valley as well. Isn’t that what we pay you for?

In my very first post on this site I alluded to being re-introduced to surfing after a twenty-five year break, in a tropical paradise, by lifelong friends…

It’s now, and in hindsight, that I realize just how significant that trip was, a turning point in a life full of people but still lonely, the introduction to friends sharing a common love of the ocean, and most of all my wife and, consequently, my two beautiful sons.

So, this video is very special for me, Jamie’s father Chris, also in the video, is the man responsible for reintroducing me to Surfing, we grew up together in New Zealand surfing the unspoiled coastline around Taranaki. He’s an inspiration to me in that he has courageously maintained a lifestyle close to his heart, and the ocean, and to see him and Jamie surfing together makes me happy.

I look forward to the day I can surf with my sons.

The NSW Government’s solar energy rebate, and it’s 60 cents per kilowatt hour feed in tariff – at the time – was a major influence in my decision to install Solar Panels. Seems the same can be said for every second house on our street.

As I’ve alluded to in other posts I am skeptical about Climate Change, not so much that it’s occurring, it’s quite obviously changing, but the question; what extent is it changing anyway, and to what extent has mankind had an influence? I believe being skeptical is ok if it promotes healthy, and respectable, debate but I don’t think it implies sitting around and doing nothing, besides, irrespective of whether we determine climate change is man made, just happening, or both, the minimum result of doing something about it is a cleaner world.

Rebates for domestic solar energy generation are, in my opinion, a sound way to do something about the consumption of fossil fuel in the production of domestic electricity. Of course the solar energy rebate scheme was bound to be popular. When you consider the total amount of available roof space exposed to the sun in Australia would it not be a viable option, and suitable direct action, to install solar panels on every rooftop?

I was certainly motivated by the solar energy rebate’s 60 cents per kilowatt hour rebate, especially when it means reduced, or in some months, eliminated, power bills but frankly I’d be just as happy if my house could power itself ( like this house) or even partially, and I only pay for electricity consumed from the grid when necessary, the solar energy rebate wont exactly cover the cost of the installation for quite some time.

But, a deal’s a deal, a commitment is a commitment. When the NSW Government announced the 60 cent per kilowatt hour rebate people acted, I like to think, on not only the opportunity to get some money back, but also to do something collectively to reduce the dependence on fossil fueled electricity consumption. To welch on the deal, just because it proved popular and, consequently, expensive is not only dishonest, it’s stupid.

Fortunately it seems sanity prevailed and the solar energy rebate stays at 60c for those who got in early enough.

I’ve had cause recently to make some changes to my email addresses, both personal and business, and as a result I have, without hesitation, unsubscribed from everything coming in that’s not immediately pertinent to my current priorities.

I don’t need to tell you how much of a distraction your email inbox can be – full of things that, at one time held your attention, and now still do, at least to the extent that there’s still some residual interest resulting in distraction and it’s inevitable companion, procrastination.

My experience is that the result of unsubscribing mercilessly is a refreshing sense of relief, a lightening of the load so to speak. Nothing lost.

Go ahead, try it…tell me what you think.

Seventhwave Wetsuits delivered exactly what they promised, a high quality, custom fit steamer, ordered, made, and delivered in less than 10 days.

I’m a tall, lanky Guy (190cm – 6″4″, 80kg). Since my early surfing days in Taranaki, New Zealand, when we decided that rugby jerseys were just not cutting it, both in terms of warmth, given the snow on Mt. Taranaki, and, more importantly, floatation, I have had trouble getting a wetsuit that fits.

I wish I’d known about Seventhwave Wetsuits back then. Then again I wish I’d known a lot of things.

From my very first O’Niel Springsuit back in the 70′s, sold to me with the “you’ll grow into it” disclaimer and flushing more water than your average dunny, I’ve never experienced anything other than a marginal barrier to hypothermia. In fairness I have had some pretty good suits but the challenge is that medium tall sizing is almost 4cm short in the body, for me, which leaves the neck pulled open at the back allowing the cold water to flush through.

Fast forward to now, someone’s flicked the switch to go directly from summer to winter without passing Autumn. We’re experiencing the coldest April, May period for decades. The water temperature’s still good but the brisk Westerly winds are biting cold, especially at 6am before the sun comes up.

As is typical for this time of year we’re getting plenty of swell. I’ve been out there enjoying the conditions, toasty warm and comfortable in my Seventhwave Max 3/2.

Having good comfortable kit makes all the difference to my enthusiasm and confidence getting out in the surf when it would be easier to stay home in a warm bed. If you’re looking for a quality, warm, and seriously comfortable wetsuit, and especially if standard sizes (which are also available) don’t work for you, give Seventhwave wetsuits a look, you’ll be glad you did.

Seventhwave Wetsuits are based in New Zealand, good on you Guys, I’m a stoked Customer.