So I found some vintage video footage of me from my handy cam and from other resources. Being filmed while surfing was always fun. Looking back at the footage you would always look at where you could improve and what you could of done better on the wave.

This footage is a few years old, at its strange looking at it now, I was competing full time then. I find that my surfing now days has improved and matured allot. I find that I appreciate it so much more and enjoy myself so much more. 

You'll be seeing new surfing footage on a few of the episodes of The Blueprint travel show. I live breath eat surfing! Traveling is just the other reason why I wake up each morning. I get to see the world and meet new people and have adventures, and what the great thing about that is anyone in the world can do it, but its up to them to do it. Watch this space for details for when The blueprint hits your TV screens. Its worth the wait! Coming soon... 

I spoke to my oldest sister and my little niece on Skype over the weekend, and my sister told me something very sweet that my little niece did at school for show and tell. She used me as her topic and said; when she grows up, she wants to be like me. So as humbling as the thought of her wanting to be like her uncle and her telling the class I’m in my 30’s (that hurt because I’m far from that age) and many other things that makes me live the type of life I live, it made me think… Who did I want to be like when I was growing up.

I’ve been thinking about it all day, and to be honest I didn’t really want to be like anyone. You might think that’s crazy to say, but I really found it hard to think up of someone. I did have my idols that I looked up too growing up, because they were individuals and really inspired me just to be me. But I didn’t really have anyone, maybe a few ideas of what the right way to grow up as, but there is no right or wrong of growing up. But it was different back then, we had really amazing people to look up too. Now days we are so confused because we think that Tom Cruise is going to save the world for us, talk about putting someone on pedestals (we would still be taller than him). Gone are the days of people like Albert Einstein and Muhammad Ali to name a few, which really inspired everyone. Don’t get me wrong there are many one hit wonders coming out of the wood works, but the real people that we should pay attention to are living among us that we don’t even notice because everyone wants to be famous for doing nothing, it’s still a strange concept to get around. Sex, drugs(don’t do drugs) and rock ‘n roll, it becomes a bit boring if you have to think about it since nothing changes in that sentence because it’s cool that’s why we say it.  

Superman was cool because he was every Childs Idol growing up, no one could beat him. Now the kids have to look up to a new super hero called Ben 10 (word on the street Chuck Norris gave Ben 10 one of his watches, that gave him super powers  JOKE#) but Ben 10 is pretty lame. I have watched it with my nephews, and I have given up hope for a new superhero that will be better than Superman. So once you past that age in your child hood, you get older and you start looking up to real living people and finding what inspires you. (My niece jumped the gun on that one, but I still think it’s very cute that I’m her hero) The point of this is that if I ever had someone I looked up to while growing up, than he or she faded away and didn’t leave a mark in my mind or my heart. My niece, the sweetest little girl in the world, has left her mark in my heart. She made me realize that whatever I am doing in my life, I must be doing something right, so I’m going to keep on doing whatever I’m doing, I guess that’s just living my life the way I want to live it. But when she grows up, I just hope she gets to see the world like I have and become the best she can be. It feels amazing being able to inspire a 7 year old, she’ll end up saving the world one day, not Tom Cruise, she’s almost taller than him.

So this is all about my crazy night that happened this Saturday. Please be advised there is sexual reference to this piece or I should say the lack of, because I was not wanting any of it because this night became a night to remember for the strange people that  made my buddies and I say did this night really happen. My night started with me looking at the time over and over again, but my buddies still hadn’t picked me up. By 10:30pm I was about to text them saying I’m falling asleep and my bed is where sleeping takes place. Nevertheless, it was too late and a text came through that said come outside.

I will skip all the boring parts of us driving to the club, to parking the car to us drawing money because it was extremely boring. The club is rather large, with 2 separate dance floors playing mostly music from the 80’s and early 90’s, so you can imagine what type of crowd this place draws. It must have been a good 40 minutes of us being there, and my friends and I were are the one dance floor trying to remember the words to the songs that were playing. We were finding it extremely hard because we were in nappies and not eating solid foods just yet, when these songs first came out. However, we didn’t care to much, because trying to dance to the music was also challenging, and there wasn’t enough space to try the moon walk. The DJ even looked like Ron Jeremy the Famous porn star from the 80’s.  

I was wearing a Jimi Hendrix T shirt because I thought it be appropriate for this place and people could relate to it due to them being born from the same era as that great musician that was changing the way music is played. I’m just saying that there were slightly older people at this place, I just don’t want to be rude or offend anyone. So on the dance floor I had these woman behind me that kept on bumping into me, over and over again. I had to turn around because it was getting a bit much. As soon as I turned around, I recognized the one lady as she is a close family friend. Her mom was my grans best friend, and she more than likely changed my nappies when I was a baby, so in other words she has seen me naked before.

Still to this day, she is a beautiful woman and her friends also must have found the fountain of youth, or they must use buckets of Estee Lauder Cosmetics or something else. All I can say about these women is that they have aged like a fine wine. It just felt a bit creepy when she started pimping me out to her friends. I didn’t really know how to go about it because when someone is 15 years +/- older than you, one has to think about If this fine wine has been corked (meaning why is she single at her age)? Plus she was a close family friend and she has already seen me naked before and if her friends see me naked now, it would just confuse the situation and she won’t see me as little Steve…  I’ve grown up.

So apart from being hit on by several older women throughout the night, It must have been the Jimi Hendrix shirt I was wearing. The night really only took shape at 2am where we met this lovely lady who just finished dancing on the stripper pole (there is a stripper pole on the dance floor, true story. We also didn’t know if we had to tip her or not because she made our jaws drop when we noticed her on that random pole while she was doing her thing to Bon Jovi playing in the back ground) and Her male friend. He seemed like a nice friendly man. We had no Idea what these 2 were all about, but we started chatting to them making small talk. They told us they were actor’s blah blah blah… 

She started to show interest for our one friend who was so drunk. Talking and walking for him seemed like a challenge already, so she took him to the bar to get him even more drunk, we just let him do his own thing. 20 minutes went by at the bar, he came to us and said “guys you won’t believe what this lady at the bar just told me… She said she wants to take me home and rude word* me”  we still didn’t really take notice, we just said cool. We didn’t want to hype up the situation to much because he was so wasted, we didn’t know if he was telling the truth or not.

So time was passing by, and our drunk buddy was chatting to these new people on the other side of the room for ages. I needed to pee so I went to the bathroom and came back to find my other mate laughing his head off. He said you have to hear this… Our drunk little buddy was asked by these 2 new friendly faces we just met not so long ago, if he would like to come home with them, and if he could shag the lovely lady while the gentle man would sit and watch them go at it. The scary thing about all this is because she was a really attractive woman and watching her on the stripper pole made one think of what it could be like. So without even thinking, one would jump to this opportunity and let her as she said to our drunk little buddy “rude word* you like you have never been rude word* before” He had a big smile on his face when he told us what she said. If the guy wasn’t going to watch, then it wouldn’t have been so creepy, that’s for sure. He just made it very creepy!

We were getting tired and we wanted to go home and we weren’t going to leave our drunk buddy behind. In desperation, the gentleman called him aside and was really begging him to please come home with them. We managed to finally leave this place with our drunk buddy trying to walk next to us. Not far behind us the couple followed us and what we saw, they got into their car which happened to be an Audi A8(what Sa actors make that much money to drive and car like that) and they drove off. We were driving behind them, keeping some distance and we saw them take the turn off for the high way. My mate dropped me off at my flat, and was on route to drop off our drunk buddy at his place.

 Not even 5 minutes in my room, I get a call from him saying you will never believe who just called our drunk buddy, It was them…In another attempt to change his mind. So by this time I was laughing and said this is crazy. I said my goodbye and put my phone down. 2 minutes go by and I get a text from my buddy saying they have just arrived at my drunk buddies house and the gentleman has gotten out his car and is going  to ring the door bell. Our drunk buddy while getting drinks from the lady at the beginning of the night was dumb enough to tell her where he lives and gave her his cell phone number. Our drunk buddy said just drop him off and he will confront them and see what their story is. So my mate left him and went home.

So the morning came and my buddies and I met up for breakfast. We wanted to know what happened after he was dropped off at his place. So as he explained, he went up to them and they were still trying to get him to come home with them. So instead he invited them into his place for… wait for it…. some tea. So they said ok and went in. While making the tea words were being said back and forth, they were still begging him please to come back to their place. It got so bad that he walked in and the lady had taken off her top and was showing off her breasts hoping that would change his mind. It didn’t, I think they eventually gave up, and he politely asked them to leave his place. After all that, he went to bed!

It was one of those nights that I’m asking myself did it really happen. But I guess there are people out there that do this all the time. You hear about, but when it happens to a friend and you see it with your own eyes its honestly one of the funniest things in the world. Lesson to all of this is that, when you see a pretty slightly older woman. Just be nice because they will find you and maybe teach you new tricks, just hope there isn’t someone watching!

  

So the past few weeks people have been asking me what my day to day life is all about. Well its normal in my eyes but different for other people I guess. Let me begin a typical day if you can call it a typical day. I wake up at a good time, I’m a morning person so waking up is easy. I stare at the ceiling and remember what city I am in. After that, I let my toe test out the outside temperature and if it’s too cold, I usually say dammit. From there I get out of bed and proceed to the kitchen where I whip up my breakfast, stopping over at the bathroom first to have a pee, because it’s the right thing to do. I sit down with my breakfast and turn my laptop on. I check my emails and see what the waves around the country are doing, and occasionally will look at other places in the world and see if I’m missing waves. I will also look what facebook has surprised me with; usually there are no surprises just the odd poke and random message. 

I usually have a few emails to reply too. Facebook I just stare at blankly and say no thanks I will not be attending this party. Just would like to mention my facebook is just for my show now days and I have lost the true essence of what it’s really all about, which is connecting with old school friends and ignoring them all over again. While this is going on, I stare at my mobile device that also has the same emails and facebook messages, so I just ignore them. Half way through my breakfast, I send a message to my manager saying good morning. I do this because I just want to let her know I’m still alive and I think it’s nice having someone say good morning to you and say they must have a good day.

Once I have finished my breakfast and emails I will proceed to have a shower. Depending on what my day is like my shower will be 2 songs long. I will get changed and see that I missed a few phone calls. I will give my producer a call and find out what the plan is for the day or week, will give my editor a call and find out how the edit is going with the episodes of the show. I will then give my agent a call and find out if there are going to be any castings or shoots in the next coming week. Depending on the day, I might have voice over coaching. It helps me prepare myself for the months we will be on the road filming the show. My producers fear that I mumble too much, mean while my accent is more of a concern for my voice coach because as she says, it’s a mixture between an American, Australian, South African and occasionally some Irish will fall in there, don’t ask me how the Irish got in there. I’ll blame on that song  500miles that I sang the night before at karaoke, mean while that band is Scottish.

Basically my mornings are usually busy and they set up what my following days and weeks will look like. I live a day-to-day life ,and my bags are always packed and I’m ready to go. When we are the road, filming again my life will somewhat will be easier which is strange to think. I have no idea what my schedules are like, its revolves around my manager, producer and my agents. One day I’ll be filming the show or doing voice recordings or meetings with the TV channel or sponsors. The next day I’ll be doing a photo shoot for a magazine, or I’ll be a fire fighter for a media stunt my manager got me to do. But the best part of my of my day to day life is when I can get to go surfing.

I surf because It’s my happy place, it’s made me who I am. Its opened my eyes to the world of travel. I can’t believe how addicted I am to something like this. I’ll die an old man still doing what I love, and that’s just riding a wave, because it makes me happy. From all the sunrises and sunsets I have seen on the horizon, to hearing my heart beat while a wave comes crashing over me and the world of silence surrounds my body, yet I feel the safest being held in mother nature’s hands, knowing that the outside world has no influence of how I ride a wave and express myself. I will always know where I belong, neither here nor there. The Ocean whispers as my heart lives on. A time will come, when I run out of fun, and will want to be left where I belong.