Editor’s Note: These pieces are intended to offer a deeper look into each episode of surfer Fergal Smith‘s Line9 series, Growing, a new clip published every two weeks. The series is a year in the life of Smith and his brother. With a new clip published every two weeks, the series follows them as they take a step back from the rat race while spending days tending to a sustainable garden and surfing the readily available Irish slab.
Author’s Note: My main reason for doing this series is for showing the what else I’m passionate about — aside from surfing — and to try to promote all the good, positive things that people are doing.
I have more or less tee-totaled on the travel front with no planes. And from now on, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m not planning on traveling at all. There are numerous reasons: there is, of course, the environment; but, more practically, there is the garden — and I simply don’t want to to be anywhere else. But back in January, my friend Tom DH was keen to go on a trip to Scotland. And always game for adventure, I went.
He knew I was no longer flying so he asked if I wanted to go on a road trip. My friend Dave Hanely has a camper van business called Vanderlust and hooked us up with a beaut of a van. I had just started the field project and knew it was going to be a busy summer; I went in thinking that it could be the last trip for a while.
This was a little road trip with Tom and my brother Kev. We have great waves here and I fully realize that, but there is something very special about heading off with your mates. You don’t know what’s going to happen and I swear half the time it isn’t even about the waves — it’s the journey that makes it. As surfers, we all can relate to this buzz which is why we made a quick clip on our little trip. It was so cold up in Scotland, being the end of January with howling easterly winds, but for me it makes it even more fun, dealing with the cold and all. We caught some really fun waves and got to try out loads of fun boards.
Anyway, back to gardening I suppose!
