Yoga, waves, and superfood parties!

Yet again, what an adventure the past few days have been!  On Sunday I did a promotion for Samudra at a environmental awareness event called the Great Green Move.  I did a chocolate making demo for 40 people, which was so much fun.  It was my first chocolate demo in Australia for a public audience and I made the mistake of pointing out the differences several times between my chocolate and Hershey's... only to be informed after that they don't have Hershey's in Australia!  But I think I still got my point across.  Then I got pulled in at the last moment to take part in a live yoga demo... definitely wasn't expecting that one, but I did my best... couldn't compare with the girls who had been practicing for years, but managed to keep up more or less and had fun doing it. 

Since arriving in Australia, I still haven't been able to find a good spring water source, as spring locations aren't as publicly shared here as back in California.  Finally on Tuesday I found some good maps showing water source locations.  I located 10 different springs on the map, though it wasn't possible to see what the surroundings were or if they were on private property.  After work Ben and I went to look for waves, but couldn't find any, so we decided to check out the first of the springs I had mapped out.  With a little searching, we found the first one, but it was contaminated due to the fact that it was in the middle of a cow field abundant with dung.  We went to look for the second spring I had mapped, but in Ben's 4WD we soon found ourselves bogged in the sand and the wheels just kept spinning deeper and deeper.  We left his truck in the sand for the night and I went to a meditation class.  It was nice to meditate, but the teacher lived too much in another world for me.  I think its great when meditation teachers can exist successfully in other realms as well as successfully interact with people and the world around them, which this lady just couldn't.  The funniest part though was that I had to come straight there from having tried to dig Ben's truck out of the sand and my hands and feet were covered in black dirt and sand... I was a sight to behold walking into this class! :)

Having worked on Sunday, I was entitled to take a morning off of work this week, so three friends and I decided to go surf yesterday morning after yoga at Guillotines, which can only be accessed by a boulder ridden 4WD track.  We scored perfect head high left and right waves all to ourselves on a beautiful clear sunny day for 3 hours.  The spot was a bit intense, there was only about three feet of water over the sharp rock reef at any time and if you didn't kick out of the wave in time, it went right into a rock ledge that stuck completely out of the water!  Luckily I escaped unscathed, but with a few close calls!  On the way back, we went back to Ben's truck and towed it out of the sand.  I was feeling great and had a super productive afternoon at work.  Last night we had an all time party at my house with an international crew, 1 American, 1 Frenchman, 1 Venezuelan, 1 Colombian, 1 Israeli, 1 Canadian, 1 Australian, and 2 Germans ;).  I made chocolate and some ridiculously powerful herbal cacao concoctions and we all got blissed out! (and did a bit of cacao butter painting) That is my kind of party!  Today I squeezed in an hour long surf at Goanna's between yoga and work and had another wicked (local for awesome) session!  I can really feel my surfing improving and I am so stoked on surfing at the moment!

Shark Sighting

After a week of minimal surf and several days of nursing a strained neck from a yoga mishap (diving headfirst into the ground, not my greatest moment) today the waves finally came up in a big way!  Today being Saturday meant no work and no yoga, so I slept in (until 7:30... this is sleeping in when you are used to getting up at 5:00 daily or earlier for yoga), then made an elixir and went for a surf.  Afterwards, I went to Samudra to participate in a fundraising event for child trafficking in India... basically anyone could come do 27, 54, or 108 sun salutations and make an offering.  With my neck still not yet back to 100%, I played it safe and went for the 27 option.  After a delicious salad and a piece of raw strawberry cheesecake, I went for another surf.  Still hungry for more waves, I went to meet Ben, who was just finishing work, to go to Injidup Point.  We drove out there and walked 20 minutes out to the point with our boards only to arrive and here that a 10 foot shark had been seen there only one hour before.  We debated laughing for a while whether the shark would have moved on by now or not... in the end I decided that the waves weren't really that good and that paddling out would be too much of a threat to my longevity.  We hung around for the sunset and had a great inverted sun gazing session that really charged me up.  (When you sun gaze inverted, it is much easier to do, so you can do it for longer and get a more profound effect.)

Australianism of the day- Sometimes (especially on the east coast) instead of saying "thank you," they just say "ta."  This one really annoys me!  The first few times I heard it, I had no idea what people were saying and still it just doesn't make sense to me- "thanks" is not that long that it merits abbreviation to "ta."  I'll add this to the short list of colloquialisms I won't be adopting, which includes pronouncing the "h" at the start of "herbs."

Back to Dunsborough

Its been more than a few days since my last post, this last week has been so hectic (in the best way ever) that I haven't had a single second to type anything out.  After flying back to Perth, I was super stressed after having had some issues with the rental car agency and having to make a mad dash not to miss the plane, but this residual stress turned out to be the effects of the radiation you get exposed to when flying, because as soon as I went down to the beach and immersed myself completely in the water, the radiation was discharged into the earth along with all of the stress and worries.  My friend Shane and I picked up some awesome raw food treats (raw açaí ice cream, almond coconut cake, spicy kale chips, and glass-bottled spring water) from Manna in Perth and spent the afternoon cruising the beaches talking to lovely Perthians about superfoods (a few of them were into it, but most weren't ready for it... yet... but we planted the seed).  The next morning we made the 3 hour drive down to Dunsborough... how amazing it was to come home back into nature... not trees planted in the sidewalk or next to houses, but wild untamed raw nature.  It was also great to get back to Samudra and see everyone's amazing smiling faces that I hadn't seen in three weeks

The next day the day was the start of the David Wolfe retreat at Samudra.  As a part of the retreat, we went on a bushwalk with a member of the local Wardandi tribe who showed us a variety of wild foods and medicines used by her people.  

The next night we had a chocolate making class with David, making a special chocolate that hadn't been made since my last retreat with him in Costa Rica.  It is called "Sin Azucar," which is Spanish for without sugar and is also a play on the word sin because you are indulging in chocolate, which some might say is a sin, but it is sugarless, so its all good!  This is more than just a sugarless chocolate, it is loaded with 20+ powerful superherbs. which not only heal you, but also get you significantly high.  It was so good, I made 22 kilos (48 pounds) of it for the one night David Wolfe talk and chocolate party on Saturday night, which almost 300 people attended.  One night, David, myself, and eight other wild superfoodists had a super elixir blend-off... so much fun!  This is how superheros live!  We concocted every extreme superfood/superherb drink imaginable and then the cacao butter came out....  I'll let you decipher that one on your own.

The whole week was absolutely phenomenal and I'm super stoked to be back in Dunsborough and to have gotten to hang with David out here and make incredible chocolate and elixirs with him.  Today David and his crew left to Bali... they tried to get me to come with them, but alas I have to work... and its pretty amazing where I am.  Bali is definitely in the future plans for me though.  In addition to my daily astanga yoga practice, I've now also started an advanced yoga studies course, which is bound to take me to new levels.  Signing off for now... below is a photo of some of the David Wolfe retreat group.  Look at the view in the second photo to see whats making us smile so much!

Melbourne

Tonight is my last night in Melbourne and its been a very interesting couple of days... I flew in and rented an SUV to carry the 26 boxes being shipped here for Samudra.  Melbourne is sort of a European style city.  Normally I don't mind driving, but driving in a city is one of the few things that is super stressful for me and one of my least favorite tasks.  Melbourne people have a very different psychology than Australians that I have met throughout the rest of the country and they definitely hold themselves in very high regard.  However, I made some wonderful friends here and really connected with some great people.  But the reality is that being in a city and being away from surf is not a reality that I can exist in very well.  Driving in Melbourne is intense!   There are trams running right through the streets (San Francisco style from what I am told) and sometimes when you're driving, you're going right on top of the tracks, parallel to where a tram would be going.  I still don't know what you're supposed to do if a tram shows up on the tracks while you're driving along in the other direction!  Also, they have a unique driving maneuver here call "hook turns"  I'll explain this one from the perspective of American driving (driving on the right hand side) because the maneuver is so confusing on its own that for American readers trying to picture it from the left hand side might melt your brain.  Imagine you come to a light and are planning to turn left across oncoming traffic, BUT instead of pulling into the left hand turning lane, you have to pull into the far right hand lane, wait until all the cars going straight from both directions have gone through, then make the left turn!  But wait, that's not the best part!  I've been here four days now spending large parts of my days driving all around the city and I just found out about the hook turns today!  I've been doing it completely wrong for four days and had no idea!  I can't believe I didn't have a major crash (or a smash as its called here).  Alas, that didn't last long.  Finally today I was backing out of a narrow alleyway and there was a 1 meter high pole that was below my view out the rear window and I smashed right into it!  Then I realized that I had forgotten to lock my car earlier and that my iPod had evaporated... oh well, today was a major lesson in non-attachment.  Can't wait to get back to Dunsborough, nature and waves!  So excited to get on that plane tomorrow!

Good news from today- Vitamix has agreed to let me keep the vitamix they have let me use for the demos on the tour... this is awesome, especially as vitamixes cost over $1000 in Australia!  Stoked!

Cacao Dance Party

Wow, what a night last night!  Rocked up to the cacao party in Sydney with David Wolfe and 300 other wild people, downed 5 cacao drinks, 1 brownie, 1 piece of cacao cake, cacao mousse, and 2 cacao coconut cayenne ice creams and spent the next few hours dancing with every other chocolate charged person there.  I definitely found my cacao limit and had a great time doing it!  Today was the last David Wolfe day in Sydney, then Tuesday we are off down to Melbourne.

On and On

Another great David Wolfe event tonight in Sydney with 300+ people, but starting to feel the wear and tear of the tour life... went all out on 5 hours sleep from 530 AM, just getting back now at 1230 AM and a huge day awaits me tomorrow.  Good thing I am in line with my purpose and loving every moment! :)

East Coast Tour Update

I've been on the east coast for 8 days now and what an 8 days it has been!  Zane and I had incredible success selling the Samudra superfood line, receiving orders of $1000 or more from every single store we set foot in!  Then we had a booth at a David Wolfe evening event in Brisbane followed by a whole day workshop the next day.  We picked up a Vitamix in Brisbane which we're traveling with, so I've been able to have absurdly pleasing blended drinksThen we drove two hours south to Byron Bay, where we scored fun waves in the most crystal clear light blue amazing water with baby dolphins cruising through the line up before going to that day's David Wolfe talk in Byron.  Byron is amazing!  The people are beautiful, all super-fit and the average level of consciousness there is very high.  The weather is warm and tropical and reminded me a lot of Costa Rica.  I can definitely see myself returning there in the future for an extended stay.  Then it was time to move on- an 11 hour drive down through torrential rain which rivaled the craziest Costa Rican rains I have ever experienced back down to Sydney.  The tour continues!