30 Jun 2021

Painting, surfing and playing the guitar all have something common.

I'm awful at all of them. So genuinely, irrevocably, overwhelmingly awful.

My paintings look like a three-year-old has done them. Last week, I finished a portrait of my friend but he thought it was supposed to be a demon. He said, and I quote; "I didn't know Satan had freckles". 

After years of surfing, I'm still lucky to stand up once in a day since I was born with two left feet. You probably have more coordination in your left pinky than I have in my entire body.

Don't even get me started on playing the guitar. I was expecting to be as red hot as Jimi Hendrix by now but I still struggle wrapping my fingers into an F chord (the easiest one).

We're taught that practice makes perfect. But if you don't find perfection, move on. Strive to do what you're good at. Get bangin' marks in school and be top of the class. Achieve achieve achieve. Hustle and grind until you're at the top. 

It's easy to fall into this trap. I know I did. I mean, all of my mates would surf every day and I'd always just sit on the shore like a sad sack of potatoes. I felt like I was the girls in Puberty Blues, waiting for their boyfriends' on the sand with chiko rolls and pies.

My friends would always say: "Izzy, just come out with us!". But I was embarrassed because I was so so bad. 

Then one day, I just snapped out of that thinking. Who cares?!! Who bloody cares that it took me twice the time to paddle out because I've got chicken arms? Who cares that every time I tried to sit on the board whilst waiting for waves, I'd lose my balance and topple over? Who cares that I was constantly nose-diving or trying to pop up too early?  

Who cares that I'm a kook? Why do we not just let ourselves have time to just be bad at something that we love to do?

Friends will ask me to play something on the guitar for them when they see it in my room and I do. I'm out of time and jumble up all the chords and I don't care. I laugh along and have fun.

Mates will compliment me on my paintings, trying to hold back laughter because they're genuinely so abysmal. I laugh with them.

I'm bad and I don't care. In a world where we're all obsessed with succeeding, I love having hobbies that I don't want or need anything from other than fun.

I will probably never be in the World Surf League. I won't be sponsored by Ripcurl and Billabong and I would most definitely die trying to surf 30ft waves in Hawaii.

I don't think I'll ever have an art exhibition of all my paintings. I will never be as good as Van Gogh (which I guess is a relief because I like both of my ears).

I will most likely not ever be onstage, performing a red hot guitar solo to hundreds of thousands of fans whilst they cheer my name.

Stop taking life so seriously and just muck around! Embrace being a kook because trust me, it's a vibe.