March-Sep 2014
I'll do this one in English, since I'm so cool n international now. Back in Sweden after a year in 'Stralia. Thought I'd do a sum-up. I'm sick and bored. It got soooooo much longer than I thought, but this is just so that I have something to look back at and remember when I get old and nostalgic.
I really miss everything. Walking barefoot every day, living the easy life where the biggest trouble was that the waves were bad or that there were no seconds for dinner. What I miss the most is having people around me all the time. If I wanted company, there was always someone to chat to, play a game with or just watch a movie with.
If you just wanna read about the last six months of my trip, you got it right here.
Anyways, here we go:
MARCH
After a week in Thailand to visit my old home and friends with beach parties, Bangla Road, Phi Phi and diving with leopard sharks, I went to visit my old friend Ida (yeh she's like over 25 yrs old!).
Ida lives with her man Leo in Perth. I lived in a hostel in Freo for a week. It was fun. We saw a lot of beaches and hiked at Rottnest Island. Even though the signs were confusing or non-excisting, we managed to find our way around. A lizard ate Idas lunch and we did see a quokka. And Ida made a b-day cake for Leo that looked like a brown doodle.
APRIL
EBS (European Bartender School) asked me to come to Sydney to work. So I moved to Redfern and shared bed with Louise. That was cosy. We lived with two Korean guys who couldn't speak English. Before that, I lived at the school for a few days. Jocke lived there too. I closed the door but he didn't have the key. We tried a lot of ways to open that door. After an hour and a half, we finally managed to get in.
Bar Training
Flair training in Central Park
Pia is awesome
At the Opera Bar I had rose wine with Jossan from my hometown Linköping.
I worked with Pia and Patrik. They're awesome. The whole crew went surfing one day. I was stoked. And paintball another day.
At my birthday (10th of April), I ate heaps of chocolate cake. But Stål-Jocke was afraid of getting fat. Then Me and Louise made tacos and I got candles in the chocolate ice cream. It was a gooood birthday. I was full.
We had whisky and tequila tastings at the school with a guy who worked for Jack Daniel's. Me and Patrick drew funny things.
And graduation dinner was a meat feast with all you can eat. So I did. Ate. A lot. We opened the bar at the school and made cocktails and handed out diplomas before heading to Frankie's for an epic party night.
MAY
I started woofing (work for food n accom) at a hobby farm outside Yeppoon, close to Rockhampton in QL. I lived with a family and took care of the animals. We went to a bar where they had rodeo. That was cool. And Thor the alpaca had to get milk from a bottle. But when I fed the animals bread, there were four geese that chased me. They were scary.
When I left after about 9 days (I just wanted go suurfing), I stopped by Brissy for a night and went on a ferry trip around town.
JUNE
I found my home. Spot X Surfcamp. Kev from North England showed me around and Rossco from Scotland explained the 3 months instructor course I had in front of me. I didn't understand what they were sayin. Robin from Cornwall had one of my first lessons. Didn't understand him either. But I loved surfing!
I worked in the Photoshack.
Mon-Fri mornings (6.30 or 7 am) we had a 2 hour surf lesson, usually with Glen, Jimmy or Cuzza. Cruisy, blond aussie surfers (stereotypical?). In the arvo there was either theory or fitness. The rugby game on the beach was fun! The ocean mission not so much.. Run, swim, paddle, run.
"There are always waves to surf", Jimmy said, "so don't complain! Except today.." One day it was a lake! So we had a paddle comp and then we paddled to the Point. Me and Granny Annie jumped from the board and played in the water.
The Soccer World Cup was on! I went up before my surf lesson and watched the games in the photoshack at 5 am. It was cold and dark, but cosy. Usually I got company from a few. And when the finals were on, we got the TV channels in the movie room and could snuggle up there.
I lived in the Woman Cave, a small cabin just next to the surf school. In the bed above me slept my wonderful Issy. We went swimming together as soon as I got there, and down that road it is... ;) Ryan moved in to the Woman Cave and got a proper welcome. He served dinner in a dress and makeup. We had many nice evening chats in there, where Sarah gave good advice and taught us foreigners English.
I had my first experience with the sweat box and Kev's colourful dancemoves humping the ceiling. Robin had his cow costume and someone got NBO'd (Next Bus Out) for kissing an Academy girl. Katie missed clubbing, and Claudia didn't like snoring. Nat and Martin made amazing impressions. And the staff meeting was about yes to fuck farmers.
We celebrated Swedish Midsummer with games and dancing around the pole. That morning I got the surfboard on my chin at Mullawarra and it made a little hole. 3 stitches later everything was fine.
Team Sweden, we organised the Midsummer Celebrations :)
It got really cold in the mornings and evenings. I had socks in my thongs, which BrokeBackChris loved. To put on the wet wettie was torture. And the fingers were hurting when we walked almost to Corindi in the mornings. But the water was warm and nice.
JULY
The low season really started. More and more people left. That gave us some advantages. Pancakes or egg and bacon for brekki. Luckily 'cause Andi's porridge was just milk with some oats. Toasters for the wraps at lunch. And we always had lunch in the sun around the firepit.
We bought nerf guns to shoot people with. Ryan liked our spontaneous dance, buddy Andi danced funny, Lucca said Aha-ha and Collin was South African. We had a massage train. Charlotte was drunk. Rose taught us yoga. Almost everyone was called Chris.
Oh, and Mike made his first dinner speech but thought his name was John. Would you have an icecream that tastes like poo or poo that tastes like icecream?
Kev and Bear left for a month. So we were free to play. Me and Sarah organised Camp Cocktail. It was Julie's first night. I helped everyone to make their own cocktails. Mojitos, orgasms and some other yummy stuff. It became an epic party! But the limes were too many..
And then the night with the Dirty Dancing jumps when the lamp broke!
In the end of July, there was a storm and Stuey got lost in a rip in Byron the day after they left camp. Everything was horrible. So I moved to Mojo Byron for a little while. We had the paddle out* at Watergos with flowers and drank Irish whiskey, Jameson. It was beautiful.
* you gather in a circle in the water with surf boards to honour someone
I drove the troopy with Izz n Bryn to Byron.
I lived in a cold tipi without electricity in the Arts Factory with Lois from London. We went skydiving and that was amazing!! And a lot of us made tattoos from Stueys drawings.
AUGUST
After 10 days in Byron I went back home to Spot X. We had a Cake Off in memory of Stuey. All departments made their own cake. The nightstaff and Gary's kids were judges. The kitchen crew won (surprisingly).
I worked in the kitchen and went farming for a few days. And then daystaff. And then both kitchen and day. And then kitchen. And then back to the photoshack in the end.
My board was unlucky before I bought it from Katie and got 5 dings. Benavitch fixed it and the day before my surf test I finally got it. The test went shit but the weekend course was fun. Me and the two Frenchies, Lucca and Justine, drove to Coffs in the troopy and they sang Pokemon in French.
And the boys were always singing Disney songs in the showers so everyone could here. And Lloyd was playing the guitar and singing every night so Emil fell in love with him. Paula was a guapa but Tom was fucking annoying. Aled always wore pj-pants with comic book dudes.
The twins Vic and Lloyd showed us a fun game where you try to lift a carbon box from the floor with your teeth without touching the floor with anything but your feet. And we had a fun game of charades in the photoshack!
One night, we actually left camp (!) and had a night out in Coffs (in a real nightclub!) with some of the new farmers. Tom got kicked out for taking his shirt off. Me and Toby got kicked out too. I only closed my eyes and then we had kebabs.
We went rafting in over head waves and Ben abandoned us so Carlsy, the only guy living in the academy house, took command. We got smashed.
We spent a lot of evenings in Bens work shack just watching boards get shaped. Rossco Krypto had a cool design by Bryn Byrd.
We were about 5-10 peeps in the academy lessons this month. One day, there was one client. And the academy house was almost empty. My two Swedish gals were both away on different adventures in Asia so I didn't speak Swedish at all.
When Lloyd and Vic left :(
I love the spelling
SEPTEMBER
I finished my surf lessons. Issy and Nat came back! Later Ryan and I left the woman cave to live with the boys and Kat in GHQ next door. We had 5.30-surfs in the mornings. That was awesome! It started to get brighter in the mornings and warmer again.
Crab shakka
There were a lot of beers for Eddie with the tailgina (and a little bit of vodka) and fires by Benzys tent. We sat and talked the whole party night without realising, Ben, Eddie and I.
Tim had 8.000 followers on Instagram (was up to 10.000 before he left). Jordo came and made bad jokes that Nat couldn't stop laughing at. Truck off! And they're still together in Tassie :D Issy left us which was sad. But Fatima joined team Sweden! (Or was that in October?)
The awesome girls of the Woman Cave
Me and Emil went full moon surfing. Siiick! The waves were hip high and slow, I had a perfect right-hander the first wave! But it was hard to see each other. And the academy house started to fill up again. The German party girls who liked Nutella came.
Oct 2014 - March 2015
This is a sum-up over my last six months in Australia. I spent it at Mojosurf Spot X Surf Camp where I at this time worked in the photoshack taking photos of the surf lessons, uploading them and showing them to the clients. I had just finished a three months instructor course but failed the surf exam.
I think you had to be there. Anyways:
OCTOBER
We had a dress up-surf for Kat's last day. Before that we played a fun game with two balls but no rules. It got intense. I hurt my toe and Ben got a black eye. Best. Game. Ever.
And then all the horror movie nights in the academy house started. That was so cosy! Fatima screamed. Puck scared everyone and Nose-Dave wasn't a fan of the fan. But he liked singing Let It Go with Elsa. The babies came and it got harder to find space for the movies. One night we were in Puck, Joe and Nadia's room. All we could hear was Ryan talking outside and sometimes Hana and Rekha laughed a bit. But mostly just Ryan talking. ;) And Fatima's occasionally screams, ofc.
We went to the rock pool
Nadia did NOT like when Emil dropped in on her! But she made nice beanies for all of us. I think so yes. We went to Amble Inn, the pub in Corindi. We danced to the live band and saved Rachel from her stalker. Canada-Adam had some moves! And we all went night swimming. Puck woke up with a scary sight when a local dude was sitting in the sofa staring.
And the three of us passed our second surf test! I got to wear the red rashie instead of the orange.
That was cool.
Then the FESTIVAL finally came!! It's tradition, one to start the season before summer, and one to end the season before winter. (Aussie time here, summer is winter, remember?). Hundreds of people were there. Slip'n'slide, volleyball, BBQ and sofas on the field of dreams. And all the live bands! The theme was NAUTICAL and in the evening we dressed up. Anne, me and Jules were waves and Tim was Poseidon. That day and night was one of the best!!
I got to choose Emil's outfit
Sunni was the jellyfish on stage ^^
Mojo-Nat stage dived but no one caught him. Pepper didn't feel too well. Eirik didn't either. And John found someone that Kirsty had to put to bed. And Adam cleaned vomits. We danced on the roof of that cool bus!
The night before was pretty sick too. We danced to Abba on the empty stage in the dark with some 50+ Aussies.
NOVEMBER
As a thanks for the hard work at the festival, we got a staff BBQ at red rock. We jumped from the rope swing. Anne landed funny. And I saved Sunni from the strong current.
Me, Nat, Lucca and Glen had a fun weekend in Cresco. We listened to Nat's impressions the whole night and laughed our asses off.
Matt, Sam and the other farmers organised a cross dress party. It was Arthur's first party night so we had to make him pretty (prettier). And John got some hilarious photos that I can't show anyone, unfortunately. Just trust me, they're funny.
The soccer games England-Germany that we had sometimes got intense. Dennis loved it.
My dear friend Frida that I worked with in EBS Thailand came to visit for a few days!:)
I started instructing more frequently. Me and Bryn drove to Byron 4 am for one lesson. Then I started guiding and instructing. Guiding means bringing a group from Sydney to Spot X and be their babysitter for the next five days. Just hold their hands if something gets scary. Then bring them partying in Byron before getting a new group from Sydney.
Me and Anne had a fun pre-party by ourselves at the porch to GHQ before the shit shirt-party. We played beer pong. And went to the beach in the end. It was fun.
The next Saturday we had a Glow-Party. We all dressed in bright neon!
Lucca made a sushi night for us where we made our own sushi. Delicious!!
Me and Olly went to Anna Bay for a week. Surf lessons and lifesaving for 16 year-old Melbourne girls. We ate cakes every day. And made a Ripple Cake that mysteriously got eaten in the fridge.
We thought someone got bitten by a crocodile. And played spoons and cricket. In Newcastle, me and Olly had pizza and a litre of chocolate ice cream. We like eating.
DECEMBER
The peak season started. The academy house was full. The clients went from 1-20 in the winter to 80-150 in the summer. The staff started to fill up. More Scandinavians came. It got busier, which was fun in another way. I loved the calm winter but this was actually fun too!
Especially since I didn't have to take photos anymore. That would've been stressful. And the academy promo video was done as well, the one that me and Anne were pulling our hair for more than a few times. Thanks to Martin it turned out pretty good. Although I missed my funny clips in it. ;)
I took some days off and spent a long weekend in Sydney in a nice hotel. It was great, having my own room. Just being naked and go to the toilet with an open door, luxury! Hadn't done that since Thailand.
I met BBC (BrokeBackChris). Then I co-judged the EBS Cocktail comp where they dressed up as reindeers, bananas and made the Titanic scene. It was hilarioous - but the cocktails were pretty shit. Me and Pia had ice cream at Anita's, of course. To make JD Steel jealous. Then we went to Ikea and had Swedish Christmas food.
I also went to a Swedish Christmas Market and watched a Lucia train. And had a meatball sandwich, obviously. Arthur and Calum were in Sydney too. We had beers. Went to Manly. And watched the fireworks in Darling Harbour. And we watched Interstellar at imax.
Since I was a guide, I brought my first own group up to camp from Sydney after that weekend. Five days later, I brought them to Byron for a party night. They didn't want to party, but the academy guys that went up for the weekend, they did! I came to their hostel and the we went to Woodys. It was fun!
As soon as I was back at camp, I jumped in the troopy to Red Rock. Staff party was on!! I was first out from the car and the boys attacked me and carried me upside down to the goon punch to drink with my feet in the air. Later I did a front flip in the water (it was more shallow than I thought) and hurt my neck and back. Stupido. Olly cut his foot on oysters. Then everyone tried to wrestle Bear. Sausages and sauces were flying!
The food fight continued at camp. So did the party. Me and Fatima were laughing at the whole situation.
Then CHRISTMAS came! I surfed in my Santa costume. It broke. But Joe found my hat, thank god. I played Christmas songs all day. We had lussekatter that we made the day before.
We made a sandman. Ate cake. And the Swedes/Norwegians got meatballs. We danced around my mini Christmas tree. And went to the crowded pub where we owned the dance floor.
Obviosly I had to decorate my tent that I moved in to a couple of weeks before
Then my beloved Issy came back! She lived with me in my tent. (Yes, it's a tent. Yes, we had beds and electricity (after a few weeks). Yes, I loved it.) Unfortunately Nat moved with Jordo to Tassie before that, so the Swede reunion didn't happen. But it will. At some point. :)
Then the cadets moved in to the two cool buses.
NEW YEARS! We had a dress up surf comp. Olly and Ryan with their cut up feet were judges. Me, Joe and Ross were Team Awesome, a bit spontaneusly. We tried surfing together. At least we had the most fun. Sven. Noah, Matt and Felix were the hottest of them all.
Fun New Years party with karaoke (Mamma Mia, what else?), scavenger hunt and other games. Watched a few fireworks at the beach at midnight. Me, Julie and Olly were hungry so Chris was kind and gave us chocolate. The pizza place wasn't open, actually.
JANUARY
I started in-house guiding with Matt so I didn't have to do the trips anymore. I met people that came off the bus and showed them around. That was nice. I did that because the front flip I tried at the Christmas party gave me more and more problems with my back, so the bus trips to Sydney (10 hrs one way) were horrible. For a week I didn't surf or instruct. It was depressing. I wasn't even allowed to swim in the ocean, the doctor said. So I did nothing. I read a book. And ate a lot.
Then I got better! The waves were awesome and I loooove surfing. :D Anyways, in January it was pretty calm. I didn't drink much alcohol and just had nice movie nights and stuff. Although we did have a fun beach party!
In the end of January, Rob the head coach sent me to Mojo Byron to help the new team of guides/photographers. Everything works a bit different there since they don't have a camp at the beach. The clients either live in the Mojo Tipi Village by the hostel Arts Factory or they just go to a surf lesson and live wherever. We lived in the same tipis that I did when I was there half a year earlier. It was heaps warmer which was nice. I got to play boss and make a new checklist for their tasks plus I had to find a new team leader.
My first night there Hailey came up with a group so we went out for a party at Cheeky Monkeys. Fun!
So I worked a lot with planning and papers, but I also went to a couple of lessons, hung out in the small Mojo shop and watched them fix the tipis. It was fun! We went surfing at Watergos one morning, me and Ben. It was a really nice wave! Better than when I went by myself to the Pass, which was way too crowded. It was cool watching all of the awesome grooms (young surfers) who were ripping though.
Australia Day, 26th of January, was calm for me. I had a surf lesson and then I just went to the beach to chill with FroYo and fruits. I had a movie night when everyone else was partying. The big thing with 'Straya Day is Triple J Hottest 100. A radio channel that lists the top 100 tracks of the year, which people get to vote for. And of course all BBQ's.
I did yoga here one morning
One evening, it was a Talent Show at Arts
It was a good and different thing to do, but I was glad to come back home to Spot X again. Tom was back after 4-5 months away as the new night driver. Unfortunately Henke just left one day, so I guess it was good timing.
I stayed at Spot X two days and then I did my last trip to Sydney, a weekend trip with only girls. We had a surf lesson in Umina and then went to Anna Bay, the same place me and Olly went to in November. The waves in Umina were huge and the current was really strong, which was a challenge. But everything went great. We went sand boarding at the largest sand dunes in the Southern hemisphere (Stockton) where they filmed Star Wars!! How cool is that?? I even managed to stand up on the board, that was fun fun fun!
The kangaroo Josie was rescued and chose to stay at the backpacker place in Anna Bay
We went on a dolphin tour and they had a fun slide from the boat!
Baby dolphin selfie
FEBRUARY
The Swedes took over the camp! We were maybe 10 Swedes plus our guests of honour, Arnie and Dale (my two workout buddies). The Fight Club Challenge started. As fast as possible: 50 pullups, 100 pushups and 150 dips. I did half in about the same time as the boys (if I jumped for the pullups).
This was an amazing month. As all of them, actually.
I asked if I could work with acitivities instead. No one was doing that and I had some fun ideas. So that became my new job, two hours in the arvo and one hour in the evening plus planning. Usually volleyball or soccer on the beach with music. The evenings could be ping pong tournaments (always won by Charley, Guus or one of the Swiss guys), quiz nights, fires with the guitar, movie nights or parties.
One weekend there was a storm. I picked up a group for a day trip from Byron to Spot X because the beaches were closed up there. Me, Cuzza and Lois brought them in the Mojo bus. When we arrived it was 11 am and the rain was pouring down! My job was to show them around and keep them happy until lunch at 12. Haha I made them play pingpong but dude, they were not happy! At their surf lesson after lunch, we were 4 coaches for 15 peeps and the current was just pulling them sideways. Crazy.
Because of that storm, me and Issy had to abandon our tent and move in to a tipi with Dale instead.
My first assignment in my new job was the FULL MOON PARTY! We had glow paint and a fun night in the sweat box singing karaoke (Mamma Mia of course - we were a lot of swedes there, remember?.
Since Saturdays were party nights, we had Hawaii Party, Valentine's Speed Dating and Rock Night. The last one was Matt's last night and I had made a rock music quiz á la the Swedish TV-show "Så Ska Det Låta". And then we brought the music bin to the beach and had another great beach party!
We went to the rock pool again.
MARCH
The month of goodbyes. It has always been the down side of Spot X, all the goodbyes. But in the end of February and during March I had to say bye to so many amazing people. Lucca and Julie left earlier, then Matt and Arnie.
Then a bunch of these guys left at once: Casper, Herbert, Tiger, Timo, Leo, Jason, Raz, Ellen, Caroline.
Earlier that day Judith, Guus and Gloria left as well. (Hope I didn't forget anyone.)
The next weekend was the worst goodbye I had done so far. Puck, Gee and the CARDINALS Kalle, Daniel, Jacob and Kajsa all left at the same time. It started pouring down rain and the music bin randomely played Let Her Go. Such a sad day! Puck came in September and even if she was away for a while, she'd been there a long time. She's my baby sistah :) All of them are amazing!
Sunni, Alex, Maria, Ylva, Charley, Cuzza, Jimmy.. There were so many that left during that time, I can't name everyone, it would be too long of a list.
The worst thing was of course when I had to leave. I was about to leave Sunday, then Monday but I stayed 'til Wednesday, the day before my flight to Sweden. I cried for two hours before I left and another hour on the bus. Spot X was my home and a big part of my mojo family was still there.
My soulmate Issy, obviously. My bosses Bear, Rob and Dan. And Niels, Ally, Benzy, Tanya, Dave, Ben, Michael, Pedro, Ole, Tim, Dan, Dale, Jade, Hailey, Elsa, Steffi x2, Jasmine, Emil, Olly .. oh shit I can't keep namedropping. I hated leaving each n every one! My wonderful friend Chris made me a photo slide show just before I went in the bus from my time at the camp. He's been there as long as I have.
Before all of those sad goodbyes we did have heaps of fun though! And that' will be the memories we'll bring with us :)
We went full moon surfing. The waves were shit but we had a good time!
Me and Niels went tandem surfing on a paddle board. It was sunny, but the photo didn't wanna show that.
Freaky Friday the 13th and Super Saturday the 14th was a great weekend! Big Boss Dan's friend had a bachelor party in the villa. On the Friday the facepaint from the full moon party came out again and we looked beautiful!
That Saturday was one of my favourite days! After my AM surf lessons, we had BBQ at the field of dreams. Then slip'n'slide! I managed to slide all the way, quite an achievement I must say. Volleyball and chill on the grass and the beach until dinner time. What a day!
We'll never know who's hiding behind the mask. It will forever be a mystery, that monkey.
We started the evening with beer pong outside the GHQ (or was that the weekend before?). Then the academy party was full on. After that, we went to the villa where there was a live band playing. Mojo Bluesmen, two homeless dudes who played sooo well! It was cool, they had this megaphone that they sang through. And that's where the party really started!
My last Saturday came. We made a big party for me and DJ Charley. First a few of us had dinner in the surf school. Then we went for the crazy academy party. Ben was drunk already. We danced and had an awesome time before heading to the sweatbox for more dancing. Yeeeeeew!
I stage dived. That was so much fun, haha!
The day after we went out in the water to take group shots. The waves were tiny but it was something magical with that morning. I really loved it. Almost everybody was there and we went for party waves and just laughed. The shortboarders didn't stay too long though. But I cross-stepped the shit out of my mal.
The last nights we had Harry P-marathon in the bus. And my group shot was at the bridge. We made it a few days earlier so that Issy could be in it, cause she was guiding when I was leaving. But she went surfing with Djarra and Dan. No Issy in the photo!
But I got her anyways
Me and Maddie got a ride to Sydney with the empty Loka bus. Luckily, 'cause my board's sooo long! 9'1, almost 3 meters. I stayed at WakeUp. Met Pia for a little walk and then had a beer with Matt - without the beard. The day after I met up with my former roomies Dale and Issy who both were in Sydney, whoopwhoop!
Went to Bondi. Body surfed and made a desperate try to get a tan. It was a beautiful day!
Then I caught up with Ida, who I visited in Perth a year earlier! Sick. A whole year. She was in Sydney for a few days, lucky timing! She and her friend waved me off when I got on the shuttle bus to the airport (which I got for 10 dollars instead of 24!).
A 24-hour flight later I was in Stockholm and speaking Swedish was weird. Everything was weird. I was lucky again, heaps of luggage got stuck in Dubai - so did my board. I had no idea how to get it on the train to Linköping, so that they would drive it to my door the week after felt pretty good I must say.
THANKS OZ FOR GIVING ME AN AMAZING TIME!
