"Having my jaw decompressing plate also highlighted that I now didn’t have the strength in my neck to protect me from whiplash."

The two-time professional surfing champion Tyler Wright is nothing if not extremely and wholly inspiring. After winning back-to-back titles in the mid-2010s, the Culburra Beach born regular foot contracted the African Flu which lead to a long and brutal battle with post-viral syndrome which left her unable to get up in the morning. After fighting her way back to health, Wright opened up about the other obstacles overcome along the way. Her father, for example, made her drop out of school to surf all day. In a wide-ranging interview with ESPN she shared, “Everyone was like, ‘You’re living the dream at 16.’ I was like, ‘Whose dream? I don’t f—ing dream of this s—. I want to read books. I want to go to school.'”

There was much more, too many obstacles to properly recount, but fast-forwarding to this year, Wright admitted that she has been perpetually choking this whole time.

“I’ve had a fair few doctors and specialists tell me they don’t know how I do what I do. I found out that most of the time I’m under-oxygenated and semi-suffocating,” she shared sixth months ago, “My airways are too small basically, and over the off-season I had it expanded. Honestly it’s been life-changing, it’s the sanest I’ve ever felt. It’s really successful, it’s changing my life, but it’s also a process and that’s only step one and a half of a multi-step process.”

The expander allowed for flow of much needed air into lungs and the new season was filled with hope and joy. Well, it turns a new and unexpected medical horror was lurking. Taking to Instagram, Wright shared:

2024 season is a wrap, thank you to my wife and the Ocean. It wasn’t the season I wanted in terms of results and injuries however it put me into positions and situations where I had the opportunity to grow into someone that I am proud of.

Having this be the first season after getting my maxillary expander put in, I was so excited for all the things I could possibly accomplish this year. Even in the few months between getting it put in and competing, I had found it had improved my quality of life in such an enormous way and I couldn’t wait to see the benefits in my CT season. Unfortunately there was one aspect of this maxillary expansion process that proved to be a huge obstacle and was a reoccurring theme through this whole year. Due to the changing of bone structure in my head, leading to extra pressure on the sutures, plus the nature of the sport, I became temporarily a significant amount more susceptible to concussion. Having my jaw decompressing plate also highlighted that I now didn’t have the strength in my neck to protect me from whiplash.

My first surf after getting off the plane in Hawaii for the first event left me with a serious concussion and ended up setting the tone for the rest of the year. Through the season I struggled with multiple smaller hits to the head which previously wouldn’t have been on my radar but were now amplified with the additional pressure in my skull plus one more significant hit in Tahiti. It was devastating going into the season feeling the healthiest and happiest I’ve ever been to having that taken away so quickly and knocked straight back down as soon as I found my feet.

My maxillary expander has improved my life incredibly and I can acknowledge that I was navigating a new physical system with new obstacles this year that definitely took a toll on my competitive results. I learnt a lot this year around my mentality, resilience, values, and what I want. It may not have been the year I wanted but maybe the year I needed.

Argh.

Can’t a girl just catch a break?

Well, here’s to next year, I guess.

More as the story develops.

The glorious work-life balance.

The United States of America is, let’s be frank, decidedly not a workers’ paradise. The employed in this land of the free, home of the brave are expected to slave long hours without rest and then are at beck and call of bosses after hours if something goes sideways. It’s the wages of capitalism, I suppose, and you can imagine the envy US surfers have in eyes when peering across the Pacific at communist Australian brothers and sisters.

The Lucky Country, hours ago, passed a landmark “right to disconnect” rule wherein surfers can tell their bosses to kick rocks if contacted after hours.

According to the BBC, the law does not prohibit the aforementioned big cheeses from contacting their charges but does give the latter the right to not answer and/or obey if the request is “not reasonable,” a phrase which will be defined on a case-by-case basis by Australia’s Fair Work Commission.

Failure to comply, and/or failure to do reasonable work, leads to a hefty fine.

Australia’s Council of Trade Unions proudly declared the new standard “will empower workers to refuse unreasonable out-of-hours work contact and enabling greater work-life balance.”

John Hopkins, from Swinburne University of Technology, added, “Any organisation that has staff who have better rest and who have better work-life-balance are going to have staff who are less likely to have sick days, less likely to leave the organisation.”

But do you think John Hopkins wishes he attended John Hopkins University instead?

Likely.

Back to the issue at hand, though, “work-life balance.” How often have you heard/read this phrase lately? Any concept that gets this much heat very soon transforms into utter nonsense. I feel we’re already there with “work-life balance.”

David Brennan, an Australian in the financial industry, bucked the trend and openly said, “I think it’s an excellent idea. I hope it catches on. I doubt it’ll catch on in our industry, to tell the truth though. We’re well paid, we’re expected to deliver, and we feel we have to deliver 24 hours a day.”

"People went mysteriously missing and some died suddenly abroad..."

Nias. The very name conjures wild visions in the head of any surfer who came of age in the before times*. That freightraining right, tall and square, ripping through Lagundri Bay framed by an impossibly verdant backdrop. That very picture of surf perfections. Located in some 12o km from the Indonesian mainland, Nias is a large barrier island once colonized by the Dutch before slipping into historical footnotes after World War II. Australian surfers Kevin Lovett and John Giesel, joined by Peter Troy, stumbled upon the gem in 1975 and herein lies a modern story of greed, power and the all too familiar story of surf paradises lost.

A new documentary, Point of Change, by filmmaker Rebecca Coley explores what happens when surfers start being polite and start getting real. Per The Guardian’s review:

Word got out to the surfing community about Nias’ idyllic charms, and soon led to boatloads of tourists, pollution and a local populace all too eager to profit from the visitors’ appetites for drugs, alcohol and sex. Geisel, Lovett and others developed malaria. People went mysteriously missing and some died suddenly abroad, suggesting dark forces at work; these were talked of by the locals who believed in shamanism and the presence of dark magic.

Surfers, man. Can’t take them anywhere.

Coley focuses on the dark magic bits, apparently, not writing off evil spirits at play. The Guardian, classically science-based, declares the director “rather indulges this woo-woo mysticism making Point of Change both a bit creepier and sillier at the same time” thus knocking two stars off the rating.

What are your thoughts about that?

I once went deep down a Bolivian silver mine and there was a devil down there whom miners offered cigarettes and coca leaves. He was very creepy and also, I guess, a little silly. But more creepy, certainly.

Examine trailer for Nias doco here.