How are you? I hope you have had the good fortune of getting in the water and amongst the waves. It's been a while since the last newsletter, and many things have happened: Ace student Taro Watanabe upped his confidence by winning his first international pro junior, showcasing his stylish, rubber-man radness in Indonesia at the dream wave Nias. 17-year-old Mia Huppatz had her best result at the same Wave with a quarter-final finish in the qs against Asia/Australia's best. New student Freya Prumm won the Australian titles in little rights, her self-proclaimed weakness. But, the big one was that my young family and I traveled to the USA for a long overdue trip back to my roots. Have you ever been abroad with kids in tow? Haha...
I arrived in the states after a 4-year hiatus with my little family, and it has been a whirlwind, to say the least. The main purpose of the visit was to say goodbye to my dad properly. For those who don't know, I was stuck in Australia when he had a stroke in 2020 and could not return to help him and be by his side when he passed a little more than a year later.
Brad recently finished up a six week trip to California with his family for the first time in three years and his schedule was packed. He was able to fit in an in-person appearance on David Lee Scales' podcast, "Surf Splendor" and his words really struck a chord with the listeners.
