Yes, I’ve waited 40 long years to Surf the longest wave I’ve ever ridden.
Now, I didn’t start surfing until I was 20, so I didn’t get off to a fast start in the surfing world.
Heck, I grew up in a farming community by the Mississippi River in a little town of Cambridge, Illinois…that I’m proud to call my hometown.
Even though I was 1,000 + miles from the nearest ocean, I always had this burning desire to Surf from when I was 7 or 8 years old watching Surfing Magazine episodes every Tuesday night on ESPN…
Not sure what this Surfing thing was all about, though I was so intrigued about the Ocean…and this “Surfing Lifestyle”.
So how did I eventually start surfing at the age of 20 in all of spots….Perth, Australia?
Let me rewind a bit to when I was 11 years old….roughly 1985 or so. My awesome, funny dad discovered that he was sick….very sick. We didn’t know exactly what it was, though….my Dad realized he had an expiration date coming up, though no idea if would be…
3 to 6 months to 1, 2…or possibly even 5 years! This was Real….
What happened with my Dad, Thomas Clidd Swan, is that he knew he wouldn’t be on this beautiful world much longer.
Best way I can describe this moment…watch the movie, The Bucket List….it’s an amazing movie and is so relatable to what myself, my brother and sister experienced…
When he knew that he had an expiration date (even though we never spoke about this once) everything changed with him. He started to travel the world and took us kids with him everywhere from….
Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North & South America….every continent except Antarctica (which we plan to visit this Christmas)
He took us everywhere and opened our eyes to this beautiful world that we live in and to experience the cultures of all the amazing people out there.
It’s something you just cannot experience through textbooks or TV…
I was a life changing, eye opening event….that changed the entire way I look at life, which has never been the same since.
So what does my Dad have to do about me surfing the longest wave ever…everything & nothing at the same time.
If it wasn’t for this moment in my Life from the ages of 11 to 16 years old (when he passed away from AIDS), I would have never…
* Studied abroad to Australia when I was 20 years old and started surfing
* Moved to California after university to continue surfing
* Met my beautiful, caring, loving wife, RHonda Swan, out in the surf in San Diego, California back in May 1998
* Which led to Rhonda & I getting married and bringing our beautiful girl, Hanalei into this World.
* Traveling the World for the past 70 months as a Family which we decided on Unstoppable Family
* And if we had not started to Travel the World almost 6 years and living a life of freedom online, maybe many of you reading this wouldn’t be traveling the World either….who knows?
Either way, I feel so blessed to have my health, my family, my friends and able to share this moment with you all….
Because all we have right now is our Time here on this Earth…and I’m stoked to have shared this brief time with you & this little story of mine.
#BeUnstoppable go out and #CreateyourPerfectDay today