Me, I’m more about adapting to the conditions on a day-to-day basis. “My wife is a Ferrari…always doing something, projecting about what needs to be done. “This trip, while amazing, is a constant challenge,” confides Aamion, as Daize heads off. The stifling nights below decks have been tough on everybody, especially the kids, and both parents are suffering from chronic sleep deprivation. The Goodwins sleep in shifts these days, especially now that True, age 10 months, is teething and just recovering from the same Peruvian stomach bug, aka “runny bum,” that’s taken down most of the film crew to varying degrees. Aamion surfs for the film and True wants me because I’m the one with the boobs.” For Aamion, it’s tough because he’s being pulled in so many directions right now.
So that’s been a hurdle to figure out how to meet in the middle. “But on this trip we both want to be in this amazing water and we both don’t want to be on the boat with True crying.
“So far, we haven’t had really great surf in all the places we’ve been, so surfing hasn’t really been an issue between Aamion and me,” says Daize. I catch up with Daize on the dive step as she’s prepping her grape-colored longboard.
Jess indicates a wrap and Daize promptly hands True off to husband Aamion who’s up from below decks but somewhat groggy from his post-session nap. The incessant demands of raising two young children on a 14-month global road-trip pretty much limit her water time to half-hour therapy sessions wedged between feedings. These days, however, she finds precious little time to surf, despite consistently traveling to decent log-worthy waves. Daize Goodwin, formally Daize Shayne, is a two-time Women’s World Longboard Champ and original Roxy Girl from the early 2000s. The wind’s dropped and she can see the tide’s filled in enough to cushion the shallow reef beneath a little left breaking in the nearby channel. True is bored and is threatening fussiness.
Jess Bianchi, the director, inspects the last take on the monitor. We rock lightly in the small swell echoing off the island. It’s the moment of the long breath, the Big Now. Given perches on the lifeboat housing and they instantly form a burnished tableau of surf family serenity. A four-man film crew clad in T-shirts and boardshorts slowly dollies in on Given’s mom, Daize, and baby sister, True, pitched up in the lee of the wheelhouse. Given Goodwin – tan, golden-tressed, and 3 years old-executes a practiced handclap sync for the camera and quickly moves out of frame. Through anecdotes and photographs, illustrations and conversations, Surf Shacks reveals a more personal side to surfing and its eclectic cast of characters.Aamion Goodwin, re-writing the definition of a North Shore freesurfer. The moments that these vibrant personalities spend away from the swell and the froth are both captivating and nuanced. Jamie Smallwood, a sustainable architect, built an off the grid shipping container compound in Byron Bay as a new domicile. Glimpses of record collections, strolls through backyard gardens, or a peek into a painter’s studio provide insight into surfers’ lives.įrom the remote Hawaiian treehouse and converted bus home of the Goodwin family to the Japanese mountain cabin that the founder of Gentemstick, Taro Tamai, calls home, every space has a unique tale. Surf Shacks takes a deeper look at surfers’ homes and artistic habits. Surfing communities are overflowing with creativity, innovation, and rich personas. Many abodes can fall under the label of surf shack: city apartments, cabins nestled next to national parks, or tiny Hawaiian huts.
The second chapter in the Surf Shacks series by Matt Titone illustrates how surfers live both on and offshore.
A life dominated by the waves and the tide with a cozy place to pause in between.