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Catching Up Down Under with Jade River Morgan
Jade Down Under
Back in 2023 Jade River Morgan made the move from California's Central Coast to Australia. He started on the Gold Coast, but has since relocated to the relative calmness of the South Coast, to a town call Ulladulla.
He's had quite a year of it, staying busy with travels, but also exploring new methods of finding some inner peace.
photo credit: Conor Hookway
Tasmania
This year has been full of "best-ever trips" to say the least. I kicked the year off down in Tasmania where some friends and I road-tripped around the island for a few weeks, camping, surfing, diving, and exploring the raw beauty of all four coastlines.
My mind was blown away by Tasmania's raw and rugged coastlines which seemed to provide epic waves and incredible times for us all trip-long. There's something so special about seeing new places and having that feeling of a new adventure on every corner turned.
I went down with my housemate Connor Hookway, who grew up on the northwest coast of Tasmania and is an aspiring filmmaker. I was fortunate to have the best tour guide showing me all the zones and capturing some incredible moments along the way.
Relocation down South
After Tasmania, I decided to relocate myself and move from the madness of the Gold Coast and down to the South Coast to a little town called Ulladulla. It was about as polar opposite as you can get from the goldy and just what I needed.
Right before the move south, I spent 10 days doing a vipassana, or in other words, meditating all day every day without technology, eye contact, physical touch, or dinner! It was a very profound and powerful experience that set me up for what's been the best year of my life.
I live a very simple life on the south coast, working and surfing mostly. There isn't much happening down there but I like that. I have time to focus on other passions like pottery and ceramics, plenty of space to breathe, no traffic, and waves that get my heart racing. It's a very core surf community on the south coast exemplifying a mutual respect in the air which is hard to come around these days. I am grateful to be experiencing a place so true to itself.
Promotional Interlude: Jade's Favourite Wetsuits
Jade favours the ISURUS 2.2 Zipfree Shield as his suit of choice - he's happy wearing this 2mm wetsuit it when everyone else is wearing 3mm wetsuits from other brands!
Indonesia
Currently, my visa in Australia makes me leave the country every three months so I was in need of a visa run when my friends rang me up to tell me that Indo was getting its first big swell run of the season. I quickly booked flights and met up with the crew in Bali. We rented a car on day 1 and drove straight to Lombok. This turned into a three-week swell bender with all my best friends traveling around the island of Lombok while using Desert Point as our home base. This was the type of trip we always dreamt of and it somehow turned into a reality. With the early season swells and not many crew around yet, we locked into an absolute dream run of uncrowded pumping desert point.
Oz, US, Costa Rica...
After our dream run in Indo, I flew back home to the south coast where I was greeted with a crazy winter swell run getting to score some new waves and lock into some heavy water slabs that I've always wanted to have a crack at. It was weird coming home from pumping Indo and straight into even better waves at home.
I really soaked up the time around home surfing, working, and passing time with friends before I returned back to the US for a quick stint to see family and check in on my favorite coastline, Big Sur. I spent my days camping, diving, surfing, and hiking around the beautiful central coast of California before making my way down to Central America for a friend's wedding.
Upon arrival in Costa Rica, I locked into some seriously fun waves around Witches Rocks and the Guanacaste area. It wasn't the waves I was just getting in Indo and Aus but man it was fun and it sure felt good to be back on the twin fins. I then met up with my family down at the bottom of Costa Rica in Pavones. We started there and worked our way up the coast having many incredible full family sessions and loading ourselves up on gallo pinto con Pollo. It was an incredible family trip and it was special to watch my little brother Kayden progress so much over the couple of weeks. It's been awesome to see his journey with surfing and see him fall in love with it just as I did. He will be passing me up in no time and I am excited to see it.
Back to Oz, Hitting WA
After my stint in the Americas, It was time to head back to my home in Aus. Once again, I was welcomed home to incredible waves and weather which apparently wasn't the case while I was away. My good friend Darcy De Clouett rang me up and told me I needed to get to WA asap for a crazy swell run.
He spends his winters in Exmouth doing chippy work and chasing swells down the coast and the rest of the year lifeguarding on the south coast and hunting slabs. He also is the best fisherman I know and someone who I look up to for many reasons. So when he told me I needed to head west, I listened. I flew in the next day and he picked up with the car loaded and everything we needed to survive off-grid for a couple of weeks. I wasn't sure what I was in store for but it turned out to be the trip of a lifetime.
We surfed waves I've always dreamt of, living out of our swags on the bluff above the sea, cooking sausage rolls by the fire, and spending quality time with a bunch of quality humans who were on the same program. It was one of those trips where every day felt like the best day ever. An abundance of laughs and smiles were shared and new lifelong friends were made.
I find it so special and fascinating how surfing and the ocean can connect us all on such a deeper level, whether that be sharing sets on the head with your mates or just the gratitude we all feel after coming in from a session in one piece. To say the least, It's been an incredible year of adventure and surf thus far and I'm looking forward to all that's to come.
It has been awesome living in Australia and getting to know the people from here. I am extremely impressed with the level of surfing I see daily young and old.
Some people I'd like to highlight are:
Darcy De Clouett - @darcy_declouett
Aidan Parsons - @aidan__parsons
These guys are ripping in anything from 1 to 20 feet and are extremely respected in their communities.
I am currently working with my friend Connor Hookway @hooklinensinkr on a few projects from our recent travels. His unique filming style and creative direction are second to none and I am excited to share with you what we've been working on. It's all been very grassroots and without any sponsor budgets, so we've done well and worked hard to make it happen using all our resources. However, I feel we have much more potential given we get some funding for future projects.
Once again, I'd like to thank you for your continuous support over the years. It's been an honor to represent the brand around the world and I feel proud to know they are truly the best which makes it easy for me to spread the word.
Big love and Aloha!!
Cheers,
Jade Morgan
Read more about Jade in his Ambassador Spotlight and Profilepages.
