SURFING SOAPBOX:Surfing on the road

This year has been like light-speeding through time, and it’s about to speed up even more.

The Surfing Soapbox heads to Chile this Friday morning for an 18-day stint.

I will be filmed surfing in the southern area of Chile for a full-length feature documentary titled “All Points South,” based on the battle that has brought surfers and fishermen together in a grass-roots effort to fight water pollution in this beautiful South American country.

Other surfers to be featured in this film include Keith Malloy, Mark Healy, Surfer-filmmaker Timmy Turner, Ralph Bruwiler and Chile’s own Ramon Navarro.

It is being produced by Save the Waves.

Having the opportunity to travel and surf has been a dream — and something that I feel more than blessed by as I ready for another long trip to a foreign land.

I keep waiting to wake up from this dream. Until I do, I will continue to pour my love, blood and passion into this path I have chosen, which allows me to give back to the very sport — surfing — and the beach environment that has given me so much.

To say that I am thankful for these opportunities would be an understatement. I say “thank you” at least half a dozen times a day and try my best to pass the torch down to the coming generations of surfers.

I am now co-hosting a live surf talk radio show on San Diego’s 103.7 Free FM on Sunday mornings from 8-9 a.m. called “In the Line Up,” along with Surfer Magazine’s Scott Bass.

This year hasn’t been all blue skies and sunshine, losing my dog and a five-year relationship with a girl with whom I thought I would always be together.

So it is a strange time in my life, a new chapter that I will embraceas I accept the challenges of life on the road.

What makes everything special about traveling around the world is coming back to the place I call home and cherish more than anything.

In my mind, nowhere in the world will you find a better place to call home than Laguna Beach.

Peace.