My re- introduction to the HIVE community.

in OCD4 years ago

NEW HOME FRESH START.

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With a great number of us moving over to the Hive community I thought I would like many others take the time to re-introduce myself.

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So who am I?

My name is Paul iv'e been around for a while 53 years and counting I currently am living in the Philippines with my wife of nearly 30 years, we both moved here from the UK about 3 years ago and with current virus crisis put aside it has been a enjoyable change in our lives. This though is the now and to build a picture of who I am I will need to press the rewind button <<<.

I grew up in a slightly boring town in Berkshire UK I never really enjoyed living there it was a modern town know as a "new town" a bit of a social experiment. Built to house large numbers of people from mostly London as large swathes of the city were being regenerated. Although built in a nice part of the shires many simple things were overlooked, levels of employment didn't match the size of the towns population and as families grew this became more of a issue. While the general infrastructure was not all bad, nice houses, plenty of shops and green open spaces the youth were totally overlooked and had nowhere to occupy their time. For me large parts of my youth were spent hanging around with little going on, my only saving grace being my developing love of music. Being a multi-cultural town I had a big mix of friends from many ethnic backgrounds but it was my afro-caribbean friends who introduced me to reggae. These guys were the first children of the so called "windrush generation" and the first to talk about SKA music. Check this link for a short intro to the Windrush story;

THIS IS SKA!

So this was my first feeling of belonging a new musical explosion, born out of youth dissidence and sense of no future in a failing Briton. Mass unemployment and racial tensions had thrown up a new scene, calling ourselves Rude boys or Skinheads (not the fascist sort) we didn't want to play by their dated rules. We wanted a safe integrated society and for us the new Two Tone movement coming out of Coventry spoke to us and for us.

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https://pin.it/1j0vm4V

This set the tone for many years for me I didn't feel part of society always felt I was on the outside looking in. Not to dwell too much on the politics of the UK back then but lets just say I fought the law and the law won, to quote The Clash. I became what the state would call a part of the "counter culture", dropping mostly out of the status quo and finding my own way. Biker, skateboarder and pot smoking surf bum was not the plan Thatchers Briton had for us but I had found my way.

SHUT UP AND DANCE!

It took many years until that feeling of belonging returned and it was music that was the catalyst again, electronic and garage house was taking over the scene in the US and making it's way over the Atlantic. Sprinkled with a bit of UK magic and the Acid house and rave culture was born. Here I was back in my element traveling all over the country to different raves, hosting some classics of my own, and also managing to make a bit of cash providing security at some events. It was also around this time i met my wife who has been on this journey with me ever since.

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photo credit phatmedia

Mixing partying and traveling getting in a mess in Thailand.ksr2.jpg

BEACH BUM!

Although a enjoyable part of my life the rave/club scene took it's toll on me, what started as a free and easy movement with the "summer of love" started to draw attention from the wrong people, firstly those that wanted to get control of drug sales, lets face it there were a lot of "E's" and acid being taken. But the biggest threat came from our own government, once again fearful of something they weren't controlling. Through media hype and simple lies they managed to change laws and also steal peoples personal freedom, the CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL was born, (to much to cover this here go search for articles). This was a game changer for me and I decided enough was enough it was time to move on. So it was another love of mine that guided me, Surfing, I made the choice to move and with very little to my name I found myself along with the better half living in a small surfing town, Newquay in Cornwall. Not too long after moving there I got to know a local legend in the surfboard world "CJ" Chris Jones he had surfed since the 60's and been a pro surfer winning European champion title. Here's CJ on the left with another board builder Brian Schofield father of the famous TV presenter Phillip Schofield. Taken from the book, you should have been here yesterday, the story of British surfing.

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I ended up getting along great with CJ which led to me working with him, he over a few years taught me masses about board building and I slowly became a good shaper. life was not so bad working in a great industry and surfing most days. Here I am making some of my first own brand surfboards, pictures again are old and grainy digital photos taken from poor real photos.

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I must of been proud of myself going by the cheezy grin on my face. A short while later I made the move to open up a small factory producing surfboards,skateboards and later kiteboards. The wife set up a small factory next door making protective bags mostly for surfboards but branched out into DJ record bags, guitar and drum bags. This kept us busy for a few year along with travelling when we could afford it, Cuba, Thailand, Egypt, Philippines amongst some of our destinations, generally for diving.

THE BIG BLUE!

And so jumping forward a few years we find ourselves on another trip to the Philippines and back at our favorite dive centre in Moalboal Cebu. We had been here a few times before and had got on well with the owner/manager. On previous visits he had said he would find work for us if we fancied staying around and the wife with a background in sports teaching, she's a Judo instructor and national champion (another story there), decided to train up and become a diving instructor and that's how we find ourselves living here. It's been a fun few years we've traveled around the Philippines a little and had some amazing underwater encounters. Who knows what the future holds we are in the hands of this virus for now, locked down and hoping for a minor miracle but we have each other and for that part she's a lucky lady "haha". In all seriousness this chick is my rock she has helped me through some shitty times and is usually the voice of reason when I get my militant head on, long may we love to be together.

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I think this should help build a picture of who @biggpauls is, there is so much more I could add and many interests haven't been covered but i'll be babbling on all day so for fear of boring you all I'm going to say it was nice to take this opportunity to say hello again and I can promise some more stories of our and my life in the weeks to come. Be safe out there folks.

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Welcome to Hive !
Followed :)

Thanks I will do the same.👍

Welcome on board :)

@tipu curate

Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 12/18)

Been here a little while now but with some time on my hands I thought I would follow other peoples leads and say hello to this community:)

Re-Hived - great to get to know you better, an intense life with a lot music :-). Thanks for sharing

No worries bro, glad you liked, be safe.

Welcome to Hive! Man, I miss diving... especially in the Indic ocean! Cool life story 🙂👍

Cheers dude, lots more to it but another day another story, be safe.

I have fond memories of 3rd wave ska from the 90s. It's overdue for another revival. Meanwhile, I think I'll be blasting Five Iron Frenzy, Goldfinger, the O. C Supertones, and The Planet Smashers today.

Dig into the archives for a bit of Trojan also, thanks for your comment, be safe.

Hey @@@biggypauls

Great story and love to see some UW pics from that time.

Btw. same age here and as well a big love to traveling Asia. From India to Indo but sadly never to the Philippines.

Thanks, underwater images is the main thing I post have a look through my past post or plenty more coming soon. The philippines moalboal where I am reminds me of thailand 20 years ago but it is changing quickly as new money moves in. Be safe.

That is cool, I will have a look there and put the philippines to my list of destinations. We've been to Komodo a year ago and we like to travel and dive again in that area. Had Raja Ampat on my radar, but expensive and not easy to get there.

Not a lot of big stuff here, except tons of turtles and its been a great year for whale sharks, macro is amazing corals plentiful and we also have the sardine run right on our doorstep, more a sardine hang out as they don't go anywhere, a stunning spectacle to observe. Went to Tubbataha reefs last spring that was epic with plenty of shark action. Be safe out there!