As Howard Hughes once famously said, 'Passion can make you crazy but is there any other way to live?'

Following your passion….I think it’s not so much following but finding your passion that can be the struggle. I mean how many people know what they are truly passionate about? There is nothing more satisfying than realizing a passion and following it. When you are young there are so many firsts – the first steps, first time you swam, first kiss, first time you stayed up all night and watched the sunrise.

It was easy to know then what you loved doing and to just go and do it. We are born knowing what we want at our deepest core. After a while, many of use begin to settle for what we think we are 'allowed' to have. Its easy to become complacent and do what we've always done. I’m not sure why age holds us back, maybe it’s fear, so called responsibilities that we feel shackled by that cull our adventurous side and quest for experiencing ‘the new’.

I discovered later in life a passion I would never have predicted ‘wakeboarding’. A girlfriend managed to convince me at the breakable age of 30 to try wakeboarding camp. Thinking it was for teenage boys I had already made up my mind not to do it, but after persistence relented.

I will never forget the first time I got up on the board only to promptly face plant – the pain didn’t mask the complete elation I felt and immediately I was addicted – madly, truly, deeply.

Being a women who loves a challenge, I bought a boat the next week (having never driven one before) and from then on spent all my free time pursuing my passion – who would have known if I hadn’t tried something new and stepped outside my comfort zone.

Now water sports are such an integral piece of my life, whether its surfing, wakeboarding, kitesurfing or diving. If I’m on or in the water, I am at my happiest and feel blessed to understand what truly makes me content.

This passion is what has carved my path towards creating Surf Haven Bali and my life, now on the island of Bali.

I’m not sure I am crazy but I agree with Mr Hughes – ‘is there any other way to live life than without passion?’ Here’s to a lifetime of and plenty more ‘firsts’.

Janine