The best board rack on the beach (it's free)

The husband and I went SUP surfing at Shipwreck Bay, Ahipara on Monday morning. Shippies to the locals. Not many surfers out, as it turned out. Because most of them were watching the Soccer World Cup Finals.

We were the ones who didn't need to be.

When we got out, we needed somewhere to prop the boards up to dry. And right there on the sand was this perfect tangle of driftwood, holding them up like it had been waiting for us.

We joked it was the best organic, sustainable, eco-friendly board rack on the beach. Free. No assembly required.

Don't you just love driftwood.

And speaking of driftwood. It reminded me of my friend Pip Ngaia, a surf legend from Waitara, Taranaki.

Pip grew up without much. No money for a real board. So as a kid, he'd drag the biggest piece of driftwood he could find out of the sand and learned to ride that instead.

Pip became one of the best surfers to ever come out of his hometown. Rip Curl signed him, sending him all over the world as one of their longest-standing brand ambassadors.

That's stuck with me. Ordinary things from nature becoming extraordinary through imagination.

Very much like the ethos of Nostalgem.

If a piece of driftwood can become a surfboard, a shell can become a keepsake that carries your story.

We're all just making do with what the tide gives us.

With sandy hands and a salty heart,
Rina