Misfit Aid was ecstatic to even be nominated and included in such a category as the ASB Surfing Spirit Award and on such a prestigious night in Australian history.

To come away with the win just shows our philosophy of not getting overwhelmed by the greatness of the task but rather helping to change one person’s life one at a time is a philosophy that works and people believe in.

We want to thank ASB Magazine and Surfing Australia, and also congratulate Surfing Australia for its 50th year anniversary.

We want to congratulate Joel Parkinson for winning Best Male surfer, Stephanie Gilmore for Best Female surfer and being inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame, Mark Richards nominated as the Influential Australian Surfer between 1963-2013, and the crew that made the surf movie of the year “Storm Riders 3D”….Epic!

We were up against the Quiksilver Foundation and Russell Molony, and just to be included in that group was for us significant recognition of the work Misfit Aid has done, since its beginnings in 2010 and the work we will continue to do many years into the future.

We are only at the cusp of what we want to achieve in terms of reducing poverty, assisting communities to get back on their feet after natural disasters and empowering the people who have/are being affected by poverty or the aftermath of a natural disaster

As usual we will sign off by saying THANK-YOU to all of you.

All of you, who visit this website, donate your money, donate your time, volunteer on trips, volunteer on fundraisers; follow us on Instagram and twitter, and those that mention us to your friends and family.

You create this momentum for Misfit Aid and this momentum is what allows us to do what we do.

M/SF/T AID

Home sweet home!

This blog was meant to get out on the last day of our time in Chile, however slow loading computers and generally way too many amazing things occurring it has come out now, four days after our return.

On one hand the two weeks in Chile flew by but on the other hand to look back on two weeks and see what has been achieved, it feels like a small lifetime has passed.

We came over here with four main goals.

1. To build a home for local lady who lost hers in a fire and was lucky to escape with her life.

2. To learn and become skilled in aquaponics. A system that grows both fish and vegetables in one system

3. To build s team of Misfits that had an amazing experience both individually and as a team

4. To surf epic waves!

Well, three of those four goals were reached, and lucky enough they were the most important ones.

As always with bringing a group of people together from different backgrounds and even culture to work together day in and day out has challenges. But the crew of Misfits soon became a team of Misfits, and with the challenging moments that arose, they soon were gone because of the simple fact that this team in under two weeks built a new home for Señorita Blanca, a sweet old lady who may have been spending the rest of her days in a small, cold wooden shack.

Now instead Senorita Blanca looks out over the ocean, from her new window, positioned in her new bedroom, which is one of two in her new house.

It is a massive achievement and together they have impacted that one life for the better.

Being a part of the aquaponics workshop has been an amazing experience for Misfit Aid. To gain skills in a sustainable and extremely productive form of growing food we feel will give us a great opportunity in developing another way to assist countries who have been affected by disaster or being affected by poverty.

We will be building an aquaponics system in the coming months and definitely documenting the process including all trial and errors. So keep an eye out on the blog for the developments!

The only goal not completely reached were epic waves. Unfortunately the coast of Chile decided to have its longest flat spell in 25 years! We still got some small ones but it was nothing of what Chile usually puts on the table..

To the team of Misfits who have come on the trip and given their time and worked probably harder and longer hours than they do at home to get the job done Misfit Aid thanks you from the very bottom of our heart.

And finally to the people reading this. Thank you for your continued support. If it wasn’t for your interest all of these things that are actually happening would only be getting talked about inside a room somewhere!

Nos Vemos Chile!!!!!!!

It’s good to be home!

Hard to believe its already been a little over one week since arriving in Pichilemu. In saying that looking at how much work has been done on Senorita Blanca’s house and how many new skills learned in the aquaponics field it seems hard to believe it has only been one week.

Another small crew of Misfits arrived in Pichilemu on Saturdayto help with the building of the house but also get some sweet footage of surfing epic waves. This crew consisting of Ozzie Wright, Otis Carey, Pat Pierce and Matt O’Brien have joined forces to help out Misfit but also show the Chileans a thing or two about boosting on waves where it just doesn’t seem possible.

Below you see Otis and Ozzie getting some creativity out on the aquaponics table and getting all the boys getting stuck into the building of the house, getting the roof up before the rains come down.

This week is already flying by, but so is the work on Senorita Blanca’s house. These pictures taken are already way out of date with the roof being completely finished and the gyprock underway.

Tomorrow being Wednesday for us Chileans will see the aquaponics system you see in the photo being 100% complete, all that’s left to do now is get some fish to give that system the nutrients it needs to grow the delicious fruits and vegetables!

The only thing we are missing is the waves! It’s almost unbelievable that there are no waves in Pichilemu, but fingers crossed there is a swell coming in tomorrow that will satiate the crew! And once there are waves we will be posting that up ASAP, that is certain.

Stay online and connect with our instagram (MisfitAid) to see the developments of the house and aquaponics as it moves along. And as usual some epic EMPTY waves!

Yeeew!

Thank-you

M/SF/T AID

Hola amigos y amigas!

After a solid 12 hour flight Misfit Aid landed in Santiago, Chile safe and sound. We had a couple of vehicles waiting to take us to Pichilemu where we would begin our two weeks work!

It’s shaping up to be a solid two weeks for Misfit. The main priority is to complete the construction of a house for most likely the sweetest lady that ever did exist. Senorita Blanca lost her house in a fire and has since been living with her neighbour as the winter proved too cold to live in the semi-permanent home the government supplied.

Other goals we have are to complete a set of stairs that will lead to both the internet cafe and beauty salon of Pura Vida Community Centre. These businesses were set up from the assistance of Jeff Ryan, CEO of Misfit Aid, who supplied business mentoring to seven local businesses within Pichilemu community. These stairs will increase access for general pubic to each of these businesses thereby increasing the success of each business.

Last but not least, Misfit Aid is getting heavily involved in the aquaponics system that Pura Vida Community Centre is building. We brought with us from Australia two re-circulating pumps and one aeration pump that will assist the set-up of the aquaponics system that will feed close to 150 people within the Pura Vida Community Centre.

We are also attending aquaponics workshops each day completed by a lecture from 3pm-7pm to help us further our knowledge in this amazing method of agriculture with the aim of implementing this in countries impacted by poverty.

So, all in all we are super busy but loving every minute! And with the days lasting until 8pm there is definitely time to fit in a well earned surf at the end of the day!

Yeew!

Stay tuned for updates and pictures of all the jobs developing!

Thank-you

M/SF/T AID

This blog has been a long time coming! But in between getting the Misfit Aid website ready and raring to go, planning for our trip to Chile in less than two weeks, and moving offices to Avalon to be alongside Surfing World, Coastalwatch, and Surf Aid (aka legends) things have been a little hectic!!

Alas, we wanted to say a huge thanks to ARTINTHEPARK Avalon for letting Misfit Aid come along, throw a BBQ for the artistic masses and spread our name out there within the Avalon/Northern Beaches community.

It was an epic day, with so many people curious about who we were, what we did and most importantly how they could get involved!

Not to mention raising some much needed funds for the up-coming Chile trip.

We will be blogging like nobody’s business from Chile so stay close to your monitor to see how everything is going over there and as usual a few surf updates thrown in there as well!

Thank-you

M/SF/T AID 

When you’re lucky enough to have a band that has about a thousand ukulele players, and can make any stiff crowd get up and shake their tailfeather want to throw a gig to support your aid organisation……there is no downside!

Just this Saturday past The Fukers (Freshwater Ukulele Club) performed at Lizottes in Dee Why, attracting close to 200 people and performed one of the best gigs I ever did see.

This massive gig helped Misfit Aid raise enough money to put a down payment on the construction of a school that is so badly needed in West Timor.

Words cannot describe how momentous this is and the impact it will have in the communities in West Timor.

You can see from the faces of the Misfit originals on stage (Jeff Ryan, Dave Howell & Chris Chong) how stoked they were for this night to happen and how much it means to Misfit Aid and the communities Misfit Aid will be assisting over the next 3-5 year period.

These are just a few moments grabbed from an epic night and with it being such a success keep a look out for another night like this happening soon….

To all our supporters, volunteers, freakishly good musicians we say a massive thankyou…..

Keep an eye out on our blog/instagram for more Misfit Aid happenings in the future!

M/SF/T AID