Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick. American author Herman Melville saw Tahiti as paradise, literally and metaphorically, but what is it like to actually live and windsurf there. Charles ‘Charliboy’ Vandemeulebroucke is a French physiotherapist/chiropractor and windsurfer that moved to Tahiti’s famous break of Teahupo’o four years ago. He tells us his reflective tale of life at his adopted home.
