The Coast

The Coast from NRS Films on Vimeo.

When Hayden Peters was nearly 30, his life was turned upside down.

Doctors told him that he may have a genetic disease that would kill him. They said he should consider “end-of-life” plans. They told him that he shouldn’t have children due to the likelihood of passing the same genes on to them.  The tests took three months to come back. “In those three months,” Hayden says, “I had no idea if I was going to have a long, fruitful life or a short one. It was horrifying.”

It forced him look at life in an entirely different perspective–one that recognises the importance of truly living life to the full. “I want to be in places that scare me. I want to be in situations that scare me and bring me closer to the things I love,” he explains. “When I get in the ocean, I am vulnerable. I am at the mercy of the ocean in every single way–and I know that. I give up control on the beach.”
The ocean is a powerful place. His problems, once seemingly so huge, became smaller. They became easier to manage. “For me it’s like being a guest–a temporary guest. You get to say hello and observe, and maybe learn a thing or two,” he says. “I see the magic of life. I see the things that are truly meaningful to me. The experience that makes me a human being… that makes me alive.”