Tell us a little bit about yourself, what have you been up to, where in the world are you?

My name is Mike Lay and I'm a surfer, writer, lifeguard, father and husband. I'm from Kernow (Cornwall) in the far south west of Britain where I still live with my family today. I've been hugely fortunate to be a professional surfer for the past decade or so, I've travelled around the world indulging in the joy of surfing and making lifelong friends along the way. More recently I've married my long term partner, Frankie, and together we have started a family, our son Enys is 3 and our daughter Mora is 6 months old. The journey from adventure to more rooted, connected living in Cornwall is one I'm thoroughly enjoying, the adventure of parenthood is wilder than any trip I took in my twenties. 

Can you walk us through a day in your life, highlighting the moments that feel most aligned with who you are?

My days are different depending on whether it is winter or summer, whether I am lifeguarding or not. And As I write this it is the day before the season starts so on the cusp of my own personal seasonal shift. I'll use today as a day in my life. I'm up early trying to solve some of the housework puzzles for the day, laundry, dishes, tidying. Life with young kids is an exercise in staying calm and collected through chaos. After breakfast as a team and some play with Enys, him and I will go to his swimming lesson then have lunch somewhere with a friend of mine from school who has a little boy the same age. We'll then play whatever Enys wants to play for the afternoon before dinner bath and bed. It is meant to be sunny and warm today so being outside will be the order of the day. 

Are there objects, tools, or spaces that play a key role in your daily routine?

I'll move to my lifeguarding routine now. I have been a lifeguard for 16 years, almost entirely at the two beaches where I learned to surf and have spent most of my life. It is a 30 minute cycle to work over the moors so I'll list my bike as an important tool in my daily routine, I love cycling the dirt tracks to the beach. Once there important tools would be our surfboards and rescue boards, for play and for saving lives, I spend as much time as I can in the water, hours every day. Lastly, the two beaches Sennen and Gwynver play a pivotal role in my daily routine and in the trajectory of my life. It is a pleasure to return to them every day as a lifeguard, to watch the subtle shifts of the sand and to look after visitors who swim, surf and play there throughout the summer. 

How would you describe the culture that shapes your daily life? What values, traditions, or artistic influences guide you?

I am interested in the celebration of the every day, the beauty that is inherent in every aspect of the living world, both human and more than human. From playwrights like Harold Pinter to writers like Wendell Berry to painters like Laura Knight, Alfred Wallis and the Newlyn School of the 19thcentury, great art and great stories do not necessarily require spectacular people or events to inspire them. I try to keep this in mind while living my own life and pursuing my own creative pursuits. 

Are there particular references—whether in art, literature, or business—that deeply inspire your way of living and working?

This passage from the poem 'Enter a Cloud' by W.S. Graham wonderfully encapsulates the rich, sometimes fleeting pleasure of life in Cornwall. Moments like this are the reason I love it here. 
« Look through my eyes up
At blue with not anything
We could have ever arranged
Slowly taking place.
Above the spires of the fox
Gloves and above the bracken
Tops with their young heads
Recognising the wind,
The armies of the empty
Blue press me further
Into Zennor Hill.
If I half-close my eyes
The spiked light leaps in
And I am here as near
Happy as I will get
In the sailing afternoon. »

What does it mean to you to live and work from a place far from the city? How does your environment shape your creativity? 

I am an entirely environmental writer. Humans come and go from my written work but almost all my ideas come from the land and the sea and my connection to them. Visits to cities serve as powerful reminders as to why I have chosen a life in the countryside. 

How have you adapted your lifestyle or work to be more in harmony with nature?

Myself, my wife and my mum all bought a piece of land with a small house on it 4 years ago. We all now live here, Frankie and I and the kids in the house and mum in a cabin up behind us. We are learning to fall back into step with the seasons, to grow food and generally to appreciate the wonders of the natural world, however small they might seem. Currently the dawn chorus is reigniting, birdsong flooding the world every morning. I hope that most decisions I make will bring me closer to nature. 

Can you describe a sensory detail from your bathing ritual?

I am often cased in a salt crust, the rejuvenation of fresh water on salt-stung skin is a treat every time. Whether its splashed from a stream, tipped from a water bottle or in the bath with my children.