Windsurfing Wheels
'Herbert' a home away from homeIt was day one of the "Currumbin Classic" when, as a handful of us were struggling to set up the sponsors' tent in the wind and rain, an old campervan complete with an even older One Design on the roof first rolled into the carpark.
While the driver seemed a bit shy there was no doubt he was here to join in the fun and as we did battle with the elements seemed to be enjoying a cuppa in the relative comfort of his chariot. And I have to admit that I for one was more than a little envious of his setup.
Though, like several of the others, I was also a little apprehensive about his apparent choice of kit - the One Design - as it was really starting to crank in (see "Classic Stuff" feature). Indeed, one of the boys apparently suggested that our new chum (George) might be better served heading around into the lagoon instead.
Anyway seems we needn't have worried as it turns out the longboard actually belongs to his girlfriend (Iris) and the Irishman is in fact a pretty accomplished and well-travelled wavesailor.
Been around WA, the south-west corner, Margaret River, got some good sailing there. Travelled all the way up to Exmouth and back down again to Perth where I took some work, then travelled all the way back up the west coast again and over the Top End.
I worked up there a little bit but came down to Queensland and got as far as Gympie then found work in the outback so drove all way to South Australia and worked in the outback in SA for a couple of months.
Then drove round the coast to Melbourne, up to Sydney, and had a holiday in New Zealand and left Herbert sitting at a mate's place for a month, then went back to South Australia, worked again, then drove it all the way back to Sydney but following the coast the whole way this time.
All up I think I've covered over 45,000k's since I've been here.
Oh windsurfing. I was finishing up my job, I was teaching windsurfing instructors in Turkey and my contract was ending, didn't have any more work to do so decided to go windsurf for myself rather than standing on the beach watching other people windsurfing all day.
So I went to WA where I was hoping it would be windy all the time (laughs).
No really, I had a great time in WA. And I'm planning to go back next season to get as much windsurfing in as I can.
And where are you from originally?I'm from County Cavan in Ireland, a small little town called Virginia. It's inland but we have lots and lots of lakes. But for the last few years I've been living on the coast, both at Cork down the south and on the west coast in Mayo and Galway, where there's phenomenal windsurfing as well.
I've got friends living in Surfers and I wanted to come up for the "Currumbin Classic".
Good answer. Now let's get into the nuts and bolts of this tale, what can you tell us about your wheels?It's a 1995 Ford MWB Econovan that I bought for $5,000 when I first arrived in Oz (Perth) a bit over a year ago that goes by the name of "Herbert".
I know (laughs), I can't really explain it, other than to say it just looks like a Herbert.
Okay... has "Herbert" given you any trouble over the course of the journey?Not much. Had to get a new radiator in Carnarvon, it was too hot there and the other one just died. And on my way from Darwin to Townsville I hit a big roo, driving through the night, so I don't do that anymore.
Other than that, not really, it's going good. Needs a service right now, needs a bit of a tune, but when I get a bit of cash together that'll happen.
When I bought it, it wasn't really suitable for putting my equipment in, as it had the table setup at the back and it was much bigger and whoever built it just took up as much space as possible with it.
Actually when I bought it, it also had an air conditioner (a little evaporative air conditioner), a 14' TV, not one of the flat screen ones, a proper CRT, a DVD player, aerials for the TV and quite a bit of other junk as well that I soon got rid of, as it was all absolutely unnecessary.
So I then cut the table down to about two-thirds of the size and moved it up to the front and moved the bed down to the back. I also built a little cabinet for clothes and food, which keeps everything nice and tidy and out of the way.
I also bought some rabbit-snaring nets that I use as hammocks for putting equipment into and carrying things neatly.
I've got a fridge it doesn't work very well but still keeps things a little bit cool. It's great up to 35 degrees but over that it gets a bit tough for it.
I've also got a two burner gas stove, all my plates, cooking equipment and the like, everything that you need. Just like a normal kitchen really.
Got plenty of water, I always carry at least 25litres with me all the time.
And I've got all my toys as well.
Well starting from the smallest, I've got a skateboard, that's my most recent addition and I've managed to hurt myself on that a bit.
I've also got two surfboards, mine and my girlfriend's, my windsurfing board and my girlfriend's windsurfing board, a One Design that I picked up for fifty bucks, and I've got my three sails, boom, mast, etc.
And that's about it... for the moment that is (laughs).
Freedom, comfort, and economy. You can go anywhere you want and never really pay any rent. I stay in free campsites as much as I can - actually there's a good book "Camps 4 Australia" - and all you have to pay for is your food, your fuel and your maintenance costs. Absolute freedom, and all in relative comfort too.
I've done quite a few different jobs since I've been here, starting in a factory in Perth which cleaned out and re-conditioned barrels of fertiliser for farmers. I got a few barrels dropped on my toes and stuff which wasn't so nice.
I also emptied out containers while I was in Perth and got paid by the container. That was 25 kilo sacks of fertiliser most of the time, whereas my friend assured me I'd be mostly unloading pillows (laughs), so I was a bit unlucky with that job.
From there I moved on to work at an Olive farm during the harvest driving strange machinery that shook all the trees. I also worked on a Sandalwood plantation up in northern WA and that was pretty mind-numbingly boring and I also picked Eggplants for a little while but that got too hard on my back.
The last job I had was working on a sheep station in outback South Australia that was about 1,200k's from the nearest town and a 100k's of that is dirt road. Which is pretty interesting and good work, plus you get to ride around on motorbikes all day long, which was good.
Well yeah, but part of the reason for taking my job in the outback is that I needed to work in the outback for my two year visa and this is my second year here. And if you do three months of regional work you can stay for an extra year. I mean I would have preferred to stay on the coast but it's been a really good experience nonetheless.
Cool. And where are you off to from here?Plan for the future is to find a job where I can stay on the coast, which is a bit hard at the moment, but I'm sure I'll find something.
*At time of writing George (and the lovely Iris) are back on tour again and posting regular reports from the road at: travellingwindsurfer@blogsport.com . And if you happen to bump into them along the way don't hesitate to say g'day as they really are genuinely good people.