Is it tougher for an Aussie to come to Europe to compete?
I think it’s more expensive to get to the events for sure, but it depends on how you do it. This year, ideally I would have liked to stay in Europe for the month off between Tenerife and Klitmoller, but I needed to go home and work to keep my job and maintain my learning as a Physiotherapist. If I had stayed, then it wouldn’t be too much more expensive and hopefully in the future I will be able to stay.
Was it a tough decision to take four years out to study to become Physio ?
At times it was pretty hard to be at University while everyone else was windsurfing every day of the week but I really wanted to have something else to fall back on. When I finished school I wanted to commit to the Tour for a couple of years before studying but I ended up injuring my foot quite badly in 2009 and was unable to windsurf for over 6 months. That’s when I decided to go to University and finish a Physiotherapy degree before I gave the Tour another go. It was hard because I wasn’t able to live in Geraldton and my course was pretty full-on so I wasn’t able to windsurf anywhere near as much as I wanted. I’m happy now that I made that decision though and I feel that it was definitely worth it.
You must have a pretty cool boss to let you take time off to do the PWA?
My boss is a keen windsurfer and he has been one of the biggest supporters of my Dad’s boards so I have known him since I was really young. Max (my boss) was my Physiotherapist growing up and always knew that I wanted to compete on the Tour for a few years. I am really lucky to be given the opportunity to travel and to take several months off a year to windsurf and then to come home to a job I really enjoy as well.
Why did you come back and compete on the tour, surely it was quite risky with the trials?
Competing on the World Tour was what I always wanted to do and to get back on to the Tour you don’t have a choice but to do the trials. The trials are quite nerve-racking for sure and I was really nervous about them in Pozo. That was where I felt the most pressure but it was pressure that I was putting on myself. Everyone in the trials is a threat and most of those guys are previous PWA sailors who have had some time off or they are the best local guys who know their home spot inside out and are looking to break on to the World Tour. I approached the trials like I would a normal heat and knew that if I wanted to be competitive in the main event then I had to beat those guys in the trials.
Why did your dad sign up as a member of the PWA rather than just let you sail on white boards or use another brands graphics?
It was more my choice to join the PWA than my Dad’s. Dad didn’t mind what I did but I wanted to represent Stone Surfboards and ride the boards that I prefer to ride without feeling like they had to be covered up, just to protect the bigger brands. Stone Surfboards isn’t a big brand at all, Dad shapes boards in a small shed behind our house and he has no aspirations to get any bigger. He’s just happy shaping 1-2 surfboards a week and 1 sailboard every 2 weeks or so, spending the rest of his time surfing, windsurfing or fishing. I earn more money than him now in my first year as a Physiotherapist too so I wanted to pay the fees to get a bit more involved myself. Now that I’ve finished studying I want to learn how to shape my own boards over the next few years too so maybe one day I’ll be riding those.
