Story by Al Bentley

Pics Clare Brown

Meet Rob Harrison, a 40 year old software engineer working in the computer games industry. Rob lives in Wellington, New Zealand with his girlfriend, Clare.

They emigrated from the UK in 2009. After meeting Rob at the New Zealand Freestyle Nationals in 2012 I found his story so simple, yet inspiring, that I would like to share it today.

HOOKED
Rob started windsurfing back in 1986 after being forced into it by his elder brother. Like many people he started off dinghy sailing, but was hooked after his first few sessions windsurfing despite the freezing conditions and baggy sails. Not being particularly into team sports also helped, but it was mainly the challenge of learning which attracted him, and appears to be the fundamental reason he is still doing it today.

In 1993 Rob moved to Leicestershire to begin work as a Computer Games Developer. The job demanded long hours and he was enjoying the work, it started to become difficult to find time for anything else. Welcome to the rat race.

The closest suitable lake was at least an hour drive away and it was almost a 3 hour journey to the coast. Rob never intentionally gave it up, it just happened, and back then freestyle wasn’t anywhere near as exciting and diverse as it is now.

At this stage Rob had already already mastered most of the tricks from that period such as Downwind 360s and Duck Tacks. He didn’t feel the sport was challenging enough – little did he know how things would change!

It wasn’t all bad – whenever he could fit it into his schedule he took flying lessons and managed to gain his pilot’s license in 2001. Combined with the odd snowboarding holiday, Rob almost forgot about spending time on the water.

BACK IN THE GAME
Fast forward to 2002 and Rob was standing in line waiting to be served at the local newsagents. He spotted a copy of Windsurf Magazine on the shelf and out of idle curiosity picked it up and flicked through. Inside was an article on learning Spocks and Grubbies, after reading the article Rob couldn’t get it out of his head – he had to learn those moves.

The first thing he did was find somewhere as close as possible to go sailing, this happened to be Draycote Water near Rugby, still the best part of an hour’s drive from his house, depending on the traffic on the M1. He only had some old wave gear so before he could get on the water he paid a visit to the nearby windsurf shop and purchased some modern kit.

As Rob’s passion for the sport started to grow again, he began to question his work/life balance. He gradually introduced windsurfing back into his life and after a few holidays to Greece and Margarita he eventually quit his job in 2004 and spent the winter in Western Australia.

A few more trips later in 2007 the urge had become too strong. His partner and he decided to sell their house and relocate somewhere windy so they spent a few years considering various locations around the world with the aim of trying to find one which ticked all the boxes. There aren’t many places with a computer games industry and good wind statistics, but in the end Wellington seemed to fit the bill and, as anyone who has visited the city will know, with 173 days of the year where the wind gusts over 32 knots, it certainly ticks the wind one!

BIG MOVE
After selling their house in 2009 Rob and his partner finally made the move to New Zealand and Rob went back to full time work. They found the move fairly straightforward, the hardest part actually being finding a rental property which would accept their pet dog!

New Zealand is a long way from the UK, so for most people this is the main drawback of emigrating. When asked if he misses anything from England Rob preferred to say what he doesn’t miss: the traffic, the weather, crime stats and the obsession with football! It would be nice if Tesco would open a store in Wellington too. I would tend to agree, but fear not, I can confirm Newworld does do great houmus…

NOT JUST FOR KIDS
Rob is 40 now, and the last move he learnt was the regular Kono. The move was invented a few years ago by PWA star Kiri Thode. It involves ducking the sail to a backwinded position whilst sailing along fully planing in the straps, carving upwind and taking off into a Wymaroo/Clew-first Backloop type of aerial.

Since his return to the sport and heavy focus on freestyle Rob has managed to master an impressive array of the modern tricks such as the Shaka, Bobs and Air Funnels. Many people wouldn’t even consider or attempt to learn these kind of tricks after 35, but Rob shows it’s still possible to learn them.

He has a very systematic approach to learning, constantly breaking down and analysing each step of the moves. Whilst Wellington is super windy, the majority of crew there are wave sailors, which leaves the odd visitor, the Tricktionary and various websites as the only sources of inspiration and advice on what he is doing wrong.

Some people might be surprised that he hasn’t yet found injury a major problem, as this is a common concern when attempting freestyle for the first time. Whilst he has found learning to be more difficult as the years go by, Rob says ‘you have to accept that it’s going to take slightly longer to reach your goals’.

LIVING THE DREAM
Time on water and consistent conditions are everything when you’re trying to learn new tricks, so having that has opened the door to moves he had no chance of learning before emigrating.

One thing many people don’t realise about Wellington is that the typical conditions are pretty tough for sailing in general, let alone freestyle. Super windy, choppy and gusty – it’s all or nothing. Knowing where to sail is key, especially at the spots near the city it’s unusual for sailors to be on anything bigger than 4.2m. Sometimes the wind is too strong to sail.

Since making the move 4 years ago, Rob and his partner have built their own house in Seatoun (only 20 meters walk from his back door to a secret freestyle spot!) and Rob successfully managed to convince his employer to let him work on a more flexible, part-time basis. The standard office hours of 9am – 6pm meant no windsurfing during the week in winter – obviously unacceptable – but the new arrangement means he can enjoy afternoon sessions throughout the year. It’s this kind of dedication to the sport, and sacrifice (if you can call it that!) of other aspects of Rob’s life which took him to New Zealand in the first place.

Being a software designer for a living, and generally technical person, Rob has also been involved in some interesting personal projects during downtime from sailing. A number of years back he wrote a sail design software package. Of course to test the software he needed the associated equipment. After purchasing an industrial sewing machine, building a CNC plotter and batten grinder he was able to create his own sails. He confesses the early versions were ‘truly awful’, but the last 4 or 5 were decent enough. He ended up sailing on them for 3 years before switching back to off-the-shelf products. Interestingly he realised it was not only proving un-economical to produce them, but also that they weren’t comparable in performance to modern production sails.

When asked what the future holds, his current plan is to stick around New Zealand for a while until him and his partner secure citizenship. This will make travel considerably easier, and also allows them to live in Australia. Having spent a couple of windy summers in Western Australia, Rob said they may consider Perth as an option in the future.

Rob’s goal is to have Culos, Kabikuchis and Skopus in the bag before he is 50. After that he will focus on wave sailing, or take up fishing. We’re dubious as we have no doubt he will have cracked those moves by then and his sights will be on the next big trick the young guns have invented, that’s what keeps Rob sailing, and why we love freestyle – the endless challenge.