WESTERN AUSTRALIA - OZ SEARCH

Western-Australia isn’t the typical location that springs to mind for freestyle but with a huge coastline to explore and a variety of conditions, it’s an area primed for revelation. Severne teammates, Amado Vrieswijck and Dieter Van Der Eyken hit the road with searcher in chief, John Carter, on a mission to find new spots and reboot old ones in a freestyle frenzy.

Words Dieter Van Der Eyken, John Carter and Finn Mullen //

Photos John Carter

Originally published within the April ’17 edition.

HEADING OUT
Amado and I have travelled quite a bit together during the competition season, so we know each other pretty well and had always talked about a trip together. I usually stay at his house in Bonaire, so it was about time I invited him to my house on wheels to explore Australia for a month to put our Severne freestyle sails through their paces. After twenty-nine hours of flying, Amado made it all the way from Bonaire to Perth where I was waiting outside the airport, ready to start our road trip. After a quick stop at the loft to grab sails and meet Ben Severne, re-packing the van and shopping to stock up on provisions, we were good to go!

As the wind had completely died on the west coast, there wasn’t really any other option on the table than driving down south to Esperance, the perfect way to introduce Amado into the Australian driving routine. After I allowed Amado one night of sleep in Perth, we drove off the next morning at 5am for our 800 km quest to catch a few days of wind in Esperance.

ROAD AHEAD
After a few hours on the road, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, I thought it was about time to allow Amado to drive on the left side of the road and give him a taste of the tarmac in W.A. After driving for about 20 kms. dead straight and slightly uphill, we made it to the brim of the incline. At the top Amado gave me a desperate look. Looking ahead the road was as straight as it could be and seemed to go on forever! Something Amado would not be used to coming from Bonaire. A good laugh followed and in the next two hours of driving we managed to take just three corners!

ESPERANCE
So finally, after nine hours of driving, we arrived at Esperance. Having a small injury I couldn’t do anything else other than watch Amado scramble into a wetsuit at Nine Mile Beach, run down 120 steps and be on the water within five minutes of our arrival. I guess for Amado the water must look a similar colour to the turquoise lagoon he sails in at home in Bonaire. I watched him suffer a few gnarly wipeouts but his session was followed by a big smile when he came off the water. Not much more is needed for us as windsurfers to forget a long journey than that first taste of wind in a new country. Over the next couple of days Amado managed to score some amazing sessions while I made myself useful by taking pictures and filming. Watching Amado trying some pretty big jumps made me very jealous. It was a miracle his 100L freestyle board was still in one piece after going for big stalled forwards, back loops and a even a few doubles.

WIND-UP
After Esperance we headed north for the infamous Lancelin Ocean Classic, a must do on any W.A. road trip. With a few windless days to kill during the event, comic creativity was called for. Ben Severne had decided to let myself, Amado and Moritz Mauch be in charge of the house he rented for his team. On the last day Ben left early in the morning towards Ledge point to help the slalom team prepare for the race, leaving us to clean the house. All done, nice and clean but with another two hours to kill it was time to give Ben a call telling him we had a huge problem. The dog from the neighbours had come into the house and pissed on the carpet in one of the rooms, we asked him for any tips on how to wash it out, as it was pretty smelly. Straight away we were sent a whole list of solutions (what to buy, where to buy it etc.) with already a bit of fear in Ben’s voice as he was the one who would pay the bill if something was wrong with the house.

Of course there was no dog and no pee, this was all a massive wind-up. We photoshopped a pic of the carpet with a big white mark on it and sent the pictures to Ben with the following message: ‘We found some cleaning stuff for the carpet but I think there is bleach in it and the carpet has turned white. The good news is the smell has gone! Shouldn’t be a big deal right?’ The response was pretty short: ‘F**k!’
Not sure if it was the smartest idea to fool your boss, but as Ben does it all the time with other people it was good to score one back on him for a change!

COROS
With the weather systems being pretty messed up, it was a bit hard to show Amado the real Western Australia. There was more rain than sun and the overcast sky was holding back the normal sea breeze making us even sail starboard tack on one day, which is really unusual in the Australian summer. After almost a week of no conditions, Coronation beach (aka Coros!), my favourite spot in W.A. was finally looking on again. Although conditions were light, at last I could show Amado Australia’s most fun freestyle spot with its perfect small kickers to train all the new air moves. Within fifteen minutes he was already sold and talking of plans to come back next season! All too soon, the forecast changed and it was time to head south again and meet up with the Starboard team in Margaret River.

MARGS
I never tend to spend much time in Margaret River aka ‘Margs’, as free camping is not so easy as up in Geraldton, the wind kicks in later and I didn’t really know any decent places to freestyle. There was barely any swell around, so with some help from ‘google earth’, we headed out to search for new spots! Just south of Hamelin bay we stumbled across a dirt road that lead to one of the most beautiful deserted beaches I have seen in WA to date. There was nobody on the beach, nice consistent wind and some amazing rocks sticking out of the water to create the perfect background for JC’s cameras to work with! Walking down a small track from the “car park” the session was already unique before we even started. The fun thing about having Amado with me was that I didn’t have to freestyle on my own, making it even more fun to explore new beaches like this! What’s the use of finding a new spot when you can’t share the joy with anybody else? That night in the pub, JC randomly was chatting to a guy who had just started working for Margaret River Tourism and somehow managed to wangle a free helicopter ride for the following day, what a score!

With the shoot all set for early afternoon, Amado decided to try something different! He was on a solo mission to sail the smallest possible windsurfing pool inside the lagoon in the reef. I honestly didn’t really think it was doable but somehow Amado showed enough control and timing for the gusts to prove me otherwise. Navigating through the jagged reef, just a few centimetres wider than his board, he is without doubt the first one to ever throw down freestyle moves within just a few square meters of water! It will probably also stay that way! That was definitely an expert’s only mission! Unless of course you don’t mind breaking a few fins and boards to get that one amazing shot. And also don’t forget to bring a helicopter with a photographer onboard too!

SOLID SESSION
To finish the trip we finally scored a solid forecast and headed back up north with only one ingredient on our windsurfing menu – doubles! Strong wind in Coros, nice waves and small freestyle boards were the order of the day. Both Amado and myself were thrilled to score some jumping practice before the end of the trip. The wind was around 30 knots with a solid weather system in place to give us three straight days of action. One camera, four riders and a thirty minute switching routine gave us some great feedback and motivation from the sessions.

GOOD TIMES
Although the wind didn’t play its usual role, this trip still provided plenty of amazing memories. We started in the south and ended in the north, saw all four seasons of Australia and sailed some pretty unique conditions. Our search was over but the hunger for more was still there, see you next year Australia!

AUSTRALIA TRAVEL TIPS
Make sure you apply for your visa before travelling down under. Travel agents can usually arrange this for you for around £20 or you can go direct and obtain online at www.eta.immi.gov.au
Life down under is a bit less luxury than what you might score in Cape Town since most of the time on a windsurfing trip here you are not staying in a house but normally in a small van traveling from spot to spot. In exchange, the Australian beaches are far less crowded!

ON THE ROAD
The best way to get to W.A. is to fly to Perth and for travelling around, either rent a van or maybe buy one if you are staying six weeks or longer. Many vans can be found on gumtree.com as it is a common place to buy and sell vehicles in Australia for backpackers. Be sure to watch some YouTube videos on what to check for when buying second hand cars as some of them are in pretty bad shape due to the fact that as long you pay the registration fee, you don’t have to take them over the pits for inspections. Otherwise you can choose to rent a motorhome with a kitchen and all the ‘mod cons’ in it or rent an empty van from Hertz, fix a bed in it and save your dollars. In general shopping prices are quite equal to the North of Europe, with only beer being significantly more expensive, so if you like beer, be sure to work that cost into your budget as icy colds are not as cheap as back home!

MAIN SPOTS
The base camp for most visiting sailors in W.A. is Geraldton. “Gerro” is the place where you get the most wind and most time on the water and is “only” a 7-hour drive up to the famous waves of Gnaraloo. You can camp on the beach in Coronation beach for 7 dollars a night per person or stay in Geraldton at the Sunset campsite with quite a bit more luxury for normally 30 dollars a night. If you are a big group you usually can work a deal out with them if you stay for a few nights. Free camping is possible as well but not on any of the beaches and best to move spots every second night as the rangers can chase you away but always have to give you a warning the first time they catch you and in general they are pretty friendly.

Lancelin is 90 minutes from Perth, a small fishing town with a great mix of waves and flat water inside the reef. It’s normally less windy than Geraldton but there’s a friendly windsurfing community and beautiful beaches all around with good surfing too. There’s a wide range of accommodation from hotels to hostels, chalets and camping. In Margaret River the waves are quite a lot bigger but the wind kicks in a lot later making you either wait most of the day or at least score a surf every morning! Margaret River is a big tourist destination with plenty to see and do and boutique hotels, gourmet restaurants and wineries.

Laid back Esperance is one of the most beautiful parts of W.A., famed for its turquoise water colours. It is a bit more of a mission to reach, so make sure your vehicle is in decent shape and is not prone to overheating and capable of a long journey. Some stretches between gas stations are quite far apart, so it is worthwhile filling up at every opportunity just to be safe, especially at night. The sailing is everything from flat water to some of the best beach breaks in the world and even if there is no wind, the beauty of Esperance will keep you entertained.