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.
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
This story is from the Issue 364 - April 2017 edition of Windsurf.
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This story is from the Issue 364 - April 2017 edition of Windsurf.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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