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Surf Tips

HOW TO FIND SURF-FRIENDLY WORK


Sailing, done right, delivers you to the best surf in the world courtesy of a few polite, carbon-less gusts of wind. Caribbean. Photo: Alex Laurel

YACHT CREW

Surf time:

Sounds good on paper, if you picture yourself cruising in the Mentawais or the Caribbean with pumping lineups in sight… but in reality that’s a relatively rare encounter. You’ll either have to drive the boat across some vast ocean to its rich owner without a sandbar at less than 1000 feet underneath you… or when you are at the destination, you’re under constant scrutiny by that same rich bastard, who demands you wear a tucked in polo shirt to polish the brass/fetch his mistress G&T’s… Still, if you love the ocean, a sense of freedom, exploration and hate sitting in traffic, ocean sailing could be for you. The big picture of course is one day getting your own boat and skippering it to whichever wave-drenched archipelago you like.

Money:

As a basic crew member helping with delivery of a yacht, you might just get your meals and passage as pay, possibly the return flight home paid, possibly not. Otherwise, experienced crew might make a couple of hundred quid a week but not much more.

Qualifications:

The RYA Day Skipper isn’t a must to be able to cook/clean/sail but it certainly helps you get work and is a decent starting point towards becoming your own Cap’n.

Travel possibilities:

The seven seas brother! The adventure with a big A! Maybe sail to
Antarctica like ol’ Kepa Acero or cruise the vast Pacific surfing unknown breaks in every corner of the Polynesian triangle…

Downside:

Maybe you’ll be doing laps of Lake Geneva, towing obnoxious city bankers’ obnoxious kids on wakeboards. Plus, imagine setting off for that hefty San Francisco to Sydney leg and realizing sometime midway through the first evening that the skipper is kinda like a still-alive Jimmy Saville. Yikes!

Famous Surfers:

Jim Banks, Liz Clark, Ozzie Wright’s nan.

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