Growing Coastal
Sorrento Beach is where I grew up, and when I think about what connected me to the outdoors in the first place, it always comes back to that. Later on, I lived in City Beach, a bit further down the coast, but always on the Western Australian coast.
I feel very lucky about that. We were literally probably 100 meters from the beach. There was the highway, and we were the first house. My surf club was just down the road, so I’d come and go, and in the 80s, it was all very free and easy. I’d just leave a note and say I’d be back at 5, then head off to play with friends down there.
A lot of my childhood was just unstructured play. Playing in a spare block with a swing, going down to the beach with foamies, just mucking around. We didn’t have phones and technology back then, and we grew up in an area where there were lots of kids the same age, so we just had heaps of fun. I have an older sister who’s 18 months older, very polar opposite to me. She’s the bookworm. And I have a half-brother who’s 15 years younger. He’s sporty, like myself. Mum was very outdoorsy herself, and we just grew up doing the things that she loved. Luckily we were on the beach, so rain, hail or shine we’d be down there through winter.
