Joining the Deakin Boardriders Club and going to a university so close to Bells Beach was the highlight of my degree. In 1979, the Deakin University Sports Association (now the Deakin University Sport Society) sent me and seven others to the Australian Titles in NSW.
We were fully sponsored and that included motel accommodation, car, fuel and food. Imagine our delight when we saw students from Monash in their own cars, staying in tents! I think there were only about 10–12 members of the boardriders club.
I have been back to Deakin three times now for further qualifications, both online and at the Waurn Ponds Campus that I love so much.
The surf had me in its grip for many years but eventually I needed to escape and have been on Magnetic Island in North Queensland for 20 years. Not much surf inside the Great Barrier Reef but the scuba diving is amazing. It’s funny when you go back to studies and your student number starts with ‘79’ which is the year I started at Deakin – the link is always there.
