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Christie Carter's island surf dream comes true BACK

Christie Carter can’t be blamed for having the urge to wander. He was born in Gisborne on August 21st, 1975. “Nine months prior, my parents had unknowingly conceived me in Byron Bay, Australia. Upon reaching New Zealand, my mum thought she had picked up a tropical disease, which turned out to be me,” he says by email from Mainuk Island in the Mentawai group off the southern coast of Sumatra.

“My mum Karinjean Danielle was born in Hawaii, she met my dad Dick Carter in San Diego. They married and travelled across the Pacific winding up at Wainui Beach, Gisborne.”

Christie says he spent most of his life travelling between Gisborne and the US. After his parents parted when he was 13 the custody arrangement meant he spent eight months in New Zealand with mum and four months in California with dad.

He says Wainui Beach Primary School will always have a special place in his heart. “I remember walking along the beach to school. The only time shoes were needed was inside the classroom, otherwise it was a free-for-all, stub-your-toe-if-you-want kind of life.

“I’ve always been a surfer; on a boogey board until I was 13, and then standing up like my dad from then on. He introduced me to his hobby, and we have always lived near the beach and waves, no matter where home was. I grew up in the company of the best surfers that New Zealand had produced to date, and it was an exciting childhood living in Murphy Road, especially when it was blowing offshore, surfing with my mates Marc and Vaughan Ferris, Craig Clissold, Richard Van Wyk, Damon Gunness, Brent Rasby and Maz Quinn.

“On winter break from school during my 19th year an opportunity arose to work on a 65-foot yacht in Thailand. I joined the crew as first mate and ended up almost two years working on the boat, sailing to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Sabah, Philippines and eventually found myself in the Mentawai Islands of West Sumatra in Indonesia.

“On the yacht we visited an area in the Mentawais where we scored unbelievably perfect surf with nobody else around for about three weeks. This was in 1997 and I starting tossing around the idea of finding a way to spend more time in this amazing area. So after we had delivered the yacht back to Thailand, I jumped ship with the idea of starting a surf resort.”

Christie went back to the Mentawais in 1998 to explore the possibility of somehow leasing some land to start a surf camp. After several adventures and exploratory missions he eventually found an island with fantastic surf owned by a single family who allowed him to realise his dream. “My eventual contract (after 6 years of negotiation) took the form of renting the entire island for 20 years. It has one of the best beaches in South-East Asia, and a wave that has been dubbed “Mentawai Pipeline” right out front.

“Things started slowly and the first couple of seasons were just mates coming out to visit me on the island. Happy mates tell other mates, and this remains the basis of my business today. I had incredible challenges getting the business started up, especially as I had no capital and no investors. Luckily for me the Asian financial crisis made the US dollars that I did have worth a lot more.

Fast forward to 2008: “As a legal requirement for the surf resort which I’ve called “WavePark Mentawai Surf Resort”, I own a foreign investment company domiciled in Padang, West Sumatra. I have 15 full-time staff during the March – November season, but I keep a staff of 8 full-time all year round. The business has started to snowball in the last couple years, and now my job really is a CEO position, not just a title on my immigration card. I’ve designed and supervised construction on all the facilities on the island, including a two-storey main house with three bedrooms and en suite each, two bungalows, a bar/restaurant, a games room, crew quarters, generator house, fuel garage, massage hut, viewing platform and a speedboat shed.

“We have agents and guests from every main country in the world that has surfers. I’ve had guests from Switzerland (no ocean) and Holland (who would have thought?), as well as Italy and Puerto Rico. We had 160 guests in 2008. I now have a full time Kiwi chef, surf guide, bartender and masseuse. My girlfriend Alice Trend (From St. Paul, Minnesota – they met in Padang where she was a teacher of English in 2003) deals with all the bookings from agents and emails and takes photographs of the guests surfing, which we present during a slide show every night in the bar.

“Unfortunately it’s not all peaches and cream. Since 1998 I’ve dealt with the dismissal of Indonesia’s president and subsequent political fallout and riots. 9/11 in New York, Bali bombs in Kuta and Jimbaran, SARS and bird flu epidemics, a massive tsunami and years worth of earthquakes. I miss my family and friends from home everyday. I have to deal with corrupt, power-hungry government officials who want their slice of the pie. I pay massive taxes and have a full-time accountant to navigate the mine-fields. I have to hire and fire people and struggle to manage a crew that not only works together, but lives together every day of the season. Politics, greedy western operators, licenses, oppressive heat and unavailability of Pascall jet plane lollies makes it difficult to live here 11 months of the year.

“Overall I think of myself as extremely lucky to be able to surf everyday with the guests if I want to, to meet such an amazing array of the human population that share a beer with me at the bar, and to live in a place of such amazing beauty. My business is successful enough to allow me to fly home once a year to visit my family, and I always have enough food to eat. The resort as of now is not “finished”. I intend to build four more bungalows and a pier for loading and unloading within the next couple of years. I would like to get the resort finished and then sell the business, although there are many challenges between now and then, including a worldwide recession for starters.

Website: www.wavepark.com

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Darnelle Timbs life less ordinary BACK

Darnelle Timbs is a hard person to pin down for a chat. This Wairere Road girl is constantly on the move. Even when she’s sitting down, she’s trying to go as fast as possible.

She has spent eleven years rowing – seven years representing New Zealand internationally. She has travelled to Europe for world championship events six times and competed in several other international regattas. She has also completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Geography and Political Science, with Honours in Advanced Development Studies and has recently completed her Masters First Class.

Darnelle’s international rowing career began when she was asked to trial for the New Zealand Junior Team at the end of high school along with Bess Halley (who also resides in Wainui). Both Darnelle and Bess were selected for the Junior World Rowing Championships and this marked the step from national-grade success, to a long and accomplished international career for the high school friends who uniquely rowed in virtually every crew together at both domestic and elite level. Darnelle trained and studied in Christchurch under the New Zealand Rowing Academy. She then moved to Cambridge, the national rowing base, where she trained for many years among the New Zealand rowing elite squad, rowing alongside the likes of Sonia Wadell, the Evers-Swindells and Mahe Drysdale.

Darnelle, the daughter of David Timbs and Ro Darrall, says she never really planned to live the life of an athlete, but she quickly found out what she was in for. At junior level she trained twice a day and then at elite level, life was “pretty much all about rowing”. While many students go off to university with the goal of having as much fun as possible, Darnelle had a different focus. On a busy week she rowed over 50km each day. As a professional athlete she had to constantly watch her diet; no alcohol was allowed and there was random drug testing. Rowing was such a commitment that she had to become a part-time student during her Masters, which took two and a half years, as opposed to the usual one year, to complete.

Darnelle says the best thing has been the friends she made in the rowing community. She also loved the competition of racing and the travel it offered, allowing her to fulfill her desire to observe and experience other cultures. She rowed in many different countries – and then, after competition duties were fulfilled, went off on a backpacking stint with friends from her rowing squad. A highlight was winning an Under 23 World Championship in Poland in 2004 and then travelling to Athens to witness the Olympic Games.

It was in Athens that Darnelle developed the dream to compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and for several years this became the main focus in her life. Unfortunately the dream didn’t become a reality as she was not selected for the final squad, and recently Darnelle decided to finish with rowing for the time being.

Darnelle did make it to Beijing however. Last year she went to the Olympics on her own steam to at least experience what she might have been part of. She says it was one of the most exciting things she has done so far. She attended many sports including all the rowing races as a spectator, while catching up with long-time fellow rowers. “The best thing was getting into all the Olympic after-parties with all my rowing friends,” she laughs.

From Beijing Darnelle went to rural Cambodia where she worked for several months as a volunteer to try out her next idea of working for a development organisation. Darnelle spent this summer in Gisborne as the Event Coordinator for the BW Camping Festival.

As an illustration of her determination Darnelle tells the story of how she once chased the music group “Black Eyed Peas” pretty much all around the world. At an Auckland concert she got the idea that the Peas’ philosophy to music could help with her Masters’ thesis on how music can create beneficial change in the lives of ethnic minorities. She managed to get backstage where she met the Peas’ manager who was enthusiastic about the idea.

After competing at the World Rowing Championships in England in 2006 she flew to Canada to try and interview the group on tour. After following the tour for a week, numerous concerts and VIP after-parties later, she finally managed to get an interview on the tour bus. On another rowing trip she stopped over in Los Angeles to interview the bands management and insisted on visiting the notorious LA ghettos to witness a programme set up by the Peas to assist marginalised youth. She then tracked the group down again in Sydney to hand deliver the thesis at their concert and enjoy another after-party. As a result, a local documentary maker has contacted her, interested in possibly turning her thesis into a documentary.

At 25 Darnelle is concerned about social inequalities, the contrast between rich and poor. She wants to pursue her passion in this area, having a particular interest in the use of sport and play programmes as a means of improving the futures of children in disadvantaged areas of the world. This month she found a way to attend the Global Sports Forum in Barcelona in Spain where, by chance, she met and made a contact of Australian 60 Minutes journalist and social justice advocate, Jeff McMullen. Jeff is CEO of Ian Thorpe’s Fountain of Youth programme and a champion of “journalism that really matters”.

Right now Darnelle is enjoying being back home in Gisborne and is in no hurry to leave. She plans to study Spanish extramurally. She and Bess still enjoy the odd row together on the Waimata river, the place where they began their sporting journey back in high school days. isited his parents when the twins were just three months old

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Stephanie Brown career gets a big tick BACK

Home from the UK for summer at Wainui Beach, Stephanie Brown was looking forward to getting back to work. When you realise she has a great job in London as retail marketing manager with one of the world’s most exciting retail brands you can understand why she is keen to get her visa sorted and be winging her way back to London a.s.a.p

Stephanie, daughter of Dave and Liz Brown of Wairere Road, is the retail marketing manager for Nike in the United Kingdom. A job that has seen her involved in photo shoots with the English rugby team, a participant at the Nike Plus Human Race and schmoozing in corporate boxes at major sporting events.

A combination of factors came together for Stephanie to get the opportunity to work at Nike. Of course having a marketing degree and experience in the sports industry (she worked for Asics in Auckland) put her in good stead, but there was also a good dose of that ‘being in the right place at the right time’. While previously working for an advertising company at the bottom of the food chain as far as advertising and big brands go, Stephanie describes how she had to chase after individuals at Nike, and after one particular stressful time she decided she wanted to be the one being chased and not the one doing the chasing.

As fate would have it she got a call from her recruitment consultant about a position going and it was at Nike. She was very enthusiastic, and was definitely available. Her immediate availability, her work history plus a bit of clever negotiation (Nike normally recruit internally), and she secured the contract.

Stephanie describes her position as being responsible for all Nike marketing materials that appear in stores all over England and being responsible for the relationship with retailers from a marketing point of view. For the Nike Pro campaign (the layer worn under sports jerseys) she explains she coordinated 1900 window displays of the Nike Pro product in 340 sports stores around England. This campaign had a huge budget at around two million pounds.

Stephanie says the work culture at Nike encourages the employees to live and breathe the brand. The Nike marketing office is in London’s Carnaby Street, what was the trendy gathering place of the fashion pack in the sixties. The office floor she describes feels like a basketball court, the walls shaped in the swoosh sign and each room is aptly named after selected sports stars like Tiger Woods and Roger Federer.

Stephanie enthuses about the wide range of sport she enjoys watching. While the job at Nike calls for her to take a keen interest in sport, she attends many sporting events by choice. This passion has seen her at Wimbledon, the Aussie Open and the French Open watching tennis, the Monaco Grand Prix and she was at that fateful quarterfinal at the Rugby World Cup. She has watched the All Whites vs Brazil in Geneva, various rugby games at Twickenham Stadium and watched a test cricket match between England and New Zealand this year at Lords.

She also still tends to her travel bug, and has left Nike twice to spend time in Greece and Turkey with her partner Shannon Dowsing (also of Wainui Beach). Both times Nike has taken her back, so she must be doing something right. She thinks perhaps it’s the Kiwi work ethic and the ability to ‘just get on with it’ which could coincidentally resonate with the Nike slogan ‘just do it’.

An ex-pupil of Gisborne Girls’ High School, Stephanie chose to go to the University of Otago in Dunedin. There she completed a business degree majoring in marketing, and completed her final year on an exchange programme with the Bocconi University in Milan.

It was in Italy that she first got a taste of the European lifestyle, which influenced her to make the decision to go to London 18 months later. Stephanie says her career has progressed rapidly in London, and while she does get homesick for New Zealand, the job at Nike has given her a real sense of belonging. It also helps that her big sister Nancy has been living in London for the last eight years.

Stephanie says she will stay in London for as long as the going is good. The credit crunch is a new reality and jobs are being scaled back. Not even a big company like Nike is immune with budget cuts inevitable. This doesn’t stop Stephanie maintaining high aspirations however; she would like to experience the opportunity of working in Nike’s office in New York, fully immersing herself in the heritage of Nike’s American culture. Noting the passion and enthusiasm that Stephanie effuses when talking about her job at Nike, it is obvious she thoroughly enjoys what she does and the brand her job represents. With her current success story and the excellent position she has found herself in, it would appear Nike and London has given Stephanie’s career a big tick!

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Career, travel and now engagement in London

Local girl Ila Robertson has topped off an eventful life so far with the announcement of her engagement to long-time partner Tim Daniels in London recently.

Born at 29 Moana Rd, Okitu, on 12 May 1978 to well-known locals Chrisse and Murray Robertson, Ila pretty much grew up around the Wainui surf club and on the beach at Pines.

Ila went off to Wainui Beach School from 1985, then Ilminster in 1990 and Girls’ High from 1992 to 96.

“My best friend was, and still is, Emma Knox – we lived opposite each other on Douglas Street when my parents bought their first house there,” Ila says.

After school Ila went on to Victoria University where from 1997 to 2000 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography.

She then went to Auckland University where from 2001-2002 she obtained a Masters in Planning degree to further pursue her chosen career path in town planning.

“I met Tim through mutual friends in 1998 at the Law Ball in Wellington and we have been together ever since. Tim was studying at Law School when I met him. He is one of seven boys and he grew up in Masterton. His parents are Ken and Colleen Daniels.

“When I moved to Auckland Tim stayed in Wellington for seven months finishing his Masters before moving to Auckland. We lived right by the Sky Tower for four years. When someone asked Tim once why he moved to Auckland he said ‘for love’”.

Ila worked for a planning consultancy called Harrison Grierson in Auckland from 2003 to 2005 and Tim worked at a couple of law firms from 2001 to 2005 as a research librarian.

The couple travelled to London in 2005.

“We tripped about quite extensively on our way here through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Nepal – the highlight was Nepal where we completed the Annapurna Circuit which involves a month trekking that goes through the highest trekking pass at 5417m.

“We have also travelled extensively through Europe whilst here. We are off on a mountain biking trip in Iceland in May this year, we holidayed in Malta in March and are planning a trip to Turkey in Summer – and I am hoping to run either the New York or Berlin marathon in November.

“We have together taken up an adventure sport called ‘open water swimming’ where we go on holidays and undertake open water swimming treks in exotic locations.

In 2008 we swam around the Greek Cyclades Islands and last year we swam the coast of Croatia.

“The slogan of the company that runs the tours says, “Ferrys are for wimps, lets swim”. They have a website at www.swimtrek.com. The photo I emailed through was taken after the swim trek in Croatia in Dubrovnik.

“We live in Greenwich old town, right by the Cutty Sark and the Naval College, opposite Greenwich Park which is a Royal Park.

“Mum (Chrisse) is coming over to live with us for six months later this year for travel and work which will be fab.

“At the moment Tim works as a research librarian at a law firm, Clifford Chance, and I am the applications manager at the London borough of Tower Hamlets working in the planning department.

“I manage a team of twelve planners. It’s a really exciting borough as we have part of the Olympic site, Canary Wharf and Tower of London in our jurisdiction. We have over 50 conservation areas, over 2000 listed heritage buildings, and two world heritage sites.

“The borough is really diverse with over 100 languages spoken and it has one of the highest population densities in London. There is also a lot of deprivation with some of the poorest wards in the UK located next to one of the biggest financial districts in the world – Canary Wharf.

“We have a very high housing target set by the Mayor of London to build 43,000 new homes by 2025. It’s an exciting place to work and we daily face modern challenges in how to shape places and communities.

“We hope to come back to New Zealand next year via South America. The plan is to get to married on the sand dunes in front of mum’s house on Moana Road in January of 2012, hopefully, with a very relaxed BBQ reception at the surf club with family and friends.

“We are planning on settling in Auckland, but spending every summer at Wainui with our (future)kids, maybe eventually retirement at the beach.”