Good Bye

After ten years, its time to say good-bye to my trusty companion. So I though a quick trawl through my photography archive would pull up a few gems, it didn’t matter what the colour my lens was clearly more interested in where we were going than how we got there. From now on I’ll have to make to with the occasional meet-up at the beach, maybe I’ll get the picture then.

I was always being asked, “what was it before”, my reply was always through gritted teeth “a pile of shiny new metal on the floor” as my windsurfing van may not have been small but it was my baby. Ten years ago we were going to so many demos where we needed to rig twenty sails at a time, something that can be a bit disheartening when the wind doesn’t show, so when my life insurance paid out I couldn’t resist buying the dream van.

It took awhile to get the racks right so the sails didn’t jump off the hooks with every bump but imagine my frustration when my (supposedly) good friends nicknamed my big yellow surf van “the library bus”, even worse, it stuck even though we changed it to black several years later.

Looking back I can’t believe I don’t have the pictures to tell its journey. Some of that was in Ireland and France but the majority was here in the UK but much more than the miles are the changes it’s had over the years. Never a year passed where I didn’t take over the F-Hot workshop to make a few changes, though not all were my ideas.

On one occasion I returned home from a few weeks away, opened up the side door only to walk into a shower, not that it ever got used, I just think Shaun had to much time on his hands. The biggest change and one I can’t believe wasn’t ordered from day one, was opening up the back to make my mini office, it not only gave me a bit of living space but didn’t impact on the equipment it would carry in the back.

Sally’s always wanted to get it off the drive and is still taking the piss for it coming down to an emotional decision, at least I know she’ll work well for her new owner… the van that is, though it was a close decision.