Those who attended the National Windsurfing Festival (NWF) will probably remember it as just another great event, and while that matches mine there’s one line from a past conversation which meant a whole lot more. We all like a compliment, so when Wouter Ardern from Seasprite came over and said “Roberto’s just told me he’d like you to work for him, but I’d like to add that if anything ever changes at Boards I’d like you to work with me”, I just took it as another way to say “well done”.
There’s no point in repeating history, but as the Boards office door closed behind me my mobile starting to ring while flashing ‘Seasprite’ on the screen. While some may have seen it as a perfect opportunity to keep the bank and wife happy, like it or not I couldn’t just say yes immediately, as there was unfinished business and the Boards team to consider.
A plan had been festering in my mind for some time; a way to repay the sport that given me so much, something I needed to investigate. There were also my good friends Duncan and Gary to consider. I’ll leave that story for another day, apart from to say they are a great part of it.
Did someone say I was lucky? Well I guess that trip to Brazil would be confirmation enough for most, but that’s where my luck differs from others, as I seem to get a double dose of the stuff. I didn’t just have a great trip - Wouter just happened to be booked on it with me.
If you’ve been in my company for long you’d consider that as a negative. He’d get to see the real me - the grumpy bastard when it’s not flowing ‘me’, and the idiot when the alcohol is.
As it turned out, scarily he seems to share my odd sense of humour, though my wife was happier that we share the values of “my word is my bond”. So while I’m happy to report that I’m the new boy in the Seasprite team, I have to confess to being a little worried as I’ve never worked with anyone who wanted me to let my handbrake off.
