Growing Up | coconut

My Early Years

From learning to sail on the We We ( prounounced Wear Wear) dam, now called the Dudley Pringle Dam., to becoming a Yachtmaster I enjoyed many adventures, first as a boy and later as an electrical engineer

Baby Sitter

I was lucky enough to live next door to a most gorgeous young woman. Jennifer Williams, who was a few years older than me, quite often offered to sit with me while my parents were out socialising. Jenny's father, Buster, was a railways and boating enthusiast who built two tow boats in his garage to pull his daughters, Jennifer and Helene while they displayed their skiing talent. I remember being trussed up in my blanket and tucked into a locker under the foredeck one still morning while Jenny displayed her fantastic skills, the single ski cutting the water like a knife, the momentum throwing cascades off the mirror like surface, first to Port then to Starboard.

Eric Collins and the 1st Maidstone Sea Scouts

My father had been a Scout at Maidstone and had helped to build the Scout Hall. He put some pressure on me to join the movement which I did, first as a Cub Scout and later as a Sea Scout. We enjoyed an enormous amount of support from our first scoutmaster, Naas Bower, and later from Eric Collins, who was introduced to scouting as Naas would be moving on to greener pastures. Eric was one of the sailors who found a land based job while he raised his children Linda, Stephen, Brendon and Desmond who were all younger than me. One of the activities Eric offered us as scouts was sailing. Many of the boys were lucky enough to have fathers who could afford to buy or build them sailing dinghies which I was often fortunate enough to sail in. I even enjoyed a few lessons from Eric. Robert Wilson who owned what must have been the first Laser in the country, or was it a Fireball ?, helped by giving pointers. Robert was lucky enough to have covered some of the more advanced sailing techniques and technologies of the day. As a consequence he was also well endowed with sailing tactics and strategy which I still enjoy today.

A break to go surfing

I resigned from Sea Scouting as Troop Leader to spend more time in the water working on my surf style at Westbrook Beach. That was where the action was among my peers. High school was demanding more of my attention and I spent a lot of time jamming with friends. I was introduced to the music of Bob Dylan and enjoyed playing many popular songs such as Bad Moon Rising, Cecelia, Bridge over Troubled Waters and The House of the Rising Sun. Another highlight was rock and roll music such as that of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Uriah Heap. We did not have the equipment to emulate these stars and had to make do with acoustic equivalence, which could nicely be improvised with rudimentary intruments such as dried sticks for percussion, a comb and tissue paper for a moogue. Series of clicking and sucking noises coming from the performers produce remarkable acoutrement. During the days we surfed. It was a wonderful life of music, sun, sea and sand. During the summer holidays we regularly enjoyed weekly parties our parents graciously agreed to host on a rotational basis.

The Military.

With school being done and dusted my mother felt I wasn't suited to University life so I sacrificed a career as an Architect by submitting to military training in the Orange Free State. With my mother's assistance I had been vegetarian for the previous nine months during which time I was also subject to rigourous physical training in the form of weight training workouts on Digby Stanley's verandah. Digby was the headmaster of the local primary school where his stirling effort made a significant impact on many people's lives. I trained with Digby and Logan, his son, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays, Wednesdays and sometimes Fridays I would run to the beach and back. The weekends were for surfing. By the timeI got to the Army I was quite fit. The NCOs had a hard time burning me down and I soon tired of their efforts. To say the least I was extremely fit by the time the basic training period had lapsed. I was as agile and sinuous as I would ever be. Sadly I did not maintain my condition. I have since had a few short term ranges into physical fitness

Getting a job !

OK so architecture was out of the question. So what now ? My mother had a friend, pulled some strings and got me into construction. I guess if I'd hung in there I could have made that billion. But no, I found a young lady who was willing to satisfy my carnal desires and spent the school holidays with her. I had resigned before I left so that put me in the clear with myself. A month later I was working as a learner buyer. Well I guess I had learned enough because by the end of the month all I wanted to do was surf ! So I surfed. My parents, being worried about me, had me agreeing to applying for a bursary to study engineering.. On the train to the interview I met Bushy who later sailed to California on his home built yacht with his family. Before they did that they went to Tanzania where the two boys, who were still young, learned how to surf in that unspoiled paradise. But that's another story. To cut a long story short I got the bursary and went to Varsity skipping the two week introductory because it was said to be unnecessary. I do believe it was actually necessary as I always felt uncomfortable and out of place. In retrospect I could have used the time to familiarise myself with my new environmet. By the time the exams came I felt totally inadequate and unprepared so dipped out to visit the television studios in Auckland Park..

Ok so there were no jobs for me there but the trip to the studios were in a way successful in that the voices which advised me to go into television went away. I must have been quite good looking. I had never thought that that would be a prerequisite for a career in television. I would rather have been an Architect.

The next six months heralded even more surfing. My mother again helped me to get a job. This time I was eventually to become an apprentice electrician.