Adam Robertson has turned surfing from his passion into his profession.<\/p>\n
The Portland-born surfer spent eight years riding waves across the globe on the Word Surf League (WSL) tour, but one of his biggest achievements was on the waves of the Surf Coast.<\/p>\n
Adam not only won the preceding trials event to secure his wildcard entry into the 2009 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, he also won all his heats and made it to the final \u2013 the first local male surfer to achieve the feat in about 40 years.<\/p>\n
After leaving the WSL tour in 2011, he joined Surfing Victoria as a highperformance coach in 2012, and was appointed as the organisation\u2019s chief executive officer in 2015, where he remains today.<\/p>\n
My Coastal Home visited Adam and his family at their home in Jan Juc.<\/p>\n
Born<\/p>\n
I grew up at Cape Bridgewater, about 20 kilometres west of Portland. I went to school in Portland and then pursued a surfing career.<\/p>\n
Family<\/p>\n
My wife Hannah is a teacher, and we have two kids \u2013 Teddy is five and Violet is one. I have a younger sister, Nikki; she\u2019s a primary school teacher.<\/p>\n
On being a surfer then a CEO<\/p>\n
It\u2019s definitely difficult; I can see why lots of professional athletes struggle when they get into a working life. I\u2019ve been really lucky to have a lot of support within Surfing Victoria. The workplace there is a great workplace to be in, and I think that\u2019s part of the reason why the transition from surfing all day has been so easy.<\/p>\n
On Surfing Victoria<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got a few things that are on the horizon that will hopefully be really beneficial to the members of Surfing Victoria, but they\u2019ll also put Surfing Victoria in a great space for after the 2020 Olympics, where surfing will be a sport. If surfing does boom after the Olympics, we want to be prepared for that.<\/p>\n
Hobbies<\/p>\n
Basically, at the moment, we go from the skate park to the surf to the BMX track. I love doing it with the kids. My hobbies revolve around surfing, but they also revolve around being outside and being active.<\/p>\n
Holidays<\/p>\n
We spent a month in Noosa earlier in the year, which was unreal \u2013 Teddy and Violet were basically in their wetsuits all day long surfing and running and jumping in the water \u2013 and we\u2019re going to Hawaii in a couple of weeks. As a family, as a kid, my holidays revolved at the beach, and I think ours will be the same.<\/p>\n
Surfboards (above)<\/p>\n
About eight years ago, I started trying to collect boards that were the same as my Dad\u2019s. If I can find ones that were actually his, that\u2019s a huge bonus. I ride a lot of boards \u2013 these ones are probably the most interesting for a surf fan, there\u2019s a lot of famous shapers who have made these boards; they\u2019re not just the run-of-the-mill boards.<\/p>\n
Runner-up trophy, 2009 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a little unbelievable, still\u2026 not that I thought it was unachievable, it\u2019s just something that you watch for so many years, and to be in that position, when it comes to reality, is something a bit surreal. It\u2019s still a little bit like that. It\u2019s something I\u2019m proud of, and something that brings back some really fond memories \u2013 achieving something you\u2019ve worked towards for a really long time, and being able to share it with your family and friends.<\/p>\n
Children\u2019s art<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something that\u2019s nice that we can all do together, sometimes at five in the morning \u2013 get the pens and pencils out and start drawing cars, or oceans, or sea creatures. More recently, we\u2019ve been painting on rocks together, which is pretty good fun.<\/p>\n
Polaroids<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had a Polaroid since maybe 2003, and taken a lot of pictures over the journey. There\u2019s a lot of memories there. It\u2019s a really good way to meet friends, because a lot of time when you get out a Polaroid people go \u201coh, can you take a photo of us?\u201d I hate taking lots of pictures on a digital camera, because I never get them printed; they just sit on a hard drive of a computer. Whereas with these ones, they\u2019re on the fridge, they\u2019re around the house, they\u2019re something in your hand.<\/p>\n
Art from around the world<\/p>\n
When I travelled a lot, I tried to get things that would remind me of that particular place. There were a lot of places that you went that you\u2019re really lucky to go, but also they\u2019re places that not everyone gets to go to, so you try to take a part of that place home. We had this done from when we were married \u2013 it\u2019s based on a Google Maps picture of Cape Bridgewater, which is where Hannah and I got married.<\/p>\n
Megan Weston is the artist, she\u2019s in Barwon Heads, so we were lucky enough for her to do this for us and it came out great; we love the colours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adam Robertson has turned surfing from his passion into his profession. The Portland-born surfer spent eight years riding waves across the globe on the Word Surf League (WSL) tour, but one of his biggest achievements was on the waves of the Surf Coast. Adam not only won the preceding trials event to secure his wildcard […]<\/p>\n