Living the dream in a beach house on the Tweed Coast just south of the Queensland border, and 40 minutes north of Byron Bay, having left behind many years of big city life in Sydney. I look forward to welcoming the occasional like-minded traveller to Salt beach, Kingscliff. I was a regular visitor to Byron Bay for over 20 years but now like many other regulars, think it has lost most of its charm. I looked at the surrounding areas and ended up here. Kingscliff is not a party town, it has no hostels, no high-rise, a couple of pubs, lots of small bars and cafes, beautiful natural scenery and great sunrises on the beach!

Please take the time to READ my profile carefully and ONLY MAKE A REQUEST if you feel we have some common interests and let me know what they are in your request. I will also offer some Airbnb as a priority in the main guest room during summer,

A basic, impersonal request will receive a basic decline!

CURRENT MISSION

Life is short, experience it to the full, No time for mediocre... Do what you want to do not what you think you should do! Live in the present when you visit your hosts!

ABOUT ME

Born in Australia but raised in S-E Asia I've been blessed to have travelled to many parts of the world with my parents from a very young age which gave me the opportunity to mix with so many different cultures. I enjoy meeting different nationalities discussing differences between cultures and when I have time showing people around this beautiful region, or at least suggesting lots of interesting, out of the way places to visit.

Even though my lifestyle is now so much more relaxed compared with my past corporate life; my education, sporting and many life experiences have formed relatively high expectations of what I might expect from others. Most of my consulting career involved consumer research and social analysis, so I am fascinated by differences in people and often talk about people in these terms, please don't be offended, it's the way my brain ticks.

In saying all this I am a bit of a hedonist, I love nothing better than to do something spontaneous, a good night out or getaway to a beautiful isolated place or beach for a day or two! I am far from conservative and comfortable talking about any aspect of life if that's good with you.

I enjoy motivating people to consider new challenges or new ways of looking at things (it's the best time when you are away from home) and I try to be very open to new ideas myself. On the other hand I don't suffer fools easily.

PHILOSOPHY

Age is only a number... It applies to young and old!

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

At any moment, we can purposefully choose a new experience for ourselves. We can choose to pay attention, breathe more deeply, laugh, rest, play, appreciate, do something different - the possibilities are endless.

We all have windows in our lives. It is not about finding more windows; it is about being aware of the ones that are right in front of you.

What may seem like a chance encounter could be an amazing opportunity.

Sometimes a window will beckon you for ages, other times it might only be for a matter of seconds. You never know how long a window is going to stay open. Life is a moving stage and eventually that window will close, or you will pass it by. Work at building the courage to grab all the opportunities that are placed in front of you.

Often people wait for their one big lucky break. The key to getting that one big break is to take all the small breaks that lead up to it. To seize your rare big opportunity you need first to step through all the small windows! Brendan Nichols

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING:

I have enjoyed sharing my home with many travellers for more than a decade and in turn have visited many parts of Europe where I have reconnected with many that have stayed with me!

Some of these friends and their families are now lifelong connections something I neither planned nor could have imagined when I first started hosting :-)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE:

I have hosted many people now it's hard to believe! Aged from 18 to 76; singles, couples, mother and her daughter, twins, brother/sister, eight guests one New Year in Sydney (too many mind you). I have made many good friends around the world through Couchsurfing and this has been a revelation introducing a new dimension to my life. I have met some amazing people exploring Australia for the first time who have motivated me to change my lifestyle and travel more both here in Oz and overseas!

However, there seem to be more new surfers than ever that think of Couchsurfing just as an opportunity to purely save money and are not really interested in interacting with or helping out their host. More than half of the requests I receive clearly have not bothered to read or understood even the introduction. Use Google Translate please!

Interests

Life evolves and you move towards interests than satisfy you as your mind looks for higher meaning in life.
I sometime use photography as form of confidence therapy for some. Treasure being at the beach at dawn for the first rays of the day, swimming in the ocean or pool, keeping healthy with planned fitness and nutrition, alternative therapies, mindfulness, massage, tantra, pilates, healing, music, treating the environment with respect, coffee, good food and wine.

Music, Movies, and Books

Many, many memorable live concerts over the years :- Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Rolling Stones, U2, Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Santana, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac, The Doors (reformed without Jim), The Police/Sting, Eric Clapton, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ravi Shankar, Joe Cocker, Yes, The Eagles, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Crowded House, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, Bruce Springsteen (LA Coliseum) and Crosby, Stills and Nash (Greek Theatre in LA), Massive Attack, Coldplay, Sade, Madonna, Eurythmics, Sinead O'Connor, Tracey Thorn, Pink, Florence ATM, Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga.

For something different and some of the best live world music you can experience in Australia take yourself to Womadelaide - a world music festival held in Adelaide every March, great alternative atmosphere attracts all ages and types of people.

Really enjoy movies particularly art-house and international, usually on Netflix nowadays. An old favourite "The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty" fun inspirational adventure travel film it motivated me to visit Iceland three times!

Tolle's "A New Earth" for some serious life direction and an old favourite "The Dice Man" is an interesting, quirky book with an Irish author about life choices!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

So many and looking for more... working as a swimming journalist and photographer at two Olympic Games and a number of World Championships; a dream job experience which happened by taking the chance at a small open window :-)

Travelling by ocean liner through both the Panama and Suez canals as a young lad, my early inspiration for travel.

Swimming across Byron Bay one morning years back, a dolphin swam under me, rolled on it's back, smiled then disappeared in a flash... amazing! Now there are too many sharks for my liking! Last summer a solo dolphin adopted a beach in Sydney harbour and I had the chance to swim with this friendly lady too :-)

Teach, Learn, Share

I have worked with elite coaches and athletes (highlighted by managing five swimmers at the Athens Olympics) helping with motivation, sponsorship and self management - dealt with complex issues like body image and eating disorders - young elite athletes are under more pressure than most. Also taught sports psychology, marketing and consumer behaviour at University in past years.

I enjoy the energy, ideas and enthusiasm for life that comes from younger people, helps keep me young in mind, body and spirit... I am very interested in learning how to reduce my environmental footprint, avoiding the use of plastic, growing my own veggies, composting etc. Learning more about alternative health and fitness therapies, emotional healing.

I might have time to help you improve your swimming, maybe shoot some portrait photography as I'm always happy to shoot an interesting face. My Website: www.sharpfocuspics.com

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share many things but it depends where your interests lie... read all of the above.

I will only make a request to stay with YOU when I see from your profile we have common interests in the first place!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Macao, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore

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