Surfari

All surfers dream of shedding responsibilities and answering the siren song of the ocean swells. For most, it is an ideal that recedes as age advances - as family, career and provider commitments overwhelm the wanderlust of youth. But what if you could defy the slow march of age? Shelve all your worldly pressures, pack up the family and a few trusty surfboards and hit the open road for the Great Australian surfing road trip? Best-selling surf writer Tim Baker is doing just that. Inspired by the dreams of his youth, and in the face of looming middle-age, Baker is embarking on the Big Lap, with his wife Kirsten and two children, Vivi, 8, and Alex, 4. Starting in late January 2011, the family will set out from their home in Currumbin, Queensland, heading south down the east coast. Over the next six to eight months, they will circumnavigate the country, as Baker documents the state of surf culture and our coastline, and the array of colourful characters encountered along the way. "Surfari Highway" will evoke all the magic and charm, the challenges and perils of the Australian coastline and the curious variety of human sub-species who inhabit it. The result will be a lively, colourful handbook on how to trade your life for another variety, the delights and dangers that lay in wait for those who dare to chase their dreams, and how a family of four survive six months on the road in the close quarters of a four-wheel drive and a caravan. It is a story for anyone who has ever dreamed of an alternative to the busy, micro-scheduled existence of work, school, shopping and housework. It offers vindication for all those Sea Changers and Baby Boomers, mature age longboarders and carefree beachcombers who have heeded the surf's call. And it will provide an inspirational text for every bored office worker, desperate housewife or unfulfilled suburban dad who senses there has to be another way.