Smorgasboarder_16_March-2013

TRAVEL: PLANE TRIP
BELOW: Dick and Gazza ready for action.
Photo: Brett Wortman
WHEN Richard Winston
and Garry Baker showed up with no board
bags in sight, surf guide Peter “Stumpy”
Wallace and I wondered if there had been
a mistake, and if the pair had perhaps
booked the wrong tour. Aged 65 and 54
respectively and defi nitely not looking like
the average surfer, my theory was that
they were senior environmental scientists
here to save this beautiful island nation
from drowning in a sea of horrid plastic
- wishful thinking on my behalf, and the
problem of plastic in the oceans remains
but that’s another tale very much needed
to be told…
After lapping up the confused looks
of their fellow guests burdened by
cumbersome board bags, Dick and Gazza
fi nally put us out of our misery and
revealed they were bodysurfers, and this
was in fact their third tour of the Maldives.
Their fi rst two trips had been to the central
atolls and they were back to see what the
outer atolls could offer them.
Dubbed ‘Two Bobs’ by Stumpy due to
their striking resemblance to a couple of
buoys when fl oating in the line-up, the pair
live and breathe the sport. Back home at
Cronulla they surf most mornings at their
local - Wanda Beach - with a bunch of
equally nutty enthusiasts known as the
Wanda Teabags. It was here that the pair
fi rst met.
In his other life, Gazza is a semi-retired
food technologist specialising in ice cream
who’s travelled the world sourcing specific
varieties of seaweeds and plant seeds
for food use. He is also in high demand
judging ice cream and gelati for major
competitions around Australia and even in
New Zealand and India. Dick, on the other
hand, is a retired electrician who ended his
working years at the ABC on infrastructure
for their radio and television network.
In the Maldives, however, they were
simply the Two Bobs.
“DUBBED
‘TWO BOBS’
68
SMORGASBOARDER | MAR/APR 2013