Beach Culture

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What is Beach Culture

Beach culture is a lifestyle that revolves around the sea. It embraces windsurfing and other extreme water sports along with how and where you live, what you eat, how you dress, what you drive and even how you party. Beach culture is the root of my identity.

I built my Caribbean-designed house in Long Beach, on the island's south coast, to accommodate my water sports action. I have a special shed for my gear, and my bedroom balcony overlooks deAction!

The conditions on my beach are onshore wave riding with steep ramps to blast massive jumps. It's also great for kite surfing because it's a long desolate beach with consistent winds.

I believe Barbados has one of the best beach cultures in the world because it offers all the exciting water sports like windsurfing, kite surfing and surfing, as well as a festive nightlife, music, and food, plus a guaranteed dynamic interaction between visitors and locals. Even though beach culture is a way of life, it also embraces economics. It is an industry, where people make a living in this aspect of the tourist sector. It needs to be nurtured and further developed with infrastructure that supports people coming to the island for the sport and the culture.

As an 'International Beach Bum', when it's time to travel, I'm off in comfort with my sponsor Virgin Atlantic, who wings me to the best beaches around the world. In my travels, you'll find me competing on the PWA tour and other international events; promoting my sponsors, windsurfing and Barbados on my Beach Culture World Tour or I might just be at some remote destination working on another travelogue for the international media.

Beach Culture World Tour

My Beach Culture World Tour (2005) combines PWA (Professional windsurfing Association) competitions with destination travelogues and international promotional events. Beach culture is a way of life, a life style that I live and promote through my World Tour. I've integrated the "blowing of the conch shell" at events. Conch shell blowing is traditionally used in the Caribbean to call villagers that fishermen have returned with a bounty. I use the conch shell to symbolically call windsurfers to the sport. On my tour I have conch blowing competitions with prizes.

This year's Beach Culture World Tour includes travel to The Schroders London Indoor; the Barbados Waterman Festival; the Culture Shock Concert, Barbados promoting music from my new album; Starboards photo shoot Maui, Hawaii; Italian Surf Festival, Lake Garda, Italy; King of the Caribbean PWA, Bonaire; Surf Festival, Germany; The free Cave Shepherd Windsurfing Camp in Barbados; Travelogue to Sicily, Italy; The Mallorca, Spain Water festival; travelogue to Russia and China; Sylt German World Cup and promotional activity; UK Water Festival, England; Paris Indoor event, France and other destinations. It's a busy year for me, traveling all across the globe with Virgin Atlantic, promoting the sport, my homeland and my sponsors.

The main objective of my Beach Culture World Tour is to get people excited about beach culture and windsurfing. Also to create action!! I try to attract new people to the sport while working hard to promote my sponsors Tourism Development Corporation, Virgin Atlantic, Hot Sails Maui, Chiemsee clothing, Cave Shepherd, the Barbados Tourism Authority and Starboard, who each play an important role in my tour.

I use tools like my music CDs and my own "International Beach Bum" designed T-shirts produced by Chiemsee with the official Beach Culture World Tour stamp on the back, to create the feeling.