Over the last few months while being occupied with Tourism Queensland’s Best Job in the World, I’ve been talking to lots of people who were eager to tell me THEY had the best job in the world. It impressed me how passionate people talked about their daily work and the way they showed me the different angles of it.
Thus I decided to start asking people I meet along the way traveling down the East Coast about their Best Job in the World.
Wandering around in Byron Bay, I came across a Surf school called Black Dog Surfing. Since I’ve been trying to get my black dog Lluna to show off in the water or skating on a skateboard, I went in to check this dog out.
The owner of the surf school, Sean Johnston, proudly showed some photos of his dog surfing the waves of Byron Bay. “Freakin’ awesome”!
Some surf teachers came back from giving a surf class that morning and started talking to Sean about the progress the pupils made that day, the quality of the waves and so on. Because of all these “no worries” and the way they were showing their enthusiasm, as well as the pupils did, I asked Sean if I could ask him some questions about his job.
“Ye, of course, mate!”
I positioned myself comfortably on the couch in the surf school and fired my questions at Sean…
What’s your job, since when do you have this one and how come?
I am the owner of Surf School “Black Dog Surfing” (BDS) since june 2002. I run it by myself. BDS was already operating for 7 months and I got to work here as a surfcoach before I bought it. I liked the name so it stayed that way but of course I had to get a black dog. Because I can’t have a business called Black Dog Surfing without a black dog surfing! So I tought my dog surfing and he’s loving it.”
What are your biggest passions in life?
“Helping people, in any way. Teaching how to surf, getting to know different people, helping them to have a good time in Byron Bay.
I have been surfing since I was three years old and besides surfing my other passions are snowboarding and waterskiing, actually anything outdoors.”
Are you able to include the actions and skills you feel passionated about in your job?
“Definitely. I can say I do what I do daily because I love it, it’s not primeraly for the money. I combine what I love to do and what I can do best: surfing and helping people.”
Have you always combined business with your passions?
“No. I have been travelling for a long time and to fund this life style I often had jobs I didn’t like, but provided the quickest amount of money. Of course that always was my choise to do so.”
What’s your advice for people who want to get their Best Job in the World?
“Follow your passion. Combine what you really like to do and create a job out of it. For example for me that’s surfing and helping people, so there you go!”
Do you have any wishes or goals for the near future that you want to achieve?
“I would like to study again. I studied Tourism before and now I want to study Marketing. This comes in handy for where I want to go next. It will benefit my work in order to expand the sports that I teach. My dream is to live and work in Byron Bay for six months and spend the other six overseas, in Europe, teaching skiing. But part-time, he!”
We both laughed. Yep, life has to be lived and enjoyed in full awareness…
Then I quickly squeezed myself in a wetsuite and hopped on the surf bus with some pupils and two surf teachers – who were big fun, Joey and Marky – to have my first official surf lesson. After some basic information and the bounderies-braking stretching session, I enjoyed myself lots in the baby waves of Byron Bay. I simply love board sports and picking up new skills. My ear-to-ear smile was noticed by some, more professional, surfers passing by as they told me to “never stop surfing now!” They might be right as I had that smile for the rest of the day…
Posted from Byron Bay with Vodafone Mobile Internet on my notebook
