Planning the ultimate year of life and work

Mauritius is hard to beat. We have One Eye here, which, for me, is one of the best waves in the world. We can surf, kitesurf, work and build things while living close to the ocean.

And still, I’ve started planning the ultimate year of life and work.

It’s fucking unreal that we even get to think about this. We can choose where to live, take our work with us and decide how we want to spend the year as a family. I can’t think of another time when a normal person could have this much freedom. With the kind of work I do, we can seriously consider living on an island on the other side of the world and keep building our projects from there.

I want to give it a go. Surf in the morning, kite when the wind comes up, have time to build stuff and explore with the family. Somewhere with fewer people in the water, where we can be close to nature and have some time to ourselves.

The locations aren’t set in stone. I keep coming back to Southeast Asia and Fiji. We’d stay for a few months at a time, long enough to get to know a place and settle into a routine. There’s plenty to sort out with homeschooling, a baby, work and finding help, but this is what I’m thinking so far.

May to July: Rote or West Sumbawa

Rote Island is high on the list, around Nemberala and T-Land. West Sumbawa is the other possibility, with Scar Reef and Yo-Yo’s among the waves I’d like to surf.

I’d like to get farther out into Indonesia, beyond Bali. Rote’s dry season fits these months. A bungalow near the water, boards close by and somewhere to sit and work sounds pretty good to me. We’d need to find a base that works for both surfing and kiting.

We still need to work out the visa. The standard visa on arrival covers 30 days, plus one 30-day extension, so we’d need another option for a three-month stay. And I’d want to check that the internet at the house is good enough for work.

August and early September: Hungary

I think we’ll spend August and early September in Hungary. Hungary is home, maybe. I’d like enough time there to see people and settle in for a bit, without trying to squeeze every visit into a few days.

Mid-September to mid-December: Fiji

Fiji is the place I keep picturing. The Coral Coast looks like a possible base, with boat trips out to the reefs.

Frigates caught my attention: a long left, about 30 to 45 minutes by boat from the Coral Coast. I’d love to spend a few months surfing there. We’d have to look into the boats and costs, since getting out to the wave would be part of our weekly routine.

The Lau Islands are another possibility, though I know less about how we’d manage a longer stay there.

The dates are loose. Cyclone season starts in November, and the time difference with Europe makes work more complicated. We might end up shortening this stop or moving it earlier.

Late December and January: Hungary and Switzerland

Then we’d head back to Europe for the end of December and January, spending time in Hungary and Switzerland. We haven’t worked out how to split the time between them yet.

February to April: maybe Peru

Pacasmayo is on the list because of that long left. I’d love to ride a wave with a kite for minutes at a time. It’s a point break on a desert coast, with cooler water than the islands.

The dates don’t fit particularly well, though. Wild Kite Peru gives the wind season as mid-April to mid-January, which misses most of this stretch. I’m less attached to Peru than to Indonesia and Fiji, so we could move it or go somewhere else.

A few other possibilities

South Africa could work early in the year. Around Cape Town, January and February get the strongest summer wind. The time zone is close to Europe, which would make work much easier. I’d want to look for somewhere quieter to stay along the coast.

In Australia, I’m thinking about the west coast: Margaret River for surfing, or Geraldton and the surrounding area for kiting. October to April is the wind-sport season around Geraldton. We’d have to choose a stretch of coast to spend time in.

New Zealand is an option too. Taranaki has surf breaks around the coast, wave sailing at Kina Road and kiting at East End Beach. I’d like to find out more about living there for a few months.

And Hawaii, probably Maui. Winter brings the north-shore waves, while the wind is generally more reliable in summer, so we’d need to choose when to go. Cost and crowds would be part of that decision too.

I want a quieter lineup, but I’m not counting on having any of these waves to myself. And we won’t fit all these places into one year. Indonesia and Fiji are still the two I’m most drawn to.

Work and time zones

A full 09:00–17:00 Central European working day would look like this locally:

These use the current offsets for central Indonesia, Fiji and Peru.

Working until four in the morning in Fiji wouldn’t leave much sleep before a surf. I’d need to arrange a few hours for calls with Europe and do the rest of my work during the local day. That’s something to agree on before we go.

School, the baby and help

We need to work out homeschooling: what we’ll teach, what materials or support we’ll use, and who does it each day. I’d like the kids to learn from the places we’re in too, and have other children to spend time with.

Then there’s the baby’s daily routine. Feeds, naps, bedtime, getting everyone out of the house. If one of us goes surfing for a few hours, the other is with the children. The same goes for work calls. We need to share that in a way that gives both of us time to work, get out and rest, including after a rough night.

Abigail helps us three days a week, eight hours each day, here in Mauritius. We’re used to having that help. We’d need to budget for it in each place and find someone we trust, which could take time.

I’d also like time to explore together. We need to leave some days open to go somewhere, rather than fill every day with work, school and sessions in the water.

Visiting and being visited

We’d love family and friends to come and stay. That means finding a house with enough room and agreeing on dates when we can spend time together. We’ll still be working, so we’d need to plan around that.

Mauritius is where we’re living now. With summer in Hungary and another stretch in Hungary and Switzerland over winter, we’d have time to catch up with people back in Europe too. We still need to leave room for travel days between each stay.

There’s a lot to plan. I’d like to find a few houses and work through what a normal week would look like in each place, with school, baby care, help, work and surfing. Then we can start putting dates to it.

Just dare, just go, just be you.