“I’m pretty fulfilled with my life of surfing; I’ve done it for as long as I can remember and I’ve been the luckiest person in the world. Now, it feels like I’ve been taken out of one life and put into a new one, it’s a completely different experience,’ explains 61-year-old surfer and shaper, Stuart D’Arcy.

D’Arcy is speaking to me over the phone while sitting on the patio of his home situated near the rural village of Bonalbo, where he and his wife Michelle aim to live organically off the land. The nearest pub is 30 minutes away; the closest supermarket is more than double that distance and it takes three hours to drive to the Gold Coast, where the couple was previously based.

‘The countryside is beautiful; the people here are amazing. There are only five cars in our valley and it’s 23,000 acres,” enthuses D’Arcy. “I wake up in the morning to the sound of the birds and I can hear the kangaroo grunting on the lawn. It’s such a big difference to the noises of the shaping bay. You can even shower outside in the nude, because from our house you cannot see anyone. People come to the countryside for relief, we get that feeling 24/7.”

Most surfers cannot fathom a life away from the beach. The sea is the drug that fuels our addiction and we need to be minutes away from that next hit at all times. The fact Stuart lives a world away from the coast is also surprising given that he continues to shape boards on the Gold Coast, for his loyal customers.

“I restrict myself to custom boards. Once every two weeks I go to the Gold Coast to shape. My diary hasn’t changed much, I still shape the same amount ...