Beta
At about eight or nine years old, I started racing sabots, which are eight foot little dinghies. To get to the start of the race, I had to cross this big part of Sydney Harbour in this tiny little boat, from one side to the other.
It was an ordeal just to get to the start of the race. I'd do the race and then I'd have to sail this little thing all the way back home. On some days the westerly would start up and with up to 30-40 knots. In an eight foot boat as an eight year old it was quite a handful.
So those were a couple of very early experiences. They didn't put me off getting out into the great outdoors. I progressed as I got older into windsurfing, and then rock climbing.
The Blue Mountains became my sanctuary.
On a Friday me and a couple of friends would be at uni or work in the day, and then we’d work at a restaurant in the night, and then at two in the morning we’d pack up the car and we'd go up to our favorite cave in Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains. We would climb all weekend and then we would come home. I guess that was me starting to spread my wings on my own independently.
From those trips I think I gained a sense of agency and a sense of wonder.
I guess I've always been a bit of an explorer and a traveler by birth. My family environment in Sydney led me to look for something more, to look to the natural world for fulfillment that I wasn't really getting so much in school and home life.
I think I realized as an adolescent that the outdoors was really my home.
Ben Masterman
Ranger
At about eight or nine years old, I started racing sabots, which are eight foot little dinghies. To get to the start of the race, I had to cross this big part of Sydney Harbour in this tiny little boat, from one side to the other.
It was an ordeal just to get to the start of the race. I'd do the race and then I'd have to sail this little thing all the way back home. On some days the westerly would start up and with up to 30-40 knots. In an eight foot boat as an eight year old it was quite a handful.
So those were a couple of very early experiences. They didn't put me off getting out into the great outdoors. I progressed as I got older into windsurfing, and then rock climbing.
The Blue Mountains became my sanctuary.
On a Friday me and a couple of friends would be at uni or work in the day, and then we’d work at a restaurant in the night, and then at two in the morning we’d pack up the car and we'd go up to our favorite cave in Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains. We would climb all weekend and then we would come home. I guess that was me starting to spread my wings on my own independently.
From those trips I think I gained a sense of agency and a sense of wonder.
I guess I've always been a bit of an explorer and a traveler by birth. My family environment in Sydney led me to look for something more, to look to the natural world for fulfillment that I wasn't really getting so much in school and home life.
I think I realized as an adolescent that the outdoors was really my home.
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