ONE of the Bellarine’s oldest ski surfers, 79 year old Jim Biggins is living proof of the old adage, you’re only as old as you feel and in his case, act.
Many locals may have seen Jim off the Ocean Grove coast, catching a wave or heading out for a swim as he has done for the past 35 years.
Over his life living in Geelong and around Ocean Grove and the Bellarine, Jim has ski surfed, sail boarded and kayaked using the boards and boats he designs and builds in his own garage.
“I’ve always been interested in boats and when I was young I was interested in sailing and was a sailing person for 35 years,” he said.
Jim has been part of both 13th Beach and Ocean Grove Surf Life Saving Clubs since 1970 and began designing and making surf skis around the same time.
“I’ve made about 150 surf skis over the years and then I moved onto sail boards and to kayaks,” he said.
Since then, Jim has also made three sail boards and nine sea kayaks with his latest creation, a fiberglass kayak which took him about six months to build. He not only made the kayak itself but the mould it was created in- all from an idea in his head.
“It ended up a major project, the biggest, most complex and annoying one I’ve done,” he said.
“I’ve already got another design in my head ready to go, I’ll probably sell the other one I’ve got in the garage, get a bit of money together and start the next one.”
Jim said the best part of building his creations is the end when he gets to admire all the hard work he put into the project.
“Looking at the finished product and thinking ‘I did that’ that’s the best part,” he said.
Jim and a group of his friends take their kayaks on annual camping trips to Victorian waterways with one this year to Lake Eildon.
The same group of friends helped christen his latest kayak in a champagne ceremony last week.
“We’ll pour champagne over it and maybe call it Cora-May, that’s my wife’s name,” he said.
Despite slowing down with an artificial hip and some aches and pains that come with age, Jim has just altered his usual ocean habits instead of stopping them all together.
Instead of surfing at 13th Beach where getting back up the steep stairs is a bit too difficult, Jim sticks to Ocean Grove’s beaches and he now avoids the water when the surf is a bit too big.
Jim said he follows the idea that if you think young, you feel young and keeping occupied is the best thing to keep you going as you get older.
“I tend to associate with younger people from the Surf Life Saving Club and most people in that (kayaking) group are younger,” he said.
“People say when are you going to give up surfing and I always say, I’ll stop when I’m dead.”
Jim said he gets in the water as often as he can, either swimming or surfing as a way of clearing his head.
“One of the main things I think (I enjoy most) when surfing is to forget the rest of the world, you look back towards the land and that’s where the problems are, not out in the water,” he said.
“You have a good surf and you feel good.”
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