Time is one of the few things you cannot get back. For Follow founder Steve Anderson, finding enough of it has become increasingly important. Running a business, travelling, raising three kids and everything else that comes with family life means there is always something competing for it.
In the latest episode of Foil Drive’s Driven series, Steve talks about finding the balance between work, family and the things that keep him moving. It is something he has chased in one form or another for most of his life.
From kiteboarding, wakeboarding and snowboarding to motorbikes and now foiling, there has always been another activity, another piece of equipment to understand and another learning curve to chase.
Finding the reset
The ocean has been the constant. Steve grew up understanding the effect that being in the water could have on everything happening outside of it. Now he sees the same relationship developing with his own kids.
“You don’t get time. I get to a level of something and then I’m like, what’s next? Time’s something you don’t get back.”
It is also something that has become more important as work and life have become busier. When work takes over and stress builds, Steve recognises that the quality of what he does begins to suffer. Getting in the ocean gives him a chance to clear his head, reset and come back ready to go again. That does not require disappearing for an entire day. Sometimes it just means making an hour count.
More waves, less time
Living on Australia’s Gold Coast means access to some of the best waves in the world, but it also means sharing them with a lot of people.
Steve came to Foil Drive while trying to progress his prone foiling. After around a year and a half of paddling, he was still only getting three or four waves in a session. Foil Drive changed the equation. Suddenly those three or four waves could become 30. More waves meant more time actually riding the foil, which accelerated progression. His fitness improved, his time on the water increased and eventually it brought him back around to prone foiling with a completely different level of experience.
Today Steve still spends the majority of his foil time paddling when conditions allow. Foil Drive has become another option, particularly when conditions, crowds or limited time make it the better way to get on the water. It is about getting more from the time available.
From the water to everything after it
That same approach has always influenced Follow. Steve started Follow more than a decade ago with an obsession for product, how things work, why they work and why they sometimes do not. Years spent wakeboarding, surfing, foiling and around the ocean have meant the products have always existed alongside the lifestyle they are designed for.
Today that goes beyond time actually spent riding. A morning can move from the ocean to coffee, the office, the school run and whatever comes next. The clothing Steve reaches for has to move through those same environments with him.
For Follow, that relationship between time on the water and everything around it continues to shape the apparel, wetsuits and technical products we create.
5:00am. Go again.
The routine starts the night before. Around 8:00pm the messages begin. Swell, forecast, location, who is going where and what the plan is for the morning.
Alarm at 5:00am. Beach by 5:30. Check the conditions, choose the gear and get out there as the sun comes up. A couple of hours on the water, coffee with the crew, then into work by 8:00am as the phone starts lighting up. From there it is a full day in the office, followed by school pick ups, skateboarding, surfing, dinner and everything else family life throws into the mix.
Then, around 8:00pm, the messages start again. Repeat. For Steve, those hours before the working day begins are not about escaping everything else. They are part of what makes everything else work.
The people around it
There is another reason foiling has stuck. As the Gold Coast line ups have become increasingly busy, Steve has found something in the foil community that reminds him of the early days of kiteboarding. People help each other. Sessions are shared. Seeing better riders on the water creates motivation to progress rather than another fight for a wave.
What started with only a handful of people has grown quickly. Steve now talks about sessions with 12 or 15 foilers sharing isolated banks, finding small waves away from the crowds and pushing each other to get better. That community has become part of the routine too.
Making time count
Steve has spent much of his life chasing the next thing. The sports have changed. The equipment has changed. Life around them has certainly become busier. The reason for doing it has not changed much at all.
There is work to do. There is a family to raise. There are places to be and people who need your time. And then there are those couple of hours before most people have started their day.
