The Flight of the Van Dieman
By
Kimball Taylor

There was something intoxicating about the beautiful 43-ft. Van Dieman as it rocked lightly in its slip at San Diego’s Shelter Island on the evening of Wednesday, December 7th, 2005. Part of the sailboat’s beauty arose from the hurried atmosphere of sweet promise buzzing around it. Preparations were then under way for a three-year sailing/surf odyssey that would take the Van Dieman and crew around the world the slow way, searching and stopping for waves. But there was a catch: This was awfully late in the sailing season to be departing Southern California for Central America, and the crew needed to leave tonight. Eight fully loaded board bags covered its bow. Extra fuel and water tanks were being safety strapped to the rail lines. Two thousand dollars in provisions�veggies, meat, bread and booze�were being ferreted away into any cubby that would hold it.

Although he played it off well, anyone who knows 35-year-old surfer Gregg Drude could have sensed his nervousness and excitement. “I’ve packed up and left for surf trips around the world in one day before,� he said. (Those trips, of course, made aboard 747s). “This is like planning for that same vacation, but bringing your whole house with you�preparing your whole house for a three-year journey.�

Drude, as his friends call him, is no stranger to surf travel. Beginning in the early ’90s, he scraped together every dollar he could working as a waiter or bartender to put in serious time at the world’s most remote wave zones. While at home, in Orange County and San Diego, his loose cash budget was a strict $5 per day. On the road, the living wasn’t any better. While camping out in the Mentawais near Lance’s Right (before it had become the photo studio it is today), he ate grayish gruel and wore stale clothing soaked in mosquito repellant. But he was doing what he liked to do best.

On that same trip a boat of surfers pulled up to the wave as Drude was surfing. Hawaiian pro Dustin Barca paddled from the boat and was amazed to learn that Drude, the only surfer out, was living on the island. Several years later, Drude took a three-week trip back to the Mentawais, and was again surfing Lance’s Right when a boat pulled up and off jumped Barca. “No way,� said Barca, “I can’t believe you’re still living here.�

Drude wasn’t still living there, of course, but something in him wished he was�wished he was still traveling long term.

He had been working as an airline steward and using its benefits for cheap tickets to Europe, Indonesia and the Caribbean. He pieced together enough dough to put a down payment on a condo in Carlsbad, Calif., just as the housing market began to boom. After a couple of years of scratching for mortgage money, Drude found himself sitting on $200,000 worth of equity. And he couldn’t think of anything better to do with it than buy a sailboat and chart out destinations around the world.

His search in earnest for a surf craft began in the fall of 2004. Former Orange County shaper turned boating agent Dan Van Zanten helped in the effort. But not every sailboat he could afford was seaworthy, or surf-ready. Around Christmas of 2005, Van Zanten steered Drude toward the Van Dieman�custom-built for such an adventure, this navy blue and white, wood-trimmed sloop held two staterooms, two heads, and slept up to six people. The Van Dieman was perfect, but its owner, Australian Paul Buss, wasn’t so sure he wanted to sell it. A surfer himself and a master woodworker, Buss had spent six years building the sailboat with Drude’s same dream in mind. He had even named the vessel for his native Tasmania, which used to be called Van Diemanland. After completing the sailboat in 1994, Buss and his wife spent two years sailing from San Diego to Australia and back again. Somewhere along that journey, Buss and his wife decided to start a family�tough to raise on a sailboat.

Family matters finally pushed Buss to sell the Van Dieman to Drude in January of 2005�which was only the beginning of Drude’s preparations. An important fact that he barely acknowledged while his plans were just growing aspirations: his sailing abilities were marginal at best.

Drude spent the next year training for the adventure, taking sailing classes, entering races with experienced sailors and making trips out to the Channel Islands. Drude spent $30,000 on renovations, a dingy and outboard, safety gear, wind generator, sea anchor, life raft, replacing electronics and rebuilding the engine.

The next problem involved building a crew. Friends signed up and dropped out of the endeavor over several months before Del Mar photojournalist Eli Mirandon signed on. Mirandon, in fact, had just come off of a long road trip into Mexico where he’d been perfecting his photography and surfing to his own tune.

Drude’s girlfriend Josie Hudak and Australian friend Trent Martin also joined up for the Central American leg of the trip. When they leave the Van Dieman, other friends and surfers will then meet up with Drude and Mirandon wherever they happen to be. SURFER and SurferMag.com will be following this “back to roots� surf adventure as it leaves Central America for the Marquesas, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Fiji, Australia, Indonesia, India, Reunion Island and beyond.

In the waning light of that December evening, friends and family gathered on the docks to wish the Van Dieman and her crew a safe trip. With his characteristic and well-crafted nonchalance, Drude abruptly shouted, “All right, let’s go!� The boat backed out of its slip and set out of San Diego harbor. The gathering watched for the mast’s twin lights as they faded into the distance.