Rick(24)

I'd been surfing since age twelve in Scheveningen — cold waves, 5mm wetsuits and three months of usable conditions per year. After high school and a gap year I knew what I wanted: surfing in Australia. I had my Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417) within ten days. At nineteen I was on the plane.

The first months I hosteled in Sydney and worked as a barista to earn money. Through a surf school in Bondi I got my ISA (International Surfing Association) instructor certificate — a week-long course costing AUD 700. With that certificate in hand I traveled to Byron Bay, where I found a job at a surf school teaching on Tallows Beach.

Life as a surf instructor sounds romantic, and it is — but it's physically demanding. Three sessions a day, each session two hours in the water. You earn AUD 30-35 per hour, which works out to about AUD 1,200 per week full-time. Not bad for a 24-year-old without a university degree. Plus: your office is the beach.

Byron Bay is expensive — rents have exploded in recent years. I live in a shared house with four other WHV holders in Suffolk Park, a village just south of Byron. My share of the rent is AUD 250 per week. It's basic — a small room with shared kitchen and bathroom — but we practically live outside.

For my second year WHV I had to do 88 days of regional work. I chose banana picking in Coffs Harbour, three hours south of Byron. It was the hardest work I've ever done — early starts, heat, physically exhausting. But I earned AUD 25 per hour and it entitled me to another year in paradise.

My big question now: how do I stay permanently? As a surf instructor you're not on the skilled occupation list. I'm considering getting a Certificate IV in Outdoor Recreation through TAFE — that could open doors for a work visa. Or maybe I'll fall in love with an Australian — that's not so hard here either. Either way: returning to Scheveningen is no longer an option.