CHRIS WELSH | QUESTIONS FROM A SUN LOUNGER
Chris Welsh, Newport Beach native and co-founder of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Oceanic, has clocked up over 25,000 miles of competitive sailing not to mention innumerable hours spent on the sand. Team that with piloting the one-man Virgin Sub to explore the deepest place on earth (the Mariana Trench in the depths of the Pacific), we thought there's no one more qualified to fill us in about life in the aquatic lane.
What is the greatest thing about Newport Beach Life?
The greatest thing about Newport is that it is a beach & water world – on weekends, my journey to places can often be made on water- to the beach, the yacht club or a restaurant/bar, to see friends or have a floating cocktail party... all can be done by boat. And the beaches have got everything surf covered, for example 8th & 18th Street is good for bodysurfing, ‘Blackie's' for learning to surf and mellow surf mornings and the whole bay for stand up paddle surfing. You can see dolphins, seals, and maybe even a blue whale. It happens!
How would the people who know you best describe you?
Enthusiast. Friendly. Stubborn. Intense.
What is the biggest misconception about you?
I am way more soft-hearted than people think. And not as courageous, but I know what I can do.
What is your happiest memory?
Sailing with my dad, when I was 15 or 16, on a separate one-man Laser sailboat in serious winds. Flying around, operating at the same speed it was that rare moment when father and son are equal, not one ahead, one following.
What has been your greatest adventure?
Racing from Los Angeles to Tahiti (sailing) as well as competing in the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race… and dating.
Who is the love of your life?
There's more than one, some past, some present. Just because we are apart it doesn't mean I don't still have strong feelings.
What do you most value in your friends?
Loyalty and a willingness to pitch in.
Who are your real life heroes?
Charles Lindbergh. Steve Fossett. Everyone at NASA.
What is your favourite place on earth?
Here (Newport Beach). Or Tahiti. Almost anywhere “out there on the trail” – the raw parts of the earth – from Point Conception to Baja, to Alaska and the South Pacific islands.
What is your favourite beach on earth?
It has to be Government Point on California's Point Conception for surfing, and Punta San Francisquito, Baja, for lying on the beach.
Who/what can you not live without?
Balance bars and Diet Coke. Volleyball shorts and a polo shirt, my daily uniform.
You have 24 hours left on this earth and you have to spend it on a beach.
Punta San Francisquito, Baja California, spent with everyone that has been kind enough to love me. So they could all see how lovely it is there.
What are your earliest beach memories?
The beach here in Newport with my parents. Family, picnic, walking in from the free parking... the story of how I was raised and why I am the way I am.
What is your ultimate beach memory/moment?
Beaches and people. Lots of rich moments. Young and old, bodysurfing with my brother and friends, misbehaving...
You are stranded on a beach. Assuming you have the essentials (water, sunscreen etc) what THREE things would you take with you?
Mask, tarp, knife.
Do you have any disastrous/hilarious beach anecdotes?
Being shocked at one of my crew stripping naked to change into a bathing suit at the beach. Also, watching my boat surf a wave and come ashore after someone tripped the anchor.
Where are you when you¹re not at the beach?
Dirt-biking cross country or flying.
Which coastline do you dream about visiting but have yet to make it to?
The NW coast of Australia to the north of Perth. Home to the most remote, least travelled beaches in the world featuring wide expanses and dolphins that come to the shore to play.
For more inspirational tales from the shore of California, and those that know it best, click here
