Who is Gigi?
Gigi is a Pacific Islander from New Caledonia. He grew up between the biggest lagoon in the world, the steep streets of Nouméa, and the tribal mates. They taught him to fish, climb coconut trees, and respect the land. As a kid, he grabbed his big brother's rubbish old skateboard. Then got sponsored by the only proper skate shop on the island. And was close to going pro.
His family moved to Paris when he was sixteen. Six months in France were enough. He flew back alone, sold Balinese art to tourists, and slept on beaches. Gigi spent years wandering through Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia with everything he owned in one bag.
A random chat in a Phuket bar sent him to an STCW safety course. This turned into a free delivery of a brand new Beneteau yacht from Hong Kong to Phuket. Seven or eight years of yacht crew work followed: a 27 meter catamaran in Pattaya, motorboats in Melbourne, superyacht passages, and a 37 hour force 9 storm off Exmouth in Western Australia that almost sank the boat.
That misadventure is the reason we met in 2021 at an RYA sailing school in Tenerife. I was doing my Day Skipper. He was working through Coastal Skipper on his way to Yachtmaster Offshore.
Gigi hates labels, doesn't care much for flags or passports. Reads Lao Tzu, the Upanishads, and Terence McKenna between watches.
"You're from there, but you don't belong to it. That's why that question really bothered me" – Gigi
New Caledonia, where Gigi grew up
- New Caledonia — French territory in the South Pacific, around 1,200 km east of Australia
- Nouméa — the capital, with the steep streets Gigi used to skate down
- Grande Terre — the main island, nicknamed Le Caillou (the rock) in French
- Lagoons of New Caledonia — UNESCO World Heritage Site and the reef system considered the biggest lagoon in the world
- Loyalty Islands — Maré, Lifou, and Ouvéa, east of the main island
- Isle of Pines — the southern island known for its tall endemic pines
- Belep — the small archipelago in the north
- Tropic of Capricorn — runs near the southern tip of New Caledonia
- Motu — the Polynesian word for the sandbank islets where Gigi's friends' families anchored on weekends
- Kagu — the flightless bird and national symbol of New Caledonia
- Javan rusa — the deer introduced to the island, and one of the few land animals there
- James Cook — the British navigator who "discovered" New Caledonia in 1774
- 2021 New Caledonian independence referendum — the third vote on independence from France, held the year we recorded
- French Polynesia — the other French territory in the Pacific Gigi compared it to
- Réunion — a French overseas department near Madagascar with a pirate past
- Mayotte — another French overseas department, in the Comoros archipelago
- Mahi-mahi — the fish locals live from, along with crayfish and Spanish mackerel
Skateboarding and movement
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater — the video game I spent more hours on than on a real board, and the only game Gigi ever played
- Tony Hawk — the pro skater who is still one of the most influential athletes in the sport
- Ollie — the first trick Gigi taught himself with no internet, magazines, or videos
- Inline skating — my own wheels of choice after I gave up on skateboarding
Sailing, yachting, and yacht jobs
- Royal Yachting Association (RYA) — the British body behind the course we were doing
- Yachtmaster — the Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster Offshore certificates Gigi was studying for
- STCW — the basic safety training everyone on a commercial yacht needs, even the chef
- Beneteau — the French yard behind the brand new Oceanis 45 Gigi helped deliver from Hong Kong to Phuket
- Automatic Identification System (AIS) — the screen full of triangles the skipper showed him before going to bed
- Genoa — the headsail they sailed on for the entire passage to Singapore
- Roller furling — the system that broke and got fixed with a bent fork
- Serenity Shipyard — the French-run multihull builder in Pattaya behind the 27 meter catamaran Gigi looked after
- Beaufort scale — force 9 means around 41 to 47 knots, and they got hit by gusts close to 50
- Liferaft — the absolute last resort, which they had ready on deck
- Mayday — the distress call a fishing trawler almost sent for them
- Port of refuge — the safe haven every passage plan needs as Plan B
- Point Break — the movie with the storm Gigi compared his to
Places from the conversation
- Phuket — where Gigi did his STCW course and started working on boats
- Hong Kong — the start of his first passage, and a city I find fascinating for its mix of cultures
- Singapore — the turning point on the way from Hong Kong to Phuket
- Pattaya — the marina town where he lived alone on the catamaran
- Langkawi — one of the stops on the troubled delivery back to Phuket
- Melbourne — where he rented and skippered motorboats
- Perth — the start of the delivery that ended in the storm
- Exmouth — the tiny fishing port where they arrived half sunk
- Bali — the next stop, thirteen days after Exmouth
- Kuala Lumpur — the final destination of that delivery, and my current base
- Paris — the city Gigi left after six months
People, books, and ideas
- Carl Barron — the Australian comedian Gigi quoted about Aussies who don't give a damn
- Terence McKenna on reclaiming your mind — the lecture quote Gigi knows by heart
“Reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.” ― Terence McKenna
- Laozi — Gigi's favorite philosopher and the source of "nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished"
- Tao Te Ching — chapter 8 is where the water that benefits the ten thousand things comes from
- Indra's net — the image of dewdrops reflecting each other to infinity
- Upanishads — the ancient Indian texts Gigi connects to string theory
- Bhagavad Gita — Gigi bought his mother an edition with Gandhi's notes
- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — part of the yoga reading list that opened his "door to consciousness"
- String theory — the physics idea Gigi sees echoed in Indra's net
- Holographic principle — the "holographic universe" we touched on
- Mandelbrot set — the most famous fractal, and Gigi's coconut theory in math form
- Law of attraction — how Gigi explains always landing on his feet
- Sea otter — the animal that uses rocks as tools to crack shells
- Planet — from the Greek planētēs, meaning wanderer
- Hitchhiking — how the English hippie on Gigi's first passage crossed 120 countries
Timestamps / Chapters from the conversation with Gigi
00:00 Start.
00:34 A backlog episode from pandemic Tenerife and our RYA sailing course.
04:21 Meet Gigi: the spiritual pro skater pirate from New Caledonia.
05:02 Why "where are you from?" is the worst first question.
06:20 New Caledonia: Le Caillou, the Loyalty Islands, and the biggest lagoon in the world.
10:15 Tribal life, never quite belonging, and running away at eleven.
13:51 No snakes, no spiders: rusa deer, the kagu, and a life lived from the sea.
17:04 Skateboarding as an escape from teachers, rules, and authority.
21:05 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, inline skates, and the flow of movement.
24:14 Almost pro, then Paris at sixteen: the move that broke him.
27:57 Selling Balinese art, sleeping on beaches, and backpacking across Asia.
30:14 French territory, not a French state: independence and a childhood memory.
32:32 First sailboats on sandbank motus and a dad who taught sailing.
34:44 A Phuket bar, a stranger's question, and the STCW course opens yacht jobs.
39:49 Free passage: delivering a brand new Beneteau yacht from Hong Kong to Phuket.
44:02 First night watch in the South China Sea: flares, tuna socks, and "pirates".
47:09 Thief on water, a rehab boat crew, and a hippie who hitchhiked 120 countries.
50:31 Fixing the furler with a fork, land sickness, and a job offer via strangers.
54:56 Staying innocent and gliding through life without expecting to get conned.
56:43 Yachtmaster in five weeks for a free spirit who hates classrooms.
1:00:26 The superyacht interview in flowery boardshorts and why references matter most.
1:04:29 Keys behind the beers: alone on a 27 meter catamaran with a broke owner.
1:09:22 Cutting fishing nets off the propeller at 3 a.m.: "That's my job."
1:10:54 Tattoos in yachting, a 48 hour powerboat license, and collecting sea time.
1:13:51 Perth to Bali on a tiny racing yacht and a force 9 storm off Exmouth.
1:17:57 Thirty-seven hours without harnesses and a life raft ready on deck.
1:19:45 Arriving 40 centimeters from sinking and the Mayday that almost happened.
1:24:52 The wake-up call: why he finally went back to sailing school.
1:27:15 Reading clouds like old sailors, and why the world becomes your oyster.
1:30:02 Indra's net, fractals, and coconuts.
1:32:53 Labels, language, and why the ocean is waving.
1:37:14 Flags, passports, and rejecting authority with Terence McKenna.
1:42:41 Law of attraction: all I want is freedom.
1:45:33 Gandhi's Gita, the Upanishads, and the internet as a mind in 3D.
1:49:26 Be like water: solitude, reclaiming your mind, and a message of love.
1:55:02 Thanks for listening.
Quotes
"Everything's still part of me… usually New Caledonia pops up when people ask me where I'm from. I almost don't like the question… I always find it such a weird thing to ask as a first question." — Gigi
"Alright, what have you done? … I'm gonna be honest with you, I know nothing about sailing… References are very, very important. That's the key… You're on board, mate." — Gigi
"You tie a rope around your waist, you go diving at night with a knife… cutting all that from the propeller, three in the morning… and you remember it's your job… That's quite a good life." — Gigi
"Not that I care too much about myself, but you can't put other people's lives in danger. You have to be realistic" — Gigi
"At the center of my very core is this: all I want's freedom… by not thinking about the outcome." — Gigi
"Be like water… you need time alone to reflect. That's where original creation comes from." — Gigi
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