Beau Miles
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Beau Miles

BeauismsThe Commute

Why I walked 90km to work

It recently occurred to me that I’m at the halfway point in life, having lived the same number of years as an adult, and non-adult. I’ve become a pain in the arse, questioning everything, including questions. Early life crisis perhaps, where you sell your car instead of buying a new…
Beau Miles
December 29, 2019
Beauismskids

My love of orange things

I’m writing a book so penning this blog is a strategic distraction. I’ve also become a dad 23.2 days ago (May, Baby May!!), so I’m doing this between farting and burping a newborn, which is more fun that I thought. An infant at arms-reach makes you think in football sized…
Beau Miles
November 12, 2019
Beau Miles Junk PaddleBeauismsJunk ProjectsMaking things

Making a Junk Paddle

Placing mum on the nature strip when she needed a new hip was well down the list of options. First, naturally, would be a new hip; second was spending the next 40 years living in waist-deep water, and third was to take up a drinking problem. The last option was…
Beau Miles
May 17, 2019
Beau Miles and Ron MossJournalPhilosophy

Famous people I got wrong

Eating a bunch of beans and running laps around my block has sparked a bit of interest lately, which is nice. A dozen or so radio spots, and a few TV gigs have meant I’ve shared filtered air with familiar people I’ve never met. I’ve often lumped famous people into…
Beau Miles
March 19, 2019
Feature articleTrail Running

Running with scissors, or kids

I find myself running with two 10 year olds. Twins. One has laces flopping about, untied, the other has no socks. They don't like shoes, shirts, hats, jocks, sunnies or sunscreen. Shorts, to be decent, are fair enough. 'Less moving parts' is their moto, as if it were written on…
Beau Miles
December 11, 2018
BeauismsModernismsTravel

My wife, glory parker

A glory park is the best car park in the parking lot. Out front, shaded, free, wide, rare as buggery. Expensive people tend to own glory parks, or pay someone to shoo others away. Poor people dream of glory parking, including my wife. Airport parking, in particular, is the preferred…
Beau Miles
November 28, 2018
Feature articlePhilosophyTrail RunningTravel

Being Revenant

Forty hours of transit bore lightbulbs into my night. When dawn arrives, the view from my kitchen bench reveals a red-stemmed maple sporting new buds. One particular branch touches a window pane, announcing spring- and itself, like a Jehovah witness knocking neatly and cautiously on the glass. I’ve been home…
Beau Miles
September 13, 2018
PatagoniaPhilosophyTravel

Patagonia

I caught myself running my fingers along the ridge-line of the Patagonian logo. I guessed they were traversing, metaphorically speaking, at a few hundred kilometres an hour.  The craggy terrain is actually felt in my fingertips, which I suppose could be a pair of legs. Coffee number, whatever- let’s say…
Beau Miles
August 23, 2018
FilmMaking thingsPhilosophy

Winning film festivals, or life

Bless em, the judging panel of the Paddling Film Festival and The Waterwalker Film Festival have voted Bass by Kayak the best sea kayaking film of 2018. They’re nice emails to get first thing in the morning. Cartoon figure trophies jump from the inbox, laden with digital wreaths and laurels.…
Beau Miles
July 23, 2018
A Mile an HourFilmTrail Running

To my body, the idiot

I’m back at the desk, blobbing about on my Swissball, working blood into my tight hips. In ode to my laps of the block I’ll get up shortly (at the top of the hour), and wander the halls, chatting to boxed-in academics, and myself. Slow walking and slow writing to…
Beau Miles
May 30, 2018
A Mile an HourBeauismsFilm

Running a mile an hour

My tiny farm is a triangle within a diamond. The short western fence-line joins longer southern and northern sides- sealed roads, that come to a sharp point (where hoon drivers go sideways into the ditch. I go down with a cuppa and watch as they dig themselves out). An awkwardly…
Beau Miles
May 27, 2018
Journal

How much does a PhD weigh?

Post doc, fat, I’m back to doing a spot of running. I’ve spent the majority of my days for the last few years in front of a screen. You are doing likewise, reading this instead of stealing rocks from an old quarry, or bumbling around a farmers disused dairy sorting…
Beau Miles
February 22, 2018
FilmSea Kayaking

The hangover of Episode 6

I write for Trail Runner Magazine every so often as ‘Trail Muse’. I think my way around a particular piece of trail, narrating my world internally, and return to the laptop to write about it. We all do this in some way, regardless of the depth in narrative, or actuality…
Beau Miles
March 29, 2017
EventFilmSea Kayaking

If you build it, they will come

Sorry for the Kevin Costner metaphor, but it’s a great movie. Right up there with Dirty Dancing.  I’m dreaming. It’s the usual mix of sexy-time or unfinished business with a bully from childhood (not related dreamscapes). Then I’m at a film showing. The theatre is a small beach cove where the…
Beau Miles
February 22, 2017
Beauisms

Commute loot!

Pop quiz. How many giant rolls of housing insulation can you fit into a two-door hatchback? One. Pretty crappy quiz I know, but a fun start to the day. I found this giant roll of goodness on the side of the highway. Smack bang in the middle of 6 lanes.…
Beau Miles
August 19, 2016
Beauisms

First Maccas in 20 years: idiot.

Helen and I, a little excited, find ourselves free at a strange time of day. Based on my pestering we head to McDonald's at the non-mealtime of 2:45pm. Let me explain.  I’ve not purchased anything from the yellow hoops since 1998 due to the combined efforts of running and doing…
Beau Miles
July 29, 2016
Trail Running

Me runnin’ shoes

Picture yourself as a kid, a younger less freckled (I’m a ginger and can map the years of dots like rings of a tree) version wearing your then favourite t-shirt. This t-shirt was rumoured to be worn by Zeus, or the Fonz, or both. It would get you the girls,…
Beau Miles
June 9, 2016
Bass by KayakMaking thingsSea Kayaking

A product of the 70’s

Like most Aussies I’m a fringe dweller. I live an hour from the coast. On a clear day from the top of my paddock I can see Western Port. But I’m no salty. My surfer mates, station-wagon dudes with skunking wetsuits in the backseat, possess an acute relationship with the…
Beau Miles
February 26, 2016
Bass by KayakSea Kayaking

Bass Strait Bumfittness

How, what, when, and who? I’m sea kayaking across Bass Strait next month with three other punters. We’ll push off from Port Welshpool in South Gippsland on March 19th, heading for Tassie via The Prom, Hogan, Deal, and Flinders islands. Our last hop will cross the swift currents of Banks…
Beau Miles
February 17, 2016
Trail Running

A fox, a castle, brown & bread

I’m following a fox. A crafty little creature that seems to like single track just as much as me. Such dainty marks. Then I’m not, all alone again on the trail. Whippy oak branches crack me across the chest and an unseen fur branch, clogged in snow, fills my ear…
Beau Miles
February 12, 2015
Beauisms

Year of Mortality

I was bowling down Jelly beans like a 10 year old, lost in the sugary bliss. In an instant, this childhood act steered me directly to adulthood. Mixed within the goo was a shattered tooth, large, hard chunks amidst pure sugar. A mouth full of irony. I instantly ease off…
Beau Miles
February 1, 2014