Read Beau's latest Journal entries

Beauisms Film

A bunch of questions about the 1438 trees I planted

For my 40th birthday, my best mates gave me a self-flown joy flight in a light plane. When given the controls I headed straight for home. What was at first a wonderful sense of flying became a bizarre reality check, seeing so much green turning to brown in the summer…

Beau MilesDecember 22, 2021

Beauisms The 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 MilesDecember 29, 2019

Modernisms Sea Kayaking

Changing my religion with a 4000 year old paddle

I tend to buy non-perishable things with the intent of using them until December, 2079. December 21st, 2079 actually, my 100th birthday, where I’ll eat a fat chunk of banana-liquorice cake with a Sheffield made fork, served on a plate I now own, sliced using a knife I’ll keep sharp,…

Beau MilesDecember 11, 2019

Beauisms kids

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 MilesNovember 12, 2019

Beauisms Junk Projects Making 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 MilesMay 17, 2019

Journal Philosophy

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 MilesMarch 19, 2019

Feature article Trail 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 MilesDecember 11, 2018

Beauisms Modernisms Travel

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 MilesNovember 28, 2018

Philosophy The Commute

What not to do when prepping for a TED talk

I recently gave a TED talk, rating myself 8/10 based mostly on dress sense. Several people remarked on my outfit (perhaps subconsciously given I stood on a red carpet- see pic), asking me how I managed to pull off outdoor pants with a woollen suit jacket. ‘It just comes to…

Beau MilesOctober 16, 2018

Feature article Philosophy Trail Running Travel

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 MilesSeptember 13, 2018

Philosophy Travel

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 MilesAugust 23, 2018

Feature article Guiding Trail Running

The first, worst trail running guide

I sat on the cold brickwork, wondering if I’d get hemaroids. Flags flapped. Early light streaked across the cobblestones. There was a nip in the air. My stomach made creaking sounds under the weight of a huge banana, and milky tea was expanding four slices of marmalade toast. I felt…

Beau MilesAugust 1, 2018

Film Making things Philosophy

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 MilesJuly 23, 2018

A Mile an Hour Film Trail 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 MilesMay 30, 2018

A Mile an Hour Beauisms Film

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 MilesMay 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 MilesFebruary 22, 2018

Film Sea 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 MilesMarch 29, 2017

Event Film Sea 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 MilesFebruary 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 MilesAugust 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 MilesJuly 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 MilesJune 9, 2016

Beauisms Q&A The Commute

Q&A write up: Walking 100k to Work

Over two full days and a night- spent in a bush under the glow of a petrol station, I walked 100km to work, living off the side of the road, having left home with nothing but the clothes on my back. I found 2 iphones, an ipad (Siri was yapping…

Beau MilesMay 31, 2016

Bass by Kayak Q&A Sea Kayaking

Q&A write up: Kayaking Australia’s Bass Strait

Over two full weeks, we crossed from the Australian mainland to Tasmania in sea kayaks. Three hundred odd people have made the crossing in the modern era, and Aboriginal Australians did it during the last ice age in canoes. For the seafarer, linking together the perfectly spaced islands feels like…

Beau MilesApril 16, 2016

Bass by Kayak Sea Kayaking

Home truths: Bass Strait in a salad bowl

Days after an expedition are odd. I eat a ridiculous amount of fresh food. Veggies and Salad consume me. I become regular again. Routine is picked up as if the handle was turned my way, waiting. Here I sit, home on the range (my pocket sized farm), with drizzle making…

Beau MilesApril 1, 2016

Bass by Kayak Sea Kayaking

A smaller then bigger crew, then back to smaller…

Most lead up weeks to an expedition are big, in that something pivotal happens. Naturally, the week before is the most full. Surprises, often via stupid assumptions or previous half-fixes crop up in spades. Things break, go missing, or get lost in translation (someone else’s shed, or kit bag). People,…

Beau MilesMarch 9, 2016

Bass by Kayak Making things Sea 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 MilesFebruary 26, 2016

Bass by Kayak Sea 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 MilesFebruary 17, 2016

Bass by Kayak Sea Kayaking

As good as great fish and a dam busting leak…

I remember eating something new a few years ago. Maybe a Russian dish, but probably not. My step mum cooked it, scratch that- created it for Christmas. New flavours rolled around in my head as a truly new experience. Overwhelming really. As if, when you finally wee after torturing yourself…

Beau MilesFebruary 10, 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 MilesFebruary 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 MilesFebruary 1, 2014

JOURNAL

A bunch of questions about the 1438 trees I planted

Why I walked 90km to work

Changing my religion with a 4000 year old paddle

My love of orange things

Making a Junk Paddle

Famous people I got wrong

Running with scissors, or kids

My wife, glory parker

What not to do when prepping for a TED talk

Being Revenant

Patagonia

The first, worst trail running guide

Winning film festivals, or life

To my body, the idiot

Running a mile an hour

How much does a PhD weigh?

The hangover of Episode 6

If you build it, they will come

Commute loot!

First Maccas in 20 years: idiot.

Me runnin’ shoes

Q&A write up: Walking 100k to Work

Q&A write up: Kayaking Australia’s Bass Strait

Home truths: Bass Strait in a salad bowl

A smaller then bigger crew, then back to smaller…

A product of the 70’s

Bass Strait Bumfittness

As good as great fish and a dam busting leak…

A fox, a castle, brown & bread

Year of Mortality

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