Farewell
to Steve at Sea
On
Tuesday 21st September, at 6pm, Willi Wire will be taking Steve's ashes
out to sea from the club, to be placed there, where we all know Steve
loved to be. Friends of Steve who would like to attend, either from the
beach or the water, would be most welcome.
A
Thank you from Dave Avery
On behalf of my family I would like to thank
everyone for the kind donations received at Steve's funeral in support of
The Pilgrims Hospice and Bowel Cancer Research.
So far £734 has been raised which will be divided
equally between both charities - Will Wire is also in the process of
selling some of Steve's windsurfing kit and the proceeds from this will
also be going to these charities.
My family would also like to thank you all for your
love and support for Steve over the last year and for your support
and kind words to us during and since his Funeral.
Tribute to
Steve by Graeme Fuller
Steve
Avery
- 1960-2010
After a year long battle with bowel and
liver cancer my windsurfing friend passed away on May 14th at 5 am this is
a brief account of his life and times from a windsurfing perspective with
apologies to those in his other life about which I now realise I know very
little.
By the time I met Steve Avery as a young
man of 18, I was already a 32 yr old well into the back end of a career as
a windsurfing regatta sailor having enjoyed a degree of success. Steve was
a particularly talented young athlete with a similar competitive nature to
my own so he swiftly joined me on the windsurfer and later the open class
circuits of the period. In those days we'd hang out at Barry James's
windsurfing centre and club in Sandgate.
He travelled with me to the Windsurfer
World Championships in the Bahamas in 1980 as part of the British Team and
to Japan & the Worlds of 1981 and we enjoyed many an event together in
those days of racing and windsurf hell raising.
Successes and Failures he treated in equal
measure, for Steve it was always about taking part, he relished the joy of
the chase, the stronger the wind, the better the adversary's, the more he
liked it.
A tall strong lad with long flowing blonde
hair in those days, I have a vivid recollection of him being pursued
through the streets of Okinawa by scores of Japanese Schoolgirls, all
eager to touch his hair.
Those heady early days soon vanished into
the day to day existences of our various lives, whilst I eventually
pursued a career in the windsurfing business Steve buckled down to life as
an Electrical Engineer, not the luckiest man in love nor the easiest of
men to live with, he made a few mistakes, but along the way he was blessed
with a daughter Lucy and always had the benefit of a close family with two
brothers Chris & Dave who were never far away.
But this is my tale, and although our
working and social lives took different courses, like the Big Wednesday
movie, the wind and love of the sea and windsurfing regularly bought us
together. Inevitably stormy days and big waves were the key motivator so
over the last thirty two years we sailed many a big day, raced many a hard
fought race and helped each other out of sometimes difficult and life
threatening situations, he was always there for me if I stacked it on the
rocks or gear failure threatened disaster and I would reciprocate.
Tuesday Nights saw a regular get together
originally in Sandgate and later in Hythe when we were invited to join
H&SSC, it was Steve's motivating energy that kept all the local
raceboard sailors together over the years, with his insistence if he were
made to sail in light weather then we were to forgo the joys of shorter
board when it was windy, so come what may every Tuesday night of those
thirty plus years, windsurfers have raced together in the waters off the
Sandgate and Hythe coast.
His rules were simple do what he said or
arm wrestle a different decision from him, - it never happened, but it did
ensure the continuity of all of our relationships. On the odd occasion I'd
take him on, wether it was arm wrestling or running to some distant spot
in a drunken wager, he never ceased to re-inforce that no matter how
drunk, or how many roll ups he'd smoked he'd still win any running race
you care to wager on and carry on drinking after.
Then the next day he'd wake up and be on
the start line ready for you.
More recently we sailed a dinghy together
which was a revelation into each others tactical assessment of a given
situation, but further underlined the competitiveness of both our
characters, not winning didn't sit well with either of us, but it was
never the be all and end all, the joy was most definitely in the chase.
The camaraderie however was a bonus, both being on the same 'team' as it
were for the first time. The onset of illness came as a particular tragedy
for one so fit and active, that combined with loss of a job was a major
upset to his life, but being Steve he simply shrugged it off and got on
with it.
He was lucky enough to find love one last
time with Jane who cared for him through the early part of his illness,
but I'm sure the other loves of his life, Karen, Sue Jackie and Kerry will
be mourning his passing.
He'll be missed by a lot of folk around
here, he's left a huge void in our world, amazing you never realise what
you had til it's gone.
He leaves many a quote
"If you have to look for wind,
there ain't any"
"There's wind and there's mens
wind",
"It's 6 o'clock we ain't
waiting"
Now we have to accept he's gone on ahead
and if there's windsurfing heaven when I get to the beach he'll be there,
I'll ask him how it is, he'll say "They're all pussies, and the
conditions are crap, but there's this one spot… the winds a bit better
and the waves a bit bigger..…
You can't say RIP in front of the words
Steve Avery, it's just ain't going to happen.
Steve at the Summer Party
last year.
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