Three years ago Andrew James of Freshwater on Sydney's northern beaches made the surf travel film 30,000. With his brother Richard for company the two drove from Casablanca to Cape Town traversing the entire western side of the African continent. Since then Richard has travelled to Afghanistan to make a frontier snowboarding film while Andrew has immersed himself in another project, one that's all-consuming but far removed from the entertainment industry.

Although Andrew and Richard discuss the possibility of making further films - "Iceland sounds good," Andrew tells me in the course of conversation - the likelihood has to be weighted against time-of-life practicalities. "Whether or not we're getting to the stage of our lives where just disappearing for twelve months is doable or not...I'd like to think that's still available to us, but it may not be."

Existential angst isn't slowing Andrew down, however, there's waves to surf and cattle to look after. All part of that project I mentioned earlier, which involves getting back to the land in the southern frontier of King Island. On a warm, sunny day we sat on the sands of Manly Beach and talked about big waves and alternate realities.

Swellnet: How did you end up on King Island? Andrew James: I've gone down there to run a farm for my parents. They've owned a block down there for quite a while, we've always had it leased out but I wanted to get our own stock on there and run it. Finally, after ten years of wanting to do it, I had the time and a bit of my own money to put into it, and the chance to go down there.

What sort of farm is it? It's beef cattle property and I've got about 200 Black Angus breeders and every year I sell a big crop of 100 or 200 calves to other beef producers. So basically it's looking after quite a large block and managing it.

What about the isolation? I live there with my girlfriend, Bec, who is a doctor but she's taken twelve months off to spend the year down there with me while I get this project up and running. We're a long way from town and we're a long way from our nearest neighbours – they're about eight k's away. But to be honest it doesn't bother me a tremendous amount. I really enjoy being down there by ourselves and not seeing many people. It's what drew me down there in the first place.

I wouldn't say I'm agoraphobic but I get irritated a bit in busy environments. Walking down Pitt Street at one o'clock in the afternoon I get irritated – I get pissed off. So it's therapeutic to live down there. The isolation hasn't bothered me at all.

So you're not getting lonely? No. Even if I'm by myself, say Bec's back in town working, and it's just me on the farm, I enjoy myself.

What you've told me sounds very practical, but I get the feeling that you're like Simple Ben in a steamer. Is it as dreamy and romantic as that? Yeah, that's certainly an aspect of what Bec and I wanted to do down there. We're trying to be as self-sufficient as possible. We grow a lot of our own vegetables and a large percentage of our food comes out of the ocean or off the property itself. So living alternatively is something that attracted us.

Is there much in the way of community down there? Other than Bec, as I said our nearest neighbours are along way away, but there are a small group of local surfers who I try and catch up with when there's waves. I spend about 20 minutes on the phone calling people to tee up going for a wave when it looks like theres going to be swell.

So what does it mean, are you usually surfing alone? Ahhh...I lot of the time, yeah. A lot of the time I have to surf alone. Having Bec there is good because she's a surfer, and even if she doesn't go out she might sit on the rocks and keep an eye on me. But a lot of the time it is by myself.

How often do you get in the water? Not as often as I'd like the last few months.

Really? I've been so busy on the property and we've been getting the house renovated to the point where it's liveable that I've almost been too busy to surf. I've been surfing far less than I'd like. But now that we're a little bit established and work is under control the plan is to get in the water most days. We've got a policy now that every day that there's waves we're gonna go surfing. We'll knock off at 2,3 or 4 o'clock and go to the beach.

I've seen a few photos of you on a fun looking lefthander, can you tell me about that wave? (See photos) That's a wave that's actually on our property. It's out on the point that's on our block where we run most of our stock. It's a pretty intense, deepwater lefthand bommie. It's not really a point although it breaks off one, it's more of a peak with one takeoff then a bit of a wall. But on the right day it can be a pretty long wave. I've been spending a lot of time out there given it's the closest break to where I live. I see it when I'm working every day so I'm always onto it if there're waves.

Do other people surf it? I've met two people who've claimed to have paddled out there once, but they said it was reasonably confronting and they didn't get much in the way of waves out there. In general, no, no-one surfs it and it can get a little lonely out there.

What other waves do you surf down there? There's an amazing variety of spots on King Island. There's some good consistent beachies and there are always good banks. A lot of the beaches are similar to here at North Steyne but they're much more consistent. And then there are some reef and reef point setups similar to, say, the Bower - heavy, punchy, deepwater reefs. We get a heap of swell, that's the great thing.

What about the wind down there? It must be the bane of the King Island surfer? Yeah, in a sense it is. There's that sou-wester from the Roaring 40's that's pretty prevalent, especially during the ten months of winter. Today down there it's banging 60 knots. But being an island, and being a small island, you can always just go to the other side and get smaller waves. It's always offshore somewhere and you get a lot of swell wrap. Some of the better breaks work in the lee of that sou-wester so it'll be clean on most days and you'll still get enough size.

What are the main boards in your quiver? I have an 8'8" a 7'4" and a 7'2" that I surf all through winter. And in summer I ride my little quad fish and my longboard quite a lot. While my girlfriend, Bec, whose a longboarder, she and I are out there on the mals quite a bit during summer so we've got a pretty broad range of boards we get on, but during the winter months I'm generally on the step-up type boards.

It's a big step up to an 8'8". Yeah, it is but there's a lot of water moving around out there in Bass Strait and especially when you're by yourself with no-one else around you want to have some floatation and foam under you so you can cover some ground.

How long do you think you'll last down there? Well, I've been there about a year now and I'd like to spend at least the next two years there, full time, and from then try to get the project to a point where I can have a manager look after it one or two days a week. Part time, maybe in conjunction with other work and I can just have it as somewhere were I spend a portion of the year and I can base myself back in Manly.

So you'd come back to the city? Oh, in the long term, maybe, depending on Bec's work and other stuff. But it certainly wouldn't be something I'd write off doing for the rest of my life.

King Island and Manly are polar opposites, are you the kind of person drawn to extremes? I mean, you could find some middle ground, somewhere temperate, somewhere not so isolated? Well, I really enjoy it down there. And I figure if you're going to be in the bush you may as well be properly in the bush, if you know what I mean, same as if you're going to be in the city you may as well be properly in the city. Which is why I like Manly because even though it is a beach suburb its quite intense.

Living like this makes you appreciate the other. Like coming back this week, it's pretty full on, but it'll make me appreciate going back. I really like the fact that they're both as far away as you can get and it's not compromising on either lifestyle really.

So when are you going back? I'm going back tomorrow morning, actually.

I assume you're looking forward to it? Yeah, I've got cattle I need to look after so I'm keen to get back.

(All photos Tristan Fitzherbert-Smith)