I was a mixture of a country boy and a town boy, really. Chichester is a town on the coast of England, and I grew up all along that strip of coast that Chichester branches out into. Sometimes I was living in a house in the country, and sometimes I was living in a town.
Along the beach I never collected shells from my father's shore.
In 2008, 'Surfer's Journal' published 'The Next Wave' image with an article.
My best vacation was renting a boat and motoring along the Adriatic, going along the Croatian coast, before it became so fashionable. I've also sailed around the Turkish islands, the Greek islands and Sicily.
Sailing is a big outlet for me.
My preference is swimming in the sea. I find the sea is more liberating, wild and good fun rather than plodding up and down a pool.
I wiped away the weeds and foam, I fetched my sea-borne treasures home.
I go down to Newport and Huntington a lot. It's more crowded than where I grew up on Phillip Island, but I think it's helped me adjust to life in America - getting into the water as much as I can.
Many beach locales offer surf lessons, and you get a different perspective of the ocean when you're out on the water.
When I'm not acting, I'm at the beach. I like to spend a lot of time in the water, surfing.
I wasn't really a beach boy. I was a city boy, afraid of the ocean.
You can't beat a British holiday for rock pooling and sandcastles with fish and chips on the seafront - perfect.
Normally if I am on holiday I'll be planning a fishing trip or a surfing trip.
I am not a fan of being in the sea. I like being in a boat - sailing.
Chiefly the sea-shore has been the point of departure to knowledge, as to commerce. The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.
I have to at least get a couple weekends in where I can just be on Santa Monica beach or Malibu and just ride the waves.
I'd love to have a proper sailing boat and go around the world.
Have we even so much as discovered and settled the shores? Let a man travel on foot along the coastand tell me if it looks like a discovered and settled country, and not rather, for the most part, like a desolate island, and No-Man's Land.
Then the BBC approached me in 2005 and asked me to be one of the presenters of the series 'Coast', which turned into a very long-running series.
One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach.
I have always been inspired by the dream of America-families in the country, weathered trucks and farmhouses; sailing off the coast of Maine; following dirt roads in an old wood-paneled station wagon; a convertible filled with young college kids sporting crew cuts and sweatshirts and frayed sneakers.
I live in New York and California, and I get to travel.
I can't swim, and I actually hate sand.
Living in Sydney, I've taken the chance to start surfing again. One of my best memories of growing up is catching my first proper wave and surfing across it and my brother cheering at me from the shore.
Between planning family vacations and running away for novel-writing retreats, I've spent much of my adult life questing for the perfect beach escape, renting cottages all along the Florida Gulf and up and down the Atlantic Coast - as far north as Nags Head, as far south as Key West.
