Barry Gale, the senior partner of Hastings, the Barbados law firm, makes no bones about his good fortune. “I’m blessed to live this life,” says the tanned, healthy looking QC. “When I compare how some people work and live in other countries, I definitely feel extremely lucky.”

Gale is 54, but looks ten years younger. His joy in life on Barbados is not just down to his being born and bred on one of the world’s most idyllic islands. An important factor in his equanimity is his lifelong devotion to one of the most popular sports on Barbados – surfing.

“I started surfing when I was nine,” says Gale, whose family founded The Advocate, the leading newspaper on Barbados, in the 1870s. Surfing in Barbados was almost unheard of until the early Sixties, but then, in 1964, two Australians arrived. “They were instrumental in generating interest in surfing here,” Gale says. “Before they came, I used a wooden board built for me by David Allen, who was then wicketkeeper for the West Indies. After the Australians had been and gone the surfing community grew, but even so there were just a handful of us in the early days.”

Gale grew up on the southeast coast of Barbados, near a popular surf break called Freights. Now, Freights is overlooked by a number of houses, but in Gale youth’s “there was just pasture there. It was a wonderful place to grow up. We had an amazing amount of freedom.” Today, if there is swell at Freights, Gale will paddle out after work and surf what is still - despite his having surfed the many other world-class surf spots on the island, not least the notorious Soup Bowl - his favourite break. His early years in the law, however, were not quite so favoured.

“I went to England when I was 17 and did my A levels at Lancing College in West Sussex,” he explains. “I then took a year off and did all kinds of odd jobs in the UK. I worked in Harrods and in the City as an insurance broker, and did stints as a milkman, tractor driver, bricklayer and baker. I enrolled at London University to study economics, but switched to law after a year and graduated with an LLB from Cardiff University. Then it was to Middle Temple for the Bar exams for another year.”

This was all well and good for a young man following, to a degree, in his father’s footsteps (Gale senior qualified as a barrister but went on to run The Advocate), but what about his love of surfing? “I went surfing a couple of times in Cornwall and Wales but it was too cold for me,” he says. “I missed surfing a lot when I was in England, though I did come home each Christmas. I got a lot of waves then.”

After completing the Bar exams Gale returned to the Caribbean, working for two years in Trinidad to qualify, in the fused profession of the West Indies, as an attorney-at-law. He settled soon after in his home country, with his English wife Alison, with whom he has four children. One of his sons, Lawrence, is a keen surfer, and Gale loves nothing better than to go surfing with him: “Surfing with your children is fantastic. I’ll load up the car with boards and head off with Lawrence and his friends for a day’s surfing. It creates and fosters a really strong bond.”

What is it, though, that is so special about surfing, whether in Barbados or at some of the world’s less benign locations? Gale – a corporate and commercial lawyer who also has a formidable reputation as a litigator – speaks in unhurried tones, in a voice as crystal clear as the water at Freights: “The law can be very aggressive but in surfing, you’re surrounded by people who are laid back and of a like mind. Going surfing is the easiest and nicest way to get away from it all. When you’re on a surfboard, in the sea, you’re in a perfect, natural environment. You’re playing with nature. Surfing provides an instant release of all stress and tension.”

Photo of Barry Gale courtesy of www.chriswelchphotos.com

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