Afghan refugee Masi Mobin vividly remembers spending 16 hours clinging to a piece of timber in the Timor Sea, north of Australia, before he was rescued.
The flimsy boat, which the 14-year-old had paid a people smuggler to board, had overturned in choppy seas and all but four of the 28 people on board drowned, including Mobin’s uncle.
That was 13 years ago.
Today, Mobin is settled in Melbourne, runs a house-painting and renovation company, and is studying to become a builder.
He also works on weekends as a surfing guide at URBNSURF, a surf park in the north-western Melbourne suburb of Tullamarine.
He jokes that he is the first Afghani surfer.
Read the article