Roman Gerber "Family is the most important thing"

What started as a chat on  a social networking site (facebook-ed),turned into a longer conversation between Piping  “Magic Wave” and  Roman Gerber who had just returned from a trip to Krui.

Around 4 one afternoon at the Balcony restaurant, Magic Wave met with Roman Gerber, father of Marlon Gerber. Born in Switzerland 58 years ago, Roman had just returned from a trip to Krui with his family. He first came to Bali in 1975, fell in love with the woman who was to become the mother of his children and decided to live in Bali in 1978. He started a restaurant in Kuta called Un’s.

Wearing a white checked shirt and shorts he sits in a corner of the Balcony restaurant only about 25 metres from the Magic Wave office. He is sitting alone, waiting for us. He appears calm and his Indonesian is fluent though sometimes his accent gives away the fact that he is not a native speaker. Traffic noise and three glasses of mineral water accompany our afternoon chat.

 
It’s not been written in the Indonesian surfing history how many factors are involved in the shaping of a pure surfer and the building of his name. Support from friends and family are important. Roman is the force behind the long road to success of Marlon Gerber, which not many people know.

“I feel lucky to have him as a dad. For as long as I can remember he always gave me the freedom to do what I wanted”, said Marlon when asked what he thought about his father.

Roman himself agrees that family is the most important thing for him. He loves his family a lot which we could tell when he answered our question about his recent surf trip.

“We had four days together there, I enjoyed it very much” said Roman about his recent trip.

 

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It’s not been written in the Indonesian surfing history how many factors are involved in the shaping of a pure surfer and the building of his name. Support from friends and family are important. Roman is the force behind the long road to success of Marlon Gerber, which not many people know.

“I feel lucky to have him as a dad. For as long as I can remember he always gave me the freedom to do what I wanted”, said Marlon when asked what he thought about his father.

Roman himself agrees that family is the most important thing for him. He loves his family a lot which we could tell when he answered our question about his recent surf trip.

“We had four days together there, I enjoyed it very much” said Roman about his recent trip.

Krui is the capital city of the coastal region of West Lampung. On the Indian Ocean , Krui has huge potential for tourism, especially beach tourism.

Just using a Canon camera with a 18-70mm lens Roman took photos that made Magic Wave include this article.  “For someone new to using a digital SLR camera Roman already has ability and strength above average” said Piping from Magic Wave.

At Krui , which is about 6 hours drive from Lampung, they stayed at their friend Andy’s Surf camp. From the surf camp there is another 30 minute drive to the beach. The food didn’t agree with him and it was hard to find a restaurant and they were there at the wrong time to get good waves. He had some interest in starting a business there but has now changed his mind. “If I want to start something there I would have to live there” he explained his reason for the change of heart.

Krui was not his first trip. He has been to Sumbawa by motor bike and from there onto Flores . When asked about plans for his next trip he said “Sumba. I hear it’s great there”. He also recommends another destination, Sumatra Pipe Line, which is another possibility for his next trip.

 Just before we finished we asked Roman for some advice for Magic Wave and we got a cool piece of advice from him…. “A little gossip it’s ok”.