Ellie J Brooks

Ellie J Brooks: A Healthy Sense of Adventure

There’s a lot to be said for trusting your instincts and adjusting your dreams when the goal you’ve been chasing doesn’t deliver the expected rewards.

So, it was for professional surfer Ellie J Brookes, who left the competitive grind behind in favour of freewheeling travel and adventure, with a focus on healthy living and spending time in nature.

And a budding new romance fitted in nicely with this new nomadic coastal lifestyle. “I was living on the Gold Coast and my now fiancé was living on the Central Coast (750 km to the south),” she says. “We did that drive up and back on the freeway so much we decided, we should make the most of it and stop into some places. Forster always had our heart. I had a competition there and I was like wow, how cool would one of those Dometic inflatable tents be.”

Ellie was already a fan and a friend of the brand and so a collaboration organically developed. “It all happened very naturally. To me it made so much sense. We started making some content of our travel up and down the coast and the relationship blossomed. Our values aligned and with creative ideas flowing we just continued to grow a relationship.”

Ultimately, the travelling/camping life won out over full-time competition, and Ellie and her fiancé, videographer Jacob Wooden, have thrived in their outdoor adventure lifestyle. With Ellie’s surfing skills and sunny disposition, Jacob’s talent for content creation, and their shared love of the outdoors, the new lifestyle suited them perfectly. “Adventure is ingrained in me. I’d honestly be lost without it. It keeps me feeling alive, helps my creative side and just makes me feel good,” says Ellie.

The Dometic collaboration has made it easier than ever for the couple to indulge their love of spontaneous coastal camp trips. What’s an ideal camping mission look like? “Just loading the car with boards, cameras, fishing gear, snacks and heading somewhere coastal! We have such a good set up, it takes two minutes! It has made our spontaneous camp trips so easy. We decide on a location, and we are off,” says Ellie.

“We always have our Dometic Go Compact Camp Chairs packed and the Dometic Soft Storage. They are perfect for even day trips or beach days. The Hard Storage is great too. We often load our camera equipment in there to protect it when the car gets jammed full of gear. Dometic have been so good to us, they make every camp trip a breeze.”

Now the young couple are engaged, to be married and have recently welcomed their first child into the world. “Lately I have been loving a coastal camp trip. We snuck one last mission in at 38 weeks which was fun!” says Ellie, who was still surfing only a few weeks before the birth. “A sail we did up the Hawkesbury was one for the memory books! Last minute, spontaneous adventures are often my favourite!”

The couple are determined that isn’t going to change with the arrival of their son. “We are so excited to have our boy join our explorations, and we know he will have an adventurous spirit deeply ingrained in him. Especially as we didn’t stop those fun trips while I was pregnant.”

And with their Dometic base camp setup, family life on the go not only feels manageable, but easy and joyful. “The inflatable swags and Santorini tents are amazing,” says Ellie. “Initially our adventures may look a little smaller, but we have dreams of heading south for a swell and documenting my first surfs back. We’d love to head to New Zealand, maybe Indonesia. All I know is adventure is our life and now we get to share it with our boy!”

Even as Ellie moves through the profound changes of new parenthood, she’s confident that shared love of nature and the outdoors will guide her young family’s way of life. “I’m just grateful for this whole journey and experience transitioning to motherhood. I can’t wait to show our baby boy the adventurous life we live and love! Maybe a quick lap around Australia might be the perfect introduction.”