The Ripple Effect: Testimonial From Our Reader

Just like a droplet hitting a body of still water, all it takes is one word, image or moment to create a ripple effect of events. Through different media, like online browsing or magazines at our fingertips, we consume masses of information in a matter of seconds every day. Although we may not realise it at the time, some of these split-second moments can even change our lives.

Through magazines like Boat Gold Coast, the best that Queensland’s east coast has to offer is presented to local and national audiences. Covering everything from local stories and community to boating culture, Boat Gold Coast showcases what makes the city unique. Not only having a great local reach through print, the magazine’s online accessibility also allows the local experiences to shine to a wider audience across Australia.

Recently, the magazine was approached by one of our readers, Adam Vagg, Sydney-based creative director and owner of Brave Design. Adam had been seeing the Coast through the eyes of the magazine as a regular reader. Growing up on Sydney’s North Shore, Adam has always had an “avid love of boats and boating in general.”

Initially visiting the Gold Coast in search of purchasing his own yacht, Adam experienced the boat-lovers’ paradise of the northern Coast first hand. “It all came about when I flew up to have a look at a Riviera for sale that I was planning on taking back down to Sydney. The broker took me to see a number of other boats around Sanctuary Cove and Sovereign Islands.” Adam did not end up purchasing the boat that brought

him up to the Coast, but he soon had his sights set on something else. “The trip allowed me to see a way of life that I had never dreamed of. Somehow, I had to make the transition of moving happen.”

A year later, Adam and his wife Lani started to explore the possibility of moving up to the Gold Coast. However, all would not be smooth sailing as Adam was faced with not only moving his family to an unfamiliar territory, but also his business. “We searched waterfronts from Mermaid Waters all the way up to Sovereign Islands, over seven separate visits.”

“One day, getting hungry while searching and probably annoying the heck out of the local real estate agents, I remembered an ad I had seen in Boat Gold Coast magazine.” After countless house inspections and several tireless trips on the hunt for his perfect slice of the Gold Coast, Adam was hit with a ‘eureka’ moment. “It was the ad for a waterfront seafood restaurant that won us over, featuring a photo of old-fashioned fish ’n chips served in a wooden box,” Adam recalls. “That’s how my wife and I ended up having lunch at the Fish Emporium at Capri on Via Roma on Isle of Capri.”

Capri on Via Roma has become a hit with local boaties, offering easy access berthing space just off the Nerang River. Whether it is for lunch after a morning of fishing or for taking the family for a day out, the waterfront dining and shopping district offers a truly Gold Coast experience. “After that amazing lunch, followed by a walk around all the shops at Via Roma and walking through the local school (Surfers Paradise State School), we realised that we had fallen in love with the area – far surpassing our expectations.”

Following the memory of the advertising feature he had seen many months before, Adam was introduced to the beautiful haven of Isle of Capri that he would soon get to call home.

After having a taste of what life on the Gold Coast could be for him and his wife, Adam was determined to make the monumental shift from down south: “I just had to work out how to make it happen while running my sign and printing business, Brave Design, after 25 years operating in Sydney.”

Faced with balancing his business and following his dream to live up on the Coast, Adam realised the perfect solution. “That’s when it occurred to me that

I could commute, as the flight was only just over an hour. I could cut and print all the graphics up here, and then fly or drive down to install car and boat graphics once a week back in Sydney.”

Inspired by his experience reading the magazine feature on the Fish Emporium, Adam would find himself led straight to the place he now calls home, as well as finally getting to enjoy the waterfront view and iconic fish and chips. Now based on the Gold Coast, Adam and Lani have found their own piece of paradise due to one eventful afternoon. “Although it took a couple of years to actually make it happen, we now have been living our dream for a bit over a year, living on Isle of Capri,” reflects Adam. “The Gold Coast has been so wonderful to us. We have met so many new friends and the local people have been very supportive with the starting up of Brave Design GC.”

In an era of online news subscriptions and e-magazine formats, it is easy to assume traditional print magazines are an almost extinct breed. However, publications that adapt to an ‘online’ modern world are proven to survive and impact a wider audience. Boat Gold Coast gives an insider view to the boating lifestyle of the Coast to a local and wider audience, showing readers exactly what the southeast coast has to offer.

Deciding to flick through our magazine ended up changing Adam’s life in unforeseeable ways. It just goes to show that one moment can lead to a monumental amount of trickling effects, despite how small and insignificant it may seem at the time. One day you may pick up a magazine, and the next, your life has changed.