Includes an assortment of personal items left in the van by the great singer-songwriter!

Last September, the man Kelly Slater referred to as his surrogate daddy, travelling minstrel Jimmy Buffet, died, not surprisingly given a life braised in the Caribbean sun, of skin cancer.

Jimmy was a well-cooked seventy-six.

“I grew up listening to Jimmy Buffett with my family. His music basically outlined the lives we desired… fishing, diving, dreaming about being in the tropics, playing music and just living the dream,” Slater wrote in a long Instagram tribute.

Slater said he eventually met Jimmy Buffet in France in 2010 and ‘cause ol Jim reminded Slater of his daddy, “from that moment on he kind of became a surrogate for me. I’m having a tough time accepting his passing but I do feel blessed to have some incredible memories every single time I hung out with him.

“It is  5 o’clock somewhere, Jimmy and I know you’d be smoking a joint with a drink in your hand and a huge smile on your face like any good pirate would.”

Real sad, he had some good songs, Pirate at 40, Margie-ville, and was once arrested in France for carrying one hundred ecstasy tablets aboard his private jet, a sexy Dassault Falcon 900, which he piloted himself. Cops fined him three hundred bucks and Jimmy released a statement saying they were his Vitamin B supplements.

Anyway…

A slice of history is up for sale, Jimmy Buffet’s 2004 Ford E-350 Sportsmobile 6.0L Power Stroke 4×4, a go-anywhere travelling home that Jimmy owned until 2020 when it was sold to its current owner.

Selling deets.

It is powered by a 6.0-liter Power Stroke turbodiesel V8 linked with a five-speed automatic transmission and a dual-range transfer case,” writes the seller. “Features include an extended-height roof, an awning, roof-access ladders, 16″ American Racing wheels, a kitchenette, sleeping surfaces, a fold-down entertainment screen, and an Alpine touchscreen head unit. This Sportsmobile has 69k miles and is offered with service records, spare parts, a clean Carfax report, and a clean Colorado title in the seller’s name.

The van is finished in white and is fitted with an extended-height roof. Additional exterior details include a Fiamma awning, hood louvers, Aluminess bumpers, side ladders, Yakima roof bars, an ARB air compressor, a rear shower, and AMP Research retractable running boards.

But that ain’t all!

“An assortment of personal belongings including a belt, hats, DVDs, and a hand blender that are said to have been left in the vehicle by Jimmy Buffett are included in the sale.”

Current bid, fifty-one gees.

Examine the gallery and full description here.

Scoops up nearly a million bucks profit in “wipeout auction”…

The former TV boss and lifelong surfer Dave Gyngell, who famously went toe to toe with the owner of his station in a wild scrap on the streets of Bondi, has flipped his Snapper Rocks joint for five mill, almost a million bucks more than when he bought it off the plan for $4.2 mill in 2021. 

The big-wave shredder turned real estate agent Ryan Hipwood secured the deal for his pal in the first sale of the newly completed Awaken building with 360 degree views overlooking D-Bah, Snapper, Rainbow Bay and the semi-sorta mountains out west.

The buyer was “a mystery surfer” according to press reports although, as reported a few months back, it was cashed-up surfing super-daddy and beer baron Josh Kerr who blew the auction out of the water with his $5.1 million bid.

Josh Kerr, who is forty and daddy to the incredible one-day-she’ll-be-world-champ Sierra Kerr, parlayed a fortune made on the back of beer start-ups St Archer and Balter into the whole-floor apartment or “sky home” as realtors call ‘em. 

The joint spans almost three thousand square feet, has three bedrooms, three bathrooms and the sorta German engineered appliances (Gaggenau, if you’re wondering) that bring a perverse joy every time you pull open their heavy stainless steel doors.

As pretty as that sounds, and it is, real estate prices on the Gold Coast, which is pretty to look at but has a dark underbelly, are inflated to hell and, one day, the reckoning will come, as it always does.

Josh Kerr, of course, came to prominence seventeen years ago when he unveiled what would come to be called The Club Sandwich (courtesy moi) in a heat with Mick Fanning at Snapper Rocks.