Andrew Beauchamp has had a tough year. After losing his best mate and right-hand man, Trent Riley, Beacho was understandably grief-stricken. Beacho and Trent, both fully qualified carpenters, worked alongside each other every day. So, after Trent went out fishing in Moreton Bay, never to be seen again, Beacho spent a couple of weeks with Trent’s family and friends searching for him, and then had to go back to the job site where they’d been working and finish up. It was a terrible thing to go through, and in his despair, Beacho hit the bottle hard. The next few months were a mess, and Beacho very nearly lost everything. But when he hit rock bottom, he was lucky to get help from his wife and a psychologist.
When we speak on the phone, Beacho seems to be doing much better. He and his family recently moved to New Zealand to a little surf town called Papamoa Beach, where his wife’s family is from. The change of scenery and change of pace has been nice, and Beacho says he’s enjoying it a lot. Most importantly, though, he’s off the piss, and that has made all the difference.
“Get into it, aye,” says Beacho when I ask if he’s ready. “No time like the present time!” An open book, Beacho’s not shy about admitting his mistakes or talking about the hellish things he’s been through. And after all that’s happened, he’s still a positive person and a super friendly bloke who’s never short of a good yarn.
You just moved to New Zealand, yeah?
Yeah, me and the family. My wife’s from New Zealand and she moved over to Australia to live with me about 10 or 11 years ago. She missed her family, so she was like, “Let’s go.” I was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.”
“It’s been a big couple of months with moving and losing Trent. I was just fried, trying to take steps forward but then taking thousands of steps backwards.”
Where in NZ are you guys living?
We’re in Papamoa Beach in the Bay of Plenty, kind of near Mount Maunganui. It’s a little coastal surf town. It’s sweet. It’s pretty slow-paced, but there’s still a bit of a scene if you want to go out and do stuff. It’s nice and relaxing and a lot slower, and you’ve got the beach too; it’s pretty epic. We’ve only been here a month, so it’s all pretty fresh still, but we’re getting into our groove. I’ve got a van and
