OUR TRAVEL TEAM

Gary Brown

Greetings and thank you for visiting my website. I am a Canadian living in Melbourne Australia. I am 47 years young and am one of many children. I have been in Melbourne since 1995. My kin are from Nova Scotia, a basically rural area that relies heavily on the fisheries industry and tourism for its livelihood. In the 70’s I worked for six years up in the arctic in the seismic industry. (oil exploration). I had a construction business with two good mates in Wolfville, Nova Scotia in the 80’s (Apple Valley Builders) building residential homes. The business still thrives. Then I taught school (11-12 English Lit) before moving to Australia in 95’. I enjoy living in Australia, particularly, Melbourne. I have recently fallen in love with a beautiful Aussie woman, Joanne and am very happy. We were married December 11, 2003 and are looking forward to a big life together.

Professional Profile

Bridge lured Gary away from the world of chess. An avid chess player, he spent many weekends at chess tournaments. Gary took up bridge in 1983. He was addicted immediately having read several books before he ever actually played. To say that bridge has changed his life is an understatement. He went from being rookie of the year in 1983, to attaining life master status in 1985. Gary won the Lagan Trophy (awarded in Eastern Canada for most master-points won in a year) for four consecutive years, 1986-1989. He established a partnership with internationalist Gylfi Baldurrson of Iceland, for three years. Together they wreaked havoc on the bridge circuit armed with a 10-12 1NT opening bid in a system Gylfi dubbed 'Ice Wolf Precision'. It was basically just Precision, but with a myriad of frills concocted by Gylfi.

Gary became Editor of the Maritime Bridge Line, an Eastern Canadian Bridge Magazine, in 1988, a post he held until 1992. He started playing bridge professionally in 1989 before coming to Australia where he played professionally for 18 months. He now teaches bridge full time in Melbourne, as well as taking people away on Bridge Holidays. He has written six bridge booklets, with another in the works. Of all his bridge feats he feels his greatest is his latest creation for improving players: Flash Cards.

In 2001, OZ Bridge Travel co-hosted several bridge holidays with John Newman of International Club Bridge in Sydney. They took 66 players to Bali, 64 players on a cruise of the South Pacific Islands, and another 53 signed up to go to Canada/Alaska. A whopping 104 attended his Bridge Getaway to the Snowy Mountains in January 2003.

Thoughts on Teaching

One of the exciting things about teaching bridge is the opportunity to develop and implement new teaching methods. Gary does not mind 'dumb' questions and he loves the challenge of making things understandable. His style of teaching bridge is a blend of seizing the teachable moments while entertaining the class. He says that feeling uptight and tense only stifles the student. Feeling loose and comfortable facilitates the learning process thus creating positive energy in the room. Some people ask, "Don't you ever get sick of the teaching bridge day in and day out? Gary replies, "I love bridge and I love teaching". And they say, "oh".