The Heart striker talks about surfing in the Arctic Circle at 10pm, speed-skating, Norway, Sydney pubs and more.
Dylan, you grew up in Manly, you-re a bit of a surfer what are some of your favourite breaks?
Well, Avalon actually, so Little Avalon is up there and I don-t mind Warriewood if you can get it uncrowded, the hours of a professional football tend to be quite good for that, you can usually get out just after lunch when not too many people are out.
How do you find the surfing in Melbourne?
I haven-t ben yet, we stayed overnight down Sorrento over Melbourne Cup, but there were no waves and because it-s an hour-s drive the swell hasn-t really coincided with my days off or recovery days.
Your career has taken you a few places, where have been your other favourite breaks worldwide?
I surfed a spot called Lofoten in Norway which is quite far up north and Stavager and the I lived in Burleigh Heads last year, so that was quite good. It-s only good there when it gets quite big, but it-s a favourite of mine.
The breaks you surfed in Norway, how were they?
Stavager was a wind swell, so it wasn-t the best, but Lofoten had some quite good swell and I was up there during the summer, which was 23 hours of sun, so you-re surfing at 10pm at night. It was quite amazing, but it was also quite cold and I had to hire some really god wetsuits up there.
Ever surfed in Hawaii?
No, it-s on the bucket list though, so that might be an end of career trip or something like that.
You have two kids Dylan, and are very family oriented, how are the kids are they kicking a ball around yet?
My son is five-and-a-half, so we-ll sign him up at Port Melbourne when the season starts in March next year, but they-re back in Norway and will be there for Xmas, so they-re learning to ski.
My daughter is two-and-a-half, but she is more like a ballet or gymnastics girl I think.
They-re in Norway, how do you go at skiing?
When I first went to Norway I had never seen snow before, I was 20-years-old and had never seen snow before and it was the middle of winter. I-m not a great skier though, the whole idea of facing forwards and going downhill wasn-t too good but I picked up the snowboarding quick.
My wife has a cabin up in the mountains there so we get up there a bit.
You-re fairly tall, have the Norwegian family, have you ever thought about taking up speed-skating post football?
I-ve got the quads for it, but I don-t know about those full-length body suits though and I-m not sure I could emulate Steven Bradbury.
What-s on the iPod mate?
I went to high school listening to rock, heavy metal and punk. Now I-m pretty diverse but I listen to the heavier stuff before games to get me in the right frame of mind things like Metallica, Slipknot, System of a Down a little bit of Pennywise.
You have lived a few places, what is your favourite place to live in?
Gold Coast was fun last year, but Oslo would have to be my favourite, that-s where my son was born and I bought my first house over there, so I have a lot of good memories there, I-m also pretty impressed with Melbourne, I-ll wait for summer before I pass judgement though.
If you weren-t a footballer what would you be doing?
Probably working in my uncle-s pub, The Newport Arms, it-s a family business, we used to own Caringbah Inn as well but we sold that about a year and a half ago.
Can you pour a decent beer then?
When I was at Northern Spirit they had a lot of issues paying us and got a long way behind on our wages and that was a big reason the club collapsed, I had to make money somehow so I trained in the morning and poured beers at night.
Graham Arnold was one of my regulars actually, because he owned a house in Newport, so he was one of my locals.
What was his choice of drink?
I actually don-t remember it was 14 years ago.
Ever seen anything ridiculous about yourself in the media?
When I was younger I used to get Warwick Capper as a lookalike because of the long hair.
Any pre-match rituals?
I actually have a heap. First I put my left sock on then my left boot, then my right sock and my right boot. I have to listen to at least two songs while I-m putting my boots on. I always eat the same meal the night before, I watch football games while I-m resting and my wife has to say the same thing to me before I leave and if she doesn-t I-ll call her later and tell her to say it.
Who is the team prankster at the Heart?
Fred, he likes to act like a dog and scare people, you-ll be stretching and he will come along and knock you over.
Great leadership then?
Yeah for sure, he-s a good laugh.
Can you finish a few sentences for us Dylan?
Sure mate, fire away.
John Aloisi has… a strong personality, but is easy to talk to.
If I was to do one thing this season it would be… score a hat-trick.
My toughest opponent is… Andrew Durante
The A-League is… exploding
David Beckham should… come to Melbourne Heart! It would take the league to another level.
