A TOP jockey who won £20million in the saddle has opened up on how his life changed after disappearing to live in a commune under a new name.
Nicholas Hall hit the big time as a dual winner of the Caulfield Cup in 2013 and 2016.
GettyHall had the world at his feet as a jockey who rocketed through the ranks to become a household name[/caption]
He packed it all in to give and life off-grid in communes, including this one in India
But he became known as Vimal when he left it all behind to live off-grid in India and Costa Rica.
Hall, 36, adopted the Sanskrit name after turning his back on a lifetime of riches in Australia to find himself.
Fed up with having to constantly watch his diet in order to make weight and the physical rigours of falls, plus back and hip issues, Hall shocked the sport when abruptly retiring in 2018.
Prior to that he had been the golden boy of racing Down Under, his two Caulfield Cup wins making him a household name.
But he was driving home just 18 months after winning one of the country’s biggest races when he decided enough was enough.
Hall, who says he spent more than £4,000 on tattoos, packed up some belongings and, for want of a better word, disappeared.
He eventually settled in an Indian ashram – a sort of religious retreat – near Pune.
There, he became known as Vimal as part of the ‘strong process’ of finding himself, report Punters.
Hall said: “I guess it’s to do with letting go of your old identity and anything attached to that.
“It was a pretty strong process to go through.
“I didn’t leave the ashram for three months, you can, you’re not locked up, but the only people you see start calling you by this new name.
“It’s a bit of a reset on your whole ego, really, it was no small thing to go through, actually.”
No one really knew where Hall had gone or what he was doing until some unusual Instagram activity.
After leaving the commune and returning to Australia to work as a barrier attendant, he changed his name to his new identity after being locked out of his old account.
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Only then did people find out what he had been up to.
One publication had managed to track down Hall while he was off-grid, but the ex-jockey then declided to go into detail about his new life.
It actually involved trips to Greece and England as well, where his mum lives.
But it was in Costa Rica where he joined another commune of some 250 people and ended up working.
He said: “There’s an intentional community there and I lived and worked there for two years.
“With healing modalities and spiritual modalities, that’s how they make the bulk of their money.
“Some 250 people live there at any one time and they all eat and live together.
“I’m very big on that, an alternative, off-grid situation.
“I was working there for free board and food. I was helping, assisting some of the therapy groups, actually my main day-to-day job was more ecology.
“It was pretty hard, out in the sun with native plants and making sure certain plants aren’t killing other plants and that sort of thing, it was bloody hot working in the sun.”
In fact the only giveaway as to who Hall was were the tattoos covering his upper half.
Now he says those are a thing of the past too – because adding more would be ‘too strenuous.”
He said: “I’m done with it. I wouldn’t be able to torture myself.
“Looking back, I’ve chilled out a lot.
“I wouldn’t try and put myself through anything that’s too strenuous these days and tattoos would definitely come under that banner.”
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