So here we are at the end of the road, my 12wbt is over!
I J F D I = IJust F#%King Did It
I lost a total of 9 kilos and am feeling great. I'm a little sad though, there will be no more mindset videos, eating plans or work outs delivered to my email weekly. What happen's now? Do I panic, get lost and fall back into bad habits or do I remember everything I've learnt over the last 12 weeks, remain strong and stay fit and healthy. I'm thinking the latter. As the silly season approaches things could go one way or the other, espically with all the drinking and fine food dinning on offer but I'm determined to get through it and come out on top. I'm determined to not go weak at the knees and give in to the little man in my head saying "1 more piece of christmas cake won't hurt". Life is all about choices, we make them every day but very rarely think about the effect those choices have on other aspects of our life. I'm going to make this silly season my healthiest ever. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be a stiff and just drink water and eat vegetables but I might only have half a piece of cake or stop at 3 beers, why not? I just made it through the last 12 weeks without any at all, surely I'll survive. The world certainly won't stop spinning thats for sure. Things for me are going to change for the better and it starts now, not next week because I have something coming up, it starts today. I can look for excuses all day about why it's hard to live a healthy lifestyle but in the end all I am doing is not taking responsibility for my actions. Today and for the rest of my life I'm taking responsibility of all my actions and making myself and my body accountable.
My before and after. 12 weeks !
This week, being the first after my 12wbt was crazy busy with work but I still managed to stay consistent with my training. If there were days when I couldn't do a normal session then I would find time later in the day to do something else like a training paddle or some in's and out's at the beach. Either way I just made sure that I didn't skip any which makes me proud. Keeping fit is all about consistency, It's the key element as far as I'm concerned.
On Tuesday night I did my regular swim squad session but had another attempt at breaking 11:00 minutes for 800m freestyle before we started. Unfortunately I swam an 11:50 and am still a long way from cracking it. The good news is I spoke to my coach Steve Aldo after and he told me to totally ditch the weight training, it's no good for your swimming and have another crack in 3 weeks so thats my plan. The other good news is that afternoon I swam a total of 4.1 km's in the pool which is the most I'd ever swam in one session so I was still stoked.
On Thursday I couldn't make swimming training because I had a date with the Foo Fighters at the Sydney Football Stadium, it was the first one I missed in 13 weeks. They're one of my favourite bands so there was no way in Hell I was not going to see them live. The concert was epic and Dave Grohl cemented his spot in my top 5 coolest people in the world. To make up for skipping swim training though I went down the beach earlier that day and did some In's and Out's in the surf with the board. Our lifeguard race is changing format and coming up very soon this year. It's new format will be very similar to our M-Shape style course we do for our test so it was exactly what I needed to do anyways.
Best tickets in town !
The Fooies Rocking and Rolling !
Friday I was flat out. After work in the morning I had to shoot into the city for promotional job we did at Westfield's shopping center. It involved having photos and mingling with VIP customers at their Christmas cracker/Ginger bread bar in the shopping centre. The theme was Christmas on Bondi and we had a ball meeting everyone.
Because I have decided to ditch the weights I then did did a SUP training paddle in the bad at Bondi. It involved 4 large circle laps of the bay at Bondi where I covered between 8 - 10km's. I focused on sprint efforts to really get the heart rate up and I really got a sweat up. Felt great !
After my paddle I headed to a suburb in Sydney's inner west called Hoxton Park with Hoppo. A radio station called Mix 106.5 ran a competition where someone could win a fully catered christmas dinner with Hoppo and I as their guests. In friday afternoon peak hour traffic It took us about 90mins to get to the winner, Sharon's house, where we met her family and friends while we ate 5 courses of delicious food. It was an excellent evening with great company. Big thanks to Sharon for having us and the crew at Mix 106.5 for a great night, they all really looked after us and ensured we had an awesome time.
Early Saturday morning I was awake at Stupid o'clock again. On this occasion I was down at Bondi supporting a friend and fellow lifeguard Adriel "Bacon" Young who was on a mission to complete the distance of a full marathon (46 laps = 42.2km) on Bondi's soft sand. He was also using his mission to try and raise awareness and money for sick and starving kids in Africa. Bacon kicked off his run around 4:15am and was moving very fast right from the start. Through out the morning Harries (26 laps), myself (20 laps) and many others joined him for laps along the way. As anyone who has run soft sand before can tell you it's tough just running 1 lap so watching him get through 46 laps was very inspiring to say the least. His pure grit and determination got him across the line in the end and he finished up completing his run in 4 hours and 6 mins. I was so proud of him when he finished,it really was an amazing feat. I was also very blown away by the community spirt as random people yelled wishes of luck and support through out the whole run.
The sunrise we scored that morning wasn't bad, what do you think?
Bacon was all smiles after his marathon effort
Feeling quite tight and sore after my 20 laps on the soft sand I had a quick stretch and began making my way to Centennial park in Sydney's eastern suburbs with fellow lifeguard Deano. The big day had arrived, it was the 12WBT final group workout and there was 12WBTer's coming from all over the world. Now I'm not a smart man but I know when I've hit a gold mine. Having to train in a park filled with over 1000 lovely, attractive and very fit ladies sounds like a bloody good time to me and thats exactly what it was. Mish Bridges and her team of 12WBT trainers put all 1200 of us through a high energy body attack class for an hour. The whole vibe in the place was just electric, everyone was smiling, laughing, getting fit and having the time of their lives. It was just an electric place to be and I felt honoured to be apart of breaking the Australian record for the biggest outdoor group training session.
Guns, well semi :)
Deano and I were the least co-ordinated blokes in the park !
Crazy Craig was Mr Co-ordination !
Mish Bridges energy really is electric and she leads by example !
Mish Bridges and her awesome team of trainers
After the hit out in the park I went home and tried to rest up before the 12WBT finale party later that night but I was still on a high from the mornings events and couldn't seem to doze off. The finale party was held at the entertainment quarter, Moore Park in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. The venue was huge and easily had enough room to host over 1200 (now very slim and fit) women and a few men ready to celebrate their achievements from the past 12 weeks. When I arrived I got to chat with many people about how they went with the program and I'm pretty sure not one of them had lost less than 10 kilo's. During the speeches and awards ceremony I was in awe of the top 20 biggest transformations. Also during the speech by Mish Bridges, she paid tribute to everyone saying that it wasn't olympic athletes or Tour de France cyclists that gave her inspiration but more like your average person she usually see's out there having a go at exercise. I couldn't have agreed more Mish. The night was one I will never forget and again I felt honoured to be a part of such an amazing group of people, all giving life their best.
Finale party was pumping !
Meels & Tim looking fab
Always gorgeous Mish
12 weeks done and dusted, congrats Cath !
Yes Willow !
Pretty sure my butt is being pinched :)
Thumbs up !
With a couple of beverages under my recently shortened belt I ended up heading home before 12am, after such an early morning with loads of exercise I hit the wall pretty hard as the night went on. I spent Sunday on the lounge just taking it easy and with storms like the one below that swept over Bondi around lunch time it was the best place to be !
Crazy Storm. Photo taken by Corey Oliver at Tamarama on Sunday.
In this wrap up blog post for my 12WBT I'm gonna need to Thank a lot of people, I have to because I wouldn't have made it all the way and gotten the results I wanted without every single one of them. I'm going to start with all of YOU, the readers of my blog. A big part of what got me through was reading your kind messages, comments or posts on either Twitter, Fackbook or here on my Blog. You all gave me the drive to want to keep going, to want to keep writing and to want to keep having fun with it all. As well as hard work you have to try and keep it fun and interesting otherwise it gets boring and I was more likely to fall off the wagon. Thank you all very much !
Secondly of course I'd like to Thank Mish Bridges, Amelia Burton and all their team at 12wbt. The whole way through the 12 weeks they were amazing. Always quick to reply to questions and ready and willing to offer assistance when needed. I can't speak highly enough of the program as a whole, it was exactly what I needed to get back into shape. If anyone was to have any doubts about it I'd just tell them to look at the results from this round. A total of 40 000 kilos were lost by everyone, enough said !
To my swim coach Steve Aldo Thanks for pushing and making me taste the acid on my tongue in every session. I may not have made my goal of breaking 11mins just yet but you've helped me fix my stroke and given me advice and the confidence to keep at it till I finally get there. Your a Champion !
Steve "Aldo" Alderman
To the boys at Shift 60, Nick and DC. I can't thank you guys enough. Every session I came to through out my 12WBT with you guys was tough, rewarding but also a lot fun in such a friendly environment. You guys never hesitated to help me with what ever questions I have and always take extra steps to ensure whatever it is I need to know or am not sure about is clear in my mind. I have no doubt that a big part of my all over body transformation and lack of over training injuries is because of all the great functional training sessions I did with you. After every class I really did leave wanting more and always looked forward to my next session. Im literally hooked on Shift 60 so I'm sorry to say this but your still gonna have to put up with seeing my ugly head at least twice a week.
Nick and DC are absolute legends, come up to Shift 60 to see for yourself.
Next up I gotta thank Greg, Loz, Nath, Sel and all the team at Body Science for all their supplement and compression help. From protein shakes after weights and Fuel 02 Advanced hydration powder during swimming training to their compression tights after a big run or weight session just to name a few, they had everything I needed and were always willing to help me along the way. Working 3 jobs, one of them being very physical, training between 10 - 12 times a week and doing it all on about 6 hours sleep a night I needed everything they had and don't think I would have made it with out. You guys are awesome, thanks for everything.
Love my BSc compression tights
Last but certainly not least and probably the most important factor in my total body transformation I have to thank my main man Phil and his crew at Hexey Foods. With the convenience of eating their fresh, healthy, high protein, low carbohydrate, delivered to your door daily food I was able to train harder and drop fat much quicker. Now like I said in a previous blog posts I really believe in what Mish Bridges says about needing to make your own food to help understand what the right things to eat are and when possible I did but with my super busy lifestyle it was just physically impossible and thats where the fabulous team at Hexey were there to save the day. Many of Hexey's meals are made from researching recipes from Michelle Bridge's cook books and they tailored my carb and protein intake to suit my style of training and what my goals were so it really was a no brainer. I can't stress how important eating the right food is for weight loss and body transformation. A lot of people can train hard but really struggle with the food side of a diet or training plan but high protein, fresh food will help repair muscles and keep your energy levels high which intern will allow you to train consistently, Consistency is the key!
Phil, you and the team are excellent
As we move into our Silly season I have a few things coming up fitness wise. First is our first ever "Lifeguard Eliminator Race" next Wednesday at 7pm down in Bondi. Its similar to our annual Lifeguard challenge but the format is a little different. We will be racing in and out through the break at Bondi only. I can tell you that Chappo and I will be going head to head and I can also tell you that I have every intention of kicking his butt. Everyone is welcome to come watch so if your in the area please do!
Another prize I have my eye on is coming up on the 3rd of February. The guys at Shift 60 gave me the honour of placing me in their team of 12 guys that will try and break the Fastest 100km treadmill world record at their studio in Bondi. It was last set by a team of Americans back in 2008 with a time of 5hrs and 42mins. We have big plans to smash it and show the Americans what we can do. With 3 time world Iron man champion Craig Alexander heading up the team and many other great athletes also involved I'm quite confident we can come up with the goods. The only thing holding me back from getting serious about my running training right now is I have an infected big toe. Once thats healed I'll be ripping right in. BRING IT ON !
Toe infections bring much pain...
As I bid farewell to this small chapter of my life and move onto the next, I can assure you this won't be my last blog post. Im just going to take a break for a couple of weeks or until something comes up that I think is interesting enough to share. Thanks again to every single one of you oh so much for reading my posts and taking the time to comment. You all have your own little journeys in life and I wish you all the best with them. Don't ever give up on your dreams, its what keeps us alive !
I can't believe I am writing about completing my 12th week of my 12WBT, It feels like just yesterday I was wondering if I'd get through my first weekend. I think before anyone starts something like this they waste more engery trying to find reasons not to when really, there aren't any at all. You just gotta do it ! There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. Yeah sure, you may find yourself doing things you don't want to or don't like to but its all about changing your habits from bad to good and it gets easier the more you do it till it gets to a point where the old habits get hard and the new habits get easier. Some people might find this a silly analogy but what I have found through my experiences over the last 12 weeks is that it's a little bit like training a puppy. You need to train yourself to do things differently and when you slip up then you gotta learn from your mistakes and never do them again or you may get your nose rubbed in it :)
This week I still got as many training sessions done as the last 11 weeks but a couple were something a little different. For example on Monday I replaced my regular 5:45pm Shift 60 "full throttle" class to a 8 kilometre downwind paddle on my new JMpaddleboards SUP board from Bondi to Maroubra. The wind and swell conditions were perfect so Corey and I just had to go. We covered the distance in about 40 minutes which is probably faster than in a car during peak hour. Downwind paddling can be a bit of a mission, first you need to put the boards where ever you are starting from. Then drive a car each to where your finishing, leave one there and drive back together to the start, then you can go. Its well worth it though. The work out you get is tough but good for you, then there is the special feeling you get when you paddle that little bit harder to catch an ocean swell or chop and you surf it for like 20-30 meters. But even better still, your out on the open ocean, free as a bird, no phones, no cars, no people. Just you, your mate and the ocean. Words on a computer screen could never really do it justice, its something you need to feel for yourself.
Our downwind paddle Monday
On Wednesday night I was fortunate enough to be a part of and amazing event held at Bondi. The awesome crew from the PR company Liquid Ideas put together a team of surfers to go night surfing in glowing suits with glowing boards for the alcoholic cider drink Strongbow Australia and Corey and I were two of them. The whole operation was on an unimaginable scale. Apart from the surfers out in the water lighting up the waves on dark they had legend surf film maker Jack McCoy on land and Bali Strickland in the water shooting video, Aquabumps photographer Uge Tan taking stills, helicopters, speed boats, fireworks and hundreds of people kicking back in the Bondi Icebergs enjoying Strongbow Ciders and welcoming the start of summer. As well as the party goers in the Icebergs club the roll up on the beach was mind blowing, there would have been over 1500 people on the sand and hill at South Bondi watching it all go down. Im not going to say anything more about it as I think the video below speaks for itself, legend producer Josh Cilento spent the whole next day putting it together and has definitely delivered the goods. Give yourself an "eyegasm" and check it out.
I wore a Go Pro video camera on my head out in the water but the footage I got wasnt great as it decided to fog up once I was out there. I did get some fun stuff before we hit the water which you can watch below but its got nothing on the original movie !
The rest of my week training wise went pretty well. I had another good swimming session Thursday night followed by an awesome Shift 60 "Full throttle" class Friday lunch time.
Friday night rolled around pretty quick and before I knew it we were boarding an aeroplane heading south. Bacon, Maxi, Azza B and myself were off to Victoria to compete in the Anaconda adventure race in Lorne. After landing at Avalon airport late we picked up our rental 4WD and headed straight for bed at our accommodation in Geelong. We woke early on Saturday to head to our first lot of commitments at the Anaconda Store in Belmont/Geelong. It was well publicised in the local newspapers and on the radio that we were going to be there from 10am - 12pm to meet with people and race the odd punter keen to take us on in their Kayak testing pool. The morning was a success with lovely locals coming from all over to say hello. Some guy challenged Bacon to a race on an inflatable animal and Maxi took on some grommets (kids) in some swimming races, it was a great morning all round. Special thanks to Jenny and her team at the store, they were so friendly, kind and especially patient while waiting for Maxi and Bacon to try and climb their indoor wall. After several attempts Bacon finally got to the top with Maxi maybe getting half way :)
Bacon eventually made it to the top.
Azza made it to the top pretty quick.
Maxi is always great with the kids.
What a good boyfriend, scarifying his surfboard :)
We then jumped back in the rental and kept heading south, next stop was Lorne but we had to stop in at the famous Growlers restaurant in Torquay. The boys tucked into some very delicious "Open steak sandwiches" while myself, still being on my 12WBT, opted for the grilled chicken. The service was great and food 5 star. Be sure to check it out if you're ever in this picturesque part of Australia.
Growlers is a long way from home.
We had a great feed at Growlers
Back on the road again we made the 50 minute drive along a small part the famous Great Ocean Road down to Lorne. After a quick baggage drop at our rented house in the beautiful back hinterland of Lorne we headed down to get amongst the Anaconda junior survivor race. Boys and Girls aged between 4 and 14 years of age complete a 4km course that involves climbing a rock wall, crawling under meshing and much much more. Its such a positive event that introduces kids to an active lifestyle early on although I'm not to sure who was having more fun, us or them.
Maxi is always a crowd favourite.
Bacon stepped up to race the kids.
We woke Sunday morning to conditions Melbourne is famous for, cloudy, rainy and windy. The race was due to kick off at 8am so we rolled down to the beach around 7:30 to get prepared. Bacon made some final adjustments on his ski, Maxi rolled his shoulders over and Azza tried to prepare himself mentally for some seriously serious vertical hills. I just tried to visuals a Cheetah running through the forrest, it didn't really work so I listened to music, ACDC to be exact! The 1.9km swim leg was first and Maxi tore it apart. He battled the 1200 strong field and came out at the finish in the top 15, as he run into the transition area he said he felt good and sent Bacon on his 14km ski paddle. With conditions out on the ocean wild and wooly race organisers opted to change the paddle course to aid the less experienced and talented ocean paddlers but many still needed to be rescued and the shore line later resembled a war zone with hundreds of empty boats lining the shore a kilometre up the coast. Bacon had an absolutely insane paddle and finished his leg in 2nd place. Now Im not one to like a bit of pressure but that meant I was going to have to run bloody fast to hold it. I set off on the 15 kilometre trail run knowing I was going to give it every thing I had and I wasn't going to leave anything out in the bush. As we rock hopped around the point and across the cant and river we headed into the bush and began our accent up into the mountains, I was feeling really good and had no intention of letting anyone go round me, well, until the 4 km mark when I stood on a tree root and rolled my ankle pretty bad. My ankles are quite weak as it happens a lot so I knew if I just grit my teeth the pain would be sort of gone after about 5 minutes. Around the time of the roll when I was limping two runners went passed me but as the pain started to ease I set little goals to catch them up and I did. After some serious bush bashing and a good back and forth tussle with another team runner the course took us back on the rocks and heading back to the transition area. I ran my last km in 3:26 and finished my leg still in equal 2nd place so I was extremely happy. As I passed the singlet onto Azza I slapped him on the butt and said "enjoy those hills mate" He took off like a bull at a gate and we ventured up to the final transition point were we were to meet him before the last 1.5km team run back to the finish line. When Azza arrived back from his mountain bike leg you could tell the hills had hurt him, he also had a collision with a wall trying to avoid a pedestrian but he'd given it everything he could. We ran together to the finish line laughing and having fun, it's what team races are all about. We came 13th in the teams division and about 30th overall. The Anaconda Adventure Races, wether your in a team or doing it solo, really test your limits and make you find that little bit extra you need to finish. It's part fitness and part survival and as far as I'm concerned its a whole lot of fun. I've gotta give a big, huge shout out to my cousin Heidi, she did the whole thing solo and finished up coming 5th in the women's. Your a bloody legend Heid's, I love you're work.
PS: The video I made below has footage from the Go Pro I wore on my head during my run leg. unfortunately the batteries ran out 5 mins from the finish so it didn't get the next change over. Id also like to apologise for the 2 swear words at the point when I rolled my ankle but it was very painful :(
This kid had his heart set on beating Azza on the mountain, not this time !
Maxi pumped for his swim
My run leg and the stats from my Garmin watch, loved every minute !
Our team finished up coming 13th in the teams division, YeeHa !
After the race we rushed back to our house for hot showers, some Body Science compression recovery and a cold beer before the presentation at 4pm. I was very excited at this point as I hadn't had a beer in over 13 weeks and my 12WBT had just finished. I'm not a big drinker, I wouldn't even call myself a regular drinker as I don't drink through the week but I do like an occasional ale as a celebration. The first sip was a little weird, I felt like a teenager again drinking something I shouldn't but once that first one was out of the way the rest went down like they always had, splendid.
Its all about recovery !
We hung out at the presentation, had a couple of beers everyone and spoke to some of the solo athletes. These guys and girls just blow me away, their fitness and skill levels are just amazing. The speed the top guys travel over the the rough courses are mind blowing. If you're ever around when one of these races are going on do yourself a favour and go check it out.
Azza's buddy didn't beat him on the mountain but he did score some rubber handles.
Thats Richard Usher, he was the mens solo winner in Lorne, legend !
So my 12WBT has officially come to and end and what a way to finish up. I had the best weekend away with 3 really great friends being active and having an awesome time, I am totally stoked. This week I'm going to train just as hard as ever because I love this feeling of being fit and healthy plus I wanna look the goods for my after photo later in the week :) This week I have a few things on and one of the includes the Foo Fighters concert on Thursday night then the big group 12WBT training session Saturday morning followed by the finale dinner later that night. Im so excited to meet everyone from this round and see their amazing transformations.
Im also looking forward to putting together a "wrap up" blog post from the whole 12 weeks with all the fun from this coming week included.
I can't thanks everyone enough for their support,its been an amazing ride that has changed my world for the better. Life is way to short to sit around on the couch and do nothing, it should be lived to the fullest and stretched to the extreme !
Well, here we are, 11 weeks down and life is good, sort of. Unfortunately this week I had a some sadness in my life, I split with my partner Jessie after 18months. For obvious reasons I won't be going into details but I figure if this is a blog about me going through my 12WBT and emotions and feelings play a big part in what we eat, how we train and motivation it definitely relates and therefore needs to be mentioned. Currently I'm feeling a little lost, I really miss the friendship side of things. Jessie is a great girl and we used to do a lot of fun things together. Wether it be Stand up paddling in the bay, to her coming along to one of my Saturday Super Sessions or even us just going for a run together, it was great and we always got along whilst we did it. Over the last 7 days I have had times where I've felt like throwing it all in, ordering a Pizza and ringing one of the boys and saying "Lets demolish a case of Coronas" but in the end, how is that gonna help? I'm only gonna feel guilty as hell for breaking the promise I made to myself at the start of my 12WBT or get drunk, emotional and maybe say or do something I regret, it's a lose lose situation. Instead this week I opted to fill my days with training and just kept as busy as I could, you won't believe how clean my place is ! On the training front I did my best to channel my emotions and used them to lift more in the gym, swim faster in the pool and and give it everything in my Shift60 sessions and it seemed to work. I again tried to train a little smarter by not doing weights on the same day as swimming and it paid off. Thursday nights swim squad session felt great and I really think my stroke change is starting to come together. I swam 3.5km and at no point was I feeling overly fatigued. Bring on my 800m time trial, I think I'm ready !
If your looking for a healthy snack I have just the one for you. Phil, my main man at Hexey got me on to their Naked protein snacks a month or so ago, I was instantly hooked. Its only 286 calories and is a trail mix type snack that contains 20g of Protein. I now have one every day on the way to work. I've found they help me feel full and sustain energy through out the morning. Another bonus is they have a resealable top so if you don't feel like finishing it you can save some for later. You can buy them direct from the Hexey weekly menu. Do your taste buds and health a favour and rip into one today, you won't be disappointed !
Our weekly task for my 12WBT was to design a 1 hour training session. I decided to make mine lifeguard specific and took our basic M-Shape course ( Surf Ironman minus the Ski leg) and added things that I thought related to when we need to have that edge fitness wise during serious rescues. I named it "Rescue under Fatigue". I drew a lot of my inspiration for this training session from my first ever serious rescue/resuscitation and one that I'll never forget. It was in my second or third season on the beach so I was still pretty raw but extremely keen to learn. It involved rescuing and resuscitating a 26 year old girl named Candice who was learning to surf at the south end of Bondi back in 2005, a couple years before they started filming Bondi Rescue. The surf was about 4-5 foot closing out, low tide and really dumping hard on the sandbank, not really the best conditions to be learning. She was in the impact zone when a set wave cleaned her up. Her board hit her head so bad it knocked her unconscious. For some crazy reason our serious rescues seem to happen when we least expect them. Not when you are on the beach just waiting for them to happen! I was in the car park loading some boards onto the roof of the lifeguard truck to take over to Bronte for our annual lifeguard challenge when I looked down towards South Bondi, I saw what I thought was a girl lying face down just outside the impact zone. I turned to Benny Quigley and said "Sh!t mate, I think we are on here" and proceeded to run back down towards the tower. As I ran through another lifeguard named Kailan, who was down south had already also spotted her and was calling it through on the radio. Back then we only had one Rhino (beach buggy) which Kailan had so I proceeded on foot, running as fast as I could across the soft sand for 400m. When I got there Kailan was already halfway out, but knowing how hard it is to get an unconscious patient onto the board I went out also. After what seemed like an eternity we wrestled her onto the board and Kailan paddled her in. Candice was a dark shade of blue and in a very bad way. Meanwhile the other boys in the tower had run down with the oxyviva and defibrillator and had it set up on the beach ready to go. Once we dragged Candice up we started working on her straight away. I remember I was doing the oxygen bag with Hoppo while the Kailan was doing compressing as the other guys set up the defibrillator and placing the pads on her. After at least 8 rounds of CPR and 3 shocks with the defibrillator she came round. She began to breath on her own and was even talking to us before the ambulance arrived. We found out from doctors she was officially dead for at least 4 mins. Candice was a very lucky girl but I put her survival down to an awesome team effort on the day. Everybody knew their role, stepped up and delivered. I was honoured to be a part of it.
That feeling, when you get someone back from the dead is unexplainable and big part of the reason why we are lifeguards. It really makes you feel like all the hard work and effort in training has paid off. It also really reinforces why we need to have a certain level of physical fitness because in the line of work we do it literally does save lives.
Just before I filmed the boys going through my training session I noticed a pod of Dolphins swimming around the bay, having my camera handy Bacon and I ran down and paddled out to try and have a swim with them. It was a group of mothers teaching their babies how to use their flippers, so amazing. Not sure if it was our bad breath or ugly looks but after about 2 minutes they sadly moved around to Tamarama and we don't swim fast enough to keep up. I still managed to get a little bit of footage. PS: I love my life :)
This week I did my body a favour and on Thursday I got it a massage. It was a deep tissue massage and quite painful, I guess thats the price you pay for lots of training and very little stretching. It was my second ever massage and money very well spent. I have now locked in one a week for the time being. I think I owe a lot of my great pool session later that afternoon to it. Thanks a million Ash, feeling great!
In the blink of an eye it was Friday and I already had a new love in my life. You may think I'm a fast mover but she's 14 feet tall with just enough rocker to rock my world. She will always keep me afloat and with the use of a good leg rope promises never leave me. Friday I received delivery of a brand spanking new, down wind ocean SUP (stand up paddle) board. It came from my friend, ex Gold Coast lifeguard and 10 X world paddle board champion Jamie Mitchell. Jamie owns JM Paddleboards and uses his vast knowledge of the waves and ocean to design and produce some of the best boards in the world. I took her out for our first date in the bay at Bondi as soon as she arrived. It was love at first sight and we hit it off straight away. I'm looking forward to getting to know her much better as we chase the wind together out on the deep blue sea.
When I woke up early Saturday morning to the sounds of my blinds bashing against the windows I realised right away it wasn't looking good for Lifeguard Ryan "whippet" Clark's annual Bondi Big Paddle. My plan was to use my new SUP board and I was frothing at the opportunity but if the wind was to strong it wasn't going to be possible. I took the hound for a walk down the beach to check the conditions and they were terrible. It was raining heavily, there was thick fog out to sea the wind was howling from the North and a rising swell from the East. After chatting to Whippet he told me he'd decided to scrap the original 2 way paddle from Bondi to Coogee then back and go with a triangle course that would be repeated several times in the bay at Bondi. After assessing the conditions again right before the race started, I had no choice to leave my new board safe and sound at home and paddle Corey's prone (lay down and kneel) 12ft board. Paddling a SUP against light wind is tough enough, your body acts as a sail and is very hard going, in strong winds you pretty much go backwards. Im in this sport for fun not complete and utter torture. The race went well and many of the lifeguards stepped up and took podium finishes. Bacon, Hoppo, Corey and Gonzo all won on their specific craft but the surprise packet was Dunstan "Dunno" Foss who took out the Dash for Cash in a close finish. For the record I came in second behind Corey but Im not going to start building and extra trophy cabinet just yet as there was only 3 of us in the unlimited division :)
Normal course that was canned due to bad conditions
New course to suit conditions
The Bondi Big Paddle presentation was held at the amazing Bondi Icebergs and believe it or not but the sun came out eventually. Sydney hadn't seen sun in a week so it was a lovely surprise! The Icebergs is great place to have a beer but unfortunately I was drinking water. Its times like these, after competing in a race, giving it all I've and finishing that I really miss a beer. Today, considering the conditions I felt I earned one. I really had to draw on all my self disciple to say "No Thanks". The function loads of fun and everyone seemed to have a ball also loads of money was raised for the Sydney Children's Hospital with raffles and auctions. Big shout out to Whippet, he put in a lot of effort and turned what could have been a disastrous day into a lot of fun.
Great view
Bondi Icebergs
Corey O scored $250 for his unlimited paddle board win !
This dude won 2 brand new SupLove boards for taking out the 2km race
Some Bondi Big Paddle crew
Can you believe how good the day turned out?
You'd think after the big race on Saturday I'd spend Sunday kicking back, No Way. I just had to take my new board out on the ocean for a paddle. After working water safety for a special event starting at 5:00am on Bondi I headed out with Daq's and Corey O for a little cruise around the bays of Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama. The west winds made it a little hard but otherwise it was just very healing just to be out on the water on such a beautiful morning.
While you were sleeping. Bondi @ 4.55am
Sunday morning paddle
After a busy Sunday afternoon of work at Bondi I was left with some serious paddle rash under the armpits while doing 5 rescues. Haven't done that many in 1 day in a long time. We were also left frothing when we bumped into a lovely lady named Sally Fitzgibbon. Sal is a shredder from the south coast. She's the current world number 2, reigning Bells champion and all round legend and is in town for her sponsor Red Bull. She told me she has to Jet off to Fiji tomorrow to go surfing... Poor girl :)
North Bondi @ lunch time. Not so busy !
Harries, Dunno & Sal
Frothing !
Next weekend I'm heading down to Lorne down in Victoria to take on the Anaconda Adventure Race in a team with Maxi, Bacon and Azza Buchan. We raced last year at the Anaconda race in Forster, not only did we have a ball we won our division. For more details on where you can come and see us while we are in Melbourne CLICK HERE.
Anaconda @ Forster last year
Again I always love the feed back you guys and gals leave in the comments section, it blows me away that you take the time to write them and for that I say "Thank you".
