Week 11, Keeping busy !

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".


1 week to go people, YEW !


Reidy xx