106 Beyond Bondi Riding Life_S Tides With Andrew _Reidy_ Reid

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I'm Mike Boris, and this is Straight Talk.

All of a sudden, we had this TV show that was getting shown in 180 countries all over the world,

and we didn't really know how to handle it.

I've watched more than 200 people in a drowning situation at Bondi,

and they splash, and they scream, and they make a lot of noise.

I just got out there, and there was nothing out there.

He couldn't have gone that quick.

I mean, you've got to be ready for every single situation.

How long do you think Andrew Reid will be?

Andrew Reid can keep doing this.

I feel like I've got energy all day.

I was a pack-a-day smoker, right, for 20 years.

Over the course of about three to six months, I put on about 40 kilos.

No!

I decided I didn't want to live like that anymore.

Staying fit, staying healthy, having supplements, or just eating really well.

Is there something wrong with us, though?

Are we obsessed?

Andrew Reid, welcome to Straight Talk, mate.

Thanks, mate. Thanks for having me, mate.

There's not many people who, their surname in Australia,

because in Australia, we like to put a Y on the end of everyone's name.

So, like, you know, if your name is Andrew Reid, really makes sense,

but you've got an automatic Aussie surname.

I do.

It's either a Y or an O.

If you're a Bondi lifeguard, you've either got a Y or an O on the end of your name.

Correct, correct.

And that's one of the things I want to talk about, because Bondi,

I mean, you're famous for Bondi Rescue.

I mean, we know you for that.

But Bondi still epitomizes what was probably pretty much,

the old school Aussie banner, you know, like blonde hair, kids, blue eyes,

as in your case.

It's just a certain look.

And probably one of the reasons the show was sold so well overseas

is it really epitomizes what was Australia.

Yeah.

You understand what I'm saying?

Like, you know, you're a Waverley boy.

Yep.

Waverley school, Waverley college.

You know, like, you could probably go back and most of the kids in your,

your year were, you know, blonde hair kids, surfies, you know,

skateboarders, down the beach, outdoor style living.

Would that be fair to say?

A hundred percent, yeah.

Bondi, yeah.

I mean, a lot's changed in the 40 years that I've sort of lived there.

And I, well, that's so weird saying that, 40 years.

I feel so old.

But, yeah, I mean, you know, you used to be down there surfing

and you'd be waiting for the old Bondi cigar to float around the corner

from the old sewage treatment plant.

And now who would imagine that, you know,

the medium house price there is $3 million when you used to be surfing

in, like, poo, essentially.

So, but, I mean, yeah, Bondi represents Australia, I think, really well.

And I think that's the reason why it's so popular.

But do you think it's actually, do you think Bondi represents Australia today

or do you think it represents what was Australia?

I think it's a little bit of both.

I think now it's so multicultural down there now.

Like, I mean, you see so many different cultures,

all getting along together.

On the beach.

On the beach, just in this big playground, you know.

You've got, obviously, the topless, beautiful, blonde, Swedish backpackers.

Not that we take too much notice of that as lifeguards.

We're always watching the water.

But then you've got the Brazilians that are playing volleyball

or beating the drums up at North Bondi.

You know, you've got so many different cultures down there.

And I think that also represents Australia now as well

because that's what Australia is quite known for.

We are multicultural.

We're very multicultural.

But what about Bondi Rescue, though?

So, you guys.

Yes.

The lifesavers.

If I was to – if you were to, say, you know,

name the five or six people that you know who are lifesavers, lifeguards.

Lifeguards, yep.

As opposed to lifesavers.

Now, there is a difference.

But quickly, you should explain the difference between the lifesavers and lifeguards.

So, I use the analogy.

It's similar to a cook and a chef, right?

So, a chef's obviously highly trained.

We do a lot of different – and so a lifeguard is like a chef.

We do a lot of extra training and we spend every day on the beach

doing that as a job, whereas a cook, they do it casually, you know,

and they just do it for their family or whatever, which is fine, just as fine.

But they don't have that extra high level of training

and they're not professional, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that makes total sense.

But the volunteers do a fantastic job.

We don't take anything away from them.

We work in with them really well at Bondi and they do a great job.

Yeah, so just to be clear, lifesavers usually are attached to a surf club.

Yep.

Like at the case of Bondi, you've got Bondi Surf Club

and you've got North Bondi Surf Club.

And generally speaking, they're from the community

and generally speaking, it's a volunteer gig

and they just work on Saturdays and Sundays.

Yeah, Saturdays and Sundays, they come down, they help us out.

They do fantastic rescues.

They get the ducks out there.

They do a great job.

And whereas the lifeguards are part of the council system,

Waverley Council looks after Bondi Beach.

You officially are employed by Waverley Council, I suspect.

Yep.

But you guys know how to do – you're properly trained in resuscitation

and all sorts of things.

Yeah.

You have links and back to the AMBOs and everybody else

who is then going to come and serve.

And the cops too, for that matter, when you've got to –

100%.

Like we're doing it every day and that's the difference

and we've got –

That's your job.

SOPs and we've got – yeah, exactly right.

You know, we get called – I mean, with the gap where it is,

we get called round to suicides quite a fair bit

and so we're dealing with those sort of things.

We're dealing with so many different situations that –

I mean, I've worked at Lake Macquarie's beaches also

just as a casual lifeguard.

And I mean, my first year working as a lifeguard at Bondi,

I learned – probably experienced that some lifeguards might take 10 years

to learn, you know.

I did 12 spinals.

We did, you know, we did so much.

And you sort of grow up pretty quickly working on a beach like Bondi.

So can I go back to your first year or first, you know,

appearance as a lifeguard working for Waverley Council down at Bondi?

How many years ago was that?

Oh, 21 years ago.

I started when I was about –

How old were you?

I was probably around 20 – what am I now, 40?

I was about 23, I think.

23.

Okay, so 23 years of age.

If you just stop there at 23 for a second and then just tell me

who was ready from leaving school, Waverley College, 18,

I guess you left school at 18, 18 to 23.

Who was ready in that 18 to 23 period?

Oh, he was a young kid that was sort of trying to find himself a little bit.

I lived my teenage years.

I lived my teenage years as an overweight teenager.

Overweight means what?

When I was about 12, I met this kid at swimming training.

Me and my sisters were really good swimmers.

Like both my sisters went on to state and Pan Pacific Games and all that sort of stuff.

Where did you train?

Which pool?

With John Rogers at Olympia in Cranbrook, which a lot of people know.

You probably know.

He was our super coach.

I actually saw him at Noosa on the weekend and it was great to see him.

My son's training with Neil.

Neil Rogers?

Yeah, yeah.

Down at Bondi?

No, no.

He was at Cranbrook for a while.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, he was at Cranbrook with Matty.

Sorry.

That's what I was thinking about now.

Now I still train with Neil down at the Icebergs on a Tuesday and a Friday sometimes, which

is awesome.

How is he going, by the way?

Because he had a bit of a drama with his prostate.

He's a bit off the topic, but is he okay?

I think he's okay, yeah.

That's good.

I think they're working on it at the moment.

I think he's doing some chemo.

I'll give coach my regards.

I will.

So let's just move forward there.

So you were a swimmer during your school years?

Yeah, I was a swimmer at Waverley, coached by Kerry Murray, which I don't know if you

know Kerry Murray.

And then I met this kid and his mum used to say,

send us down the shop with 50 bucks to buy lollies.

And as you can imagine, 50 bucks in those days, you'd get a lot of redskins.

Yeah, bloody oath.

And so, mate, over the course of about three to six months, I put on about 40 kilos.

No.

Yeah, I was probably weighing in at about 100 kilos.

What?

Yeah.

How old were you?

Mate, I was about 12 or 13.

No.

Yeah.

Jesus.

Yeah, I was a big boy.

And so I sort of lived this life of, you know, and being at Waverley, being that overweight,

you know, you get bullied a little bit.

Part of me looks at it as bullying.

Another part of me looks at it.

It's just being told the truth.

And for me, if anything, it was just a bit of a wake up call to do something about it.

So when I got into my later teens, obviously, you know, no girls wanted to know me and I

was a bit, you know, a little bit depressed or whatever.

But as I sort of got into my early 20s, I decided I didn't want to live like that anymore.

And I started running and took up running and found this passion for running and eating

healthy and sort of self-taught myself nutrition.

Because back then it wasn't what it is here every day.

You've only got to open up Instagram to learn a little bit about nutrition.

Now, back then.

And you had to kind of teach yourself.

And so I just sort of thought if I cut out sugar and stopped eating all the things that

were making me overweight and lost all the weight and got back into swimming.

And I was actually working as a garbo at the time.

And a mate of mine from Maroubra, Matt Phillips, flopper.

He said, he said, mate, why don't you try and get on the beach at Bondi with me?

He was doing the same thing, full time garbo, casual lifeguard.

And I was like, oh, mate, I'll give that a crack.

That sounds all right.

So I went down and I tried out and got on.

And mate, that was it.

I was just living.

My dream life.

I'd work as a garbo, job and finish.

So as soon as you'd done your run, and I've obviously was fit now, started running.

We were finishing our garbo run at eight o'clock.

I was starting on the beach at nine o'clock as a casual, working through till seven o'clock.

Middle of summer, young 23-year-old blonde kid just having the time of his life.

And getting paid.

Oh, getting paid.

Yeah, bloody oath.

Yeah, I was getting paid really well because all the time I'd been a garbo, I went straight

onto that same pay scale because it was the same employer.

So I went nearly straight to the top pay scale and I was getting good money and I was just

living the dream.

All right.

And at any stage did you fall off the rails?

I wouldn't say I ever fell off the rails, but I mean, yeah, I probably partied pretty

hard and got amongst it all.

But I guess I remembered everything that my parents had drummed into me as a kid about

sort of my morals and my standards and stuff and never went right off the rails.

But I probably pushed the boundaries a little bit as I think we all did in our 20s.

Because we both got a few mates.

We won't mention them.

But we got a few mates who-

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because it's easy to do.

Very easy.

Especially if you're, as you guys ended up doing, being really well known because of

the TV series.

Yep.

And you're down there and you're feeling like you're invisible and you're all tanned up

and there's girls everywhere and you've got this sense of authority over the beach and

everybody's sort of looking up to you.

It's sort of easy to fall off the wagon.

100%.

And I mean, I think all of a sudden we had this TV show that was getting shown in 180

countries.

All over the world.

And we sort of had this profile and we were all young and we didn't really know how to

handle it.

Yeah.

You know?

And some guys handled it well and some guys didn't handle it so well.

And, you know, I think, I don't know, I feel like I made hay while the sun shines.

You know, I think that's probably the most important thing, what you've got to do, right?

You know, you don't get these opportunities a lot.

So, and the crazy thing about it is, mate, we're going into season 18.

It's still going.

That's madness.

I mean, there's not many shows that sort of, not many series.

That have so many, such a long life.

I mean, that's an incredibly long life, 18 years of this stuff.

But I do want to go back to that first year.

What did you, when you first, so you're on the Garbos, you turn up on the first day of

Bondi for your first day of lifeguard.

What was the biggest shock that you had in, say, in that first 12-month period?

I mean, I had no idea what I was doing.

A lot of it's on the job training.

And it has to be.

Lifeguarding is experience.

That's how you learn to be a good lifeguard.

I mean, one of my first major spinals was a 20-year-old kid.

What's a spinal?

So, a spinal injury.

So, like a potential, like a suspected spinal, we call it.

They're suspected until proven.

And you can't prove it until you do an x-ray.

And so, we had this kid that had literally, first day at Bondi from England, run down,

jumped in the water, dived in.

And we obviously get these troughs in the water.

And he had looked deep and he's dived in and he's hit his head.

Bang.

Suddenly, it was floating.

It was floating there, face down.

Because he couldn't move his legs and his arms.

Couldn't feel them at all.

Anyway, we got him up, oh God, it's 20 years ago now.

So, a long time.

They remember us, right?

But the chopper, we ended up having to call a chopper.

He had no feeling.

And he actually had prior prism.

I don't know if you know what prior prism is.

But once your brain stopped sending messages down the spinal cord, it was actually socially,

obviously, having an erection was socially unacceptable.

So, we train our brains not to get one.

And sometimes, when people have a spinal injury, they get prior prism and they get an erection.

And this kid had prior prism.

And that's when I knew that potentially, this kid had a spinal injury.

And because I'd known from fresh out of training with our paramedic, Jamie Twight, who we train with,

my first year, I was obviously taking it all in.

And I'm trying to reassure this poor kid that he was going to be okay.

And I'm looking at him and I'm thinking, this kid's probably going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

And he was.

He'd broken his neck.

Wow.

And I was like, you just, you know, all of a sudden, in my first year, I realized that this, you know,

people talk about lifeguarding, what a great job.

You just kick him back on the beach.

You just do nothing.

I was like, hang on a minute.

Nah, this is like a serious job.

And if you aren't on the ball, things can happen.

Not that that was our fault.

But, I mean, you've got to be ready for every single situation.

And at Bondi, it's twofold because it happens so much.

Do you ever at any stage think this is too hectic?

Nah.

I was brought up by my mum with very,

tough love and we were exposed to,

I think the reason we had a lot of dogs growing up was so that my mum could,

could get us prepared for death, you know, and, and have us,

do you know what I mean?

Like we, and, and there was,

she would talk about a lot of things that, you know,

probably parents shy away from talking about with their kids a lot these days,

where she was very open about it.

We knew, but she did it in the right kind of way, I think.

And I don't know, it doesn't, it doesn't really, I mean,

I've had a couple of situations down there where it's affected me only because

I've had something similar happen in my own personal life.

And so it's sort of,

it's almost like a bit of a trigger, but I'm also quite hardened to it.

So I'm okay with it.

I've never, I've, I've gone and seen counsellors before,

but it's only been a one-off and I've never felt it's really affected me a lot.

Is there anyone, cause I, I have seen a video,

which was given to me where you guys are talking about,

I can't remember, Mongolian doctor?

Yeah, that was probably the one that, that's probably the hardest one for me.

Is that one that stands out?

A hundred percent.

My job as a lifeguard is to make sure that everyone comes to the beach and they swim safely.

It's a diff, it's, it's a hard job at Bondi when there's 40,000 people on the beach.

So you can get 40,000 people down there?

Easy, a hundred percent.

And that's not including the people in the, like up on the grass.

You know what Bondi's like when it's busy, you know, look, go down there for Festival of the Winds.

It's just insanity.

Um, but we're treating those people.

If they have medical incidents, we're still treating them.

We're still looking after them.

We're not watching them in the water, but we're still looking after them.

And, um, mate, there was, it was just this one day.

I'll never forget it.

Yeah.

I'll never forget it because it's the one day that I felt like a failure as a lifeguard.

Um, it was my third year in, it was actually the year.

It was part of the 12 major resuscitations that we did that year that led to the show coming about.

Um, so it was my third season.

Um, I was watching the water like any other day.

You've got two buggies that are roving and, and one, and usually South Bondi is where all the action happens.

North Bondi is quite safe, as you know.

Yeah, cause of the kids.

That's why they put the surf club over the kids.

Well, yeah, that's kiddies corner.

Cause you've got the alley there and.

Yeah.

And it's the direction of.

The direction of the swell usually, um, and the way that the beach works, but, and South Bondi for the people that don't know.

So usually North Bondi is where we have the flags.

So we've got a set of flags at North and a set of flags at middle and then South Bondi is for surfing.

So that's why it's also a little bit dangerous because you can't have boards going through flags.

So we have to segregate it.

It's worked for hundreds of years.

So that's how we do it.

And, and, and so this day I'm working South and I love working South.

This is where the action is.

This is where we're like, you know, if you're not watching, you know, you'll miss something.

And, and so.

But this day, middle of summer, 14 degrees, like how many times have you seen 14 degree water in the middle of summer?

But the reason is, I won't go into too much detail, but the Coriolis effect, when we get a Nor'East wind, it actually pushes the cold water, um, up from the South and pushes the warm water out to sea.

So 14 degree water, like really cold.

And so when you're dealing with that sort of water, you don't want to go in for a rescue cause it's freezing.

Like normally we don't mind going in for the odd rescue, but when it's 14, you don't want to go in.

It's usually about 19, 20, 80, 90.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is nice and comfortable on a hot day.

You kind of want to go in anyway.

So this day I had a little sandbank that I was working with.

And so if you can't, when you've got people swimming at South Bondi, backpackers, tourists, whatever, to send them up to the flags, 50% listen to the other 50%, just completely ignore you.

So you've got to do the best with what you've got.

So I've got a sandbank there.

There are surfers on it, but I say on the megaphone, if you don't, if you don't want to go to the flags, if you can't go to the flags, just swim on this sandbank, don't go in the rip.

Anyway, I'll never forget.

I'm watching.

I'm watching this Asian gentleman walking out along the sandbank.

And, you know, we don't racially profile, but 80% of our rescues are Asian people because they just seem to not swim as well.

Well, they're not that used to them.

No, they're not that used to the waves and the water.

And so I guess we just take an extra special care watching them.

And I watched him walk out.

But the difference was he was wearing Aussie bum swimwear.

So budgie smugglers, which is not what they usually wear.

Same deal.

Same deal.

Same deal.

Same deal.

Same deal.

Same deal.

Same deal.

Same deal.

This is what years of experience gets you is just, you know, you're processing so many

different things while you're working on the beach and you're observing, which is a lot

of people.

I don't think a lot of people realize us as lifeguards, that's a skill.

And so anyway, and he's walking out onto the back of the sandbank and I'm watching the

rip and I'm watching the other rip.

And then I see him and I just see him slip off the back of the bank and I see him put

his hand up and I just, and I was sort of low to the ground and I sort of walked back a

bit and I saw his hand go up and I saw the jet ski like flying.

He was going from the middle of the beach because we had the jet ski patrolling on a

really busy day.

We'll have the jet ski in the water so they can get to rescues quick.

He was actually going to Tamarama to do another job.

And when you're going really fast, you can't hear it.

You can't, they can't hear the radio.

So I radioed it.

He didn't hear.

And I radioed central and said, boys, I think someone's going under out the back.

I'm going out.

And the difference was because he was at the back of the bank, it's a lot harder to get

to them because normally when you're going out to get someone in a rip, there's the waves

aren't breaking.

I won't go into too much detail on that because that's just what you need to understand.

As a beach goer, but, but having to get out to him to bounce over waves made it hard for

me to keep my eye on him.

The same thing happened in the tower.

Tom in the tower, heard my radio call, looked down, saw him put his hand up.

And then he tried to radio the jet ski as well.

Looked back and the guy was gone.

Right.

And sunk.

Sunk, sunk.

But I've watched easily more than 200 people in a drowning situation at Bondi and they

splash and they scream and they make a lot of noise.

This guy.

I just, I just got out there and there was nothing out there.

And in those situations, nine times out of 10, a board riders grabbed them.

You know how busy Bondi is.

Board riders do so many of our rescues for us because they're there.

They see it.

This guy.

Well, I didn't know what had happened at the time.

And I'm like, I get out there and I'm like, I'm asking surfers, did anyone see anyone

trouble?

You know?

And, and so no, everyone's like, nah, nah, didn't say anything.

Blah, blah, blah.

And anyway, and so we get a guy up in the Bondi icebergs with some binoculars.

We've got guys who polarize glasses looking at the water because with polarized glasses,

you can see under the water, nothing.

We did a 45 minute search.

We're megaphoning people on the beach.

Has anyone lost?

Is anyone missing a family member?

We did everything we could and nothing.

But because he didn't, his family didn't speak English and I'll go into more details about

Yondon in a second, but because his family didn't speak English, they didn't understand

our, our calls over the PA and stuff.

So in the end, we thought he must've just got in.

And this was about.

You know, three o'clock in the afternoon anyway, but I just had this sinking feeling.

I I'd watched with my own eyes, a man put his hand up and go under.

And so, and this is the one thing that I feel like that's our job.

It's our job to get, to make sure that nobody drowns.

If someone, you know, if someone dies in any other certain way, that's not out, that's

not out of our control, different story, but this is why this one affected me.

And so five o'clock rolls around.

I'm getting ready to set, to, to pack the beach.

I'm getting ready to set, to pack the beach up with some of the boys and a young 16 year

old boy comes up to me of Asian description and he says, I can't find my dad.

And I said, Oh, he's dead.

Mother fucker.

Yeah.

And I said, I said, Oh, where was he swimming?

And he just pointed straight down to where we spent 45 minutes looking for this, for

this gentleman.

And, um, and I just knew when I, my heart sunk and I just knew I told Corey, who was

the senior lifeguard at the time.

And I said, mate, we're going to have to call the helicopter.

Like we we're, we're doing a body retrieval here.

Like it's been two and a half hours.

Um, I went out there and don't forget it was 14 degree water.

And we're literally, um, I'm on the back of the jet ski with a snorkel and mask on.

And we're just swimming around, like looking for, for looking for a body and, um, with

the body float or no, it'll sink.

It'll sink.

What happens with it, with the body?

Once it sinks, it goes to the bottom.

And then as the, as, as the body, uh, deteriorates gases release, and then it will slowly come

up a couple of days later.

You know, a few days later, a few days later.

Yeah.

You know, you hear about people, fishermen, rock fishermen, whatever.

And then.

And they, they turn up a couple of days later.

That's why.

And so anyway, but I'm out there 14 degree water getting hypothermia.

It's nearly seven o'clock at night.

And some of the other boys from other beaches, they knew what had happened as well.

Cause they'd heard the radio comms and, and, um, and so, yeah, so we made, and then I come

in because I was literally hypothermic and the other guys went out and then the chop,

another chopper came and we had two choppers and they were doing literally sweeps of the

bay.

But strangely enough, um, a surfer was out there surfing off South Bondi and his body

had floated underneath the rocks right in front of the icebergs there.

And the guy noticed it and he put his hand up and Mark, I'll be honest, I'm kind of glad

I was in the tower and I'm kind of glad I wasn't there because obviously when they pulled

the body out of the water, his whole family is there.

He had three young kids.

He had a wife.

This is my family.

I've got three young kids.

I've got a wife.

Um, and this whole experience for me, um, especially now that I'm a dad to three young

kids, I just can't, I can't imagine what it was like for them on the beach and the backstory.

Anyway, so the lifeguards, they, they tried to resuscitate him then and there the paramedics

came down.

Um, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,

and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,

and obviously it was a futile attempt because he'd been under for so long.

Um, in hindsight, I kind of wished the ambos had taken him away and they declared him,

um, deceased in the hospital, but they didn't, they did it there on the beach.

We don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

Um, but, um, yeah, I'm just glad that I didn't, I didn't, wasn't there to work on the body

because I felt to blame.

I felt like I'd done something wrong.

Why would someone sink?

I mean, I like, I mean, why wouldn't someone thrash

around later?

They normally do.

He couldn't swim a stroke.

But do you think you just, I mean, is that a thing that people just, just sort of give

up and just let themselves drift under?

Mate, I don't know.

Like it's, it's, I mean, I've actually spoken to, uh, I don't know if you know, Trett Langlands.

He was a lifeguard for a long time.

He had a very similar situation at Bronte.

He saw a guy go under a wave at Bronte many years ago before I was a lifeguard.

And then the guy just disappeared.

Right.

Could it have been the cold water?

Maybe he had a heart attack at the same time.

I don't know.

We, we, we don't know.

Was he, how?

Was he not?

Was he an older guy?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, so the story behind Yon Dundungu was he was a incredible eye surgeon and apparently

he'd been bought over by this, by the Australian government to like fill the void of like our

shortage of eye surgeons.

And so he'd been bought over and he was here to try it for, for two months to see if he

liked it.

And if he liked it, he was going home to get his family to bring them back and he loved

it.

Hence why he was wearing the budgie smuggler cozies and you know, like he, he, he'd adopted,

he did, he'd adapted to the Australian life and I think he'd adapted so much that he'd

just thought that this is the problem at the beach is us Aussies, we make it look so

easy to go in and out of the surf, right?

We take it for granted.

We take it for granted, but that, that's what makes us, our job as a lifeguard at Bondi

so hard is that we're 90% tourists, 10% people that know what they're doing.

And those 10% that know what they're doing, make it look so easy.

And the tourists look at them and they go, he went in, he went out, he came in, he come

out that, how hard could it be?

But when a rip's moving the way it's moving, if you don't know how to swim against it or

swim parallel to it, this is the problem.

And, and, and this was the day.

And sadly, it was Yondon's birthday on this day, like he'd brought his family over.

He, on his birthday, he'd taken them for a day at the beach and, and this is what happened.

And this, it, it, it made me grow up a lot as a lifeguard in that short space of time.

It made me realize that how it doesn't happen all the time, but how quickly things can change

in a, in the blink of an eye and in the blink of an eye, that family lost their, their

caregiver and me and some of the boys that were involved in the search and the rescue

and, and, and, and.

And everything, we, we went to his funeral and yeah, it made me just realize that lifeguarding

isn't just.

What more could you have done though?

When you think you've obviously thought it through a lot, what, what, what else could

you have done?

That's the thing.

I, I, I don't know.

I don't think there isn't anything more that I couldn't have done.

Like the, the, the thing, there's an interview of, of the police officer interviewing his

wife on the beach while we were searching for him and, and the, the police officer said,

can he swim?

And she said, no, he can't, he can't swim.

And he probably didn't listen to my PA.

I don't know how well in English that he understood, but we were PA-ing all day.

We do hundreds of preventatives all day.

So whether he didn't hear them, whether he'd adapted to this Australian life and just thought

out on the sandbank was the safest spot.

Problem is, as we know as Aussies, that the way the water moves around a sandbank is it

just that day, it was just wrapping around the back of the bank.

And if he went too far, he got pulled off the back of the bank.

And if you couldn't just swim enough to get yourself back onto the bank in his situation,

he went under.

And, and it, yeah.

And how does that sort of dovetail into the, to the, the TV series, Bondi Rescue?

I mean, like how, how does Bondi Rescue, does it have any relationship to that day or in

your mind?

For you, for you?

Um, I think, I think if anything, it just showed the world the difficulties of our job.

It's, it's, and it also showed, um, like how dangerous the beach can be.

Um, I was saying to someone the other day, actually, that I, I, I, there's not many jobs

where I think your job gets harder with more experience, you know?

Would you say, like as a, I don't know, let's, as a real estate agent, the more experience

you get, the better you get at it, right?

Yeah.

The better you get at it.

For me, I think us as lifeguards, the more experience we get with situations like that,

the harder it is.

The more vulnerabilities you recognize.

Mate, the more, the more pressure, the more you know something can go wrong, the more

you don't want to be working that day that someone dies.

Like, and that's the thing.

You don't want to be working a day where someone drowns because that's the day that, I mean,

there's so many, there's so much collateral.

Yeah.

Contrary to the collateral damage that comes with that.

It's not like, you know, you miss a sale as a real estate agent or, you know, you make

a small mistake and someone doesn't get the house sold.

No one dies.

You get, you get the next one.

Exactly.

You know, whereas you never forget when someone dies at your feet.

So, so I remember, and a good friend of ours, both of ours, David Gingell, he and I were,

we used to train all the time together when he was living in Sydney and we used to run

from Bondi to Brondy and back, over time become a walk.

But.

As it does to you.

But I remember him telling me, many years ago, maybe.

Yeah.

Maybe 15 years ago, perhaps.

I don't know, something like that.

He said, I'm helping these blokes out to produce a show, because he was a Channel Nine then.

He said, I'm helping these guys out, he was also on my board at Wizard in those days.

Yeah.

He said, I'm helping these guys produce this show called Bondi Rescue.

One of our good mates, good mate of yours too, was involved in that show.

And, and I thought, oh, what's he talking about?

But, and I don't, all I remember is that he had, I can't remember who was producing it.

Ben Davies.

Ben Davies.

Local Bondi board writer.

Okay.

He sort of mentioned, and it didn't mean much to me.

I just thought, oh, that sounds cute, sort of thing.

You know what I mean?

A little show about some lifeguards running around.

Yeah.

So, take, take me through the story.

Like, how, how did Ginge get involved, as his surname, as his nickname, I should say,

off his nickname, off his surname, he ended up becoming CEO of Channel Nine.

But, how does, how did it all get put together?

Take me through that.

How did Bondi Rescue sort of become an ideation and then become a show?

Well, so one year, which was part of that year, we did 12 major resuscitations and we

got all of them back.

Like, one of them was an Irish.

I wasn't involved in this.

I wish I was.

What an, what an experience to be a part of this.

And three Irish doctors walking out of the surf, stormy afternoon at Bondi.

They're both walking, they're, all three of them are walking out of the surfboard under

their arm.

One of them drops his board and just starts running.

And they reckon with lightning, you can feel it coming through the earth.

And he literally, he's running towards the tower and bang, struck by lightning in his

arm.

What do you mean?

You can feel the, the lightning in the ground?

That's what they say.

Lightning survivors can feel the lightning coming through the ground.

Towards them?

Well, I don't know.

They can just feel that it's going to happen.

Wow.

This is, this is just, I don't know how true it is, but this, this funnily enough.

It's giving me goosebumps.

The one guy that got struck, he was the one that dropped his board and starts running,

right?

Wow.

But it was one of those, you know, those afternoons, dark and stormy Bondi.

Sometimes we do some PAs, we tell people to get out of the water, no one listens.

Anyway, drops his board, starts running, bang, struck by lightning in his arm, out his leg.

It just started raining.

The lifeguards, Chapo, can't remember who else.

We actually interviewed him on a podcast.

We interviewed him on a podcast a couple of years ago.

His name's Colum.

He lives back in Ireland now, but, and he's still got a bit of a stutter and a bit of

a funny leg walk because of it.

But the boys were on him, working on him within 30 seconds.

They dragged him up.

Do you know what happened to him?

Did he get burnt?

I don't even remember what happened.

Yeah, yeah.

He went in his arm, out his leg.

He got burns.

He got, he got, like I said, I wasn't there, but the boys did an incredible job.

They shocked him three times with the defib.

They got his heart started again.

They got him back.

Mate, completely fine.

And he survived.

He survived another one of the 12 major resuscitations.

I don't know if you remember Matt Williams.

You know, Matt Williams from the beach.

Yeah, Matty.

Matty's the guy who says, I was saying before with Neil Rogers, he used to train one of

my sons up at Cranbrook.

Yeah, so he's saying-

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The triathlon.

Yeah, yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So his dad, Jeff Williams?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know Jeff?

Yeah.

Yeah, Jeff.

Bit of a party animal back in the day, but another one.

In this same year, right, he's out there surfing, doesn't feel very good.

Comes in.

Goes to his car.

Puts his board in the car.

He's a fireman, obviously.

Knows first aid, all that sort of stuff.

Knows that something's not right.

Rings his son, Matt, and says, Matt, I've just called myself an Amber.

I'm at Bondi.

I'm not feeling real good.

I think something's going on.

Hung the phone up.

Matt had the street smarts to ring the tower and say, boys, dad's in the car park somewhere.

Hasn't told me where.

Something's not right.

Right?

Kerr Box, I think Kerr Box was here that day.

Kerr Box worked that day, as you know Kerr Box.

So he's out there.

He's out there.

He's out there.

He's out there.

He's out there.

He's out there.

He's out there.

He's the team leader.

Two guys went one way.

Two guys went the other way.

We know how big Queen Elizabeth Drive car park is, right?

Could be anywhere.

Jeff has the street smarts.

Jeff was having a heart attack.

Jeff had the smarts to have the heart attack.

And instead of getting in his car and sitting in his car, the boys probably never would

have found him, he laid on the bonnet of the car, starfish, had the heart attack.

Boys found him.

had the defib on him within, because you've got about 10 minutes. With every minute, you've got

10% less chance of getting someone back, right? So that's why we get so many back, because we're

first responders at Bondi with a lot of big volume of people, and we're there within 10 minutes. So

we have a lot of success, right? The Ambos even say it, that's why. And we're trained by really

good Ambos too. And so anyway, the boys work on him. They do an incredible job. They shock him

like five times with the defib. The Ambo took about 20 minutes that day for whatever reason,

they were busy. Jeff died, I think, three times on the way to the hospital. They had him in a

coma for two days. They induced him in a coma for another five days. Jeff is completely fine now.

He's alive and well. And it was, you know what I mean? All these things came together

in this perfect situation, and Jeff's alive now today. And so-

So what happened? The idea? Did someone say, well, you guys are doing such a great job?

Well, Benny Davies was-

Was working that day. Well, you know what it was? The number one was, the other resus

was one of the other ones was, and I was lucky enough to be a part of this one. It was one of

my first major ones. A girl was out there surfing. It was about four to six foot. She must've got a

wave on the head, and she wasn't a very good surfer, and it's knocked her out. And I remember

looking through the binos, and I said, someone faced down down there. And someone said, nah,

it's a snapboard. And I said, nah, mate, face down. And I went running down at the same time.

Kaelin was there. He paddled out. I paddled out. You know, big surf. We got her in.

Worked on her. Me, Hoppo, Kaelin, Sean. I think Benny Davies was part of it, and that was a big

part of the reason why. So Benny Davies was a lifeguard with us casually, obviously board

rider from Bondi, but also worked as a producer for Getaway. And he witnessed this resuscitation,

and he knew a part of all the other ones. This girl, Candice, she was only 26. She's now got

three kids, still lives in Bondi. We see her around. You know, it's 20 years later. It's so

good to see, because our work has brought this, kept this beautiful girl alive, and now she's got

a family, which is amazing. But Benny was part of that, and he was like, mate, there's a TV show

in this. And so basically, at that time, in the off season, I was going over to America to work

as a water ski instructor in New York at one of the summer camps over there. And so I got wind

from the boys. They said, mate, they're filming a pilot down here. You wouldn't believe it. And

they're going to shop it out to all the TV stations. And I think Ben was leaning on Ginge

for ideas and how to pitch it. And I think originally, it was pitched as a one-hour

special. And I think originally, it was pitched as a one-hour special. And I think originally,

it was pitched as a one-hour special. And so they sent cameras down in the busy period. And

in that busy period, over the course of that week, right at that time, when they were filming the

boys, like, or doing a photo shoot, a guy had a heart attack, this tachycardia situation,

right in front of the guys. Cameras there. It was one of the first ever, like, witnessed

full-on resuscitations. And I think they used that. And Channel 10 had picked it up already,

I think. And then, and mate, the rest was history after that. They said, mate, 13-part series,

and we've been on ever since. I think we've had one year off because of COVID.

Of the original team that were in the original part of the series, who still exists?

Ah, there's probably, out of the first crew, there's myself, Hoppo, Harry's, Dino's still

casual. There's some guys that have come back that weren't there, like, singlets that weren't

there to start beardy. But why does the Australian icon

export so well into other markets, like the US, into UK, wherever? Why do you think that is? I

mean, what's your view on it? Um, I think it's, I think there's a few reasons. I think one of them

is, is that it's easy to watch. It's like border security, but on the beach, right? Like, border

security's all right. But after a while, you get sick of watching the same old stuff. Whereas

the other thing is that Ben Davies and the producers have done an incredible job,

especially in the early days of building profiles and, and really tapping into that Aussie,

Aussie culture of like, like we used to play pranks on each other, like, you know.

In the show.

In the show. Yeah.

Like, actually filmed. Oh yeah, 100%. Like, mate, we've done,

like, we've done some great ones over the years. Over time, it's become,

they do it less and less because it's, it's sort of looked as, looked like it's bullying in the

workplace. Whereas it's, mate, it's not us blokes. We just love taking the mickey out of each other.

And obviously you've got to be careful of certain sensitive situations. So they've found smarter

ways to do it, but they just don't do it as much anymore. But in the early days, they,

they built these characters out of us guys on the beach of just us literally

ourselves. And, you know, Hopper used to always say, it's a lot like M.A.S.H. where,

you know, the reason M.A.S.H. was so successful was because you'd have this, you know, army

team of medical people that would just play jokes on each other and have fun together.

But then when, when shit got real, they, they worked together and they saved lives. And

that's kind of like what Bondo Rescue is.

That makes sense.

But it's on the beach, right? And everything's beautiful. And who doesn't love the beach?

Like, that's why people come to Australia for the beach. The other reason is, is that,

mate, media is so accessible everywhere now. YouTube, like, it's like, it's like, it's like,

Bondo Rescue's YouTube channel is, is just skyrocketing. Like, it's because people can

watch it anywhere, anytime. And that's where it's helped with its popularity, especially

globally.

Do you ever get much feedback from people overseas who are, who are Australians who

watch it for nostalgic reasons? So they want to watch it because I just want to get back

in contact with Australians. What we did at Bondi, what happens at Bondi?

Every expat that's ever lived over in Australia, they, and I speak to them, whether I know

them or not, they say to me,

Bondi Rescue keeps me sane when I'm over in England on the rainy days or whatever. I

just put Bondi Rescue on because it reminds me of home. It's probably our Aussie accents

and it's what every, every Australian that's ever grown up anywhere near the beach, that's

what Bondi represents. It's like, as a summer, as a kid, you went to the beach and you hung

out and you got up to mischief and you put zinc on your nose and you went surfing and

you, you know what I mean? You had fun and that.

And you also saw the lifeguards rescue people.

A hundred percent.

It's a thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a thing. You see, I mean, you do, you see someone paddling out or you might see

the jet ski and someone coming and being brought on the beach. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

generally speaking, they're all okay once you get them to the, to the sand and they,

they walk off. Reedy, do you think that, do you, in a show like that, is there any danger

that Reedy becomes, Reedy the character out of the show?

Nah, that's, that's what I think the great thing about Bondi Rescue is, is the fact that

we're just, anyone, everyone says, oh, you're a celebrity now. And I say, nah, I'm just

a lifeguard that just happens to be on a beach where they film a TV show. And I think a lot

of us are quite grounded like that. Like, one of my favorite saying is, is, you know,

is, is, is expect nothing, appreciate everything, you know? And that's just because, like, you

shouldn't expect for anything. And I've never, anything that's come out of Bondi Rescue has

been a big bonus for me. But if anything, it's just given me this extra life that I

can live that I actually like. I've been lucky enough to sort of dive into the media because

of Bondi Rescue. And I've sort of found some little hidden talents that I never knew I

had. It's made me explore things.

What do you got? What do you got?

Oh, I mean, I, I, which your buddy Ginge helped me get off the ground.

I, I, when I wanted to sort of stop being a garbo, I got sick of the early, early morning.

So I wanted to stop being a garbo, but I, I didn't know whether I wanted to be a full-time

lifeguard. I was like, I love it, but I, I think if I'm doing it every single day, I

don't know if I'll love it. And I never not want to love it. And so I thought, what can

I do, especially in the off season, what can I do? And so I, I decided to put on a big

swimming event at Bondi. I knew the beach really well. I'd made a lot of contacts and

the youth center had helped me out the ways you said, Wayne down there. I don't know if

you know Wayne.

But he, he was great. And, and so those guys were, were awesome to me. And I thought, I

want to raise some money for the youth center. And I put on this big swim and Ginge helped

me and channel nine were great in the first couple of years. And I got it off the ground

and then I turned it into a three race series, which was Bondi, Manly and Sydney Harbour

supporting various charities. And so I've got a little events business. I've got a little

merchandise business where we do Bondi lifeguards merch. And I, I sort of do a lot of media

stuff. Like I do, like I've done documentaries for tourism Australia and, um, you know,

worked at two GB. I always wanted to be, I love the idea of broadcasting and obviously

podcasting. Now you can, anyone can be a broadcaster, but before then, um, I was like, how do you

do it? And so I called up two GB and I said, I want to learn how to be a panel operator

because Osher Ginsberg who narrates Bondi rescue. I said to him, cause he did radio.

I said, how do you do radio? He said, mate, you got to learn how to panel every good radio

person's a panel operator. So I literally went into two GB every Sunday morning from

like 5.00 AM.

And I watched the guy,

paneled the garden clinic. I mean, could you think of anything more boring?

I know that show.

Like, oh, don't get me wrong. Graham is an absolute legend.

I know the show. He's been doing it for over a million years.

Yeah. But, but I went in and I watched like these panel operators panel it. And that was

the only way I was ever going to learn how to be a panel operator. And I did it. And,

um, after six months they let me behind the desk and then I finally got a job there with

them and I was filling in. Uh, the, the hard thing was doing my job as a lifeguard. The

only time for me to be a casual panel operator was Christmas when I was busy on the beach,

but I was lucky enough to work with Susie.

And, and panel for a lot of, a lot of people from two GB, as you would know. Um, and my

first ever shift was paneling for Dan Mullins while he interviewed Ray, uh, uh, Alan Jones,

uh, when he was working over in Glasgow for the, for the comm games. And I've never been

more scared in my life. My fingers were trembling and I was thinking, can you imagine if I stuff

this up while Alan Jones is on air? Like, oh my God, I didn't thankfully. Oh mate, I'd

be out of a job as we know how, you know, but that's what I love about Alan Jones and

Ray Hadley is.

They're hard taskmasters, but they expect perfection. And that's, I don't think there's

anything wrong with that. That's why they've got great shows, you know, they expect perfection.

And so, um, so yeah, and that's, and I've sort of done that. And all this stuff has

led to me working with brands like Essex and Garmin and all that sort of stuff over the

last 10 years, which has been great, has led me to this role now working for a company

called Athletic Greens, which has a product called AG1, which I, I, by the way, I have

to say before I heard about it, that you were involved in it, uh, that Fordo told me, uh,

I've been using that for probably two years now.

Okay.

So I, it comes from New Zealand.

Yep. Comes from New Zealand. The founder's a legend, Chris.

I used to have this, I used to have this other, use this other product. It was a Greens product.

And uh, you know, and I'm talking now 15 years ago and it was a bar, a Greens bar and it

was chocolate coated.

Oh, yum.

But it was really tasty. It was really good.

Which makes it easy to have it every day.

And I would have one every single day. This is before Greens became, I don't know, like,

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

But it became a thing.

Yep.

Way before. And I, there was only one health food store I, I could find that I knew of

that sold it and, but they imported it from overseas and then they stopped importing it.

And then they started importing a, a version of it, which is just the powder. And I, I

was just, I found undrinkable.

It tasted horrible

I felt like I was, I know, Jake, I felt like I was just going cutting grass and, and just

the thought of having, I just couldn't, I couldn't have it anymore. Actually, I missed

this chocolate bar.

And it went, and then funnily enough, I was listening to it.

who, and I listen to a lot of podcasts, but I was listening to health podcasts

or science podcasts.

I was listening to Hoobman, and Hoobman said that, you know,

he doesn't promote things, generally speaking.

He doesn't operate that way.

Yep.

And he said that he uses this thing called Athletic Greens,

and it comes out of New Zealand.

Yep.

And I thought, well, I'll give it a shot.

And I ordered some.

This is maybe two years ago.

And I've been having it.

I can't say it every day.

I try to have it every day.

But it is, and I'm not here to do an ad from, don't get me wrong,

because they don't pay me anything.

I'm not in the deal.

But I will say it's drinkable.

Yep.

So a lot of these green things are just undrinkable.

Undrinkable.

It's drinkable.

It seems to have a really good broad spectrum of stuff in there that you need

to get that you might not get out of because you might not eat enough fruit,

you might not have enough vegetables for the day.

It just seems to have a broad enough spectrum.

So at least I can cheat the day, you know, if I don't eat healthily.

At least I've known.

I've had the nutrients that I should, generally speaking, have.

And it's nicely packaged.

It's easy to use.

You know, it's not going to spill everywhere.

It's got a scoop in it.

In fact, I had one earlier this morning.

So, yeah, and I got a surprise when Fordo told me about that you were involved

in Athletic Greens.

And I'm not surprised you were involved, but I never knew they were here

in Australia.

Well, that's the thing.

And funnily enough, I went looking for the product when I've got two young kids.

Oh, sorry, I've got three now.

But when I had two young kids and I'm working for these brands,

and they're getting me to go do half marathons and Ironmans and stuff

all over the world, once my kids went to daycare, as you probably know

with daycare, you are sick.

They are sick all the time.

Which means you're sick.

Exactly.

So I was like, we got to a point with my wife, I said,

I can't keep doing this and be sick.

Let's get a nanny.

And anyway, mate and mine.

Mate, she can get sick.

Well, she's a doctor.

She's off working all the time.

And so, you know, anyway, and so mate and mine said to me, mate,

you've got to try Athletic Greens.

And I was like, what's Athletic Greens?

And I gave it a try.

I gave it a try.

And I could go into hundreds of things that I noticed, I mean,

about the product now that I take it.

Like my wife, my whole family went down with gastro a couple of weeks ago.

My wife was off work for two weeks.

She is super healthy.

She doesn't take AG1.

But I had a sore tummy for about six hours and that was it.

And she could not believe it.

Like she was blown away that I, you know,

she sat on the toilet for two weeks.

I shit you not, right?

And so ever since that day, she has not stopped taking it.

And it's just like, for me, it's just such,

people don't realize what goes into the product.

Like it's 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole food sourced ingredients.

And that's the difference with this product.

It's an expensive product,

but the reason it's expensive is because we have to source those whole foods

from somewhere.

And the reason that they're whole foods is because the absorbability in your

stomach and in your gut.

See, a lot of synthetic things, our bodies can't absorb them.

So that's the reason why AG1 works so well.

And basically it's everything that you need.

The only,

one of the things they can't put,

put in and is vitamin D because vitamin D can't come in a powdered

supplement.

So it powdered form.

So you get, you get,

we can usually give you your vitamin D to put a little dropper of it in it

and you can have it as you go.

And the great thing about AG1 is you can have it every day.

And it's just ready to go.

It's a,

in your case you don't need vitamin D because you're on the beach all the

time.

Yeah, well, no, I, yeah, exactly.

I get plenty of sun.

Just take me through this though.

So who owns Bondo Rescue?

Who owns the show?

Bondo Rescue is owned by Cordell Jigsaw.

So they were the ones that took the part.

They're the production company.

And then they go to like someone like say channel 10 or channel nine and

then channel 10.

Broadcaster.

Yeah, the broadcaster.

So they still own it.

They've owned it all this time.

Yes.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

And then, so during the,

and the show gets filmed obviously during the summer or during the

lifeguard season, which starts on 1 October.

Is it 1 October?

Well, our lifeguard season sort of Bondi and we're all three beaches,

Tamarama,

we're open 24 seven now.

So we're right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We used to Tamarama used to close down in winter,

but now all three.

So there's lifeguards on the beach the whole year.

Every day.

Is that right?

I didn't know that.

Okay.

Cause I'm,

I'm sort of going back to the surf club days.

Um,

and it was always 1 October kicked off.

Yeah.

Well that's the surf club season.

They usually,

yeah.

And then they usually end around out.

I think it's Anzac days.

Yeah.

But there's always lifeguards on the beach.

Right.

So,

so,

so you now work full time.

I've been on parental leave for 18 months.

So I've been while my wife studies and she's studying to be in an ether test.

I've been sort of the primary carer.

Um,

I'm due back on December one,

but I,

now that I've got this role with AG one,

I'll probably hopefully go back casual because I still love,

you know,

I love the guys and I love working down there.

I love the action.

So you get back on the show.

Uh,

well,

I get the way the show works is it's not really,

you're kind of on there.

If something happens and it's,

and it's,

and you're involved in a,

in a situation,

that's how it kind of works.

They come down and they film for like two months.

And if you're there,

when something,

when something happens,

then you'll be on it.

It's not really,

it's not really like someone's on the show in particular.

There's lifeguards that have worked there for ages and you've probably seen them on there once.

It's just,

it's just chance really.

Yeah.

So,

so randomize.

Yeah.

And how old are you now?

Um,

44,

1045 next year.

So ready to get your,

get your rig out?

Uh,

nah,

we've got the dad bod in full effect.

Being a primary carer for three kids,

like it's hard.

Come on Rudy,

you got to get the rig out.

I don't know if you want to see this.

I'm not saying today,

I'm talking about the bond I rescued.

You ready?

Pressure is on you because like that,

that's a pressure thing.

Like you,

you guys are,

you know,

bronze dozzies,

blah,

blah,

blah.

Um,

everyone's,

there's an expectation.

I was just about to say that there is an expectation,

but I also hope that some people would give me some sort of grace considering I've got

three kids under five.

So there's not as much time to get in the gym these days.

Is he going to wear a t-shirt?

Mate,

Kerbox used to come out of the water with his paddle board.

He'd have his rashy on.

We used to call it the Kerbox curtain because he'd pull the curtain,

pull the board up.

Because obviously he's nearly 60 or something these days.

Yeah,

he's 58 or something.

And he's getting old.

Yeah.

But,

but I tell you,

it's a funny thing,

um,

television,

because it can put pressure on you,

um,

to make you perform a certain way.

And I'm,

when I say perform,

perform in every aspect,

the way you look,

um,

and the way you speak on TV,

um,

the,

how you're going to rescue someone or,

or like,

for example,

you're back,

you're back on your little,

um,

Sandy Mound.

Again,

if you go back,

you know,

uh,

13 years ago,

whatever it was,

and let's put you back on that spot now.

And you've got your,

your board there.

And then you've,

you've get the call out.

There's someone out there.

You've got to be sprinting into the water.

Yep.

Yep.

Yeah.

And you've got to jump on the board and you've got to paddle like there's no tomorrow because

you've got to get out there fast.

Yeah.

To save the person.

Yep.

So there's a requirement for fitness.

Uh,

there's a requirement for,

um,

acuity.

In other words,

alertness and the ability to,

you know,

keep your head up and be looking over the surface,

over the waves to see where whoever,

whoever the person is,

where we can see where the hand is or take directions.

How do you get yourself prepared for that?

Um,

I think a lot of it comes with experience and a lot of time in the pool.

Like I've been swimming a fair bit.

Cause obviously you do a lot of still water.

A lot of still water swimming.

We have to do a pool test.

We have to do an eight every year.

We have a pool test.

You've got to do in under 14 minutes,

800 meters.

And then you've got to do a surf M shape.

So,

and usually they'll chuck you in with a couple of faster guys and you've got to come within

five minutes of the faster guys.

Or if it's,

what's that,

what's that last one?

Uh,

so it's an M shape course.

So it's a 500 meter swim,

500 meter board,

500 meter run times two.

Right.

And you've got to come within 20 on the swell size.

But if it's sort of medium swell,

it's within five minutes.

If it's really big swell,

it's within 10 minutes.

Cause like I'm swimming at 200 meters.

I think,

but it was just put a couple of cans out there and it's just out and around.

And it's,

I mean,

I mean,

board handling skills are probably the most important part of the job.

Like you've got to be able to handle a board.

Well,

especially in the surf.

And do they,

they expect you to put someone out there expecting you to put them up on the board and take them

back in?

Oh yeah.

A hundred percent.

I mean,

that's anyone that's been doing the job for at least two,

three years,

you're good at that.

I mean,

that's,

you know,

how you,

you know,

pulling them back on the board.

Anyone that's done surf club stuff,

they're,

they're pretty handy on a board.

And that's really important.

We've had plenty of people come down and try out and you sort of,

you know,

they'll get through the swim test fine,

but then they,

you see their board handling skills and it's like,

you're probably not going to be much good to us if you're not that good at handling

a board and like putting a patient on there and getting them in.

So how,

how long,

I mean,

everyone would make the assumption that this job is a young man's job.

How long,

but it's not because you wouldn't know as well as anyone that there are a lot

of older guys who've been in the,

in surf club sense anyway,

who've been doing this to their 50 or 55,

60,

and they're still really competent and fit.

How long do you think Andrew Reid can keep,

Andrew Reid can keep doing this?

Oh mate,

as a casual,

like,

I don't know.

I reckon I keep pretty fit.

And I mean,

this is probably going to sound like a plug,

but AG1 has given me a whole new lease on life.

Like I just feel,

I feel like I've got energy,

all,

all day,

every day,

you know,

and that's one great thing about the product.

But I mean,

for me,

I guess it's as long as I keep myself physically fit.

You know,

like I,

I speak to Guy Leach a fair bit.

Leach,

yeah.

Yeah.

He's,

you know,

he,

he,

he talks about how he wants to feel,

how he's 60 now,

right?

He's still competing with the young kids.

He's still a really phenomenal athlete.

He said,

I want to feel like this at 80,

you know?

Yeah.

Well,

he talked about this more recently,

but he's a good dude,

like,

and,

and like super fit for his age.

Yeah.

A hundred percent.

Still fit.

But is there something wrong with people,

like I'm older than all of you,

but I'm,

but I'm not too far away from a guy's age.

I'm a little bit older than him.

Is there something wrong with us though,

that,

and Ging is a good example,

he's 58.

Is there something wrong with us that we sort of,

should we be giving it up and saying,

oh,

stuff it,

like why are we trying to be like a 25 year old?

Or is there something right with us?

Right.

Staying fit,

staying healthy,

having supplements or,

or just eating really well,

you know,

getting plenty of sleep,

getting plenty of exercise.

In your case,

it's swimming.

In my case,

what I do,

the things I do,

is there something,

is,

do you think that is the way to go?

And if so,

why do you push yourself in that direction?

Because it takes a lot of discipline.

Oh,

it's,

it's,

it's,

it's just so much about physical as well as mental.

For me,

if I don't get out the door and go for a run in the morning,

my day hasn't started yet.

You know,

like,

and I,

I think it's really important just to feel,

I mean,

I think it's instinctual because,

because back in the caveman days,

right,

we,

we would spend our days hunting our food.

Now we go into Coles and we buy it,

right?

So where do we get that thrill of the hunt from?

You know what I mean?

But why is you and I feel that way and others don't?

I mean,

is it,

because sometimes I wonder,

are we obsessed?

Is it,

is there an obsession with you?

Because there's definitely,

I'm definitely obsessed.

Okay.

But do you think there's an obsession with you?

I just think they haven't found it yet.

I think that,

I think it almost becomes,

I mean,

I was,

I was a pack a day smoker,

right?

For 20 years.

A pack a day.

Pack a day,

smoker for 20 years.

I started when I was 13.

And,

you know,

I sort of,

I had to find something else.

And I guess my addiction sort of became running.

And what,

what running and,

and,

and swimming and all that sort of stuff gives me,

as opposed to being addicted to smoking is 10 times better.

It gives me this healthy,

happy lifestyle.

And I can be a fit,

healthy dad to my kids.

And I,

I feel like I can live longer.

I think,

I think we should all be trying to live as long as we can and as healthy as we can.

We don't want to put a burden on the health system.

We don't want to,

you know,

we want to be the best version of ourselves for as long as we can.

And I,

maybe I don't want to get too deep in this,

but I mean,

and be punished,

but is it because some people like you're a pack a day smoker,

which means you got addicted to nicotine.

Fair enough.

And,

and the habit of doing it,

like having something in your hand.

That's what I was going to say.

There's actually what I learned.

Cause I quit with,

with,

with hypnotherapy.

I learned with hypnotherapy.

And what I learned was there's no physical addiction to nicotine.

Yes.

It was in your head.

It was in my head.

A hundred percent.

It was the,

it was the habit.

Yeah.

And having it in your finger and,

you know,

or you're in an awkward situation,

you light one up,

go to the pub.

I've got to go outside and have one because I,

I just need a break from the conversation.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

But,

and,

and so it's,

it's the,

the rewards,

you get a reward for this behavior.

Yep.

And for me,

all I'm doing is substituted this different behaviors with my old behaviors,

but I'm getting the same sort of reward.

It's just a chemical reward that I get from,

from training.

Yes.

Um,

but it is no different.

That is my obsession.

And I don't,

cause I mean,

a lot of people say,

Oh,

you're obsessed and you,

you,

I don't have compulsive obsessive disorder,

but I am obsessed and there's nothing wrong with being obsessed.

If you're in business,

there's nothing wrong being obsessed about the business because you're getting a reward

for the things you're doing.

And it's a good thing you're doing.

Yep.

If it's a good thing,

there's nothing wrong with being obsessed about it.

Yeah.

You know,

like,

and I,

I,

you know,

I listened to Peter Atiyah and Dr.

Peter Atiyah,

you know,

the,

the guy who wrote the book about longevity and he's obsessed about living a long time

and not,

not from an egotistical point of view,

but about what he can give back to his family and everyone else's in his world as a result

of living longer and healthier.

And therefore he's become obsessed by that.

And,

uh,

and I think these obsessions are important lessons for all of us.

Yep.

I mean,

like anybody I know who's healthy in my category,

in my age group,

like blokes like Ginge and all that sort of stuff,

um,

they are obsessed about the whole process.

You can't be healthy unless you're obsessed.

A hundred percent.

You've got a lot of people say to me,

how do I,

how do I become a good runner?

And I say,

it's consistency.

You've almost got to make it a priority and you've got to make it part of your life.

I can't do without it.

You can't go without it.

That's right.

And,

but I think with that,

like,

especially if it's a good healthy habit,

like it's a healthy obsession,

good things follow.

You know what I mean?

If you're feeling good on the inside,

then you'll feel good on the outside.

So what would you say to somebody,

you know,

like,

and we both got friends like this,

but who are doing it a bit tough and they're probably abusing things,

you know,

maybe too much booze or too much food or they're just living an unhealthy life,

not sleeping well,

whatever the case may be.

How would you,

I mean,

I'm not trying to make out you and I psychologists,

but what would you say to them about your lifestyle has done for you that maybe they could borrow from?

I think you keep trying till you find what it is like that,

that is right.

Like you,

you just got to like,

so I tried to quit.

I started smoking 20 different ways until I found hypnotherapy and then I found hypnotherapy and I found this great hypnotherapist and it was three sessions and bang,

I was done.

Wow.

You know what I mean?

And then I learn,

I was like,

and then,

but then,

but then also I had to change my lifestyle so that I didn't fall back into the,

the,

the habit of smoking again.

Meditation helped because meditation is actually a form of hypnotherapy.

So meditation helped.

And then I,

and then I found this.

And also I think like having goals,

right?

Whether you might hate running,

right?

So if you hate running,

don't make it running,

right?

Find a sport that you really like and have goals to work towards.

Like as soon as I've like run Sydney marathon,

right?

I'm already thinking,

okay,

I'll have a nice little break because there's got to be balance.

Balance is so important.

You've got to have a break to miss it,

to love it again,

right?

So then I go,

right.

So what's my next one?

What's my next goal?

What am I working towards next?

I mean,

I don't want to look like I'm here promoting your age,

athletic greens,

AG,

but is that part of your obsession?

What I mean by that,

is you're on to something that's good.

It's good for you.

And as a result of that,

you're,

you really want to prosecute it.

You really want to tell the world about it.

A hundred percent.

Well,

for what it's given me,

it's given me this healthy habit,

right?

Which,

which transfers.

When you do it.

First thing in the morning.

Yeah.

First thing in the morning.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Not every,

no,

I'm not,

I'm not,

I'm not regimented.

Like every now and then I'll have it with a banana and with some frozen

banana and coconut water.

I'll just chuck it in there and have it in a smoothie,

but I make sure I have it every day because it's a healthy,

healthy habit that reminds me if,

if not,

not only for all the other great things it does for my gut health,

you know,

for my energy levels and all that sort of stuff.

But it also reminds me that I'm on this health journey to be the best

version of myself for as long as I can be.

And don't get me wrong.

If you're in your twenties and you want to party and you want to do it,

do it a hundred percent.

But now,

especially having three young kids in a family,

I want to be around as long as I can for them.

And if,

you know,

one of the things about AG1 is the,

the ground that the,

where the,

a lot of the stuff is farm,

these days has been farmed so much that it's not as nutrient dense.

So actually food is one thing,

but we're actually not getting enough nutrients just out of food because of

how heavily earth farm the earth's are.

So that's another great way where reason why AG1 comes in and really helps us

to get exactly what we need.

And that's probably why us people that are in the society,

the AG1 society are feeling so good is because we're getting everything that

our body needs.

It's had,

it's had 52 different iterations to the recipe because they've been,

they've had scientists and,

and dieticians and nutritionists working on it just to get it exactly right.

And that's the great thing about the product is that it's,

it's nearly there.

Well,

they've got a good ambassador with you really.

And,

and you know,

at the end of the day,

it doesn't work for you.

In other words,

if you don't believe in it,

then you can't be the ambassador.

Just like when it comes to saving people's lives down in Bondi Beach and loving

what Bondi Beach offers.

I mean,

you're an ambassador for Bondi Beach.

You're an ambassador for Australian lifestyle.

And that's why the show has been so successful because guys like you're obsessed with this.

There's a process and it's because it's good for you.

Someone once said to me,

it's not work if you love what you're doing.

And I,

I've never worked a day in my life because I've always loved what I'm doing.

And I feel like I've gone from one dream job of like going to the beach every day and hanging out with my mates and rescuing people and making people's days,

you know,

making sure people's days are safe and sound.

And now I've gone to this other job where I'm trying to make people's lives healthier.

And I really believe in it and I love it.

And I'm not working.

I'm just loving my life.

That'll do me really good to see you,

mate.

Thanks Mark.

Cheers mate.

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