The challenge early is juggling 6am starts with pitch darkness and the sounds of bigger waves. And the waves are getting bigger.
Those Petbarn coloured lights don’t provide much protection against the men in grey suits, but do help with sighting each other. I don’t wear one, but ordered online last week when I learnt that a previous encounter at 5.30am across the bay was the only one not wearing a light 
Look so careful. For a fault. Wait one minute. Say no more
Through young times. Wilder minds
Rusty’s wave report
More relaxed today. A coffee with Brett. The stretch lab. Before we wheeled out of the blocks at 6.30am. A white lit Snoopy was already catching a nice left hander as Colleen and I ramped down. Brett, Ali, Trish, John, Simon and the wave gun herself Kath launched like a battalion of wild geese heading south for the winter. Wave height and power a little down on yesterday. A stretch out before Saturday’s festivities. A westerly wind was sweeping us out to Deadmans. A packed house for the body surfers. Snoopy lost count. Colleen sitting wide waiting for glory on the set waves. DX and 7am crew laboured past, but swimming was the last thing on our minds. A changing of the seasons, still warm at 23, but the fleece came out today.
Who let these turkeys into Manly??
and check out this photo from the Nationals the other day. See below for a snip from the 1989 Nationals where our very own Riddo dominated… well so wild that no one else actually finished!!
Thanks for the swim (well surf) and coffee Team. Anyone up for a swim to the Bombie tomorrow?
Lots of love
Baby Spice & Rusty the Fish
If there was an image that really stuck out in Harvie’s mind it would be that of Ironman legend Craig Riddington at the 1989 Australian Surf Life Saving Championships at Burleigh… Harv’s first Aussies.
“During Aussies that year I broke two cameras and didn’t sell a single photo,” Harvie remembers.
“But when I captured the moment that Craig Riddington crossed the line after the surf race I knew it was all worth it.”
Riddington is a name synonymous with ironman racing, a trailblazer taking the sport to new limits and beyond.
Conditions wreaked havoc at the 1989 Aussies, with rain so heavy that visibility was less than 50 metres.
Riddington was one of the few athletes (many say the only athlete) to swim around the cans and return to shore, with onlookers left to watch with nothing but admiration.
“The current was so strong that they ran the majority of the races in reverse, except for my surf race,” Riddington said.
“I remember trying to swim around the cans for five minutes and not getting further than the third can, I knew I had to try something different so I swam past the cans and onto the bank, and then used the bank to assist,” he said.
“I actually swam an additional 10 metres past the last can and still ended up pinned to the last can and it was like wrestling a crocodile to get around it!”
Like many legends of the sport, Riddington echoed the sentiment about the Aussies, rating the atmosphere as like no other surf sports event.
“It was the pinnacle event for me, no matter what else was on in my professional racing career,” Riddington said.
“I used to always get more nervous at the Aussies than in any other race,” he said.
What has held true for the Aussies throughout the test of time is the opportunity to race with your teammates and represent your Club remains for many the highlight of their careers.
Riddington, who held many professional titles, holds an Aussies team event as one of his most memorable moments.
“But the team events were always the best at Aussies. Winning the Surf Teams in Perth in 1991 with Dean Peters, Simon Upton and Scott Miller was definitely the highlight.”
bring back the 80s: