Bonnie Hancock

It didn't end that well for me.

I ended up quite sick.

I got glandular fever.

I actually had to have two years out of the sport.

So everything I'd ever known and loved and really my identity was wrapped up in who I was as an iron woman.

But that two years ended up being the best thing that could have happened for me.

I found out who I was outside of just an Ironwoman and on the water.

It may be a whole person.

And when I came back, I actually put my foot on the line in an Ironwoman race against all of those Ironwomen and had the biggest race win of my career.

So go figure, right?

We find out who we are, what we love, what we're good at, what our interests are.

Other than just being an athlete, happy athlete is a dangerous athlete.

How does it compare to a kayak?

Yeah, it is such a good point.

I need to remind myself to explain things in layman's terms because it is quite a niche sport that we do.

So like anyone, I guess, who's paddled a kayak on the flat water, you've got your beginner sort of

heavier craft, I guess, that are probably the old skis are around 20 kilos plus.

They're easy to paddle.

Our really lightweight Surf Life Saving skis are 18 kilos.

So there's not a whole lot of weight in them to take on these huge waves and, you know, the big surf.