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Your backstage pass to the world of surfing, hosted by MC and commentator Terry “Tappa” Teece. From pro surfers and legends of the sport to shapers, innovators and anyone with an epic story and a love for the ocean—The Green Room dives deep. Expect tales of epic wins, brutal wipeouts, and behind-the-scenes moments from life in and out of the water. Whether you’re chasing waves or just some inspiration, this podcast will leave you stoked to paddle out.
00;00;07;19 - 00;00;29;09
Tappa
Welcome to the Green Room. Your backstage pass to the world of surfing. I'm your host, surf emcee and commentator, Terry Tapper diving into epic winds, crashing fouls and wild stories with surfing's biggest names, as well as the legends working behind the scenes to keep that state alive. A big shout out to our sponsor for this episode. The official break out with their new Jersey lager.
00;00;29;11 - 00;00;53;08
Tappa
So wax up, paddle out and join us in the green room with a surf chat. Never guys flat. Get out and welcome to the Green Room. During my life, I've met some amazing people that I normally wouldn't hang out with. And today's guest is kind of one. Back in the day, when I worked for CFM. I was given the tough job I had to judge bikini pageants, and then I went on to emcee them one night at the Drake nightclub.
00;00;53;13 - 00;01;12;16
Tappa
I was told that the ankle tie, these iron men were going to be there as guest judges. And that's where I met today's guest, Phil Gliding and Strider. I like the black a bit, or maybe a lot of a larrikin back then. Always good for a laugh, but an all round good guy. A world champion, TV star, surf lifesaving coach, Olympic coach, my spawn.
00;01;12;16 - 00;01;28;17
Tappa
As you can see, coaching our people on, basically open ocean swimming. Tell him about the ocean and, you know, getting to know stuff. But we'll talk about that later. And he doesn't mind having a crack as big as it gets. If he if it's such a big, he's got to do it. Welcome to the green room. So Clayton.
00;01;28;19 - 00;01;29;20
Phil
Thanks to have a great to be.
00;01;29;20 - 00;01;39;25
Tappa
Here mate. My item. Nice to have you here. Like I say all the time. And I'm every morning actually out there, out there you're at telling people to swim around and you. Yeah. Might. Yeah. And we.
00;01;40;02 - 00;01;52;05
Phil
We do have a big early start. You always do your a little video and a lot of our swimmers love it. So they actually check your morning video before they come down to the beach. So appreciative of all of that. And we always run into each other surf out there Billy.
00;01;52;10 - 00;02;02;23
Tappa
Yeah, man. It's great. And I've run into your daughter all the time. I didn't know I was your daughter, but yeah, she's out there surfing. That's great to say, too, but my, Now you live on the Gold Coast, but you didn't start on legality, did you?
00;02;02;25 - 00;02;16;17
Phil
Now I didn't, I'm a woolen one boy. So, grew up in Wollongong. Mum and dad, surf lifesaving. As a young kid, spent a lot of time at ERA, which is a little national park up in, a shack up in the national park, in the rural national park.
00;02;16;20 - 00;02;18;14
Tappa
I've seen that is like at Gary Beach. Yeah.
00;02;18;14 - 00;02;24;05
Phil
Okay, so Gary's around the point. I was at the era, and then there's burning palms. The other point ran. So we've got a shack there.
00;02;24;08 - 00;02;25;14
Tappa
That's cool. That's country. You still got.
00;02;25;14 - 00;02;26;17
Phil
That? Still got it. Yeah.
00;02;26;18 - 00;02;31;00
Tappa
Well, that but because basically you can hand it down Kenya.
00;02;31;00 - 00;02;48;18
Phil
Correct. So the way it worked was back in the 1930s, my great grandfather was one of the eight that originated and started the actual surf club. Yeah. We built the shack from back then and it's been passed down from years, two years, years. It's now in my son jet's name. So he's got his name on the lease because he's the youngest.
00;02;48;22 - 00;02;56;29
Phil
He was the youngest one when the new lease came up. Yeah. We get down there quite a bit, mum and dad to slow down a little bit so they don't get up and down that hill. It's a solid hill, it's 4K.
00;02;56;29 - 00;02;57;29
Tappa
So there's no driving.
00;02;57;29 - 00;03;14;05
Phil
Is no driving. You can either get a boat around from, Port Hacking, which is near Cornella or not. Well, Cronulla by what's that by Dana. Yeah. Or you can walk down the hill from the farm. And, mate, I grew up there as a kid. I grew up diving, fishing, surfing. Great points too. So no zero point pumps.
00;03;14;07 - 00;03;19;04
Tappa
Wow. And I'm like, I say, you got to carry all your food and everything down. The food in there by.
00;03;19;06 - 00;03;32;28
Phil
Grog, everything. We didn't have a boat, so we had to carry it. Now we lived it will on long. So it was an hour door to door. So we'd leave a 30 minute drive up there, and then another 30 minutes to get down the hill. And we pretty much go every Friday. And we'd come back on Sunday night.
00;03;33;00 - 00;03;45;14
Phil
And then when school holidays started, we'd leave on the Friday of school holidays, and I'd spend six weeks straight down there and I wouldn't come up. That'd come up and just keep getting food and dropping it off. You get a work, mate. I lived in the water. I lived off the land.
00;03;45;14 - 00;03;50;02
Tappa
You must have just been too. Yeah. Total water. Boy might just in and out. So you did a bit of surfing too?
00;03;50;03 - 00;04;06;22
Phil
I did a lot of surfing. Grew up surfing. I started clubs when I was a young black. So, 1988, when I was eight years of age. So going back some years, but then at 11 years of age, I realized I wanted to do surfing. So I joined, Waba, which is the Wollongong Area Boardriders Association. Oh, cool.
00;04;06;22 - 00;04;17;26
Phil
So I surf with those guys for a couple of years, and I think that really helped you know, when you're on a surfboard, you learn how to read the ocean so much better. A lot of clubs these days are just in and out with their training, and they're not really skills based.
00;04;18;00 - 00;04;27;29
Tappa
Well, that's what I've noticed with you because I, I did what she Uncle Toby. So I mean, I noticed you, you were the one that could always read the surf and read the waves. You know, you seem to have the your eye on it.
00;04;28;01 - 00;04;44;00
Phil
Yeah, I love it. I, I grew up in here and I'd spend days, hours out there. We've actually go to this big sand hill in front of our shack. A lot of the nights, dad would wonder where I was, and I'd be asleep in the sand because I couldn't make it up to the shack. I'd be that tired from surfing or diving or fishing.
00;04;44;03 - 00;04;55;20
Phil
So I learned a lot about the ocean there, and a really big thing. When you're racing these big sporting events, you got to make sure you know everything. And, my knowledge came from my father teaching me down in the air, and, it made a massive difference.
00;04;55;25 - 00;05;02;02
Tappa
Well, that's unreal. So how did your Ironman career progressed? So you started with nippers. Did you like my skates?
00;05;02;03 - 00;05;14;16
Phil
Yeah. Nippers was, as I said, in 1988, had my first eight titles at Byron Bay in 1996 and went pretty well, won a few races and then just didn't want to do it. In the age of 11, I retired and and took up board ordinary.
00;05;14;18 - 00;05;20;20
Tappa
You know, I held the record of membership at and all these nippers one day and and I said not doing this anymore. There you go. Yeah.
00;05;20;20 - 00;05;39;05
Phil
It's it's it's it floats different boats. Yeah. That some people walk it some day. At about 14, 15 I came back into it and I got right into board paddling. I'd been surfing for four years and jumped on the board and won my first Australian title over it, at WA in the under 15 board. And then the following year I thought I was 16 years of age.
00;05;39;05 - 00;05;44;05
Phil
Why don't I jump in and have a crack at the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain? And, I started winning races at 16.
00;05;44;06 - 00;05;47;14
Tappa
Were you doing like, swimming training, like pool training and all at the same time?
00;05;47;15 - 00;05;58;16
Phil
I was, I came up in the town with, Jonathan Crowe, Darren Mercer, Dean Mercer, Todd Boland. So those were the guys I looked up to, and we were training hard, like it was a very tough town. Freezing cold. It was.
00;05;58;16 - 00;06;01;23
Tappa
Oh five. I am down the pool and it's like two degrees or something.
00;06;01;24 - 00;06;20;00
Phil
And I talk about this and people don't believe it, but, we grew up swimming training in a pool called Ewan and Darragh. It just I hate saying the word. It wasn't heated. So Wollongong is a cold town in the best of times it wasn't hated. So winter right through the summer and it average about 15 through to 1617 in winter.
00;06;20;02 - 00;06;33;03
Phil
And then some of the most that you get to would be 21 degrees. And then when I came up here to do the trial and, well, that would have been 1994, I couldn't believe my mum, who was hated. So the second I got my PS made all those movies straight up to the gallery here.
00;06;33;03 - 00;06;47;04
Tappa
I used to go to Miami pool. Never rough the old man because we didn't want to do nippers. Oh wait, you know, he said you want to surf? Well, a three and a half miles a morning, 32 laps warm up. That's nothing compared to what you guys. How many laps would you've been doing as a as a young fella?
00;06;47;05 - 00;06;49;26
Phil
On average we were 5 to 6 guys. So.
00;06;49;26 - 00;06;50;02
Tappa
Wow.
00;06;50;03 - 00;07;07;15
Phil
Yeah. And the thing was I didn't know any different. That was just what everyone in Wollongong did. I wanted to be an Ironman, so I just jumped on board. We were averaging five sessions a week. When I moved up here to the Gold Coast, we're doing six. We'd also go and do a session, Saturday morning with Dennis Cultural before we did our own session with Trevor and all the guys.
00;07;07;17 - 00;07;09;19
Phil
So it was wild how many cars we're doing.
00;07;09;20 - 00;07;23;01
Tappa
Well, people probably don't realize how much training the Iron Man do, because, of course, you you're. I'm a coach at Burly Surf Club, and you've been at other surf clubs as well as coach mate, those guys and girls. I do an amazing man training, don't they.
00;07;23;01 - 00;07;32;19
Phil
Yeah, well they don't realize you've got to do the ski leg, the board leg, the run leg and the swim leg. So that's just for disciplines. Then you've got to do a gym on top of that. So it's four disciplines you've got to squeeze into.
00;07;32;19 - 00;07;33;26
Tappa
A seven day week.
00;07;33;26 - 00;07;35;18
Phil
Correct. It's very very tough. So what.
00;07;35;24 - 00;07;36;19
Tappa
Swimming sessions a.
00;07;36;19 - 00;07;51;21
Phil
Day now was was three sessions a day. So training in the morning, training at 11:00, training in the afternoon. That was every day of the week except for Sunday. And, you were just cooked. But it got to the point where you were so fit that you just built that massive endurance base that it was pretty easy.
00;07;51;24 - 00;07;56;03
Tappa
Right? You like to play up a bit? How the hell did you do that while you were doing Iron Man?
00;07;56;05 - 00;08;13;02
Phil
I do like I did like the fire. I for a long time, I got attached, that's why not. I, I just enjoyed myself. I've. Ever since I was a young kid, I was a bit of a larrikin. And, I always look for the fun side of things. Yeah, and I took that into Ironman racing. And I was very fortunate that for me, I was racing my heroes.
00;08;13;08 - 00;08;25;12
Phil
Tribute. Hindi. Darren Dane Mercer, those guys, Jonathan Crowe, they were my idols. And I couldn't believe I finally made it in the professional series. So I thought, geez, I better celebrate every, every race.
00;08;25;14 - 00;08;35;29
Tappa
But mate, you've had some amazing races too. Can you tell me about some of the the big ones? Like because I remember one, I saw it pay higher. It was like, I just can't. They're not sending nice bikes out there.
00;08;36;00 - 00;08;42;01
Phil
Yeah, it's a great story. It was probably 15ft that day. I'll go with mid I say with a ski.
00;08;42;02 - 00;08;43;07
Tappa
How do you get a ski out there?
00;08;43;07 - 00;08;58;15
Phil
I said no, I said no, we had a vote before it and there was 30 guys in the room and it was 15, 15. So half voted yes, half voted no. I mean, I said no. And then a bloke saw a man jumped up and he did this speech about this could be one of those days that people will talk about forever.
00;08;58;17 - 00;09;01;00
Phil
And everyone's like, yeah, let's go.
00;09;01;03 - 00;09;01;09
Tappa
So.
00;09;01;09 - 00;09;07;21
Phil
We all jumped in and went, and the very first can that we swam around, it was only in the middle break. It wasn't even the back breaker. Yeah.
00;09;07;21 - 00;09;09;16
Tappa
You'll find a PR that guys.
00;09;09;19 - 00;09;27;15
Phil
Are huge and the cans are anchored by these massive weights. Four of us got to the cans first. I think it was nice. And my myself. Grant Hackett. Sorry. Yeah. Craig Hackett, his brother, And Grant Wilkinson. And as we hit the can, about eight foot of whitewash came through, hit the boy, and we popped up and there was no cane.
00;09;27;18 - 00;09;42;29
Phil
So that was the very first leg. From that we went around and, I was pretty lucky. I was sponsored by Knight back in the day, and I had the first ever black ski with the big Nike swoosh on it. Yeah. And, everyone was back pedaling and I thought, he's my chance. And I took off and mate, this thing broke on me.
00;09;42;29 - 00;09;47;02
Phil
It was so big. And I came up. Muskie was just bobbing into this and my dad was over.
00;09;47;05 - 00;09;56;01
Tappa
Oh, my. Yeah. Back in the day, there was some good money and, you know, Iron Man two back then, it's like. So I suppose at the same time there was some in the early 2000s. It was some good coin out there.
00;09;56;02 - 00;10;11;27
Phil
Yeah. Well I think the golden era was Trevor Handy, Guy Crowley, all that crew, they had the golden era of surf. There was Uncle Toby's and Nutri-Grain that were clashing. So it was a bit of a cereal which made the prizes, Prize money go up and up and up, and I just got in on the tail end of that.
00;10;12;05 - 00;10;19;07
Phil
I think I got about 2 or 3 years. So my first year at Portsea was probably the second last year that that gold in the air was running out.
00;10;19;07 - 00;10;24;11
Tappa
That Portsea gets big, too. I think I've watched some of the guys there and maybe even you in a race and just got up.
00;10;24;11 - 00;10;44;18
Phil
What it does, it does. I, we had a lot of races down there where I think the smallest we got, it was probably six foot. Our very last race we did there to win the Uncle Toby series in 2001, but it was every bit of 12ft, 10 to 12ft. But what it was, was it's three break, so you've got the shore break, you've got the middle break and then you've got the back break.
00;10;44;18 - 00;10;46;27
Phil
Yeah. That's 4 or 500m out to sea.
00;10;46;29 - 00;10;48;00
Tappa
That's where you had the guy.
00;10;48;00 - 00;11;02;05
Phil
Correct. And as you, as you go through the breaks, it's all about learning how the ocean works. And ways come in sequences. So if you know how many guys they're on the sequence, well, then you get to time the period between them. And, I was pretty close with all that stuff, so I wouldn't go when everyone was sprinting.
00;11;02;13 - 00;11;12;03
Phil
I'd slow down or wait my time. And very fortunate. In the last year I got smashed on the scale. I got hit by ten footer, but I got around that can go back to the beach and had to wade.
00;11;12;06 - 00;11;16;29
Tappa
Oh that's sick right? What are the what's another one that was pretty memorable besides bullet 41.
00;11;16;29 - 00;11;32;06
Phil
One that everyone laughs about. My most memorable was my home town. We had a, a huge race at Wollongong Beach, north of the beach, and it was the first time it came to town and there would have been 10 to 15,000 people there on the beach. And Jonathan Crowe and I were the hometown heroes, and it was an hour and a half race.
00;11;32;06 - 00;11;39;08
Phil
The surf wasn't very big, but it was just a grind. And, I came away with a win there, and that's probably my most memorable race I've ever running.
00;11;39;08 - 00;11;43;04
Tappa
Up the beach in front of general order. Did you have it? Pretty easy. All was I.
00;11;43;04 - 00;11;58;20
Phil
Did towards the end. I had it easy, but the last it's not easy. The last 400m. I was high fiving the crowd and that took me about five minutes to do. And it was just the greatest feeling. All my school mates, my school teachers, my best mates. I grew up with everyone in the crowd. So it was it was pretty special.
00;11;58;20 - 00;12;02;00
Tappa
Oh my, you must think buzzing for days after that I was.
00;12;02;00 - 00;12;10;18
Phil
We had the dice and the dice back up to the surf club was about 150, and it took me over 2.5 hours to get back signing autographs. It was it was a crackup.
00;12;10;20 - 00;12;21;06
Tappa
That's awesome. Right. And like, yeah, the, the Iron Man thing that. So when did you end up calling it quits? Did you did it. Was it because of the, Because I think the bottom dropped out of it, didn't it?
00;12;21;07 - 00;12;34;16
Phil
Did that last race I talked about in 2001. What happened was the Olympics came through. So from 1998, 1999 and 2000, a lot of the sponsors in all sports in Australia jump ship. And when with the Olympics at Sydney.
00;12;34;22 - 00;12;35;06
Tappa
00;12;35;14 - 00;12;47;18
Phil
Our sponsor, Uncle Toby's was one of those. And I realized they got so much more bang for their buck out of the, the Olympics that they said the next year, which was 2001. We've had a great time. It's been a wonderful run, but it's all over.
00;12;47;20 - 00;13;01;23
Tappa
Oh, wow. But I just one thing I want and I didn't like. I know all you on on blockchain are you all know each other on that. But are there certain blokes that like you that like ate the big stuff? You love it because my uncle tall, I could taste I. It's what I called him Tiger because he loved the big surf.
00;13;01;25 - 00;13;04;03
Tappa
And are there blacks? It don't like it at all.
00;13;04;03 - 00;13;20;21
Phil
There is is. I'll mention him. This is funny. He's going to kill me for this. But one of my best mates, Joshy Black, he really struggled in the big surf. He, He just couldn't handle it. I don't know whether it was mental or the size of the surf, but one thing I loved about Big surf was I could hold my breath for over three minutes.
00;13;20;21 - 00;13;34;22
Phil
Yeah. So diving? Yeah. Diving under a wave. I just didn't have a problem. I wasn't stressed, I didn't panic. Even if I got flogged, I could just roll and let the wave do the work. The most you're going to get held under is 15 20s. Yeah. And if you can just relax and not panic and climb the ladder.
00;13;34;25 - 00;13;43;24
Phil
So I didn't stress. We go, why do these races? And I just wasn't nervous about it. Where is everyone else. So tense up and get really tight. And, I just had a great time. I loved it.
00;13;44;00 - 00;13;59;18
Tappa
Well, that's the thing. People that realize a lot of people who don't have a lot to do to water. The worst thing you can do in the water is panic. You relax. You know, that's what you do. Mike? Yeah. I'm not. It's my. It's a frame. Good looks. And, mate, I know that you're on Baywatch.
00;13;59;22 - 00;14;19;02
Phil
Yes, we were on Baywatch. That was one of the funniest times ever. It's a, a great story. We met the owner of Baywatch, Greg Bonin, over in South Africa at the world titles in 96. It actually might have been a bit earlier. And he said, look, we'd love to get the man over to Hollywood. Anyway, he paired up with IMG, who was a company running Uncle Toby's at the time.
00;14;19;05 - 00;14;28;20
Phil
They flew us over there and we spent a week in Hollywood filming a episode where the Australian Iron Man had to race the Hasselhoff, the Hoff, and, we met Pam and.
00;14;28;20 - 00;14;30;21
Tappa
Oh, you met Penny? Yeah, that's for me, mate.
00;14;30;21 - 00;14;32;11
Phil
She was very short. She's.
00;14;32;11 - 00;14;33;22
Tappa
Yeah, very little. Yeah.
00;14;33;25 - 00;14;41;20
Phil
She wasn't very, very big. And she was really nice. She was very quiet. Tommy Lee was there every. Every day on the set. He came down with the, He's a.
00;14;41;20 - 00;14;41;29
Tappa
Different.
00;14;41;29 - 00;14;48;09
Phil
Individual. He was. He wouldn't let us all go near him. And, he was pretty full on, but he was there. The whole motley crew with this,
00;14;48;11 - 00;14;57;25
Tappa
My. I've actually saying part of that saying, and it's it's almost funny where all the Iron Man lifts the car out of the action right out.
00;14;57;27 - 00;15;14;28
Phil
So the story goes, we're going over there to race them anyway. They, we finish the race. We're having this party at this beach party, and someone drove a limousine off one of the PRS at Huntington Beach. So we ran down a little red Dickies with the Americans and the Aussies, and it was awesome. They had this huge crane with a limo.
00;15;15;01 - 00;15;32;15
Phil
Yeah, it was just a shell. They sunk it in the pool and the pool that you usually see the octopus. So yeah, we sat in that forever day filming this shot where we all lifted this car, which was a shell, and we carried up the beach, and then they took us to Huntington, lifted it off the pier and in the middle of the crowd wave, carrying this thing off the beach.
00;15;32;15 - 00;15;40;22
Phil
We couldn't we weren't even touching it. We were just basically gliding it. But it was so much fun. We had the best on of the, terrible acting, but it was a great time.
00;15;40;22 - 00;15;45;22
Tappa
Hey, I'm. I heard you're, Yeah. Amy's in the in the mail. My email.
00;15;45;23 - 00;16;05;21
Phil
I just didn't realize. And for people out there that watch movies and Netflix and whatnot, until you're in Hollywood and you see what they do, like, we were just a little Baywatch show. We were shooting a scene where Guy Andrews and myself, had to talk on this phone like there's 300 people behind the camera, so there's one camera, and there'd be 300 people all running around doing their job.
00;16;05;23 - 00;16;13;26
Phil
But I couldn't ask for the life, and I was so nervous. I just couldn't speak. I couldn't read my lines. It was terrible.
00;16;13;28 - 00;16;21;22
Tappa
My coaching life. My. You. Now what? What made you transition into coaching? What did you have, like, a bit of a passion for it.
00;16;21;22 - 00;16;41;12
Phil
Like, you know, I, I finished my career in Iron Man, and, I've been doing personal training, and I got a phone call from a mate. Shannon x times father, Billy Eckstine used to be my coach. Yeah. Anyway, he unfortunately passed away, and he was the coach at Crossroads Club. And Peter Milburn, who was running the club, rang me up and said, Phil, we'd love to get you in there and see if you could coach.
00;16;41;14 - 00;16;42;14
Phil
And I'd never done it.
00;16;42;17 - 00;16;44;04
Tappa
Wow. So not no experience, no.
00;16;44;04 - 00;16;59;02
Phil
Experience, but I'd have a life of training and whatnot. Yeah, I went in there and I loved it straightaway. I found my niche. That's what I really, really got a thrill out of. Racing was great. But what what was tough about racing was it was a very one on one sport. Yeah, it was all about me. You had to be selfish.
00;16;59;02 - 00;17;06;17
Phil
If you weren't selfish, you were never going to succeed. Yeah. When I got to coaching, it was about everyone else. And I loved that side of it. I could actually give back.
00;17;06;23 - 00;17;14;04
Tappa
Well, and would part of that be passing on some of your knowledge of the ocean and the why? So did you tell you guys like about how your timing period and stuff?
00;17;14;10 - 00;17;30;14
Phil
Hundred percent. I'd sit them down on the beach and we'd talk about the gaps between the ways, how many ways there were in a set, what that sequence was over. And, and we'd write it down on paper and they loved it. They couldn't get enough of it. And then once I understood that and put it into practice, we had some great success at car or at a burly surf club.
00;17;30;20 - 00;17;39;26
Tappa
And, yeah, Carol and Billy, they're probably the two biggest surf clubs out there. And like, because a lot of people come up like yourself, come up from down south from no one. Yeah, from Victoria.
00;17;39;26 - 00;17;55;15
Phil
And it's just so cold down there that's it's no reason why they wouldn't. And what's great is that surf lifesaving has got a big enough backing that people can actually make money now. So shore partners are jumped on board. They do a great job so kids can make quite a lot of money. They got great races all around Australia, which is awesome.
00;17;55;15 - 00;18;08;02
Tappa
Because it one thing I noticed because I do a lot of pay eye systems for the Nipa carnivals and that and the participant numbers are ridiculous, but it's a very finite city. That's right though, isn't it? Usually get there.
00;18;08;07 - 00;18;23;24
Phil
In our day, it was a lot less. We only had it was cadets. So that was 13 to 15. Then it was juniors 15 to 18 and then open. So you only got two cracks at the cherry. The now they've got every single age group right up to opens, which is amazing. There's so many different things that the kids can do.
00;18;23;27 - 00;18;36;29
Phil
They have weekend Iron Man events. They have. Sure. And partners. Cool. And got a gold that was on the weekend a bit disappointing. They're they're still calling it the Coolangatta Gold. It should be called the Coolangatta Bronze. They've it's probably a lot shorter than that, but it's giving it all you need.
00;18;36;29 - 00;18;37;27
Tappa
The Coolangatta Gold.
00;18;38;02 - 00;18;40;05
Phil
Yeah, I did quite a few of those. Tough race.
00;18;40;05 - 00;18;42;05
Tappa
Very hard. What's your best you've done in that one?
00;18;42;08 - 00;18;45;16
Phil
I think I might have got a fourth or fifth there. Okay. That's still isn't great.
00;18;45;16 - 00;18;50;22
Tappa
But it's still hectic, right. What happened back in the day? Because it's shorter now. But what was it originally?
00;18;50;24 - 00;19;09;13
Phil
The original course was, 21 K on the ski down to Coolangatta from surfers. You ran from, Gray Mountain down to the groin at Kirra. You swim from there to Bellingen. From Bellingen, you ran to Karumba, and then you paddle of the board from Currumbin back to Burley. And then you ran from Burley all the way back to service on the same.
00;19;09;15 - 00;19;10;14
Phil
It was really.
00;19;10;16 - 00;19;11;26
Tappa
Keen on it.
00;19;11;28 - 00;19;12;22
Phil
It was ridiculous.
00;19;12;29 - 00;19;13;28
Tappa
That's masochism.
00;19;14;02 - 00;19;21;01
Phil
So Scott race, guile, age, Jonathan Crow, there's some amazing athletes. Dai now who's won 11 of them.
00;19;21;07 - 00;19;32;15
Tappa
There's some that ever pay for something with that because that's got a really like on your body. Like that's taking your body where it can't go nearly because that's, it's like it's, it's that's beyond a marathon.
00;19;32;15 - 00;19;42;15
Phil
It's a lot of solo work. You just need time in the seat. So you're doing 3 or 4 hours in the seat where you're getting comfortable on a ski. It's just slow and easy. It's not hard. It's just about getting used to that body.
00;19;42;15 - 00;19;44;00
Tappa
Just getting a place correct.
00;19;44;00 - 00;19;45;13
Phil
Yeah, just sitting in a nice tempo.
00;19;45;13 - 00;19;47;10
Tappa
And the one two wins just got a bit of pace.
00;19;47;10 - 00;19;57;19
Phil
Correct. Well they just they've done fueling very well. Yeah. So you've got to make sure you're eating the right stuff. You're fueling with LS. And if you don't do that you bone can you just you hit the wall and it all falls apart. Happens a lot.
00;19;57;24 - 00;20;03;20
Tappa
Nowadays. Is that many of those, like, what do you call marathon events in surf lifesaving?
00;20;03;21 - 00;20;19;00
Phil
That's not. That's the only one. So, yeah. I think they've back that back down to about two hours, which was pretty common for us. And the Uncle Toby's, we used to do seven races a year, and those seven races would mix between sprint, endurance, triple sprint, they'd be eliminator. So we do five races on.
00;20;19;00 - 00;20;22;20
Tappa
That eliminator looked really hot. Remember watching that guy on like what?
00;20;22;23 - 00;20;36;24
Phil
Well, back in our day, it was five rounds and every round four people dropped out. So and then they'd come down to the last four guys and it was it was unreal. And if you could make it to the last four, you're guaranteed to be making 15 plus grand. Hey, it was great. It was really.
00;20;36;24 - 00;20;41;10
Tappa
Fun. But and that last one, you'd probably get to the beach and you had absolutely no, we're.
00;20;41;10 - 00;20;51;25
Phil
All gassed the whole last four. Everyone was cool because you've done the five rounds. It was. I think there was only a five minute break between when the first person crossed until you win again. So it was bang, bang, bang, but great fun.
00;20;51;28 - 00;21;01;12
Tappa
Oh wow. Alright, now I wonder you likes when you finish your thing and you apply it, you get sidetracked because you'd have to be like yeah, I don't know. I just like to be super fit.
00;21;01;12 - 00;21;14;08
Phil
Back in the day, there was a bit of a rule with Uncle Toby's, and it's a bit different nowadays where everyone had to go back to the pub to meet the public. So we all went back to the pub to make the public. And it was a great marketing tool because they felt like they were a part of the day.
00;21;14;08 - 00;21;14;23
Tappa
Yeah, yeah.
00;21;15;00 - 00;21;20;10
Phil
And if you're at the pub, you can have 1 or 2 beers that turns into 4 or 5 them. All of a sudden you've had a couple.
00;21;20;10 - 00;21;38;00
Tappa
That's a really right. That's really good, because that's what's good about surfing too. You know, like, you know, there's not many sports where you can actually hang out, hang out with the guys. When you surf, you can go out there, be surfing with John, John Rock, our Mick and you just out there, which is, you know, you can't get on the tennis court with like an Hewlett or someone.
00;21;38;00 - 00;21;38;24
Tappa
You know, it was.
00;21;38;24 - 00;21;58;12
Phil
Really funny to back in the Uncle Toby's days, they used to have a, press release roster so certain people would be asked to do things prior to the race, and a lot of that meant you had to go to shopping centers. You go to schools, you got to nightclubs. I was always guy together, knocks on. It was terrible because I'd end up at the nightclub having been singing songs on the Michael lot.
00;21;58;15 - 00;21;59;26
Phil
And then we'd have to race the next day.
00;22;00;03 - 00;22;02;28
Tappa
Oh. So have you ever raced with a hangover?
00;22;03;01 - 00;22;03;21
Phil
I have.
00;22;03;22 - 00;22;04;26
Tappa
Oh.
00;22;04;27 - 00;22;17;16
Phil
My. It's a terrible story in height hearing this, but, my first ever race win. Yeah, I went out with tour of the Indian Portsea the night before. It had a couple of years, and, it was trivial. I left with the last two left working at a Sorento pub.
00;22;17;21 - 00;22;19;17
Tappa
So you both novel do each other. Correct.
00;22;19;17 - 00;22;24;13
Phil
And then the following day, for an hour and a half human, I battle it out. And I beat him in the last run and won the day.
00;22;24;15 - 00;22;38;11
Tappa
Wow. So you got first and second. You doing that? The only on the black. I know that stuff like that was Spot Anderson on his, spot. He got his. Yeah. He won a triathlon in Amsterdam I think after a night of debauchery or that night.
00;22;38;13 - 00;22;40;17
Phil
He was very good at that, too. He was a good.
00;22;40;17 - 00;22;41;16
Tappa
Surfer to spotty.
00;22;41;16 - 00;22;42;18
Phil
He did rip, didn't. Yeah, he.
00;22;42;18 - 00;22;52;02
Tappa
Did. Yeah. My Tom, you're an Olympic coach as well. How about that? So you're, But you're doing Olympic catching the triathlon, is that right?
00;22;52;02 - 00;23;13;05
Phil
I am so, quite a few years ago, I got asked by, Well, I'll start it even earlier. Yeah. The Olympics, for the first time ever, put the ten K open water in the ocean. So it's always been done in a river or a lake or what? Not yet. They rang up Surf Lifesaving Australia and said, look, we need someone to come over to Rio Copacabana and, check the course out and do some Intel.
00;23;13;08 - 00;23;36;17
Phil
And they call me. So I got the stop. I flew over there, and I spent, three weeks just measuring the course, checking the water conditions. And then I started working with Ashley Gentle, the triathlon triathlete. So teaching at I body surf how to get in and out through the break. And from that, I saw, the British team over there for the Olympics in 2016, and they said, look, we're coming back out to Australia in the next cycle.
00;23;36;17 - 00;23;47;24
Phil
We'd love to catch up. And they got me on board as a coach, and I signed up with them in 2019, and I've been with them right up through to Paris, and I've just signed up right through to, LA Olympics.
00;23;48;00 - 00;23;49;25
Tappa
So in L.A, are they doing In the ocean?
00;23;49;28 - 00;23;50;25
Phil
They,
00;23;50;28 - 00;24;06;07
Tappa
We'll see. I remember once I was I knew Miles Stuart pretty well. Yep. And it will. He's Tom's youngest sister. Was good friends, my ex-wife. But, I remember seeing him in this triathlon, and I did it in the beach. And you know what? He had it won, but he couldn't catch a wife.
00;24;06;08 - 00;24;07;10
Phil
A struggle, didn't he?
00;24;07;11 - 00;24;17;12
Tappa
He couldn't catch a wave. And I think he ended up going, saying, why don't you blogs to actually learn how to body surf from that? And it's very important thing like, yeah, it's what it can cost you what 30s or.
00;24;17;13 - 00;24;33;22
Phil
It's even more than that. So my job in the last four year cycle going into Paris was to work with, with the athletes to teach them how to swim in the same, when we got over to Paris, the sun was moving at 1.2m/s. Whoa. Which is very, very fast. And just to swim against that is phenomenal.
00;24;33;25 - 00;24;42;24
Phil
Now, my job, they you wouldn't believe it. But of all the places in the world, tell a badger a creek one hour before high tide would flow in at 1.2m/s.
00;24;42;24 - 00;24;43;10
Tappa
Oh, sorry.
00;24;43;11 - 00;24;49;13
Phil
Yeah. So they started coming over here every February. And we did that for three years leading up or four years leading up to Paris.
00;24;49;13 - 00;24;52;00
Tappa
So I was basically swimming against what I was going to be swimming against.
00;24;52;00 - 00;25;10;27
Phil
And we just hit repeat. We did it a thousand times, and when we got over there to Paris, it wasn't a fright for us. We were ready for well prepared. And, the guys jumped in and the bloke that I work with the most, I like, she, he had a brilliant swim where he swam down really well with it, turned, sat on everyone's feet, did no work for the rest of the race, ended up going on on winning the gold medal.
00;25;11;00 - 00;25;23;10
Tappa
Oh. Hey, you guys might catch him a gold medalist. I didn't know that one, but that's that's pretty cool. And like to to actually do that. So that comes from you actually jumping in and checking it. All that measuring stuff that's I did.
00;25;23;10 - 00;25;24;03
Phil
Yeah. So I got.
00;25;24;03 - 00;25;27;07
Tappa
So are you a bit of a mad scientist at heart. My I love the water.
00;25;27;07 - 00;25;42;20
Phil
I love how it works. I love what the ocean does. I love what rivers do. And you just got to do a little bit of homework. We've got such a great internet right now that if you do just five minutes of homework, anyone can do it. You can find out so much information. I got so much up here that I love giving it back to other, other people.
00;25;42;20 - 00;26;06;25
Phil
Now, my job with the British team, when I got over there, I got a phone call the night before and asked if I could jump in and swim the course. And to give it put it in perspective. The bridge that I had to swim under was 25m wide. Now 25m in a pool takes roughly 15 seconds to get through for most people, 15 20s it took me 3.5 minutes to get through that bridge because there was so much water funneling under the arch at 1.2m.
00;26;06;28 - 00;26;08;20
Phil
Now it's pouring. I couldn't get through.
00;26;08;20 - 00;26;10;10
Tappa
Out of that a b increase the speed of it.
00;26;10;10 - 00;26;24;26
Phil
Obviously it pulls through fast. So when I went back, I said, guys, if you don't swim them to the final, the furthest to the right arch, this race is going to take a long time. So they cut the pontoon off. And if you watch the Olympics, that's why all the swimmers went all the way over the side.
00;26;24;26 - 00;26;26;05
Tappa
Because I remember saying that.
00;26;26;05 - 00;26;29;24
Phil
Yeah. So that's after I died. Didn't had a swim and told them which way they should go.
00;26;29;24 - 00;26;31;04
Tappa
How was the water in the sand?
00;26;31;04 - 00;26;44;05
Phil
But a lot of people carried on. It wasn't bad at all. It was time before. Yeah. Two things I do, smell and taste. When you dive in the water, you can't help it. Taste it. Yeah. It's going to hit your lips and your nose, and the smell is. You can smell it straight away. It was fine.
00;26;44;05 - 00;26;48;27
Phil
It just tastes. If you've ever swim in a dam, it's just like swimming in a rock. It wasn't bad at all.
00;26;49;03 - 00;26;51;03
Tappa
I don't like where I video.
00;26;51;09 - 00;27;05;16
Phil
Well, really, I wasn't bad either. So the one car that I measured at Rio was where? And in Sugarloaf Bay we were racing at Copacabana. Copacabana is the same as Burley. The water quality CSIRO made me take a kit over and I tested every two days and it was totally fine.
00;27;05;18 - 00;27;08;23
Tappa
Right. I think the surface got caught there and, they did when they.
00;27;08;23 - 00;27;15;21
Phil
Well, that's when the rain came out because there's no, series system over there. It goes straight in the streets. It just poured straight out. It was pretty gross.
00;27;15;23 - 00;27;25;03
Tappa
Yeah, because I remember talking to Bay Dervish about it, and him and a few of the others got pretty crook. Yeah. Now the L.A. Olympics might watch you planning for that. And if you like, if you know the course already.
00;27;25;03 - 00;27;28;05
Phil
Yeah. We do. It's at, Venice Beach. Already know the day. Already know the.
00;27;28;05 - 00;27;30;12
Tappa
Tide you've been pumping on at the front might.
00;27;30;12 - 00;27;44;20
Phil
You know, I actually I actually did that when we went over there for Baywatch. It was hilarious. The skinniest kid in the world against his big guys and whites. But the race is right in front of the car park at Venice Beach. And, we know the day. We know the time. We know the tide. So we've already laid our three year plan out.
00;27;44;20 - 00;27;50;06
Phil
And that starts from February next year. They're all coming out, they start gym, and I caught up early and, we get straight into it.
00;27;50;06 - 00;27;53;21
Tappa
And you found a beach. It's very much like Venice Beach somewhere around here we have.
00;27;53;21 - 00;27;55;08
Phil
It's just down the coast. I'm not going to say.
00;27;55;08 - 00;28;17;13
Tappa
When I know that, right. That's unreal. Now, another thing people probably don't know, they're like, okay, you're a surfer. Yep. You're a surfer, a lifesaver. Yep. Which is a crazy my five right cyclone Alfred. Yes. Like that is right. It's the biggest I've ever seen. But some people are not heard of. But like it's the biggest I've seen.
00;28;17;15 - 00;28;21;10
Tappa
It was massive. And you were out there on your freaking club people.
00;28;21;10 - 00;28;35;26
Phil
I was, I was it was a funny day. I remember we walked up and I was with one of my best mates, co-host, and was sitting under the hat with palsy, and all the boys were all sitting up there, and everyone couldn't believe the size of these waves. And I'm looking at it and it's sort of clean. Yeah, and I said to palsy.
00;28;35;26 - 00;28;38;15
Phil
I said, do you reckon we could get out? And he gave me the biggest rundown.
00;28;38;17 - 00;28;40;07
Tappa
You need to paddle out. He stop, he.
00;28;40;12 - 00;28;47;10
Phil
Wait for the sets. When that goes we'll whistle from the hill and you bolt out. So thirsty. And I went and grabbed our club emails and we went out and they.
00;28;47;11 - 00;28;49;06
Tappa
Said, you can trust Palsy Day.
00;28;49;08 - 00;29;08;20
Phil
There's a great video of of when we go out and get those boards at, what are they, ten. They're 11ft long. Yeah. Now we paddle over this set and I'm leading. And cause the Army mate, you can fit, like, five of our boards up the face of this wave as we're paddling up it. So I work that out, and we, we just scratch over this one, and that's on the inside.
00;29;08;20 - 00;29;13;22
Phil
Not even the outside. So we had a great day. I, I love big surf. It was a lot of fun.
00;29;13;24 - 00;29;21;25
Tappa
Oh, my. Like I remember you telling me it's out there like I think the boys are at their Gen Billy Watson camp on a jet ski. Did you all got a dog?
00;29;21;26 - 00;29;37;13
Phil
Hey, did he even, I saw a clock this morning down a belly heaving clock. I call this massive bomb like it was humongous and on a club board. My muffin wasn't catching, so I was levitating, and I was bouncing down the face, and I had to bottom hand turn to get around it. And I'm thinking, I'm about to die.
00;29;37;13 - 00;29;54;01
Phil
And right in front of me was Billy and Clarky on the jet ski, just screaming at me, looking up this face. It was so big I got around that I went flying along. They took off on the jet ski to get over it behind. That way there would have been 12 in a row and it was 12 to 15ft waves and I'm on a club board.
00;29;54;03 - 00;30;04;24
Phil
I just sat there and looked up. I thought, I'm dead. So I threw my board and I wasn't that stressed down the back because it was so deep. There's a lot of what was ten foot. What was that didn't bother me. So I got on to that. That was funny.
00;30;04;24 - 00;30;07;03
Tappa
Being held on under for one year doing that.
00;30;07;05 - 00;30;16;07
Phil
Those weren't bad because we were at the back. That was easy. And then I was getting swept down the beach so fast with cyclone all the ways. It was so big. All of a sudden, a.
00;30;16;07 - 00;30;18;27
Tappa
Half hour out to sea. I it when you're doing this, I want.
00;30;18;27 - 00;30;36;25
Phil
To give you an understanding. When I pulled off that wave after I'd ridden it for a long time, the shark nets were right in front of me. So that that'll give you an understanding of how far out we were. That's so I had I rode, I ride the way for so far. I did about 6 or 7 turns and then pulled off the wave as I came off.
00;30;36;25 - 00;30;40;11
Phil
The way the shark nets are about 80m in front of me. That's looking back.
00;30;40;12 - 00;30;47;11
Tappa
And then the sets come. And like I was saying to, I think the other day, like when you've got one of these things, what are they about 4 or 5in thick.
00;30;47;12 - 00;30;48;23
Phil
Yeah. You can't hold on to it. Yeah.
00;30;48;23 - 00;30;50;05
Tappa
Yeah. That's what do you do. You just because.
00;30;50;06 - 00;30;52;07
Phil
There's 1012 for a while there's no way.
00;30;52;09 - 00;30;54;04
Tappa
So the thing that slides you got a guy correct.
00;30;54;09 - 00;31;09;20
Phil
Yeah. And I didn't have a vest or anything all that. So I was just you a pair of boards. So I went under those and that wasn't a problem. So I was adding deep water. I'd go under and I'd actually my goal was to come up and let them take me in. Yeah. So I wouldn't stay under. I'd go under and then quickly come back up in the washing.
00;31;09;23 - 00;31;25;10
Phil
Yeah. Takes me out of the zone. Anyway, that was fine. And then I started swimming in. I'm all sweet. And I realized I'd been swept down the north early, and then all of a sudden, these sets come. I'm on the inside break. So on the sandbar night, it was ten four and they were top to bottom, massive sets.
00;31;25;10 - 00;31;40;22
Phil
And I got about ten of those on the head. And first couple were fine. And the last 2 or 3 I seriously, I couldn't get through the whitewash. So no matter what I did, I couldn't get through. And I kept saying to myself, you're a coach, you're an X club. You now have to hold your breath, chill the hell out.
00;31;40;22 - 00;31;44;23
Phil
Would you just relax? And then I started to panic. The last two wise men I was.
00;31;44;26 - 00;32;01;25
Tappa
I was like, because, like, I've talked to, I've heard Ross Clock Giants, right when he said he just like he's getting tone around and he said he goes to a nightclub in his mind, you know, he goes and then I talk to the blind surfer Matt Forms and yeah, he said he makes an omelet. He goes there, goes to the fridge, he gets it.
00;32;01;25 - 00;32;05;00
Tappa
This is in his mind. Yeah. And he said he's never put the cheese on.
00;32;05;04 - 00;32;06;17
Phil
A guy because he's come back up to.
00;32;06;17 - 00;32;08;05
Tappa
The this. Yeah. So what do you reckon you were.
00;32;08;06 - 00;32;27;13
Phil
You know he's on. I've got mine. So, we did a, I did a breath course with Trevor Hendy years ago, and this guy came out. He was an ex, ex French military, and he taught us down at Tweed Heads. And we did this full day, and it was unreal. And he put you, laid you down in the water, and I had to hold onto his finger and test how long we could all that breath.
00;32;27;15 - 00;32;34;06
Phil
But he put you in a zone where you've actually got to go somewhere, which is your happy place. My happy place was surfing, striding and getting out.
00;32;34;09 - 00;32;35;17
Tappa
I was getting barreling. Yeah.
00;32;35;17 - 00;32;46;24
Phil
So that was my happy place. And I just kept reliving, getting tubed at, at, at strategy. And I still to this day, every time I get pumped, I just chill out and I just think about taking off beyond the peak, getting bowed.
00;32;46;29 - 00;32;48;05
Tappa
And that takes your heart right?
00;32;48;06 - 00;32;57;27
Phil
Can I just chill out? Yeah. And if you don't think about something like that, your heart rate spikes and then all your skin starts to grip on and it gets pretty bad. It's not nice.
00;32;58;00 - 00;33;06;18
Tappa
Wow. So that might be because yeah, that was the day that Liam O'Brien was at. He's out there with this and like yeah. And you're out there on a giant slab of fine.
00;33;06;18 - 00;33;22;08
Phil
Well we were we were sitting there. Never forget we were sitting there looking straight in nice. My eye was tearing or dropping and he was doing step offs night. He was staying in cabins. It was so big. It was so massive. Anyway, Hurst, you know what? It hurts. You laugh at this. He kept scratching to the left and I'm like, let's get a little bit deeper.
00;33;22;08 - 00;33;36;01
Phil
I want to get one of those I want to get. He's like, oh, just watch. I'll wait here. I'll watch it. He ended up getting a couple of really big guys too, but after I got my wife, I left him out there. So he said it was awful. He was stuck out there on his own. And Liam and, Nathan were just taking off.
00;33;36;01 - 00;33;42;07
Phil
And Billy, they were gone in two seconds because they're on the power. The only thing we can use is our arms. It's pretty frightening.
00;33;42;10 - 00;33;44;15
Tappa
And my keyboard. What happened to your board?
00;33;44;23 - 00;33;48;09
Phil
This is hilarious. So I got back into the beach clock. He ended up sandwich.
00;33;48;10 - 00;33;49;06
Tappa
End up at the beach.
00;33;49;06 - 00;33;51;27
Phil
Which just before the hill. So just before the hill at Miami.
00;33;51;27 - 00;33;53;14
Tappa
That's a long time in the water, mate.
00;33;53;14 - 00;34;09;13
Phil
I got sweat the whole way down, and I finally got in and I walked out. I was walking past North Burnley Surf Club, just go past the tower and clock. He came in on his toe board it so him and I were walking back. You guys mate, where's your board? I said my needs goal. I said, I got pump so far out to sea I've lost it.
00;34;09;13 - 00;34;21;07
Phil
I said, I'm happy with that. I've enjoyed my time. I'll accept that it's gone. As I'm walking back, I look up into the bushes at about 4 or 5 and it's stuck in a tree. So the surge.
00;34;21;08 - 00;34;21;29
Tappa
Be quite.
00;34;22;00 - 00;34;28;12
Phil
Like the surge had come through and the waves are surging well and truly up into the bush. And it had wedged my board into a tree. I'm like.
00;34;28;15 - 00;34;29;15
Tappa
Oh.
00;34;29;18 - 00;34;32;10
Phil
Ran up, pulled it out of me running in. And it's pretty funny.
00;34;32;10 - 00;34;51;15
Tappa
Oh my God, that's pretty awesome. Yeah. So like I had Alfred might say, you've got the little mix. What what else? Like, oh that's right, I haven't talked about what you do every day. Every day you've got your group of people there and and like, do you like, is it great passing on your skill to just the ordinary job?
00;34;51;22 - 00;35;17;14
Phil
It is. I got to tell you, go to the Olympics is amazing. Getting the gold medal in the two bronzes was unbelievable. An emotional rollercoaster ride. And I still can't believe it happened. But I get much more of a kick out of teaching people how to read the ocean. Now I'll talk about a couple of ladies. I got, two ladies in particular that have come down with me and they couldn't get out like four sessions where they've stood in the knees for four sessions in a row and they haven't gone past their knees.
00;35;17;17 - 00;35;30;07
Phil
I've explained why the whys breaking like that, what type of wave it is, what happens on the ocean floor, where the rips, where the sandbank is, and then show them how I'm going to get you out. You're going to be totally chilled and I've swam them out the back and and.
00;35;30;07 - 00;35;33;08
Tappa
These ladies have strong swimmers are not terrible. Oh, right.
00;35;33;11 - 00;35;48;07
Phil
Yeah I wouldn't say terrible. Sorry, girls, but they're the powers. Not they're, they're very, a little bit middle aged ladies. So I just don't have the strength and the power to get out. And now they're at the point where they come down every Friday and they're swimming out no matter what size of surfing. So they.
00;35;48;07 - 00;35;49;00
Tappa
What are those people?
00;35;49;04 - 00;36;07;06
Phil
Correct? Correct. Yeah. So to give you a rundown of our business, it's, we swim at Badger Creek on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. We swim at Burley Beach on Tuesdays and Fridays. And I see you on Tuesday, Fridays. But we break into different groups at the beach. So we have surf one, surf two, and surf three, surf one zero late.
00;36;07;06 - 00;36;12;18
Phil
So we get people from all around the world coming in because I think, some triathlete swim coach.
00;36;12;18 - 00;36;12;29
Tappa
Where you.
00;36;12;29 - 00;36;28;16
Phil
Are. Yeah, but they want to come over, learn. So they're coming from all over the world. So I'm very fortunate for that. We've got some great athletes. Surf too, is for people that just aren't fast enough for surf. One, but they can still swim a long way. They're very confident in the ocean. And then our surf three. It's for people that are learning.
00;36;28;22 - 00;36;44;16
Phil
So mums and dads and kids that want to learn about the ocean. And I teach a skill set. So we learn how to bob on under ways. Had a dog to the bottom grab sand, how to get yourself in a rip, how to get out of a rip. And I love it. My my average demographic would be 55 plus and they just can't get enough.
00;36;44;16 - 00;36;49;14
Phil
We've actually got about ten I think 10 or 11 over 70 that join me.
00;36;49;16 - 00;37;03;04
Tappa
That's that's that's really good. I it's like because that sort of skill, I know when my daughter was a little girl and I taught her how to go under a wave and like, she wouldn't do it, she wouldn't do it. And then she did it and all of a sudden she's only like five this way. Right click. Oh, yeah.
00;37;03;04 - 00;37;04;28
Tappa
That's easy dad. Yeah. Oh, okay.
00;37;05;06 - 00;37;20;21
Phil
Well, once they learn that it's just energy. And that energy is just a ball rolling on the top. Yeah. Why don't you teach them how to actually get underneath that? No matter how big it is, there's always a little gap. Unless it's just Hurricane Alfred. Yeah. There's always a little gap that you can lay on the bottom, and I call it Wolverine.
00;37;20;21 - 00;37;38;04
Phil
They stick their wolverine claws in. I hold on tight. Once the energy's going, they pop out and I talk about the period. If the periods 8 or 9 seconds is plenty of time to get up, take a breath, take 2 or 3 strokes, and then dive down again. And once they understand that, it's like this massive, like God moment and they just love it, they can't get enough.
00;37;38;04 - 00;37;45;08
Tappa
It's funny. Short periods, swells are so much harder. Oh well, like even even on a surf. The devil with the.
00;37;45;09 - 00;37;53;06
Phil
Devil like for us swimming like you got to imagine that three, four second periods we dive under and come up and it's right in your face. Yeah, it hits you straight away. So I hate.
00;37;53;06 - 00;38;04;17
Tappa
Noises. We'll say a lot of people don't realize, like people who are really fit. They don't realize like sufficient swimmers and that the type of fitness it is because it's basically like you're running. Yeah. Correct. Then you're holding your breath and you're still running.
00;38;04;17 - 00;38;06;16
Phil
Yeah. It's cardio, it's just full on cardio.
00;38;06;16 - 00;38;07;29
Tappa
But I was holding your breath.
00;38;07;29 - 00;38;23;09
Phil
Yeah. Well we, we do sessions where we train in the creek so they'll do ten strokes. Right. They got to dive in the bottom. Yeah. We'll do that five times in a row. Some people struggle for 2 or 3 weeks. Then they finally understand that. Don't take too big a breath because you're going to be like a duck with your bum in the air and your feet pedaling.
00;38;23;12 - 00;38;29;00
Phil
You need a little bit of air out as you're going down. Once they learn how to doodle, they can't wait to get over to the beach.
00;38;29;02 - 00;38;45;15
Tappa
Oh that's sick. That's now my time. The other thing, like just yesterday it was all the sharks and snapper and also what the other when we were out there was chased was what's today Tuesday. Yeah. When we're out on Monday morning I think you might have been out there or something in there was all there was fish everywhere.
00;38;45;21 - 00;38;49;25
Tappa
And that's and that's the same thing. And, yeah, the.
00;38;49;27 - 00;39;04;16
Phil
Stories I got to tell the story. So this Tuesday, the day that that video came out at Coolangatta. Yeah, we were running our first session, which was 530, 630 by balls everywhere. We could say that they were right down like past the drain. So I kept right up. You were saying this, right?
00;39;04;19 - 00;39;05;11
Tappa
Yeah. You were? Yeah.
00;39;05;11 - 00;39;23;22
Phil
In Burley, you can see the bottom. Where? Why? It's it's pretty safe. They were far enough away. We were coming back in and arrived as these birds started diving just out of the blue, I saw the little baitfish jump in front and then bang! A shot came straight up and was chasing the fish. I saw that none of the swimmers saw it, so I just quick as a wink, I said, all right guys, great job.
00;39;23;22 - 00;39;36;25
Phil
We're going to go in and do some surf work. So we just went back to the beach and just did a little bit of climb. Yeah that's I didn't know it actually swam under one of our swimmers and he didn't care. Yeah. He said they're going after fish. They don't after us. They're out there. Yeah. Is semi-trailers on the right two nights.
00;39;36;25 - 00;39;54;26
Tappa
Have you. Oh I know, I know, but you know what's weird with me, right. I've surfed in some of that. Just ridiculous, spooky, crazy prices sitting on a surf. But now rise in the water. I feel like it's like I'm nude or something. It's like I'm fully vulnerable. It's a weird thing, but I suppose it's no difference in reality, is it?
00;39;54;26 - 00;39;56;28
Phil
You've got a board managing what it's like for us swimming.
00;39;57;02 - 00;39;58;15
Tappa
That's our main. That's why it's.
00;39;58;15 - 00;40;16;29
Phil
Like. And not only that, we actually get to see everything. So we've had a lot when that that year that we had the the Hammerheads when they were at Berkeley. Yeah. Like we go swimming every morning and there was just 15 Hammerheads swimming under our squad. And they started off this big. And all of a sudden three months later they're this big and everyone's like, well, how long until we don't swim over these hammerheads anymore?
00;40;17;01 - 00;40;17;21
Phil
But they took off.
00;40;17;21 - 00;40;25;23
Tappa
So let's make it a swim. And sharks I might. Didn't you have an adventure with wanting to elevate your career when you're a leading the crew or something? The swimming is up for.
00;40;25;24 - 00;40;41;26
Phil
A good story, but it's been blown out of proportion. So like I, what do I do? Is I live up early, right? Beverly, I live at LA Pacific, so a lot of the mornings in summer, I'll walk over to work with my whistle. McGee. We've got a little shed at Neptune's, real life saving that I leave my stuff, and then I'll swim back home.
00;40;41;28 - 00;40;52;15
Phil
So from tally with the tide swimming back home. Now, this wasn't with the squad. This is on my own. Yeah. I was cruising home, and I just had that eerie feeling, you know, when you have it. Yeah, everyone gets it.
00;40;52;15 - 00;40;54;08
Tappa
If you're small or something, you.
00;40;54;11 - 00;41;14;19
Phil
You just not have that feeling anyway, so I push back in closer to the rocks as I came around the point and I took a stroke, and I look straight onto my arm, and I saw the dorsal fin and I saw the tail fin flapping behind. And I'd just done this little online course about sharks. And if you do have that moment and the one thing that I said was if it's an apex predator.
00;41;14;21 - 00;41;30;14
Phil
So if the scenario does happen, do not try and paddle away from it because it will chase you. That's what they do for a living. Yeah. So turn around, face it and frighten it. So my heart was through the roof as a pretty big bully to. And I turned around and I just splashed the water and it took off quick as a wing.
00;41;30;16 - 00;41;31;03
Tappa
So I thought.
00;41;31;09 - 00;41;52;19
Phil
About it and I'll finish this story. I'll finish the story off so people don't get nervous. The next day I ran into Joe, one of the lifeguards at Burley, the surf lifesavers, and he said, Claude, I've got this amazing footage on my, GoPro. I stick it to the front of my speed, and every time I pulled the trigger on my spear, this bull shark would come out and take my, take my fish.
00;41;52;21 - 00;42;07;21
Phil
And I'm like, what do you mean? This is a day after I'd seen it? Yeah. So he pulled it out and I said, that's the shark that was chasing me. And it's on footage. I've got the footage. So what happened is there was one fish and it was about three years ago, one, one bull shark that would wait at the early point for the divers.
00;42;07;24 - 00;42;12;28
Phil
And every time it heard that it would go in and take the fish off the end of it. Right. And that's all it was.
00;42;13;00 - 00;42;14;21
Tappa
So it was trying to buy a.
00;42;14;29 - 00;42;18;20
Phil
New at you. What? The noise was no different than ones that followed. Follow trawlers.
00;42;18;24 - 00;42;32;02
Tappa
Well, you've got your family. You've got, I know you're doing a session that might, you got a had a pretty adventurous life sci fi. But besides your, coaching in that, what else do you got planned for the future? Anything's. Anything else you've got in the pipeline?
00;42;32;02 - 00;42;50;04
Phil
Our busy, our loss. Very busy with the business. We're we're learning as we go. So it's our family run business. My wife and I run it, we're currently got 12 staff that work for us, and we run 20 sessions a week, so we're very busy. Yeah, we're very busy. We've just signed on for early state school, so we do those guys on Thursday and Friday.
00;42;50;06 - 00;43;05;11
Phil
It's a bit of a pilot test to see if we can run them, where our goal is to teach the young kids at early how to read the ocean in the surf. We did two weeks in, Tele Creek. We worked out what the groups were, and now they're going to come to Berkeley and learn how to read the ocean, read the reefs, learn what the waves are.
00;43;05;11 - 00;43;07;26
Phil
And we do that every Thursday and Friday with the school.
00;43;07;28 - 00;43;28;12
Tappa
All that is that cycle. Because like you're passing on all these skills which you used to keep secret to yourself when you're an iron man, but now you you're passing it on to all the men. I think there's nothing better for kids to learn that, I should say. I think they can learn it at nippers. But you're telling them more about the the the way the ocean works, because I think they get a lot of that in nippers.
00;43;28;13 - 00;43;41;26
Phil
No they don't. Well, the thing with nippers, it's great and don't get me wrong, but you learn how to go in and out. In and out. Yeah. You don't learn why the wave breaks. You don't learn where it's coming from. What creates that? You don't learn about sandbanks and reefs. You do a little bit, but not as much.
00;43;41;26 - 00;43;59;02
Phil
So my job with these kids at the school is we do a lot of teaching on the sand, and then we're progressive learning. So we literally dive in once, walk back, dive in twice, walk back, dive in three times, then we dive in three times. Plus we do ten strokes, diving three times, ten strokes and dive under a wave.
00;43;59;04 - 00;44;09;02
Phil
And it's slow and it's progressive. So by the end of the six week course that we do, every kid knows how to read the surf, how to read the banks, how to read the ropes, and how to get in and out through the break and.
00;44;09;02 - 00;44;18;12
Tappa
Have confidence in the that. And yeah, that's unreal I fell. Yeah it's been bloody awesome right. It's been great having a. Yep. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for coming on the green room and I'm.
00;44;18;12 - 00;44;19;00
Phil
Thank you very much.
00;44;19;00 - 00;44;21;10
Tappa
I'll see you out the back there when I'm trying to get a wife.
00;44;21;10 - 00;44;22;08
Phil
I'll probably see you tomorrow.
00;44;22;09 - 00;44;22;26
Tappa
Yeah yeah.
00;44;22;27 - 00;44;25;01
Phil
Cheers, buddy. Cheers, mate. Thank you.
00;44;25;03 - 00;44;42;02
Tappa
Thanks for tuning into the green room. Hey. Thanks. Would you like to get your name in the Green Room podcast? Well, we are looking for sponsors, so if you want to get a sponsorship, check it out at Pod Fire. Lots of people can hear about your product on one of the best podcasts around the green room, so check it out!
00;44;42;02 - 00;45;00;20
Tappa
Pod fire. Thanks for tuning into the green Room. A big thank you to our guests for sharing their stories and insights, and Pod Fire for bringing this podcast to life. Don't forget to subscribe, like, leave a review and share the green room with your friends. We'll catch you next time for more conversations with the Legends of Surf and beyond.
00;45;00;24 - 00;45;02;25
Tappa
Until then, catch you in the waves.