Well all I said was that I think that being pit crew was a thankless and drab job.
So my team drivers suggested that I should inject some colour into pit lane and if I didn't they would make me pay big time.
You can see from the last image how much colour that we brought to this event at our home track.
We are racing again this weekend, away from home so no war paint this time...
First photo is me back in 2000 at the Australasian Strongest Man comp in Sydney at the Royal Easter Show...looks like I am about to blow a poofer valve ...I remember that was the 4th (out of five) and 160kg stone and it was bluddy heavy
Second photo is me in my last ever run in this famous event it was July 2005 in Aberdeen NSW
...no more now, lifting the mouse to use Photoshop is about it for me now
Mike
Mike, you never suffered from hernia ever in your life ain't it? Looks obvious you haven't !
Mike, you never suffered from hernia ever in your life ain't it? Looks obvious you haven't !
Cheers
Bill
That was a common question from members of the public also "how is your back?" My two major injuries in my 10 year competitive career was badly rolling an ankle 4 weeks out from the event in 2000 (per the photo) and crushing my voice box in 2000 while rolling a car in New Zealand which meant I couldn't sing properly for over a year
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 18-11-2011 at 07:16 AM.
I used to play Over 35's (Golden Oldies) Rugby until a few years ago and I also played first grade Rugby League in Adelaide back in 1984. At 70kg (playing weight) and just under 5'8" I'd have to put that into the "crazy" category!
I loved playing both Union and League and if it wasn't for having had cataracts removed I'd still be out there on the left wing scoring as many tries as I could! My wife said I looked like a midget when I was out on the field but I played none the less. And like all old sportsmen, these times have left me with many great memories and stories of my time out on the paddock... as well as two plates in my right hand!
I've attached 2 pictures of my Union/League career. The first is taken in about 2005 just before we were to take on a team of Samoans at St. Brendan's fields at Moorooka in Brisbane. I'm third from the left in the back row. This was the before match photo. The after match photo was somewhat gruesome!
The second was taken back in 1984 at the height of my stint in first grade in Adelaide. I was once asked by someone looking at the photo as to who did my hair back in 1984 (I'm the one closest to the camera). The answer was simple - the opposition forwards!!
Thirty years ago like Fred I was seeing other stars. Mind you maybe there was an omen.. we used to use smoke bombs on stage until we somehow ended up with a mix closer to gunpowder at the Highway Hotel in Wentworthville (now gone). Right at the start of our heavier version of House of the Rising Sun BANG... the metal plates with the igniters wre even bent, we were very lucky. Blew all the speaker cones in the PA and our amps. Spent a week at Etone reconing speakers. Hmmm seeing stars and a big explosion and now 30 years later something in that.
Oh and the band name well we were a power pop band starting towards the end of the punk era, with names like Mental As Anything it didn't seem out of place. I suppose with names like Black Eyed Peas it still doesn't. Oh thats me at right on guitar. The agency that managed us had a lot of well known bands I wonder who here remembers many of them. Ah the 80s.
Last edited by PeterM; 18-11-2011 at 05:37 PM.
Reason: typo
Perhaps not overly crazy, but when you consider how slippery it is and how close some of the things to hit are! Still plenty of adrenaline to be had nearly twenty years after I started doing this enven though this particular track is gone.
Blowing $20,000 worth of Fireworks up in 10 minutes .......
Used to run a Fireworks company doing public displays. Could be quite entertaining for the operator down in amongst it all. Still got the cotton overalls with the holes burnt all over them ..... lots of close call stories there, Fireworks are not known for their reliable operation. 'Duck' bombs were the best.
Then when that slowed down moved into Amateur Rocketry. Gave it away after the second big explosion in the back yard testing a tethered motor... neighbours objected .... funny that ..
A bit of Rally Car driving, some track time,
Water Safety Patrol Skipper, crashing about in the Hauraki Gulf in a 2 tonne 43 knot patrol boat looking for idiots who go to sea in storms.
Fly small aircraft ... though not so much these days. Ride motorcycle ... just for the heck of it.
Sometimes climb communications towers as part of my job ... although not if the apprentice is close at hand.
Apart from riding m'bikes real hard and aerobatics in a Pitts Special my thrillseeker moment was at a lunch with many leading feminists. My host and I being both male kept our lips sealed as to the discourse over the meal.
I was asked point blank what I thought of the feminist movement by the then leader of the Nurses Federation. My answer was simple yet succint. It gets the women out of the kitchens and laundries into the bar where I can attempt to 'interact' with them.
There was an instant of stunned silence! Mine host spurted his beer. Women were very angry. If looks could kill I was dead!.
Jocelyn Scutt a leading Labor Lawyer then asked me simply "What do you really mean Bert?" My answer was simple, that I was all in favour of equality but let us not lose sight of what that means. I told her I was sick and tired of being portrayed as a stereotype of the unthinking male chauvanist pig. Your reaction Ladies and I use the term loosely is typical of a Pavlovian reaction.
Jocelyn Scutt a week later had a two page essay in 'The Age' and her total argument was along the logical lines I was putting forward.
I did escape alive but the ex-wife gave me hell all the way home!
Bert !
I flew planes, skin diving, shark & game fishing, a few thousand gigs.
But the scariest thing is bringing up 5 kids.
Bert, my moms best mate was Germane Greer.
Bert !
I flew planes, skin diving, shark & game fishing, a few thousand gigs.
But the scariest thing is bringing up 5 kids.
Bert, my moms best mate was Germane Greer.
I agree my father brought up eleven of us. Daunting ideed. Germaine Greer was a beginner to that lot! I still shudder what they would have done to me if they had their druthers.
1. I've worn orange.
2. I've worn orange (fully dressed) while swimming in a pool.
3. I've made life hell for vertical rescue operators in training by overtaking them on their rope. (A *******s Inc. specialty).
4. I've hung around on the end of ropes.
5. I've hung on the end of ropes out of aircraft.
6. and 7. I've been caving.
Not that I think any of this is crazy... but popular concensus might.
It's been many years since I've done crazy stuff on motorbikes...
This little exercise makes me realise just how few photos I have of myself and the things I do.... Sorry for the poor picture quality on most of these, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel.
I used to make 800kg quadrupeds jump over ever increasing sized fences.
Controlling the beast with subtle leg movements and 2 thin lengths of leather that were buckled to a metal mouth piece strapped to his head.
Never had much success with it personally (I was very good at falling off LOL yet I kept on getting back on, confirming I was, according to Einstein's definition, "Crazy") , but I did strap for one of our Olympic riders, Guy Creighton for a short time. So I got the chance to ride and look after some very highly trained, and famous horses of the era. "Mikneil" "Little John" and "Halim" (who Sam Neill rode in the fillum Robbery Under Arms.)
...I remember that was the 4th (out of five) and 160kg stone and it was bluddy heavy 
!
