SHOW A DREAM COME TRUE FOR NOBBY’S NINJA NUTTER
IF the “extreme gene” does exist, you can bet your lucky ninja Nick Turriff has it.
A scaffolder, skateboarder, fire twirler and self-described nerd who cooks up his own fitness regimes and challenges, Turriff, 28, loves the thrill of a potential spill.
“I was doing acrobatics stuff when I was a kid and from then on I was pretty much a nutter of a kid,” the Nobby Beach thrillseeker and more recently rock climber and cliff diver said.
Turriff takes on the country’s toughest obstacle course tonight on the most-watched TV show in the land – Australian Ninja Warrior.
Turriff said he started teaching himself acrobatics at age six and went on to learn parkour (or as previous generations called it, “running around being a kid”).
However, he never imagined a lifetime of giving all sorts of things a red hot go would eventually make him a serious contender for Australian Ninja Warrior.
“I’ve never really been into training and the gym and that at all,” he said.
“I was into boxing when I was younger, for five years. I started boxing when I was 11 to when I was 16, when my Dad pulled me out.”
Turriff was so keen to take on the Ninja Warrior course he considered applying for the Scottish version.
“I watched the show when I was living in the UK a couple of years ago,” he said.
“I thought that looks amazing and went back to Scotland to visit friends and family for six weeks and they had their application thing.
“I thought, ‘S*** – I won’t be there for it’. I was going to fly back over to Scotland and go on it. It just so happened that not even four or five months after I got back from Scotland a mate said, ‘Dude – did you see you can apply for Ninja Warrior here?’
“It was the best day ever.”