Match race has appeal to Eckstein
Caine keen to take on new Cooly king
“I love those races where you can’t switch off at any point in the race because you know they’re going to grind away and they’re not scared of going on their own.
“Dean was like that and that’s why I loved racing him because I knew mentally, I had to be on my game the whole four hours and that’s how I try and be.
“It’d definitely be a good battle if Ali and I were to go against each other but in the end it’s a lot of time and effort to put in.”
Eckstein’s success in the gruelling marathon race has come at a personal cost.
The 31-year-old has a reputation as a relentless trainer and devotes himself totally to the event for several months beforehand, as does Day.
“I was a lot younger then (when I first did the Gold) and for me, everything was for the Gold,” Eckstein said.
“That four months, I didn’t really care about anything else. I didn’t go out, I didn’t do anything, it was just Gold, Gold, Gold.
“At the end of the day, me or Ali, one of us (that loses) is going to walk away with $7000 which isn’t much money when you’re putting in four months of everything into that race. “I wouldn’t do it halfway. “I love being 100 per cent athlete, being enclosed and doing nothing but training and putting everything into that one day.
“(But) you pretty much wouldn’t be earning money any other way for that five months, it would be all towards the Coolangatta Gold.
“If you win, you win $18,000. But thinking about Ali as well, one of us is going to walk away with $7000 and putting in 20 weeks of training for $7000 isn’t much.”
Eckstein backed the idea of a match-race, or an injection of greater prizemoney, saying the exposure the two champions’ involvement would provide would be a massive boost for the sport.
“I’d love to do it still if they did put a big effort into trying to get sponsors and putting a big event together,” he said.
“I think it’d start the sport up again if they did. But it’s up to (Surf Life Saving Australia) if they want to do it.”
COOLANGATTA Gold king Caine Eckstein says he’d love to be involved in a showdown with defending champion Ali Day but the commitment will come at a cost – to both himself and race organisers.
Day equalled Eckstein’s record of five Coolangatta Gold titles when he won the event on Sunday to remain undefeated in the sport’s greatest endurance test.
And while he declined to call Eckstein out, a match race between the two is the showdown the sport is craving.
Eckstein, who was a handler for brother Shannon in his second-place finish to Day on Sunday, has not attempted the race since 2014, when he was forced to retire midway through the board leg due to an injury suffered while setting his first world pull-up record in New York.
While he still has a great passion for the race and would love to challenge himself against Day – especially if the race returned to its original Coolangatta-toSurfers Paradise format – Eckstein said the four to five-month full-time commitment to training was difficult given either he or Day would walk away with just $7000 if they crossed the line in second place.
The idea of a sponsored match race between Eckstein and Day has been floated in some circles, with a sponsor stepping into guarantee each man $20,000 to compete – $2000 more than the current winner’s cheque.
“I’d love to race Ali,” Eckstein said of a clash with Day, who he likened to relentless racer Dean Mercer, who died of a heart attack in August.