Third time’s the charm
Near miss only builds hunger for Bevilacqua, who bet it all on a pro surf lifesaving career
WHEN Matt Bevilacqua finally qualified for the NutriGrain series in 2013 after two failed attempts, he was overcome with relief.
At 19 years old, Bevilacqua made the difficult decision to pack up his comfortable life in Tasmania and move to the faster-paced Sunshine Coast to pursue a professional surf lifesaving career. Training under Michael King at Mooloolaba, Bevilacqua said he was still yet to match the intensity at which he trained early in his career.
“It was two years of really hard work and two of the hardest years of training of my life,” he said.
“I was 21, living on the Sunshine Coast with no money, no family up there and I was living with Matt Poole and Josh Minogue.
“I’ve never trained as hard as I did up there and it was all because I had a lot to lose because I made so many sacrifices going up there.”
In 2012, Bevilacqua looked set to reach the pinnacle and was one of the early standouts of the two-day trial before disaster struck.
“I ended up getting he said.
“You had to keep to the right of the buoys and so I technically took a longer course trying to go with the disqualified,” runners but I must have cut inside a buoy at some point because the official came up to me and disqualified me and that was my weekend done.
“I look back on it now and I could have made it into the series that year and I could have been running around at the back end so maybe it was a benefit I didn’t make it.
“I’m a big believer in everything happens for a reason so in some respect, it was better to watch on and let that hunger build and then come out swinging the next year.”
The Clifton Beach nipper finally qualified in 2013 at Cudgen in challenging conditions against names like Caine Eckstein and Hayden White.
“It was huge swell and messy conditions which, as a Tasmanian, I’ve always struggled with,” Bevilacqua said.
“It’s probably the favourite moment of my career.
“I’ve won the Series and the Coolangatta Gold but I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than that day.”
Bevilacqua went on to finish third in the final round of the summer at Coolum behind Shannon Eckstein and Ky Hurst.