FOUR OLD BLOKES AND A BOAT
REAPING WHAT THEY ROW
THEY’VE survived cancer, heart attacks, sepsis, hip and knee replacements and bypass surgery – but these inspiring gents still wake up with the birds to row together.
With a combined age of 304, among these Gold Coasters are former Olympic rowers who represented Australia in the 1960s.
Rowing silently along Lake Orr at Varsity Lakes three times a week, the four friends wait until they’ve completed their hour-long exercise before catching up on each other’s news.
These awe-inspiring oldies are Peter Guest, 83, of Broadbeach, Alf Duval, 78, of Varsity Lakes, Bob Clark, 75, of Mermaid Beach and the youngster of the pack at just 68, Peter McKean of Elanora.
Each has a unique story, but they all share a love of rowing, something that brought them to the Gold Coast Master Rowers Club at the Varsity Lakes Sports House on Lake Orr a few years ago.
Mr Duval won a silver medal as stroke of the Australian Men’s Eight in the 1968 Mexico Olympics. He has been rowing since 1954 and has no intention of stopping anytime soon, despite having nerve damage in his legs caused by chemotherapy he had four years ago while battling stage four bowel cancer. A self-confessed bionic man, who has had both his hips and knees replaced, Mr Duval said as long as his body could take it he would be out on the water with his mates.
“With our health problems we couldn’t commit to competing in regattas so we now row for fun, always looking forward to our coffee afterwards,” he said.
Also an early adopter of rowing, Mr Clark started when he was 15 and knew Mr Duval for years before they started rowing together. He too survived bowel cancer in 2000, had a four-way heart bypass in 2002 and in May 2017 had his prostate and bladder removed.
“I wear a urostomy bag, but you learn to live with it and it does not interfere with my rowing. I’m also scheduled for knee replacement at the end of this month – but I’ll be back in the boat by May. You have to stay positive, otherwise someone might take my place,” he said.
“Many years ago a doctor friend of mine, much older than me at the time, said the purest air is closest to the water – maybe that’s why I’m still kicking.”
Mr Clark said there was silence on the boat but once they finished, it was a “free for all over a coffee or beer or two”.
“I think as people get older they lose their confidence but they should put aside the negatives and get out and have a go – a healthy body is a healthy mind,” he said.
Mr Guest encouraged people of all ages to give rowing a go because it was a great way to maintain a level of fitness while having fun and meeting people. He was rowing at 14, represented Australia at the 1960 Rome Olympics and got back into it in 2016 after a 45year absence.
Treated for bladder and prostate cancer and having overcome sepsis, asthma and shoulder surgery, Mr Guest said “rowing is a life sport which can be enjoyed all along the life span far beyond other sports”.
As for Mr McKean, who started rowing at 12, his weekly exercise has saved his life.
“I was so out of breath while rowing that I saw my doctor who rushed me down to John Flynn Hospital and put two stents in my blocked arteries – one was 90 per cent blocked, the other 95 per cent. Then on January 7 this year I had another heart attack and achieved a natural bypass,” he said.
Mr McKean said rowing was a sport not limited by age, with many new members starting at 60.
“We exercise sitting down, we use every part of our bodies and when we all click, like last Tuesday, we go back to when we were teenagers.’’
And when will he stop rowing? “Only if I have a bad heart attack out on the water. My crew tell me none of them want to do mouth-to-mouth and I agreed,” he said.