‘HE WAS A GIFT TO US ALL’
THE surf lifesaving community and the people of the Gold Coast have been united in praise for a giant of a man, renowned for his exploits both in and out of the water.
Ironman Dean Mercer died suddenly yesterday, a heart attack cutting short the storied life of a true Aussie legend.
The pain of his young family – wife Reen and boys Brayden, Rory, Lachlan and Joshua – was mirrored in Dean’s other family, the brotherhood of surf lifesaving, with leading figures lining up to pay tribute.
“Dean was an amazing husband and loving father," the family said in a statement. “He was the little bloke with the heart of Phar Lap.”
Former rival Trevor Hendy summed up the feelings of many. “He was a gift to us all.”
THE world lost two Dean Mercers yesterday.
One was a bulldog, a brute, a beast. He was a warrior who would line up on the sand next to men with broader shoulders and longer legs yet somehow find a way to beat them to glory. In the words of Trevor Hendy: “He had the biggest heart you could imagine.”
Then there’s the other Dean Mercer, the one who gifted that heart to a woman named Reen and four young boys called Brayden, Rory, Lachlan and Joshua.
“Family was a huge part of his life,” said Hendy, once Mercer’s greatest rival and now one of his greatest admirers. “I haven’t had as much to do with him in recent years but I’d see him with his boys and just love it.
“Reen is a beautiful lady and everybody felt so stoked they had each other. They’d grown up together, had the perfect family and were just doing their best like all of us.
“We’ll rally around them as best we can but right now I have to say I’m just shocked and devastated and feeling horrible … there have been a lot of tears.”
Hendy is not alone in struggling to comprehend what happened a little before 7am yesterday.
One minute Mercer was driving home from his regular early morning training session at Kurrawa Surf Club. The
next the 47-year-old was having a cardiac arrest at the wheel, triggering a wave of phone calls and text messages with one heartbreaking theme – Deano’s gone.
“It was just shock,” ironman legend Zane Holmes said of receiving a call about his childhood idol’s death.
“He’s always been so unstoppable and to be cut down when he’s so young and still pretty fit is hard to gather.”
Karla Gilbert – the greatest ironwoman of all-time – said: “A friend texted me and then my brother who works for the ambulance rang to tell me he had a heart attack.
“I grew up with the Mercers as we were coming through the sport and I was fiercely competitive with Reen. I’m just so sad for the whole family.”
Gilbert released the sigh of a woman with two young children of her own.
“It just makes you appreciate how precious life is and how quickly it can disappear in an instant.”
In a sport renowned for its family dynasties, the Mercers are surf lifesaving royalty.
Along with older brother Darren, Mercer was a superstar of ironman racing in the ‘80s and ‘90s when the sport was so huge it ignited a breakfast cereal war.
Then he married ironwoman Reen Corbett and the close-knit clan had to make room for another champion in their family photos.
“His parents will be beside themselves,” former training partner Ty Dowker said of John and Maureen, who raised their sons and daughter Kylie in Wollongong.
“As a family they used to travel to every race around Australia. They’d put the boards on the roof and drive hundreds of kilometres.”
“I just always remember the family being there,” Hendy said. “My whole life has been wrapped around the Mercer boys.
“They had the classic story of two brothers racing against each other and it captured so many people’s imaginations. Darren and I were in the same age group so we raced each other a lot and Dean was snapping at our heels.
“It was like the David and Goliath thing. Darren and I were taller whereas Dean was smaller in stature and had a really wonky technique.
“He didn’t do anything perfectly … but he was just a competitive animal, a brute, so determined.
“I remember watching him swim in another heat one day and thinking ‘How he can keep that (pace) up for so long’.”
Mercer’s crowning glory was winning Australian open ironman titles in 1989 and 1995, inspiring a generation of boys like Zane Holmes to dream big.
“I remember as a kid watching him beat Trevor Hendy in a sprint finish twice to win national titles,” Holmes said. “No one beats Trevor Hendy in a sprint finish and he did it twice.”
Hendy added: “I’ve thought this before today but I’m so glad he won those titles. You realise it all means so little compared to (what’s happened today) but he was an amazing competitor.”
Then there was the Coolangatta Gold, the famous endurance title Mercer chased for two decades but never managed to get his hands on, finishing runner-up in 2009 and third in 1992 and 2006.
“Every time you had to tip your hat to him because he just gave so much,” former Bulletin sports writer Pat McLeod said.
“I was at the finishing line (of the Gold) a number of times and every time he was absolutely spent. You couldn’t be anymore stuffed than he was but his legs just couldn’t get him (to victory).
“His heart was huge and that’s what makes it so hard to believe that’s what eventually gave in. His heart took him to greatness.”
Holmes, the man who beat Mercer to the Coolangatta Gold in 2006, is in awe of how long he continued to contest the gruelling event.
“It’s not only the physical aspect,” he said.
“You put your body through a lot but the mental capacity and strength he showed to do it at 40 is amazing. It’s a damn sight harder to do it at that age than when you’re 25.
“You always knew you couldn’t give Dean an inch and he would certainly never give you one.”
And what was the “competitive animal” like away from the battlefield?
“He was a quiet guy until he wasn’t,” Holmes laughed.
“He’d have a couple of drinks and be the loudest in the room. He was serious when he needed to be but knew how to let his hair down.”
As tended to happen yesterday though, talk inevitably returned to where this story began.
“Now I’m a dad, it’s sad for me to know he’s leaving four young boys behind,” said Holmes, whose own father died in 2003.
“I was fortunate that I was 22 when my dad passed. I had a lot more years with him whereas his oldest boy is 13 and at an age where you really need your dad.”
Which is why the sentiment of Hendy is so powerful.
“I think we’ll all have more to do with Dean’s boys now,” he said. “It’s our job to be there for them.
“They’ll always have a lot of (adopted) uncles around them and to tell them stories that show just how proud they should be of their father.”
Among many gigs, Hendy is a life coach these days and at a time of heartache for so many, who better to ask how to make sense of the senseless?
“I think it takes a while to make sense of it,” he said. “The first thing is to feel it (the loss). I know that’s all I can do at the moment.
“I’d much rather Dean still be here and see him at the next carnival. I’d much rather watch him grow old and coach his kids and pass on his knowledge like his father did for him, but all we can do is get around the family and remember him and his legacy for his boys.
“For me it just really highlights how the titles and the positions and the money and the possessions don’t count for much. At the end of the day you’ve got your health and your family and a purpose to share your life with others.
“I know Dean did a lot of that … he was a gift to us all.”