Bondi Blues | Bondi Rescue

Part 17

I walked into the Tower just in time to see the sun rising over near Ben Buckler, and I couldn't help but smile. I was on the early shift with Deano, and we had just gotten the flags and the signs set up on the beach. We were the only two sitting in the Tower, and he turned to me and asked me gently, "Are you okay, Charlie?"

That caught me off guard. I had pretty much recovered as much as I could from everything that happened, so I didn't know why Deano was asking me this. He continued, "I don't mean about anything with your mum, your family, or anyone else besides you... I mean with you."

I replied as coolly as I could, "Yeah, Deano, I'm fine... Why do you ask?" He sighed and answered, "Don't lie to me, Charlie. I can tell when you're not yourself. I've known you for a while now."

Before he could dig any further, Box and Maxi entered the Tower, followed by Hoppo, Whippet, and Reidy. We all greeted each other, and as we got ready to split up, Deano leaned over to me and said, "I'll talk to you later about this."

I was put down at North Bondi with Whippet, and it was a pretty quiet morning since we didn't have any rips. As we watched some little kids learn how to surf, Whippet turned to me and asked, "Hey Charlie, I know you're busy prepping for Worlds and stuff, but me, Reidy and Chappo were wondering if you'd want to come on a roadtrip with us after you get back from China. It's nothing set yet, just a plan in motion."

I smiled and replied, "Honestly, I'd love that, Whip. Where were you planning on going?" Whipped smirked and said, "We want to drive up to Northeast Queensland, near Cairns and the Reef, and then head out toward Darwin, come back down and pass through Alice Springs and Uluru on the way back to Sydney."

My eyes beamed. Out of all the places I'd gone for diving, I'd never really gotten to truly explore my own country. I'd been as far north as Brisbane and as far south as Melbourne, along with being over in Adelaide and Perth, but I'd never gotten to see these parts of the country. I said, "I've never been further north than Brisbane, Whip. That sounds wicked." He smiled at me and said, "I'll let the boys know you're in."

Our lunch break came, and I was in the Tower with Reidy and Whippet when Hoppo walked in with a paper. He looked at me and asked, "Speedo feature?" I nodded nervously, and he replied, "Good on ya, Charlie. What do you need from us?" I thought about the best way to word this and replied, "I need to be filmed working, and I need to get some of the boys' takes on me and on life at Bondi." Hoppo smiled and said, "That won't be a problem."

*

Time had come and go, and I had two weeks until I left for China for the FINA World Championships. I knew that I would be traveling with the team, but it crushed my heart that my mum and my family wouldn't be there to cheer me on this time around. The Speedo feature on me was set to be released today, and I had seen the final product. To say I was happy with it was an understatement.

It was a gloomy day at Bondi, so we were all sat in the Tower together, laughing and joking around. I was sitting next to Troy and Whippet, and I was in stitches as they reminisced about some of the big wave contests they had on days like this. Just as I was getting egged on to surf today with Jesse at Tamarama, Hoppo came in the door, beaming with pride.

"Hop, mate? What's up with you?" Box asked, chuckling slightly at the sheer happiness coming from his face. Hoppo pulled out his laptop that he had brought over from his office and said proudly, "Charlie's Speedo feature just got released."

All the boys scrambled to get a good view as Hoppo set up the laptop right in front of me, clicking play on the roughly 10-minute video that the Speedo team had put together for me.

It opened with a montage of my best moments diving so far, including my gold medal at the most recent Commonwealth Games, my gold at the latest FINA Grand Prix in Sydney, and my gold medal at last year's Pan Pacific Games, to name a few. A voiceover started as a slo-mo video of me diving came up, and it said: