Uncle Tobys Super Series

The Uncle Toby's Super Series was a professional Iron Man circuit that ran from 1989 to 2001. It was considered by many to be the pinacle of Surf Lifesaving and inspired many young kids to become involved in the sport. It also made the sport professional and gave the opportunity for contracted competitors to make a full time living from the sport.

Televised on Network 10, The Uncle Toby's Super Series became a major event on the Australian Sporting Calendar each summer.

History

The Beginning

In 1984 The Coolangatta Gold became the first ever professional Iron Man race with $20 000 prize money. Guy Leech won the race in its inaugural year and also the following year before The SLSA decided to discontinue the event.

From 1986 the SLSA created a semi-professional Iron Man circuit which was called the Kelloggs Nutri-Grain Iron Man Grand Prix. Although this series did give competitors a chance to win some prizemoney, it meant that the average competitor would struggle to make a living from the sport. Several competitors had ideas for a full professional sport and expressed their ideas to the SLSA however the SLSA were not interested and the tension began to rise eventually leading to 12 competitors forming a breakaway series with rival breakfast cereal Uncle Tobys as main sponsor. The series was designed to attract more public interest and higher television ratings for what was a relatively new sport at the time.

The SLSA were totally against the Uncle Tobys Super Series and threatened the competitors with life bans. There was great tension between SLSA and the organisers especially considering that the biggest names in the series were also the biggest names in Surf Life Saving. In many ways it was similar to the World Series Cricket situation that Australia faced in the late 1970's. Both sports were facing a breakaway series which was designed for television and to attract advertising while the formal competition was to continue despite losing its main drawcards.

Initial Success

The first race was held in October 1989 which was to be a new version of The Coolangatta Gold which was now renamed The Gold Coast Gold. Guy Leech comfortably won the race making him undefeated over the race from 3 attempts. The entire race was televised live and finished at sunset.

1989-1994: Cereal wars and Trevor Hendy's domination

As the first season progressed, Trevor Hendy and Guy leech were the two main contenders for overall victory with Hendy coming out on top. While this was happening, the Nutri-Grain/SLSA series was also taking place but was now suffering without its best competitors. Almost every Nutri-Grain race was won by Darren Mercer and the majority of competitors were aspiring to join the more elite and more lucrative Uncle Tobys series.

The 1990/91 season was also won by Hendy with young competitors Guy Andrews and Jon Robinson finishing in second and third place respectively. The first race of the season was held in Hawaii making it the first overseas race. By now the series was beginning to make its presence felt and the competition was fierce, so much that Grant Kenny who was a four time Australian Iron Man champion, could only manage to finish as high as 17th in the overall series.

1991/92 was another successful year for the series and another successful year for Trevor Hendy. Despite being sick and missing the first race, Hendy recovered to win the series with Guy Andrews coming second again and Guy Leech in third. The season saw the Uncle Tobys series hold a prime-time race televised live at 6pm on a Friday night from Manly. It turned out to be a great ratings grabber with the sports two biggest names (Hendy and Leech) battling it out with Hendy narrowly winning in a sprint finish. The season also saw the emergence of talented Iron Man Jonathan Crowe who won his first Uncle Tobys race in round one in the Gold Coast Gold. The tragedy of the season was Jon Robinson being injured in a motorbike accident and missing the last 3 races. Robinson would not return for 2 years.

Trevor Hendy and Guy Leech during the 1993/94 series.

By now both the series and Trevor Hendy were becoming more and more well known. Hendy had won every series and had also won the Australian Championships in the same years. In the Australian Championships both the Uncle Toby's and Nutri-Grain competitors would compete together and the fact that Hendy had beaten all-commers left no doubt in the public's mind that he was clearly the best Iron Man in Australia.

1992/93 saw 5 races with 5 different winners before an epic final at Manly featuring 3 contenders for overall series victory. Guy Andrews had finished second to Hendy for the previous 2 years and when it came time for the final race both himself and Sean Kenny were on equal points with Hendy meaning the winner of the final race would win the series. Hendy had a disappointing race and was not in contention however Andrews and Kenny staged one of the most memorable battles in Iron Man history. Andrews initially led the race and Kenny began to close the gap eventually catching up to Andrews before a final sprint finish with Andrews the prevailing to take series victory.

If Trevor Hendy's desire to win had been absent in the 1992/93 season, his hunger certainly returned in 1993/94. Over the 7 race series, Hendy won 5 races and finished second twice. The season also saw the return of crowd favourite Craig Riddington who had missed the previous year with a blood clot in his arm.

1994-1996: The changing of the guard

The 1994-95 season saw many new faces make their presence felt. Youngsters Phil Clayton, Scott Reeves and Simon Martin were showing their class while the likes of Scott Thomson and Guy Andrews (who were by now vetrans) also remained at the top. The series was won by Michael King despite the fact that he did not win a single race in the seven race series. His consistency was enough for him to win based on overall points.

It was around this time that Trevor Hendy would begin to turn his attention to kayak paddling in hope of making Australia's Olypmpic Team. Despite devoting most of his training time to kayaks, Trevor still remained competitive and managed to finish second in the 1994-95 series.

The Baywatch Episode

In 1996 20 of the contracted competitors were flown the USA to star in an episode of Baywatch. The episode was based around the Iron Men visiting the Baywatch characters and staging a race against them. In the fictional race Trevor Hendy narrowly beat Mitch Buchannon who was played by David Hasselhoff.

Jonathan Crowe, Guy Andrews and Trevor Hendy all had speaking roles in the episode as did series promotor Michael Porra.

1997-1998: The emergence of Ky Hurst

During the 1997-98 season, the sports newest superstar emerged in 16 year old Ky Hurst. Hurst would soon become the sports leading competitor and would later represent Australia at the 2008 Olympics.

The 1997-98 also saw Darren and Dean Mercer compete in the series for the first time however surprisingly neither of them were competitive. By now the prizemoney for the entire series was at a total of $900 000. This was also to be the first season where series creator Michael Porra would not be involved with the series. Porra had also commentated every race since 1989.

1999-2001 Series decline and lack of sponsorship

Phil Clayton competing during the 2000/01 series.

During the late 90's the series began to struggle to attract sponsorship. As a result prize money became less and the amount of contracted competitors decreased from 20 to 12. Television coverage also decreased. Originally each race would normally be a 3 hour broadcast and there would also be a 1 hour highlights package shown later that night. By the late 90's the entire broadcast was limited to 2 hours and this also included the Ironwomen races. The profile of leading competitors was not as great as the Iron Men of the early 90's when the series was at its peak.

The Sydney Olympics had been believed to be the main reason why sponsorhip had gone elsewhere as most companies wanted to be an olympic sponsor and this meant there was not enough leftover funds to put into sports such as Surf Iron Man.

As a result the escalating costs became too much and a decision was made to discontinue the series in June 2001.

Comparisons with Triathlon

Although many people considered the sport to be another form of Triathlon, the two sports were vastly different which was evidenced by several athletes from each sport trying to compete in the other without great success.

Triathlon is a sport which is mostly lower body where Surf Iron Man is a sport that is mostly upper-body. Even though Surf Iron Men have running as part of their races, the running they do is mostly on sand which requires a different technique and works muscles in a different way to road running. Alternatively triathletes who compete on the road would have a difficult time adjusting to sand running. The technical/surf skills involved in Surf Iron Man races were also something that would take years to develop making the transition from triathlon very difficult.

Triathletes Spot Anderson and Rick Pallister competed in the Uncle Tobys series with very limited success. Alternatively elite Iron Man Guy Leech tried doing triathlons but struggled with road running and technical bike skills, was never competitive and retired not long after.

Guy Andrews remains the only competitor to claim succes in both sports being an Australian Age-Group champion in Triathlon/Duathlon and also completing an Ironman Triathlon in a respectable time despite losing a pedal. Original Uncle Tobys Iron Man Graham Bruce has also competed several Ironman Triathlons and has always been competitive in his age group.

Series Results

Season	Winner	Second	Third
1989/90	Trevor Hendy	Guy Leech	Dwayne Thuys
1990/91	Trevor Hendy	Guy Andrews	Jon Robinson
1991/92	Trevor Hendy	Guy Andrews	Guy Leech
1992/93	Guy Andrews	Sean Kenny	Trevor Hendy
1993/94	Trevor Hendy	Michael King	Guy Andrews
1994/95	Michael King	Trevor Hendy	Phil Clayton
1995/96	Guy Andrews
1996/97	Scott Reeves
1997/98	Guy Andrews
1998/99	Ky Hurst
1999/00	Ky Hurst
2000/01	Ky Hurst

Notable Competitors

Clint Robinson - Olympic Gold Medalist in kayaks. Competed in the series sporadically from 1989-1995. Dominated board and ski legs but was very weak in the swim and run due to most of his training being centered around his kayaking.

Craig Hackett - Brother of Grant Hackett. Won two races during his time in the Uncle Toby's Super Series.

Hayden Reece - New Zealand competitor who was one of the oldest in the series but still very competitive especially in the board and run legs.

Murray Cox - Was known as the fastest runner of all competitors. Also a strong swimmer. Cox finished second in the 1991 Gold Coast Gold. Retired in 1995.

Jonathan Crowe - Winner of 3 Uncle Tobys races. Starred in the Baywatch episode. Although Crowe lacked consistency, when in form he was always near the top.

Jon Robinson - One of the leading competitors during the early years, was tragically injured in a motorbike accident in 1991. Returned in 1993 but had limited success. Retired in 1996.

Legacy

The Uncle Toby's Super Series if often referred to as the halcyon days of Surf Iron Man racing. Since its demise in 2001, the profile of the sport has decreased dramatically and the sports current competitors do not have the lucrative opportunities that Iron Men had in the 1990's.

External links

• Uncle Tobys Legends Of The Surf on Youtube) [1]

See also

• Coolangatta Gold