New Wave Warriors

30.04.2010

THE blood-speckled,
scandal-soaked football
field is not the place for
young men to find their
role models. They need to
look to the beaches.
Andrew Gunsberg is the first to
admit he has a man crush on the
lifeguards featured on Bondi Rescue,
and he also believes they are
unmatchable as role models.
The former Brisbane lad now Bondi
resident jumped when offered the
opportunity to provide the voice-over
for the popular Channel 10 reality
series.
"In our society we make such heroes
of these NRL guys, but to me these
guys at Bondi are so much more the
picture of Australian manhood,"
Gunsberg says. "They're strong,
powerful men with, at the bottom of
their hearts, just such compassion.
"And their job ... all they want to do
is help people.
"I hope these guys become role
models more - as they well should
be. They are what it is to be an
Australian male."
While he often goes boarding with
the lifeguards at Bondi, Gunsberg
jokes he is not really part of the gang
yet because "I don't have an 0 at the
end of my name", referring to the
nicknames of the guys such as Hoppo
and Deano.
"They're all bloody good blokes, all
amazing guys, and they have such a
hard job," he says.
"I'm so thrilled to be a part of it
because it is such an amazing Australian
story.
"These Australian men - masculine
men, virile men - are doing this
incredibly hard job, steeling themselves
against the trauma and horror
of the things they have to see with
camaraderie and a kind of mateship
that gets them all through.
"It is great because they show men
are allowed to be compassionate to
each other."
Gunsberg admits, though, he
wouldn't trade his Australian Idol
hosting suits for the Bondi Rescue guys'
two-tone blue outfits.
"There's no way I could do what
they do," he says. "They are machines
those guys."