“How I feed the rat? I'm part of what you might call the "freestyle-punk" whitewater subculture.

Most weekends you can find me out the back waiting for the next big wave at the beach or surfing the waves at Penrith while trying to dodge all the rafts.

Earlier this year I was off boating in Canada with the rest of the Aussie team where we tore up Bussy and instead of having to dodge rafts, we got to dodge icebergs the size of vans; I've now got a dent at the bottom of my boat from when I landed a clean blunt onto a berg that would shame the titanic!

Anyway, here are my thoughts about this stuff …..

"To feed the rat is not optional. You cannot neglect it. Neglect the rat and he'll let you know about it.

He'll gnaw you from the inside out, until all you can think of is getting your next fix.

You'll simply be a quivering mass of wasted energy as your mind dwells on pushing your limits as far as they can go and then beyond.

Then when food is finally laid on the plate, nothing compares. The feeling unlike any other.

That you're doing what you were meant to do, while all the mundane sameness of society is erased from existence as you fly down the face of the wave about to launch yourself into the air, spiralling and twisting in an explosion of plastic, paddle and body.

Then the 'thud' of a perfect landing.

Then you do it again.

Only backwards this time”.

Cheers guys, James Rowlinson”