So these days I'm a little unsteady on my pins. A medical condition has led to muscle wasting in my legs and whilst I can walk around all day on the flat I generally have more than my fair share of stumbles, tumbles and outright nose dives. As a sobriety test though it works pretty well - If I'm out on a big night I blame the first two excursions to the floor on my feet but on the third one it's "Na you're pissed, time to call a cab!"
I think the most embarrassing tumble I've ever taken though happened in my 20s at Rosny Park Golf Course. As usual the place was packed with fellow hackers, and as usual I was mouthing off to everyone in my group how I was going to give them a golfing lesson. It was a cold, wet day in August and it was my turn to tee off on the third hole. Anybody that ever played Rosny back in those days knows that that was a busy part of the course. It's a shared tee for the 2nd and 18th holes, The 1st, 3rd and 17th greens are right next to it and it always became a bottleneck with golfers aplenty tapping their feet impatiently waiting to tee off.
So on that day we had the four in my group waiting to go, a group behind us also waiting for the 2nd tee, The same thing happening for the 18th and the surrounding greens full as well - close enough to 30 people hanging around watching me as I stepped up to the tee. I wish I could say that I was a gracious and sportsmanlike figure like the golfers of legend but in reality I was more Happy Gilmour than Jack Nicklaus. Mouthing off was second nature and I did plenty of it before starting my back swing.
That's where it came unstuck, literally! - my old KT-26s didn't hold so well in the mud and I could feel my feet going out from under me as the club started it descent towards the ball it was never going to get anywhere near. Before I knew it I was flat on my back, wallowing in the mud like a prize hog, the club having left my grip and almost decapitating a player on the 17th green, with over a score of previously bored golfers pointing fingers and laughing their heads off.
To add insult to injury I still had 17 holes to play caked in mud and copping constant and merciless stirring from my mates and the group behind us whenever they caught up which was often! Nearly 30 years later I'm still hearing about it when I catch up with the boys on a Wednesday night.
I don't reckon Grip Guard could have helped me that day, but these days as someone who's prone to slipping on wet, loose or slippery surfaces, I find their work invaluable. From massive projects like resurfacing footpaths in St Helens through to residential applications like driveways, paths and wet areas Kim and his team have been making Tasmania safer for all of us.
They've been with Resilience for some time now and we've completed a web site for them as well as designing their business cards among other projects.
Web Design:
Graphic Design:
