In their 50s most people begin to slow down, both professionally and physically – but certainly not Jan Juc’s Ross Clarke-Jones.
Now 51, the globetrotting professional surfer last month rode a 40-metre wave in Portugal almost 20 years to the day he earned international headlines for similar feats during Hawaii’s fabled ‘Big Wednesday’.
Then when he’s not riding waves higher than 10-storey buildings, Ross has an eye-wateringly-fast Porsche 911 GT2 stored in Germany for autobahn workouts.
As you do, unless you’re a normal 50-something.
“When I hit 50 a lot of people said that I’d start to worry about my mortality and that the fear would finally get to me,” Ross reflected this week.
“More than 12 months on, I love proving them all wrong and pushing myself to up the ante and go bigger each time.”
Someone should explain to him that, for men in their 50s, ‘go bigger’ usually means pants size, not wave height!
Mind you, the achievements of some locals have been even bigger – but in very different fields of endeavour.
One of them was Dr Jim Rossiter AM, a beloved husband, father and grandfather who passed away peacefully at home last week.
As a long-serving local paediatrician and a founding member of local charity Give Where You Live, Dr Rossiter obviously had a profound impact on his community.
But ripples from his actions a courageous whistleblower may have spread much further.
Back in the ‘80s as head of Deakin University’s ethics committee Dr Rossiter exposed concerns over the contraceptive research of then-science dean Professor Michael Briggs.
Dr Rossiter was not alone in his concerns but neither was Prof Briggs a researcher to be trifled with. Indeed, he was a figure of international experience and wide-ranging support among Australia’s academic elite.
But Dr Rossiter persisted with his concerns, eventually forcing an inquiry that was terminated only when Prof Briggs resigned in response.
For his courage Dr Rossiter reportedly earned hundreds of threatening phone calls and the scorn of countless colleagues.
But that was in academia. The wider public can still only wonder how it may have benefitted from the endeavour of one man against many.
Vale, Dr Jim Rossiter AM, a Geelong hero.
