Central Coast brothers Bodi and Ashton Bone are taking the surf lifesaving world by storm.
They have been swimming since they were six months old, when they dipped their baby legs into the hydro pool at Mingara.
Water babies from the outset, they realised their talent in the pool and ocean at a young age, when they began dominating their school swimming and nipper carnivals.
On March 10 at the NSW State Age Surf Lifesaving Championships held in Queenscliff, Ashton swam his way to another state gold medal, bringing home both the U12 Male Surf Race and the prestigious Ironman championship.
This gave him a triple in state swimming medals this season – in the pool, open water, and surf.
At the NSW Senior State championships in December, Ashton won the 800m freestyle and was runner up in the 400m and 200m freestyle.
He had never raced further than the 800m but went out to Penrith to try his hand at the 2.5km Open Water Swim and came home a state champion in another form of the sport.
He also recently broke the NSW Country record for 12-year-olds in the 400m Individual Medley.
His biggest motivation is to “dethrone” his older brother, Bodi – the long distance specialist and backstroke king.
Bodi has his own set of medals, with gold in the U14 1500m NSW Senior State Swimming Championships, silver in the U15 Cameron relay at the NSW Surf Lifesaving Championships and a bronze in the U14 5km Open Water at the NSW State Open Water Championships in December.
Having only just turned 15, Bodi is now focused on the National Age Swimming Championships to be held on the Gold Coast this April, where he has qualified for an impressive eight individual events.
With both boys having been selected for the prestigious SLS Interbranch representative team earlier in the season, the Bone brothers are now looking forward to “the Aussies” surf lifesaving champs in Maroochydore in April where there is opportunity to compete in both the traditional surf lifesaving surf swim and ironman, as well as an open water 2km swim.
The boys will also be honing their skills in the 2km ocean swim at the Terrigal Ocean Swim Classic on Saturday, March 30.