Zak Mann

Zak with old friend Murray Cox at Bondi Bowlo last Wednesday

Zak Mann

Zak was at the Bondi Bowlo last Wednesday to support his old friend Murray Cox whose book Hall Street 100: A Year of Bondi Billboards. We got chatting at the event.

“I landed in Sydney in 1997 after five years of wandering the world with a backpack, a questionable haircut, and absolutely no idea where I’d end up. Then I arrived in Bondi — and something just clicked. It was the mix of people that got me: tradies grabbing brekkie next to surfers, travellers comparing last night’s adventures, musicians lugging guitars, old-school Eastern Europeans power-walking the promenade… all sharing one small stretch of beach. It felt like the world’s friendliest melting pot, and I knew I’d found home.

Most mornings you’ll find me at the beach by 5am [Ed: We might not be bumping into Zak on the promenade any time soon]. Even in winter, even when it’s raining sideways and everyone else is hitting snooze. There’s something magical about that first hour of the day. Mother Nature can be wild, loud, peaceful, chaotic — sometimes all at once — and it wakes you up better than any double espresso.

Depending on the morning, I’ll run the soft sand, hit the bars at the North Bondi outdoor gym, paddle out for a surf, or jump in for a swim. Bondi is my adult playground — the one place where getting cold, sandy, or smashed by a wave is actually good for your health. It keeps me grounded, fit, and sane … well, mostly.

The morning crew is something special too. You see the best of humanity at sunrise: people checking in on each other, laughing, encouraging strangers, sharing warmth even when it’s freezing. It’s hard not to become a kinder person when you start every day like that.

As for me, people are always trying to guess where I’m from — I get everything from South America to “somewhere Mediterranean?” For the record: my dad is Fijian Indian, my mum is from India, and I was born in the UK and raised in a traditional Sikh household.”