Kiama’s Ali Day has taken home the trophy for this year’s prestigious Australian Surf Life Saving (SLSA) IronMan event for the second year in a row.

He came out of the opening swim leg in fifth place but managed to paddle his way back to second place after the board. It was in the final ski leg that he got ahead of the pack, and made it past the break to leave his competition behind.

“This is the best feeling… I wish you could bottle that feeling up when I was about 20 metres off the beach and the whole beach just erupted,” Ali told SLSA News.

“I didn’t win it the prettiest of ways, I’ve definitely made ironman races look a little easier, that was a tough one… I had to really work for it.

“So much pressure, so many nerves go into a 12 minute race. To win it once was incredible, to win it again today… I’m lost for words really.”

Ali’s Australian IronMan win caps off a perfect season after winning his seventh Coolangatta Gold in November last year as well as this year’s Nutri-Grain Ironman Series, for the fourth time.

Ali grew up in Kiama and is the son of locals Ross and Kim Day. As we say every time, he started his surf life saving career as a Nipper at Kiama SLSC.