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Where are they now: Home and Away's Ryan Clark
"I spend so much time at the beach it seemed like a good idea to get paid for it!"
Ryan Clark was just seven years old when he started playing adorable foster kid Sam Marshall in Home and Away.
It was a role that would last 10 years, though he has returned a couple of times for guest appearances.
Ryan got into acting after he saw his friends getting freebies for appearing in commercials.
"I just joined an agency because a couple of other Bronte locals, Gavin and David Stephenson, who are long-time friends of mine, were actually on a Cottee’s Cordial commercial," he revealed to The Beast.
"I thought they got to drink free cordial all day and I wanted to do the same. And that was it," he added.
"I did one photo shoot for Palmolive fresh soap and then Home and Away was the first audition I went to. They must’ve thought I smelled nice," he joked.
But he really enjoyed the 10 years he spent on the Aussie soap.
"It was unreal. I mean, what kid wouldn’t love it? I got to do some pretty cool stuff, got to travel around a fair bit, went to school about one or two days a week – it was a pretty good start in life and a lot of fun," he said.
Before departing Home And Away, Ryan got the chance to appear in the Olsen Twins' film Our Lips Are Sealed where he played an Aussie surfer. And while he enjoyed meeting Mary Kate and Ashley, it was the activities he got up to while filming that he remembers most fondly.
"We filmed for about a month all around Sydney and got to do some pretty cool stuff," Ryan said.
"They hired out the whole of the Harbour Bridge and we climbed that, and we drove jet skis all around the harbour. It was a pretty fun couple of weeks. I was only 16 or 17 at the time so it was a different experience and something I look back on with good memories."
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After leaving the soap to pursue a surfing career he soon turned up on Channel 10 factual TV show Bondi Rescue as one of the lifeguards.
Ryan had actually been into lifesaving from the age of 12 at his local Bronte Beach, nearby to Bondi in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.
"I spend so much time at the beach it seemed like a good idea to get paid for it!'" he said.
Known by his nickname Whippet, because of how skinny he was as a teen, he is now a permanent member of the Bondi Surf Life Saving Club and has been a part of Bondi Rescue for 17 years.
"I love what I do, and I'll be lifeguarding forever so as long as they keep shooting it, I'll be there," he says.
When he is not working as a professional lifeguard, he works as a personal trainer and spends time with his family - wife Gina and their three boys, Nixon, Jett and Marley.
And last year, he even challenged himself to swim the English Channel to raise money for Ocean Heroes!
But when asked what he is recognised more these days – 'Sam' from Home and Away or 'Whippet' from Bondi Rescue, he replied: "It depends who it is doing the recognising.
"It would probably be more from the lifeguard side of things, but only because when I left Home and Away I didn’t really have any pubes and I definitely didn’t have a beard.
"I've changed a bit since then," he added.
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