WEEKEND PROFILE: Brendan Horan

By Julia Holmes TV1's new weather presenter, Brendan Horan, may be a new face on our television screens but the Western Bay man has accomplished more than most people you're ever likely to meet.
He's an international water polo player, was chosen to compete at the Olympics, has saved an estimated 3500 lives, won bravery medals, competed in long-distance outrigger canoe races, studied physiotherapy and performing arts and sung at private functions all over the world.
"You could write a book and it's quite funny because I've worn a lot of different hats," the Papamoa man says.
His CV includes stints as a professional lifeguard, surf school instructor, surf lifesaving coach and television sports presenter in Hawaii.
And now he's presenting our weather.
"I've always had an affinity with the elements. I grew up at the beach and my big advantage in sport is that I was always prepared for the conditions."
His new position allows him to keep a close eye on the surf conditions - something that is crucial come his days off when he heads back home to the Bay.
Sitting at his dining room table in Papamoa, devouring a mouth-watering omelette for breakfast, he has a bird's eye view of the rolling surf.
His young son, Kiahi, who has the same broad smile as his father, loves to follow him into the ocean.
"He's been surfing since he was 12 months old. He climbs onto my shoulders and comes out with me. He never falls off. He has a grip of steel," Horan laughs, as Kiahi scrambles up on top of his dad and grabs his hair to demonstrate.
Growing up in Whakatane, Horan was always at the beach.
Water polo became his passion from a young age, despite the unavailability of a pool during the cold winter months.
"Whakatane didn't have an indoor pool but I just gave myself dry land drills to do instead. I decided I wanted to be the best water polo player in the country."
His natural talent saw him rise quickly to the top of his sport.
Selection for the New Zealand men's team at just 16 years of age made him one of the youngest ever representatives. A sporting scholarship to a university in Vancouver, Canada, wound up leading him across the Tasman to Australia after their national water polo coach spotted him at a competition in California.
Having settled into Cronulla, Sydney, the then 19-year-old signed up as a professional lifeguard and set about perfecting yet another craft.
"In my early days at those beaches a baby got run over by a truck. The baby died in my arms and I felt so powerless. Right then and there I decided that I'd never feel powerless again so I made sure I mastered every bit of rescue apparatus there was."
His proficiency saw him carry out surf rescues when others would not dare to enter the water.
In 1988, he was awarded a bravery medal for hauling several other surf lifesavers out of the ocean during a cyclone.
"It was the biggest seas I had ever seen. These guys were one of the top IRB crews in the country and they were training for their nationals but they were just silly for going out in those conditions," Horan recalls.
"They went out about 2km and the waves were still breaking and they rolled their boat."
By the time Horan and another lifeguard reached them, the men were in front of rocks. "It was pretty spectacular but we managed to get them. There was an element of luck involved - luck and good basics."
Horan's record for the most rescues he has carried out in one day is a staggering 153.
"It used to be great fun. I used to rescue Italian and Greeks and then they'd bring me dinner the next day."
One low-point of his career was a debacle which saw him selected to compete at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games but then miss out when New Zealand's water polo team declined the invitation to attend.
"It was like a knife in my guts," Horan explained. He had previously turned down the opportunity to represent Australia - who did compete at those Olympics - in favour of participating in the New Zealand team.
"I was devastated. My whole focus since leaving school was to go to the Olympics."
Instead, Horan went on to race surf skis and outrigger canoes in Hawaii, competing in an impressive 17 "Molokai Crossings", which he describes as the pinnacle of ocean action.
It was those competitions that led to his first television appearances. Interviews on international channels like ESPN were quickly followed by offers to present aquatic sporting events for a Hawaiian production crew.
He first graced New Zealand's television screens 10 years ago when he co-presented the Kelloggs Ironman series with TV1 newsreader Bernadine Oliver-Kerby.
It was Oliver-Kerby who suggested that TVNZ news executives should consider Horan when Kay Gregory left the weather team to present TV1's Breakfast earlier this year.
But his initial screen test did not go smoothly.
"I had spent all day running a coaching seminar at United North Piha [surf lifesaving club]. They had kindly waited for me to finish so I did a screen test at 7.30pm that night after I had been in the water all day.
"My eyes were blood red. I just laughed my way through it because I thought they wouldn't want me. Plus I looked more like a weather balloon rather than a weather man!"
But nevertheless, TVNZ was impressed and hired him two days later.
The learning curve that has followed has been more like "a learning cliff".
"Being in front of the camera isn't so bad but it's all the pressure that comes with pulling together all the computer stuff. I feel comfortable in 30ft swells or in a dark alley but put me in front of a computer and my hands start sweating and my heart rate goes up. To me, that's the scary thing."
Horan has now learnt how to touch type and he marvels at the amount of team work that goes into putting a single weather bulletin together.
"I just thought the weather chick gets to work five minutes beforehand, reads the script and then presents it. How wrong I was."
During his 12 hour shifts, he makes dozens of phone calls all over the country - including one to his old high school science teacher to check what the weather is like in Paraparaumu. Horan then runs everything by colleague Karen Olsen before writing a script.
"Unfortunately it doesn't end there. I've then got to time the whole thing and figure out which people will be affected the most.
"If I can reassure the elderly that the rain isn't going to destroy their garden, or help warn farmers to move their livestock to higher ground, then that's a really good thing and it's actually very satisfying."
While filming in Auckland, the home fort is well and truly held together by Horan's wife, Miranda. The ex-Army lance corporal is now a real estate agent at First National's Mount branch office and has her hands full looking after their exuberant young son.
"My hero is Miranda because she's a rock star. I had to go to Wellington to train with the Metservice and she moved house for us while I was gone. I think that's impressive, although she probably didn't want me to break things and she did take the opportunity to throw out a lot of my junk," Horan smiles.
He has chosen to commute to Auckland from the Bay to help support his wife's career and remain close to extended family.
Coaching surf lifesaving and water polo were still high on the 43-year-old's list of priorities but his new job is making the juggling act difficult.
"I'm just in a transition phase now where the work with TVNZ doesn't allow me all the time I need. [The athletes] deserve to have someone doing it full time."
Despite his ease in front of the television camera, Horan is the sort of bloke who would much rather be in the surf than in the limelight.
"I think I'm a good communicator and I love life. I just try to be the best that I can be as a person, as a father and as a husband."