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Depending on how old you are, there are three Mark Bournevilles.
There's the former rugby league winger who played 15 times for the Kiwis and was also the first New Zealander to play for France.
Then there's Mark Bourneville who knocked out Steve McDowell, Inga Tuigamala and Lindsey Raki in the Fight For Life boxing shows put on by Dean Lonergan.
These days Mark Bourneville is defined by what he does in a pair of Speedos. The 45-year-old, nicknamed Horse, is arguably the best surf boat sweep in the land.
His Piha crew won the European title in Biarritz in September, which is regarded by most as the unofficial world championships.
They also won the New Zealand surf boat club of the year and the Piha under-19 side, which he also sweeps for and includes his twin sons Cedric and Ludovik Bourneville, won both the New Zealand short and long course titles last summer.
He talks about the sport with the sort of affection a newlywed might his bride. It consumes his thoughts and he admits that 90 per cent of the time he's at his furniture business he's organising something to do with surf boat racing.
"I'm convinced it's the greatest sport on the planet," he enthuses. "It's unbelievable. Being in a surf boat in big surf, there's nothing else I have done that matches it.
"You can be in 3m surf out at Piha and you don't know if you're going to live or die out there. You just can't beat it."
It's unlikely he's going to die - after more than a decade in the sport he knows how to handle himself in the surf - but there are risks. Boats are frequently flipped like a toothpick in a washing machine.
"I have seen a few teeth knocked out and a couple of broken noses, popped ribs.
In 10 years that I have been doing it, there have probably been a dozen instances of guys being carted off in an ambulance or chopper.
"But I have seen much more severe injuries on the footy field than in a surf boat."
Bourneville knows all about injuries on a rugby league field.
He played in a time during the 1980s when biffo was employed almost as often as a favourite backline manouevre. Battles between his Mt Albert and rivals Otahuhu were not for the faint hearted.
He suffered four broken arms, two broken thumbs, a broken hand, countless broken noses and a plate in his jaw. And then there's the damage to his ligaments and cartilage than can never be truly gauged.
By 31, his body was so battered he was forced to retire from rugby league. When he returned to New Zealand in 1994 after a three-year stint playing in France for St Esteve he had little idea of how to satisfy his competitive streak.
"What distracted me for a little while was Dean Longergan's Fight For Life," he says.
"I got sucked into that and it was great fun because his shows were the biggest things on the planet. I had never done anything like boxing, just brawling on a football field.
"Then surf boats came along. I was supposed to row [surf boats] back in my early 20s but then I got a contract to play rugby league in England so it never happened. It wasn't until I got back home and bumped into the club president who lived round the corner from me. He reminded me I was supposed to row 15 years ago."
Mark Bourneville is a self-confessed westie. He grew up in west Auckland and lives there now.
As a kid, he used to jump on his motorbike or pack up his surfboard and head out to Piha and he was often found at parties (usually causing trouble) at the surf club.
These days he's a lot more responsible. As the Piha Surf Life Saving Club boat captain, he has to be and he can often be found behind the motor of an inflatable rescue boat (IRB) plucking out distressed swimmers and surfers on television's Piha Rescue.
It's all very worthy for someone who spent years building a reputation as a hard man and who risked ruining that by slipping a pair of Speedos into the cleft of his buttocks. In surf boat racing, a smooth backside is preferred on the hard, immovable seats of the boats - so the contestants give themselves "wedgies".
"The Speedo thing never bothered me because living in Europe that's what everyone wore," he says.
"I don't have that hang up. I was still fit so it wasn't as if I was trying to hide anything."
Initially he put together a new surf boat crew of "old farts" and he remembers them getting belted around by the surf. But soon his abilities with an oar in hand were recognised and he was promoted to the Piha A crew.
These days he can be found at the back of the boat. manning the crucial sweep position.
"I just love getting out in the big surf," he explains. "The bigger it is the better.
"But there's a big responsibility on the sweep's shoulders.
"What he says goes and if you get smashed, it's his fault.
"It changed my approach to the game because you make the decision to run the gauntlet and go for it or sit back and wait [for the big waves to pass]. You constantly pray you made the right decision. It's edge of the seat stuff.
"It's my passion and it allows me, at my age, to be the very best in New Zealand. There aren't a lot of other sports that offer that. You hit your mid-30s in rugby league and that's it. There's no reason I can't still be doing that at 55.
"It's also one sport where mum, dad and the kids can all turn up and compete, and even compete together. You can't do that in any other sport short of something like tiddlywinks or dominoes."
Last weekend, Piha won the opening round of the New Zealand surf boat series in Wellington and today Bourneville will be found at his home break for another carnival.
A 1.5m swell is forecast for Piha but it's supposed to grow throughout the week to peak at 3m on Wednesday. That's big. And Mark Bourneville is bound to be there with a grin to match.
He's an old sea dog, even if he didn't used to be.
