By Phil Jarratt
On any sparkling blue Laguna Bay day, Main Beach Noosa will be filled with happy people, but it would be difficult to find anyone happier than the muscle-bound bloke selling ice creams out of a van at First Point.
For 27 years German-born Rainer Geitl has parked the 1967 Toyota Dyna 900, known as the Frenzy Ice Cream Van, at the east end of the beach and done a brisk trade not just in ice creams but cold drinks, coffees and hot dogs, all served with the beaming smile of a man happy in his work. He’s a gentle, thoughtful giant, whose love of Noosa is written all over his face.
“How many jobs are better than this?” he booms. “I’m looking out over a beautiful beach and I’m dealing with people who are happy because they’re buying an ice cream. As far as I’m concerned, we live in the best place on the planet. I’m not a millionaire but I feel privileged to be doing what I’m doing.”
Born in Germany in 1962, Rainer left school at 14 to follow his older brother into the chef’s trade, finishing his apprenticeship at 17 as the youngest qualified chef in Bavaria. His mission then was to gain experience working in the kitchens of the best five-star hotels in Europe, but during the long hours and poor pay of his apprenticeship, he had also developed another passion – bodybuilding.
“But we didn’t use that word for it,” says Rainer, “because even though Arnold Schwarzenegger was becoming a big star, it was still a little bit ridiculed, looked upon as being narcissistic. I just wanted to be fit and strong. I played soccer early on, but when I started my apprenticeship the hours were so long I couldn’t do that, so I went along to a little gym around the corner and told them I had no money but wanted to train. They took pity on me and by the time I was 17 I could lift 120kg on the bench. That was a lot then and it’s still a lot today. I just loved it and I learned so much about food and nutrition and training methods.”
At 20, Rainer won the first of many bodybuilding titles – Junior Mr Munich. “After that there was hardly a contest that I didn’t win, in Europe then later in Australia,” he says. “There was no money – you’d win a plastic trophy and a can of protein powder that was most likely expired! But I just loved it.”
Fortunately his career as a chef had taken off, working winter seasons in St Moritz and Davos, and summers in places like Jersey. He was planning on taking a job in the Caribbean when a friend told him the new Beaufort Hotel complex in Darwin was hiring experienced chefs. Rainer signed on as sous-chef and moved to Australia, rising to executive chef within a couple of years.
By the time he’d moved on to the Perth Sheraton, Rainer had married Petra and their first child, Samantha, was born in the west. The family decided to change coasts and moved to Noosa, where Rainer walked into a job cooking at Jasper’s (now Rococo) on Hastings Street. But something was bugging him. He recalls: “Being a chef is a tough gig. You work weekends and holidays and you work late. It’s not good for family life so I grabbed an opportunity to do something different.”
The Frenzy van had been through a couple of owners since starting in the late ‘80s, but Rainer gave it a spit and a polish and added some airbrushed koalas and new signwriting and opened for business in 1993. With the exception of some down time this year when the beach was deserted during the Covid lockdown, he’s been happily selling ice creams and strumming his guitar under the trees when it’s quiet ever since. “The van is nearly as old as me,” he laughs. “But it’s part of Noosa’s heritage now and I wouldn’t change it. I just keep on top of any mechanical problems as they come up.”
Rainer’s new Noosa lifestyle didn’t keep him away from bodybuilding. He kept training and competing, racking up state titles and one national, and then reaching the pinnacle of his career with a runner-up finish in the world titles Masters division at the INBA Natural Olympia in Greece in 2007. Even today, nearing 60, he says he’d compete again if the opportunity arose. And looking at him stretching a tight tee shirt to the max, you’d still back him for a podium finish.
But Rainer has other fish to fry, or perhaps ice creams to serve. Youngest child Jack, who has cerebral palsy, will turn 15 soon. Several years ago, the Noosa surf club raised more than $30,000 to buy a special vehicle with a lift to transport him, for which Rainer is eternally grateful, but he says: “He’s a big boy now, and his mum can’t physically carry him, but I can. That’s why I’m hoping that one day soon I can hand over the van to one of my girls, keep the tradition going. Jack will always need someone to care for him, and I want to be there for him.”
As we get up to leave the bar, Rainer takes me gently by the arm and says, “Don’t make it all about bodybuilding, please. I don’t want to read a headline, ‘Meathead sells ice creams on Main Beach!’”
