A former Fish Hoek resident had the “time of his life” after being cast in an international adventure reality game show, No Time To Lose, last year with Warner Brothers, which aired episode one on Sunday October 1.
Fish Hoek born and bred Terence Webb, 33 was one of nine contestants from around the world who raced across South Africa, completing challenges for the grand prize of 10 000 euros, approximately R160 000.
Mr Webb attended Fish Hoek Middle School and was home schooled for the final two years of his school career before leaving for London at the age of 19 where he currently runs a small photography / fashion/ public relations agency. “I decided to move to London as my only taste of fashion growing up was through Fashion TV. I wanted to travel, photograph beautiful people and go to fashion weeks across Europe which London allowed me to do,” he said.
But being a “child of the sun”, he missed the warm South African summers and when he saw an advertisement saying “people wanted to race against each other across SA”, he thought it would be the ideal opportunity to reconnect with his roots and see parts of South Africa he had not seen before. “I sent in an audition video, had a few casting sessions with Warner Brothers, and a few weeks later I heard that I had been chosen as the official, and only South African contestant,” he said.
Speaking to the Echo via email, Mr Webb said he was the furthest thing from an outdoor/ adrenaline junkie and driving along the freeways in Cape Town was enough to give him a panic attack. He said he had been looking for something to push him outside of his comfort zone for a while as well as a way to reclaim his love for adventure. “Previously I wasn’t able to look back on my life and say, ‘I had the time of my life doing this or that’ and now, after filming this show, I can proudly say that I had the absolute time of my life,” he added.
As the show is being aired now, Mr Webb could not say too much about the locations and challenges but said the show begins in Hazyview, a small town in Mpumalanga with the ultimate goal being to reach Cape Town as one of the finalists.
En route to Cape Town, one contestant is eliminated at the end of every episode in different locations. Each episode consists of two team challenges and one individual challenge. There are seven episodes in total.
Mr Webb said after hearing he was accepted as a contestant, he secretly discovered two other contestants on social media and one was a survival expert and the other was a personal trailer. “I’m healthy, however, I barely exercise and I smoke, so I wondered if I was walking into a disaster but with the support of family, I got on that flight and jumped right on into filming.
“I had a few emotional moments during filming, mostly before the extreme challenges involving heights but completing challenges ignited something in me to keep me going,” he said.
Filming of the show took place over the course of three weeks.
For Mr Webb a highlight was “surviving” a challenge that he thought would be the death of him. “I not only completed it and lived but I did super well. I can’t mention the challenge as it contains spoilers.
“I always try and remind myself of the feeling I felt in that exact moment in time, and carry it with me to motivate me,” he said.
He said the downside of the filming was the lack of communication with the outside world. “All our phones were taken away during the duration of filming. In hindsight I wish I could have switched off a little more and stopped worrying about what was happening back in the real world. I do think at some point this had a negative impact on my performance,” he said.
The show can be seen on the Insight TV website every Sunday at 9pm and through the Insight TV app, a platform similar to Netflix which is available through any app store with constant content.
