His achievement was witnessed by his mum, who had to save $1000 in order to travel to the games and filmed him diving on her movie camera.

[4] In 1971, following his diving success, he attended The Age Sports Star of the Year banquet in Melbourne, at a time when he was being described as "the greatest diver Australia has ever produced".

[5] In July 1972, he competed in an international diving competition held in Helsinki, where he won the men's springboard event.

When asked about the possibility of competing during the 1982 Commonwealth Games, which were held in his home country in the city of Brisbane, he conceded that he would "probably be in a Judge's chair by then".

[15] Born Donald Douglas Wagstaff,[14] his father was in the navy during World War II and he would frequently dive from the mast of a destroyer into the ocean "just for the hell of it".