Heart of the Nation: Manly 2095

ANDREW McKinnon has put on weight since he had his suit of armour made 18 months ago, and he's a bit concerned about it.

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ANDREW McKinnon has put on weight since he had his suit of armour made 18 months ago, and he's a bit concerned about it. "I can't get too porky because it's not very forgiving," he says of the 38kg steel ensemble, a copy of a 15th-century Milanese design.

Armour should move in harmony with your body, he explains, "and it won't articulate properly if you overfill it". He needs every ounce of poise and flexibility when he's on his horse with a lance under his arm, charging at an opponent.

Jousting might seem like an odd sort of hobby for anyone in 21st-century Australia. Indeed, the 47-year-old father of three, who runs a PR firm with his wife Andrea, estimates there are only a dozen other people in the country who do it. He says he can offer "no rational explanation" for why it captured his imagination when he stumbled across photos of a jousting tournament while surfing online seven years ago. He didn't even know how to ride a horse back then. "I just thought, I have to try that," he says. These days, it offers him "something that's completely removed from my normal, day-to-day life; it's about having a piece of yourself outside all the family stuff". What does Andrea think of it? "She's not what you would call an enthusiast," he says carefully.

McKinnon, who's pictured in Sydney's Manly, near his home, took part in six international tournaments last year. "You score points by hitting your opponent's shield with the lance - then you try to follow through and smash him in the face, to really rattle his cage," he says. It's not all about the biff, though; he also loves the camaraderie, and the history. He takes great care to be faithful to the equipment and techniques of medieval times, although he doesn't do the whole play-acting thing that some people - mostly Americans, he notes - go in for. All that shtick about mead and wenches gets "a bit grating", he says. "You'll be putting on your armour and someone will say, 'May I help you with that, my Lord?' I'll be like, 'Knock it off, mate. Just call me Andrew.'"