The Bachelor’s Locky Gilbert has taken the day off to go skydiving.
In typical outdoorsy type fashion, this is his way of relaxing, and given the wild ride that is The Bachelor Australia, he likely needs it.
“It’s a little hard watching myself talk to girls and be all awkward but that’s just me,” says Locky when we speak, presumably, during a skydiving break.
Having previously taken to our screens on Survivor Australia, Locky is familiar with being on camera, which he says prepared him for falling in love (we’ve confirmed he doesn’t pull a Honey Badger) on screen.
“For me, it didn’t change anything,” he says.
“I’m a big lover, I’ve got a big heart, and I do tend to fall in love pretty quick.”
Locky is an adventure tour guide who, prior to COVID-19, split his time between Western Australia and Bali.
So, does his partner need to be just as keen on adventure?
“She has to love the outdoors … but I don’t expect her to go for a hike and jump off a mountain with me,” Locky chuckles.
His actual deal breaker?
“Smoking,” he says, without hesitation.
When I ask about Australia’s boyfriend, Osher Günsberg, Locky has nothing but praise.
“He’s so nice, and he has the best stories,” he says (we knew it).
“There’s never like a silent moment with Osher … he just knows what to say at the right time.”
And it was Osher who informed Locky that his season of The Bachelor would be halting production due to COVID-19.
“We were going strong, I was getting in my stride, feeling confident, and then the pandemic hit,” says Locky, who was understandably devastated.
However, in the traditional ‘keep on keeping on’ ethos that has been so important in 2020, The Bachelor managed to keep filming, and that meant Zoom dates.
“We took away the lights, took away all the crazy dates and I just talked to them for hours on the phone,” says Locky.
“It was crazy how much more stuff I found out about the girls.”
Whilst Locky now calls WA and Bali home, he’s actually a bonafide South Australian, having lived in Murray Bridge until the age of seventeen.
When asked what he misses about our state, it unsurprisingly involves the outdoors.
“[Being] Out water skiing every weekend, jumping off the Murray Bridge into the water, just country life,” he says.
“I’m not a city guy at all.”
The Bachelor has certainly been an adventure of a different nature, and according to Locky, it was huge for his personal growth.
“Obviously being a guy and a pretty big guy, you never really want to talk about your emotions or let people hear them,” he says.
“I realised … people aren’t going to judge, people are there to help you. And if people can kind of see me doing that in here … hopefully I can help out other people because it was massively beneficial for me.”
Openly discussing his emotions has clearly paid off, because when I ask Locky about his chosen girl, and if they’re still together, I can practically hear him smiling over the phone.
“I definitely am,” he says.
“We talk every day about seventy million times and literally every single day, the bond grows and grows and grows.”
You can catch The Bachelor Australia every Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm on 10.
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