I need surf!!
Work has been really busy and I’ve been quite sick with a chest infection – very frustrating as I haven’t been able to get out training. My next race is in 8 days so I’m really hoping that I feel up to it?
It’s been a really sad week here in New Zealand, not sure if you’ve seen or heard the news but we had a mining accident at Pike River Mine on the West Coast (about 4 hours from where we are, we are on the East Coast) with 29 miners losing their lives in a series of mine explosions.
This is all that has been in the media for the last week or so and it really bring home just how fragile life can be.
These guys were miners, they go underground everyday and are well aware of the dangers involved in this industry. Does it make any of this easy? No.
Our thoughts go out to the close nit community that is Greymouth and the West Coast.
What a few months it has been – we went through a huge earthquake in our city, surf legend Andy Irons died and this tragedy close to home.
Makes you appreciate what you have and take nothing for granted.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Surf and a suprise
Well – I’m an excited boy!!!! (photos for you Julie)
This should really be 2 posts but I’m very happy today for a couple of reasons – I went for a surf AND I got a new bike
Bike was Thursday and the surf was yesterday.
It all started 2 weeks ago when I went for a ride on a Sunday morning and I got a puncture – got it repaired and got home no problem. Went to the bike shop that afternoon to get a replacement tube for my cycle kit and started talking to the owner of the shop (who sold me us the original bike-that my wife surprised me with the first time) about carbon wheel sets and he said, “why don’t you look at full carbon?” I said, “too expensive” to which he replied – “have a look at this”
What he had was 4 bikes that were full carbon but last year’s models that he was selling cheap – I was like, “awesome” and thought really hard about it but reality kicked in and I said that I couldn’t afford it and went on my way. When I got back in the car, Sonia asked me what took me so long and I told her about the carbon bike and she must have seen how excited I was. I put it out of my mind after we discussed the pros and cons on this bike and I forgot about it – that was until Thursday when Kevin (bike shop owner) walked into my office with this bike and said to me – “you’ve got an amazing wife there, she’s bought you this bike”. She did the same thing to me just a year ago and I can’t believe that she did it again – she got me good and I am such a lucky man to have someone that treats me like this. I must be doing something right.
Here is a picture of my brand new speed machine – it’s awesome. It’s an Avanti Quantum 1.0, full carbon road bike – NICE!!!!!
Yesterday dawned nice and all the planets aligned to create the perfect conditions (except the tide was a bit high) for a great swell. I headed to the beach at about 7.00am and there was a few guys out so I sat and watched them for a while. There were a couple of peaks working as the tide was a bit full so wanted to see if one was getting more action than the other and sure enough, the left one was working a bit better – still had lefts and rights off it and it had less people as well – crazy huh!!!!
When the tide is too full at the pier, there can be a hell shore-break and sure enough, this was the case this morning so it was a bit of a paddle to get out the back and as I’m still getting over the “man-flu” I was starting to feel quite fatigued by the time I got out the back, I just had to sit and catch my breath.
It was a good solid 4 foot swell, I was on my 9 foot 6 long board and paddling over a couple of waves that were about to break on my head had to measure 10 foot faces as I was almost vertical going over. Nearly got pulled back over the falls a couple of times but talk about exhilarating for the first surf of the season – I WAS PUMPED!!!!
I’m the type of guy who is quite happy just chilling out the back with no stress, what better place to be than sitting in the ocean with the sun on your face so I let a few waves go by so the guys who were sitting inside of me could catch them and then I saw a screamer set wave coming, it had my name written all over it so I spun the board around, paddled towards the peak and dug in five or six strokes, started to free fall down the face as I got to my feet, headed right along the face weaving on some clear face, huge roundhouse cutback and stalled and just about got a coverup. Rode the wave about 30 metres more and kicked out – AWESOME first ride.
I took my time paddling back out to the peak with a grin so big on my face that everyone in the water could see – to say I was peaking right at that moment would be an understatement. I was one with the ocean, I was in my element and I was at home.
I had a big day planned so I stayed out for about an hour and headed in with my fill – thank you mother nature.
I took a few pictures before I went for a surf and a couple after – this was really cool to watch. I love nature and we can learn so much from it. I sat and watched this scene as if it was on a nature doco on TV – here was mother swan taking her kids to the water to teach them about water safety. I probably watched them for 20 minutes, it was fantastic and you had to see it. I managed to get a few pictures so you can imagine how cool this was.
Later that day I went out and had a swim in a fresh water lake at Pegasus Town – this is where a triathlon will be held next month so we’ll get a few training swims there in the next few weeks – pictures of this to come.
Have a great week everyone.
This should really be 2 posts but I’m very happy today for a couple of reasons – I went for a surf AND I got a new bike
Bike was Thursday and the surf was yesterday.
It all started 2 weeks ago when I went for a ride on a Sunday morning and I got a puncture – got it repaired and got home no problem. Went to the bike shop that afternoon to get a replacement tube for my cycle kit and started talking to the owner of the shop (who sold me us the original bike-that my wife surprised me with the first time) about carbon wheel sets and he said, “why don’t you look at full carbon?” I said, “too expensive” to which he replied – “have a look at this”
What he had was 4 bikes that were full carbon but last year’s models that he was selling cheap – I was like, “awesome” and thought really hard about it but reality kicked in and I said that I couldn’t afford it and went on my way. When I got back in the car, Sonia asked me what took me so long and I told her about the carbon bike and she must have seen how excited I was. I put it out of my mind after we discussed the pros and cons on this bike and I forgot about it – that was until Thursday when Kevin (bike shop owner) walked into my office with this bike and said to me – “you’ve got an amazing wife there, she’s bought you this bike”. She did the same thing to me just a year ago and I can’t believe that she did it again – she got me good and I am such a lucky man to have someone that treats me like this. I must be doing something right.
Yesterday dawned nice and all the planets aligned to create the perfect conditions (except the tide was a bit high) for a great swell. I headed to the beach at about 7.00am and there was a few guys out so I sat and watched them for a while. There were a couple of peaks working as the tide was a bit full so wanted to see if one was getting more action than the other and sure enough, the left one was working a bit better – still had lefts and rights off it and it had less people as well – crazy huh!!!!
When the tide is too full at the pier, there can be a hell shore-break and sure enough, this was the case this morning so it was a bit of a paddle to get out the back and as I’m still getting over the “man-flu” I was starting to feel quite fatigued by the time I got out the back, I just had to sit and catch my breath.
It was a good solid 4 foot swell, I was on my 9 foot 6 long board and paddling over a couple of waves that were about to break on my head had to measure 10 foot faces as I was almost vertical going over. Nearly got pulled back over the falls a couple of times but talk about exhilarating for the first surf of the season – I WAS PUMPED!!!!
I’m the type of guy who is quite happy just chilling out the back with no stress, what better place to be than sitting in the ocean with the sun on your face so I let a few waves go by so the guys who were sitting inside of me could catch them and then I saw a screamer set wave coming, it had my name written all over it so I spun the board around, paddled towards the peak and dug in five or six strokes, started to free fall down the face as I got to my feet, headed right along the face weaving on some clear face, huge roundhouse cutback and stalled and just about got a coverup. Rode the wave about 30 metres more and kicked out – AWESOME first ride.
I took my time paddling back out to the peak with a grin so big on my face that everyone in the water could see – to say I was peaking right at that moment would be an understatement. I was one with the ocean, I was in my element and I was at home.
I had a big day planned so I stayed out for about an hour and headed in with my fill – thank you mother nature.
I took a few pictures before I went for a surf and a couple after – this was really cool to watch. I love nature and we can learn so much from it. I sat and watched this scene as if it was on a nature doco on TV – here was mother swan taking her kids to the water to teach them about water safety. I probably watched them for 20 minutes, it was fantastic and you had to see it. I managed to get a few pictures so you can imagine how cool this was.
Later that day I went out and had a swim in a fresh water lake at Pegasus Town – this is where a triathlon will be held next month so we’ll get a few training swims there in the next few weeks – pictures of this to come.
Have a great week everyone.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Race report – Blokes Triathlon Series, race 1 (of 3)
I’ll start with the build up – I went for a ride the weekend before and ended up getting sick, so much so I stayed at home and spent 2 days in bed (Mon and Tue), went to work Wed and felt like crap, on Thurs and Fri felt less crap and Sat the same. No swimming, biking or running all week – not the kind of “taper” I had in mind.
There has been a bit of pre race “ribbing” between myself and a friend/work colleague Lyndon, as to who would come in first and I have to say that as I was feeling so “crap” – all I wanted to do was to finish. My nose was clogged and I felt as though I had someone sitting on my chest – not the ideal preparation.
That said.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the weather was just like winter, rail, hail, sleet and southerly winds and I’m sure that everyone was thinking the exact same thing as I was – the race on Sunday is going to be horrible BUT Sunday dawned cold and crisp, 5 degrees, blue sky and sunshine. The set up was great and as my office was a supporter of this event, my warm up was basically setting up the gazebo, blowing up beach balls and getting some flyers set up.
I had organised a bunch of cycle shirts, shorts etc for our company a few months ago and they did me a tri suit with the same graphics so this was its first outing and it was AWESOME!!!
Anyway – we turned up at 6.15am for the setup, got my bike in transition with plenty of time to spare before the 7.15am cut-off, went for a “nervous one” and then back into the main area for a very short race briefing/warm up – all set for an 8.00am start. As the swim was in the pool (open water is still too cold and this is an “entry level event”) we were all divided into waves, I was in the 2nd wave with 1 minute between starts. My goal was to get out into some clear water quickly and then settle into my stroke, target about 1min 30sec for the 100m swim – I did this and came out of the water 1st in my wave in approx 1min, 28sec – all good but still feeling as though I was struggling.
Running from the pool to transition, all I was trying to do was catch my breath and I kept thinking, just get out on the bike and get into a rhythm.
T1 went really well – I toyed with the idea of having my shoes attached to my pedals prior to the race but decided against it this time. Ran up to my position dropped goggles and grabbed my helmet and glasses, got them on quickly, on with the shoes and race belt and off – very happy with this and no complaints.
The cycle leg I really struggled with and this is where I felt the worst – I just couldn’t regain my breath but there was no way I was going to give up. I normally take on water as soon as I get myself into a rhythm but I just couldn’t swallow anything so I just basically rinsed and spit it out (I know, gross!!!) kept an eye on my Speedo and sat on between 32 and 35 km/ph and was passed by quite a few guys. I’m not too worried about this as I knew I would have a few issues and I really wanted to save some energy for the run.
All things considered, I was happy with the bike leg.
T2 was AWESOME – near the end of the bike, I slipped my feet out of my shoes and left them clipped in the pedals and ran to my spot in transition, racked the bike and took my helmet off and in one fluid motion, bent down and slipped my shoes on, grabbed my cap and took off. I put heaps of talc powder into my shoes so my feet slipped into them “like butter”. I had purchased a couple of “toggles” for my laces the day before and they worked great – didn’t need to do up my laces, just pulled the toggle down, done!!
Started the 3km run with lots of stuff going through my head but the biggest issue was that I hadn’t taken on much water and I was still struggling to catch my breath – I still had the feeling of that person sitting on my chest (that’s what it felt like) BUT I had a quick word to myself and said “suck it up”, got myself into a rhythm and just got on with it.
I mentioned right at the top about a little pre race ribbing – the other guy (Lyndon) and I have been quite similar so we have been giving each other “heaps” about this for ages and it’s always good to have a rivalry – well, Lyndon has a son Ben, he is 14 years of age and he swims like a fish and Lyndon and I were both keen on beating him. Pretty unrealistic really when you think I am 30 years older than him??? Ben started 1 minute after me (him and Lyndon were in the 3rd wave) and here is a picture of me coming into the finish chute and Ben is about 5 seconds ahead of me, just crossing the finish line – well done you little bugger!!!!
Finished the race and still felt average BUT I was very happy that I finished.
My goal was to beat last years’ time and I did that – I have to be happy with my performance and this is a good start to my season and it was good to get this one out of the way. Next race (tri) is Dec 5th so time to get back out training.
Preliminary results:
Bragging rights – I beat Lyndon by 1/100th of a second – crazy huh!!
Me – 40min 10 sec
Lyndon – 40min 11sec
I finished first between Lyndon and I
I finished 16th in my age group out of 21
I finished 42nd overall out of 80 competitors
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Friday Post
I went for a bike ride last Sunday morning with a mate and I said to him that I wasn’t feeling the best so we kept it short and only did 30km, I got a puncture halfway through so it was good to have a short rest. Got home and pretty much spent the rest of the day with my ass well and truly “parked on the couch” – felt like my whole body ached and I was off work on Monday and Tuesday and have been feeling quite sick all week.
Typical as I have the first race of the tri season on Sunday and I’ve been looking forward to it for ages and I feel like crap!!!!!
I’ll post a report next week with photos so wish me luck as I plan to race – I have a small “wager” with a friend of mine as to who will come first and I really don’t want to use being sick as an excuse.
Roll on Sunday morning!!!!!
(here’s a pic from the event last year - my first triathlon and my goal was to finish )
Typical as I have the first race of the tri season on Sunday and I’ve been looking forward to it for ages and I feel like crap!!!!!
I’ll post a report next week with photos so wish me luck as I plan to race – I have a small “wager” with a friend of mine as to who will come first and I really don’t want to use being sick as an excuse.
Roll on Sunday morning!!!!!
(here’s a pic from the event last year - my first triathlon and my goal was to finish )
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Andy Irons dead - RIP
This blog is called Travel / Surf Guys thoughts.
– right now my thoughts go out to the Irons family at the loss of their son/brother Andy.
I’ve just heard the news that Andy Irons has been found dead in a Dallas hotel room en route to Hawaii from Puerto Rico, suffering from Dengue Fever. WOW is all I can say right now.
I do not know him, I have never met him nor seen him surf but I feel a connection. All surfers feel connected to each other in some way (I can’t explain it) but I feel a loss. This is a huge loss to the surfing world. I have lost people who are close to me and I can only sympathise with his loved ones and especially all his friends and comrades on the ASP tour.
RIP Andy – rest in peace and keep RIPPING it up.
Kia Kaha brother
– right now my thoughts go out to the Irons family at the loss of their son/brother Andy.
I’ve just heard the news that Andy Irons has been found dead in a Dallas hotel room en route to Hawaii from Puerto Rico, suffering from Dengue Fever. WOW is all I can say right now.
I do not know him, I have never met him nor seen him surf but I feel a connection. All surfers feel connected to each other in some way (I can’t explain it) but I feel a loss. This is a huge loss to the surfing world. I have lost people who are close to me and I can only sympathise with his loved ones and especially all his friends and comrades on the ASP tour.
RIP Andy – rest in peace and keep RIPPING it up.
Kia Kaha brother
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