STOKE

What a weekend I have had.

As you may be aware – I have been doing a few Ocean swims over the last few months and the big goal for the summer was to compete in the Sovereign New Zealand Ocean Swim Series (the local event here in Christchurch) as Corsair Bay. As this is my first foray into ocean swimming and as you can see from the picture – I ended up with a Gold Medal – Talk about STOKE!!!!!!!

I finished 4th overall in the 750m swim, out of 148 finishers and the gold medal is for first in my age group (40-49yrs) – the guy that won the race was in the 20-29 age group and the 2nd and 3rd place finishers were both under the age of 15. I am very excited and pleased with my race, my preparation and the day in general. If you’re interested, my time for the 750m swim was 10min 18sec – not a bad result for an “old dog”


I was all set to go for a surf on Sunday morning but the beaches were closed due the threat of a Tsunami as a result of the earthquake in Chile – the local Civil Defence did a great job with the warnings as did the media – in the end the threat was averted BUT you could certainly see the “surges” etc. Not 24 hours earlier, we were taking part in the ocean swim – what do they say about timing huh?

Today is the first day of autumn so goodbye summer, thanks for making a small appearance. Only one more triathlon event for me next weekend and I have to honestly say that I have had a ball doing these and the results I have had thus far just gives me huge motivation to work hard over the winter.

Roll on summer of 2010/2011

Stoke

Stoke

Firstly I have to say that I have been neglecting this blog for a few weeks and I apologise for that – no excuses, just busy and slack at the same time. Also, this is supposed to be a surf blog but life always seems to get in the way of surf and that pains me to say that!!!


A good friend of mine once said to me (when I first moved to Christchurch a number of years ago) – to be a surfer in Christchurch sucks, especially in Summer. I have to agree with that statement from my mate “old dog”

Stoke comes in many forms and differs for everyone and over the last few weeks I have been getting stoke from lots of different places. My surf stoke has come from reading SurfSis, Whiff, Christian @ BCB and of course Tall Man Surfing – these are fantastic blogs and I love reading them – They are who started me doing this blog and I thank them all.

Sis has been talking about and building a skate ramp and it’s been awesome following along with her progress. Tall Man has been training for the Disney marathon, and completed it, well done mate, big “ups” for that. I read a couple of days ago about his new girlfriend and her first time surfing and the pure “stoke” that she received and I think that she has “caught the bug” – we have all been there and know the feeling well.
This had lead me to stop and think about my first surfing experience many years ago. We were on a school day trip and I was a 3rd former (first year high school) and the older kids had surfboards (the PE teacher surfed so threw a bunch of boards in the bus and had a say where this day trip was going) After the older kids were tired out and resting, I asked one of them if I could try and they said yes – I paddled out and therein started a lifelong passion that will stay with me until the day I depart this earth. That memory gave me “STOKE”

I mentioned above that I’ve been busy over the last few weeks – I’ll give you a super quick rundown that can be elaborated on at a later date.

- Went to Sydney for the ICCA (International Cruise Council of Australasia) awards dinner – our office didn’t win any awards but it was awesome to be involved (small stoke)

- Went to a friend’s wedding in Central Otago (wine country), she looked so happy which made my wife and I remember our wedding – it was an awesome few days and we will keep fond memories (big stoke)



- I have been doing an ocean swim series of races, which I am really enjoying. It also helps the enjoyment to win my age group (40-49 years) but I look at this as an incredible bonus as the main focus on this is to enjoy it, participate and as training for a race at the end of this month – the Sovereign New Zealand Ocean Swim Series and Corsair Bay. This is my first entry into this event so I am going in with the goal of finishing in the top 10 of my age group and maybe I can do better – who knows but I’ll keep you posted. Ocean swimming (HUGE STOKE)


My wife said to me the other day that she was very proud of what I have achieved over the last few months – this is the biggest stoke so far.


I have completed a number of small triathlons and also short ocean swims (500m, 600m, 700m and 1000m races), the wife has been my biggest supporter in everything I do and this has been no different – for that I thank her and again say – she is simply the best !!!!!!

Perks

In my line of work, sometime we are very lucky to have certain experiences that other are just not able to.

I have the opportunity to host a small group of clients to lunch – but, not an ordinary lunch. This is a crazy world we live in with all sorts of rules and regulations, so when an opportunity presents itself that is fantastic, you grab it with both hands and run with it (so to speak) I know this sounds a little “cryptic” but worth explaining.

For the general public, going onboard a Cruise ship is only allowed when you purchase a cruise. Simple enough. But for us in the travel business though, we are often invited aboard these ships when they are in port, to have a good look around, so that we can advise potential clients on the facilities and experiences that they can have. Fair enough you might say – every now and then we get an opportunity to go on an actual cruise.

However,

Tomorrow I am taking 10 clients onboard a Royal Caribbean ship for a “walk around” and a hosted lunch when she is in port. A very special opportunity indeed and one that I am extremely grateful for.

Some of these clients are seasoned cruisers, some have only cruised a couple of times before and 2 of them have never cruised before BUT are booked to cruise on this particular ship – they are the most excited and I can understand why. This will just blow them away – the size, the facilities, the grandeur, the staff and of course the food!!!!!

This photo is not the actual ship but it’s very similar to the one tomorrow ( I took this photo last year when I was on a cruise in Europe – this was taken just off the South of France)

– I’ll take a few pictures and post them next week.

How I met my Wife

The shorter version (can elaborate later if need be) now stay with me, it’s a nice story.

I lost my dad just over 10 years ago and it’s not something that I’m comfortable talking about suffice to say – I don’t like to celebrate Xmas or birthdays SO what I used to do was bugger off overseas surfing around my birthdays and just chill and spend time pondering life and the ways of the universe etc.

In July 2001 I decided to take another surf trip to Fiji ( I’ve been there heaps of times – if you get the chance to go, do it) so off I went by myself. Met up with a few guys who were staying at the surf resort and we got plenty of trips out to the reefs – it was a great surf trip. The days would go like this, wake up early and have breakfast and be ready for the boat to depart to the reef about 7.30am – depending on the day we would stay out until everyone was either tired, hungry or injured and return for the afternoon feed and siesta, ready to have a few beers in the evening and hit the sack early, ready to repeat the process the next day.

On my birthday (24th July) I was having lunch in the restaurant and I noticed this lovely young lady in a bikini playing in the pool and I thought Mmmmm – but it wasn’t until a few days later that I was standing by the outdoor bar having a beer and she was sitting on the other side of the bar, head buried in a book, she looked up and caught me looking at her and I got all shy and walked away. The next day after returning from the surf, to cut a long story short, we met, had lunch and pretty much were inseparable for the next 42 hours until I had to return to New Zealand.

Here’s where it gets interesting (and romantic some people tell me) – She was from Canada, I was from New Zealand. I came back to New Zealand and bought a ring. Hopped on a plane and headed to Canada to go down on bended knee. This was the 10th of September (my dad’s birthday, I planned it this way) 2001 (the day the world changed forever, 9/11) – she said yes, I returned to New Zealand, tidied up some loose ends, quit my job, put my shit in storage and headed back to Canada. We were married on the 15th of December 2001.

We lived in British Columbia for the winter and I returned to NZ in May 2002 and she followed in June and here we are 8 ½ years later – happy as can be. So many people told me that I had rocks in my head and it would never last. I’ve never been one to worry about what other people think. I’ve always been a lone wolf, doing my own thing when I want – this was the best thing to happen to me and I know it sounds really corny but it just keeps getting better and better.

Hope you enjoyed this – we did and I always joke that I came back from Fiji with the best souvenir ever!!

Sunset

It's my first day back at work after a couple of weeks off - that's all I need to say about that.

But - had to share this picture I took a few nights ago of the sunsett - photo taken looking South from our back yard.

Enjoy!!

Holiday Surf

I love being on holiday - sleeping late (hah, I wish) afternoon naps and surf. Well one out of three aint bad.

The last few days have seemed to blur into one - the days start out waking up about 6.30 with the sun coming in the window, quick peek outside to see no wind rustling the trees, throw the board into the van and hit the road to check the breaks.

The last 3 days have provided me with really nice early morning sessions and 1 evening session as well. Have managed to get surfs in while there has been little or no wind - it's not until I get out that the wind starts to blow - no complaints here I assure you !!!!

Got a text from a mate a few morning ago to say that they were heading to Waimari for a look - cool I thought, so headed out to meet them there - it was crap, said we'd have a look tomorrow as a swell was forcast overnight.

Sure enough, a nice swell arrived and we met it head on (at Sumner) for an early morning session - the 3 of us were the first out and as the tide dropped, the size increased. It ended up being a really nice session - good mates, warm water, sunhine and heaps of waves had by all. Replay the same for the next few mornings and thats whas been going on. So tired I think my arms are about to fall off.

One evening I was sitting outside throwing a tennis ball that is one of our dogs favorite toy (could chase that damn ball all day if I could throw it all day I'm sure!!) and the norwest wind just stopped blowing. It went dead calm - it was about 7.30pm so I quickly threw my stuff in the van and hit the pier - fan bloody tastic - spent about 2 hours picking off the "rights" off the pier. Probably the best surf of the season thus far. Had to come in as it was starting to get dark.

Back to work tomorrow but I'm sure that I'll ease my way into it for sure!!!

Hallelujah !!

Finally got a surf in this morning – woke up (thanks puppies) just after 6.00am to let the dogs out to do a perimeter search – must keep vigil up on yard invaders of the feline kind. All ok and there was no wind at all and I could hear the surf.

Board in van, wettie and towel to follow and off I go. Sat in the car park for a while to see if either of the 2 guys out were catching anything. They did and that was all the encouragement I needed. I suited up and hit the lineup, spent about 3 hours out and as the tide dropped, it got better and better – so much so the “set” waves were overhead. A very nice surprise indeed!
My first surf of the summer and what a beauty – even got a bit of nose riding in as well.

One thing that I was very chuffed about was my fitness – with doing heaps of swim training for triathlons, I found the paddling around very easy (mental note-must do that next year!!

There is no more good feeling of tired than “surf tired” – my shoulders are a bit sore. BUT the winds have dropped so I’m about to head out again and check the waves – later!