Club swim and picnic; Wellington State swim

South City Masters Annual Sea Swim and Family BBQ

Sunday Feb 15^th, 4pm briefing commences.  Family BBQ and prize giving at 5pm approx.

(club to supply meat, please bring salads etc)

Where: left hand corner of Little Bucklands Beach

Alternative: depending on conditions, far left corner of Eastern Beach.

Event: Swim 1km or 2km, wet suit or non wet suit

Entries to be with handicappers by 9^th Feb latest.

This is a no charge event!

Handicappers: Giles, Lapo, Dave Bradding.

Please confirm to handicappers the event you wish to attend and whether or not you will be wearing a wet suit.

Entry forms are on the poolside with Sally.

Wellington State Ocean Swim

Wellington delivered a gorgeous sunny day when it was their turn to host the State Ocean Swim Series. South City had 3 swimmers in attendance and (naturally) they all had a top 10 finish in their respective categories. Results were:

Avy Judelson - 2nd

Liz Hayes - 4th

Dave Donaldson - 6th

If I've left anyone out please send me your result so I can post it.

The Wellington course is a magnificent one so if you have never done it you may want to consider making the trip next January.

Race Night Results

Apologies for the delay, I know you have been waiting for a week but the wait was worth it. The results from last week's race night has now been published. There was a small but enthusiastic showing given that it was still holiday period. 6 Records went down - 2 to the men and 4 to the ladies.

Race night is perfect for practicing starts and turns etc for the upcoming Nationals which we are hosting in March so why not come along to the next one and have a go.

Swimmer of the Month has already been announced but just a reminder that it was 'The Flash' aka Dave Bradding.

Race Night Results - Short Delay

There were some spectacular times swum last night for 400's night.  I know you are spinning in circles with anxiety for the results but there's going to be a short delay of approximately one week due to general work busy - ness of one party and away-ness on vacation on part of the other half. Please bear with it - we haven't forgotten, and will get results out in due course.

HOWEVER, we do have information on the wooden spoon - there wasn't one this month. That was easy wasn't it. Sit back down now, the excitement for the wooden spoon is over. BUT the Swimmer of the Month was given out and it was given out to Dave Bradding. If you have been watching Dave swim over the past year or so you will be wondering what he has been putting on his Weet-Bix (you can whisper it in my ear Dave, I promise not to tell) because his swimming has taken off in ways most of us never saw coming (come on Dave, is it chia seeds, is it kale, maybe it's plain old spinach - I promise not to let the others know - we'll have a secret meeting and share recipes). Nice one Dave, we are all scrambling to keep up!

January Swimmer of the Month - Dave Bradding

Informal Dives & Turns Critique

With the upcoming National Long Course Champs in March, there has been some interest in an informal critique of swimmers dives and turns.  Giles, Tony and Avy will be on hand on the following dates for an informal chat and review.  To be clear, this is not a clinic, it’s more a 1 on 1 review and discussion.  The session will be run 8pm to 8.30pm after normal training. Dates are Monday 12^th January, and Monday 9^th February.  There is no need to sign up to anything, just turn up if you are interested.

Oi!!!

We are hosting the long course nationals in March. That is soon if my calendar is correct. So now is a good time to get a bit of race practice in. For those who have forgotten, race night is the first Wednesday of every month (except January) and there is no charge to swim. Here is the race night schedule for then next little while.

Feb-15
25m Back or Free
50m Fly or Free
100m Breast
200m Any stroke
Relays

Mar-15
25m Breast or Free
50m Free
100m Back
100m IM or Free
Relays

Apr-15
25m Fly or Free
50m Breast or Free
50m Back
100m Free
Relays

Read This!!!!

 1) Annual subscription of $60 is now due, payment can be made on line to our bank account no 123089 0087168-00,

please be sure to include your family name. Payment can also be made by cheque or cash to Sally Walker or John Trubnick.

2) Annual Cambridge swim meet 14th.February, if you intend to swim please let Fiona know as if there is enough interest we will

be taking a mini bus for the day.

3) Annual club handicap sea swim and BBQ. This is a handicapped swim over 1km or 2km. We have set the date at Sunday 15th February as this is the only Sunday around that time with an afternoon high tide that does not have another sea swim pre arranged.Swim to commence arount 4.00 p.m. (to be confirmed), BBQ to take place afterwards.Entries will be required in writing nearer the actual date. This year your handicapping committee will be Lapo, Dave B,and Giles.  

Race Night Results Up, Harbour Crossing, Everyday Hero

Race Night
Race night results are now up on the respective pages for viewing. There were 14 or 15 swimmers taking part and 10 more records were smashed - 7 to the ladies and 3 to the gents. Well done team.

Avy took out the honours for Swimmer of the Month. Unless you've been under a rock you will have known that she took a trip over the ditch to compete in the Pan Pacific's. Not surprisingly she covered herself all over in glory, taking out 6 gold medals. That's 6 gold medals in international competition. That is setting a new standard for us all to aspire to.

Harbour Crossing
This 2.9 km ocean swim took place this morning in near perfect conditions - sunny and no wind. Most swimmer's times however were around 4 minutes slower than last year's time so perhaps there was some strange currenty thingummy going on somewhere.

I can't give out full results yet as for some reason Avy's result is unavailable and she is likely a podium finish so I will put out a full report later. However, I will tell you that Liz smashed out a 1st place in her age group and the 2 Dave's (Donaldson and Bradding) had a right old tussle, finishing just 3 seconds apart with Dave D coming 2nd in age and Dave B coming 3rd in age group. I wonder if they were swimming next to each other and didn't know it or did they just converge at the finish line.

So far that is 3 podium finishes with Avy's almost certain podium finish to be confirmed once they find her (!!!).

Everyday Hero
A big shout out to our Denise who swam the Harbour Crossing for the first time. She has been building up to this swim for several months as was doing this swim for her sister (ask her about that if you wish to know). Denise has received amazing support throughout from hubby Adam and her 2 sons. Denise isn't just an Everyday Hero, she is a hero every day.

Christmas/End of Year Brunch

Drat! I will be in Whangamata for this day, but the rest of you need to get this in your diaty - 14th December. This is the day we all, except me :(, get together for some nice food (I shall still be doing that), enjoy great company (yes, I'm doing that too) and reminisce about the good times of 2014 (which I will also be doing).

What is a diaty? I have no idea but I have just noticed my typo and decided to just go with it.

This year's  brunch is at the Homestead Cafe. This is a very nice venue so you need to get your name on the sign up sheet lickety split as spots will fill up fast.

Check out the poster below for more details.

Mystery Current at Paihia

November 22nd marked race one of this season's State Ocean Swim Series. The day started out bright and sunny and with flat-as-a-pancake water. The swim was scheduled for early afternoon though and on a low tide so it was likely there would be at least a little breeze and the usual ocean swell or chop by then. Everyone eagerly looked forward to good times.

There was just a smattering of drizzle before the start, nothing major, and then the swimming was underway in balmy, swim-friendly conditions.

I suspect most swimmers will agree that everything went fairly smoothly until only around 400m from shore when something rather mysterious happened. Swimmers could see the finish gantry and knew that it wasn't far to go. Then what? They all started heading south instead of west. Not on purpose mind, nor was there a floating barman south of Paihia handing out free beer. In fact, it was somewhat frustrating with so few metres left to swim to find yourself heading away from the finish.

Eventually the swimmers made it in to shore though. Most found their times were 8 to 12 minutes slower than year's times. To the credit of the organisers they extended the cutoff time to allow for the extra minutes it was taking to negotiate the last section.

South City had 8 swimmers at the race and 4 made the podium so that's a 50% podium hit rate - pretty good huh? Giles came 4th and Pat came 6th so we nearly had 2 others on the podium. Avy, of course, finished in her usual 1st place.

Here are the results:
Avy Judelson          1st in age      (27th female)    1.11.12
Dave Donaldson     2nd in age     (37th male)       1.04.20
Liz Hayes                2nd in age     (39th female)    1.13.37
Deryn McGregor     2nd in age      (18th female)   1.08.03
Giles Walker           4th in age       (52 male)          1.05.43
David Walker          10th in age     (140th male)     1.16.53
Pat Castles              6th in age      (167th male)      1.20.33
Sarah Lodge           14th in age    (102nd female)  1.25.05

There were 638 finishers and ALL our swimmers were well in the top half of the field.

And now for some piccies:

Giles running for the finish

Perennial winner Avy

Silver medalists Dave and Deryn

That's enough swimming, let's sit for a bit

Gotta have some fun after the work

Now I'm not going to mention any names, or who was involved but from this text I guess it could be said that it is very important to look good while you are swimming.

 

Note to self: do hair before swimming tonight

Some Stretching Exercises

 Hi all

We’ve all noticed elite swimmers limbering up and stretching before they race, but we usually don’t do it ourselves. However, a good warm-up and appropriate stretching can help our shoulders and neck stay healthy, and perhaps improve our flexibility in the right way.

Here’s a link to a great article about warm-ups and stretches designed to reduce the chance of shoulder injury in swimmers.
http://www.usmsswimmer.com/201001/swimmer_stretching.pdf

I strongly recommend you give it a read. The warm-ups are quick and simple to do before you get in the water; and the stretches (best done at another time) don’t take long.”

Cheers
Tony