Crazy Few Months!

Wow, what a crazy few months (hmmm I say that every few months, I should look into that) Since I wrote to you last I have had a knee operation (clean out), been to Colorado Springs for IOC meetings, Thailand to compete, Hawaii for a wedding and China to play the Asian Championships, and it doesn’t stop there …Christmas, New Years, plus 2 weeks in Bali leading into the craziness of 2012!

I haven’t really had much time to put my head up to breath, lucky I have my scuba tank!

It started with my medical team deciding that to give London my best shot I needed to have another (my 4th) arthroscope on my left knee to give it a good clean out. So that meant some time on the couch and then lots of time rehabilitating it. Those small exercises are so annoying and frustrating, but so so important to rebuilding strength.

“Devote yourself to daily and relentless progress!” – said by someone wise

I love the Olympic movement and am passionate about all things Olympic. I am now on the QOC board, sit on the AOC AC and the ONOC AC and travling to the IOC AC forum in Morocco in 2009 and US in 2011. I get to meet some amazing people, this time I meet Willie Banks, USA long jumper that started the slow clap on the run way. He told us the story one evening over dinner. Priceless. The theme was rodeo and we had to lasso a bull!!! We also got to visit the USOC training centre where we played sitting volleyball, table tennis, shooting and wheel chair basketball. My yellow team one, Go team! It was a great time. As you can tell by the pictures, we had a real hoot!

THAILAND

Thailand next to play the last FIVB world tour of  2011. Lucky for us we got to stay at the Hilton Phuket. Amazing! We finished 9th, which as I may have mentioned before, any result in the top 10 right now is a good one for the Olympics, so we just scraped in. We really need some top 4 finishes next year to cement our spot on the Olympic team…I even got to ride an elephant!

A HAWAIIAN WEDDING

Kona, Hawaii for our wedding planners wedding. Sonia met her now husband Geno at my wedding, so Sarah and I were MC’s.  We didn’t think she could top what she planned for us in NZ, but she did. A spectacular event.

CHINA

The competitive year finished off with a bang. Tamsin and I playing in Haikou, Hanian an island off the southern tip of China. It was freezing cold as you can tell by our outfits. We had an awesome week, just one little hiccup in the semi final (not a good place to have it mind you) that relegated us to the bronze medal play off against Japan. China winning both gold and silver. The Chinese teams are continuing to get stronger and stronger. We played in China 4 times this year, they are investing heavily into the sport and their team’s success. So nice to finish the year on the podium. Our first international medal since May 2007. A long time between drinks.

NATIONAL TOUR

The Aussie national tour has started, but Tamsin and I didn’t play the first 2 due to our international schedule and bodies needing a rest. We will play our first one on the Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise) January 21 and 22. For the other tour dates and info and results go to www.beachvolleyballseries.com.au

SANDSTORM

In amongst all that, I love my work at Sandstorm. More and more people are experiencing this awesome game of beach volleyball and we are looking to build more Sandstorms’ around the world. USA, NZ and UK. If you are in Brisbane and want to pop in look us up www.sandstorm.com.au and come and have a game on us. Tell em I sent you!

From my team at Sandstorm and I…

WE HOPE YOU HAD A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND 2012 BRINGS SUCCESS!

I think that’s all for now to report on. Training with Steve is going great and really enjoying an “off season” to rebuild some of our skills and strategies for next year.