It’s that time of the year again and I am preparing myself for the Ironman season. I’ve been training for about a month now and when you put that together with the busiest time of the year for work there isn’t a lot of spare time.

For the first time in a long time I was able to watch the Coolangatta Gold and it was an enjoyable experience to watch the race pan out without competing in it.

I was actually handler for my sister Kirsty which gave me a chance to be involved in a minor way. Kirsty performed very well, coming out of retirement to finish fourth behind Hayley Bateup, who really streaked away with ‘the Gold’ this year in what was a very dominant performance.

The men’s race was more of the same with Caine Eckstein really dominating the race as soon as he pulled away in the swim leg for his second win at Coolangatta.

It prompted some questions to be asked about whether it’s demoralising to chase a breakaway leader, but I always found it gave me more motivation to do so. I know it did in 2006 when I was chasing down Shannon Eckstein, who had a massive lead in that race.

Even though I missed ‘the Gold’ I have been in serious training for the upcoming Ocean Assault series in Queensland with a view to getting ready for the Kelloggs’ Nutri Grain series in about 12 weeks time.

While I would like to win the Ocean Assault series after finishing second to Shannon Eckstein last year, the main focus will always be the Nutri Grain series.

I usually find the Ocean Assault series is the best lead in to the Nutri Grain, because the fields are roughly the same.

I also think this summer will see the usual suspects all perform well and I’m yet to think of anyone else who will come through the ranks and surprise us.

It’s also been a busy time at Dolphin Surf Craft. Leading into summer is always our busiest time and this year is no different. We are still producing our most popular ski the Dominator 580 and will continue to develop new skis as well in the future.

We have also continued to sponsor the Dolphin Ocean Assault, which attracted over 600 entries this year and was a huge success.

My first race in the Queensland Ocean Assault will be on November 22, until then I will be spending a lot of my time training hard.

Zane

It doesn’t matter if you live in the back of Bourke or Bondi, Aussies love a day at the beach. However spending time in the surf can be dangerous if you don’t know some of the basic safety rules.
 
Recently I have been helping Telstra launch its Beach to Bush surf safety program. It is the [...]