Thursday, February 25, 2010

blueseventy immortalized in (comic strip) print

you know you've made it in the world when you are featured in a comic strip!! Check out the choice of t-shirt for the school janitor/triathlete! http://comics.com/frazz/2010-02-23/

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Brent Foster pipped at post by Cameron Todd

Young Cam just completed the hat trick at the Stroke and Stride beating Brent Foster over all three events at the hotly contested Auckland event. That's some fast swimming! Check the race report and results here! www.swimrun.org/resultsinfo.php?year=20092010&raceNumber=7

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

so how deep is Lake Taupo?

NZ FreeDiving National Champs - Lake Taupo 2010

Three of the top freedivers in Australasia were competing in the Freediving National Champs in Taupo last weekend in attempt to see just how deep Lake Taupo is... Unfortunately we'll have to wait for the answer to that after horrific conditions lead to the organizers canceling it part way through due to strong gusts and large waves making it unsafe for the divers.

However we do know how deep the Taupo pool is after freedivers Jasmin Bastow (Australia), Walter Styen (Australia) and Kerian Hibbs (New Zealand) competed in the static and dynamic events over 13th-15th of February.

In the statics (longest breath hold, prone in the water) Walter took out the event with a time of 5 mins 50 sec, Kerian 2nd with 5mins 03 sec and Jasmine 3rd with 3min 37sec.

Sunday concluded the weekend with the second indoor pool event known as dynamics where athletes swim for distance underwater on a single breath. Jasmine was the star setting a new Australian womans record at 120m, Kerian did 150m and unfortunately Walter was awarded a red card. Kerian placed 2nd overall in the event, Walter won the International mens category and Jasmine took out the women's category.

Monday, February 22, 2010

kiwi swimmer Cara Baker qualifies for open water world champs!

Australian-based kiwi swimmer Cara Baker has earned qualification to this year’s FINA world open water championships.
The former Manawatu swimmer, who now resides and trains in Miami, Queensland with legendary coach Dennis Cotterell, produced a superb performance to finish second behind world champion Melissa Gorman in the 10km race at the Australian Open Water Championships in Victoria at the weekend.

She followed this with an outstanding effort to upstage Gorman, the 5km world champion, to take out the 5km race.
The Australian championships doubled as the official trial for the New Zealand swimmers for this year’s world championships to be staged in Canada on 15-23 July. Baker will be the only New Zealand representative in the open water at the world championships, with swimmers having to finish in the top four in Australia.

Swimming New Zealand open water coach Philip Rush was delighted with the continued development from Baker.
“Cara has improved further since the national championships and was outstanding. She managed to hold Gorman for most of the way in the 10km and was in a class of her own in the 5km.

Behind Baker in the 10km Olympic event was her sister Laura and Alannah Jury followed by Georgia Hind and Charlotte Webby in 11th and 12th respectively.

Auckland’s Philip Ryan (Waterhole) was the best of the New Zealand men in the 10km, finishing in seventh place just ahead of Rotorua’s Kane Radford in solid performances with the title won by Australian Rhys Mainstone in 1:53.53. Radford was the only kiwi in the top-10 of the men’s 5km in eighth place only 25 seconds behind winner Trent Grimsey.

Following Baker home in the women’s 5km was Webby in seventh, Jury ninth, Hind 12th and Laura Baker 15th.

New Zealand results, Australian Open Water Swim Championships:
Men, 10km: Rhys Mainstone (AUS) 1:53.53, 1; David Browne (AUS) 1:54.02, 2; George O’Brien (AUS) 1:54.39, 3. Also New Zealanders: Philip Ryan 1:55.58, 7; Kane Radford 1:56.26, 8; Bryn Murphy 1:59.35, 14; Stefan Talbot 2:01.39, 20; Isaac Foote 2:02.13, 21; Casey Glover 2:07.23, 22.
5km: Trent Grimsey (AUS) 56.23, 1; Andrew Beato (AUS) 56.28, 2; David Brown (AUS) 56.40, 3. Also New Zealanders: Radford 56.49, 8; Ryan 56.59, 12; Andrew Pullon 57.22, 19; Talbot 57:41, 21; Foote 1:02.41, 23.
Under-16, 5km: Mitchell Nairn 1:00.05, 4.
Women, 10km: Melissa Gorman (AUS) 2:03.17, 1; Cara Baker (NZL) 2:03.23, 2; Stacey Hansford (AUS) 2:03.29, 3. Other New Zealanders: Laura Baker 2:07.36, 6; Alannah Jury 2:07.41, 8; Georgia Hind 2:08.19, 11; Charlotte Webby 2:08.23, 12.
5km: Baker 1:00.20, 1; Bonnie MacDonald 1:00.27, 2; Danielle DeFrancesco 1:00.29, 3. Other New Zealanders: Webby 1:00.43, 7; Jury 1:01.25, 9; Hind 1:01.34, 12; L Baker 1:02.04, 15.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Ussher Wins Coast to Coast

One of our Athletes Elina Ussher has taken on the ultimate Challenge and competed in the Coast to Coast, A grueling event held in conditions the day presents.... Hot , Cold , Snow.... you name it , they do it .
Below is her race Report..... Congratulation on the win Elina... from the team at blueseventy.



I don’t know if this will be very interesting as it really did work out quite simply this year for me – Finally!!!
Well, that is before the rain on Saturday morning and the mad panic to change things only 10 hours before the start when around at 8pm we started receiving calls about the course being changed to the alternative one.

So even though we made plans to change everything I was still thinking maybe it was all a big hoax.
In the mean time Richard had sawed my rudder in half with a Leatherman and shaped it using the asphalt as a file – to try and avoid some of the weed notorious for collecting on rudders in the Avon River and we set about changing nutrition plans and strategies.
The next morning at 3am I woke up to the sound of torrential rain thundering down on the roof and immediately had second thoughts about using my Time Trial bike in the first ride. Luckily it didn’t take too many elbows to wake Richard up and send him out to swap everything over to the road bike to make the first ride a bit safer in the first bunch ride.
At 4:30am we set off for the start and the rain was so heavy that at times it was hard to see out the front window and added to that the wind was threatening to blow the kayaks off the car roof.
It wasn’t too cold but with so much rain and wind I was sent to the start bundled up in a ridiculous amount of clothes to be start a race, but once down at the beach and sheltering from the elements behind a row of port-a-loos I was pretty happy to have the warm gear.
Judkins gave a short race briefing which I couldn’t hear over the flap of rubbish bags (that people were wearing prior to the race in an effort to stay dry) and the fact the rain seemed to be affecting the microphone rather badly.
After the briefing it was literally 1, 2, 3 GO! And we were off.
My plan was to have a good run and to be in the first bunch for the opening ride and after the initial sprint had stopped I was able to move slowly up the field in the 3km heading to the bikes.
Luckily I found my bike with no problem this time and set off in the draft of some guy giving in the full beans. He hammered it for about 20 min as we just missed the fastest guys breaking away off the front and as our pace slowed slightly a bunch slowly formed around us – first mission accomplished, in a good bunch.

Coming off the bike I found Richard pretty easily even though he’d done his best to camouflage himself in a big black blueseventy wet suit jacket. He and Dan swapped my bike gear for running gear and I headed out on the revised run course – over the Arthurs pass road.
My plan for the run was to be a bit conservative as following the run was a monster ride of almost 140km with some brutal looking hills in it.

Once over the top the sun was starting to shine and it gave me a bit of a boost as I thought the bike ride would be much nicer in the sun.
The run might have been a bit shorter but it definitely wasn’t any easier than the normal run over Goat Pass and by all accounts many of the competitors were looking a bit worse for wear come the transition at Klondyke Corner.
It was great to get a drink and also to change the running shoes for the bike and as I set off Rich yelled that there would be drafting on the section which was obviously one of the things I hadn’t been able to hear at the briefing on the beach that morning.
I wasn’t very happy about the drafting as it meant if the girls chasing me were able to get a draft off a fast guy then they could’ve caught up a lot of time. I tried to relax though and think that hopefully all the fast riders were also the faster runners and with any luck already up ahead.
It was a strange feeling to ride past the turn off to Mt White where we usually head down to start the kayaking section – even more so as it was now brilliant sun shine and getting hotter all the time.
I kept riding and trying to keep my wattage at a good level and just before a really steep hill I managed to catch up to a bunch of about 6 guys who’d I’d been slowly catching over the first hour.

It was pretty hard at first but then I decided I had better save my energy and not worry about it and focus on getting to the aid station. That’s where the Adventure racing experiences came in handy – at least it wasn’t 40 degrees and in the middle of a sand storm, really not so bad at all.
Finally at the transition and I had a formula one stop for new drinks and gels and just managed to keep contact with the rest of the bunch as we headed out for the final 50km towards Christchurch and the amended paddle down the mighty Avon.
It almost seemed like a bad joke at the start of the paddle and I was just waiting for us to join the main flow as it was so shallow and slow.
I’d been told I was roughly 10 min ahead of second going into the river and so I knew I just had to keep fighting to maintain that as best I could.
As the river got a bit bigger there was a really strong headwind so it seemed like I wasn’t going anywhere when Dan Busch from Nelson passed me. He picked off a bit of weed on my rudder and said I had a really good lead and only a few kilometres to go which gave me a bit of a lift.
It was still hard to believe any info about where any of the other girls were, so I just kept paddling as hard as I could but I felt like I must be getting closer as the Sportzhub guys were there filming and I could see the estuary getting closer.
When I saw the bridge and heard the finish was just on the other side it was a great feeling – until Richard tried to rip me out of the boat a bit quickly and I thought I might break. My legs didn’t want to work and I was a having a few cramps as Danial and him got me onto the bike.
Once I finally got the biking shoes on properly there was no problem with the legs though and my only problem was the amount of traffic on the road to Sumner.
So the final few kilometres were slightly slower due to a large amount of respect for how I’d fare compared to the cars in a crash. I think it was actually the lead vehicle that was causing the big line but it was a great feeling to come round the corner into Sumner and see the finish line.
I was still thinking on the final sandy bend it all seemed a bit unreal – surely someone was going to shoot past me right at the end? The day had gone really smoothly and the feeling running the final few metres to the finish line was fantastic to finally have tamed this particular race, all be it on a slightly amended course.
For me I was really focused on racing and winning on the original course, as all the girls were, but having to do such a long gruelling day on a course I was totally mentally and physically unprepared for still made the victory very sweet and very special and after all we still went Coast to Coast.
Thanks to all our sponsors and my support crew Danial and Rich

Clayton Shows Talent at Geelong 70.3

As expected, blueseventy's Clayton Fettell established an early lead, emerging from the 1.9km swim in an astonishing 21:54, over two minutes clear of the chase group which included Alexander, Paul Ambrose, Michael Murphy and Jan Rehula. Griffin, Berkel, Peter Schokman and Matty White were a further 10-15 seconds behind.
An accomplished swimmer and water polo player, 23 year old Fettell (NSW) has been working hard to develop his bike/run combination since winning last year’s Gold Coast Half Ironman. Last month he finished 14th overall in the national time trial cycling championships, and it was clear that his tactic going in to the 90.1km bike leg would be to throw out the challenge to “catch me if you can”.
By the end of the first lap, he had already extended his lead by a further minute. Meanwhile, the original chase group had been joined by a secondary group which included notoriously strong cyclists Jason Shortis and Ollie Whistler.
Fettell later said that he was “riding scared”, however he is clearly well motivated by fear, as he had developed a buffer of almost five minutes by the time he entered the bike/run transition. He ran out strongly, however it was clear that the race was by no means over, with a group including Alexander, Griffin, Berkel, White and Schokman in hot pursuit.
By the end of the first lap, Fettell’s lead had been whittled down to just two minutes, and at the 11km mark, he was finally passed by Alexander, and then Griffin. Berkel kept a steady but solid pace to gradually run through the field to claim third position.

it's only a Matter of time before Fettel is staying away on the run and winning races, His lead from the front attitude is a force to reckon with .
Congratulations goes out to Crowie for putting together another terrific performance...
While Griffin put together a solid day to claim second and blueseventy's Tim berkel claimed 3rd place overall. ( Well done)

TOP FIVE RESULTS – PROFESSIONAL MEN & WOMEN
Position Overall Swim Bike Run
Craig Alexander (NSW) 3:53:15 23:01 2:15:39 1:11:57
Leon Griffin (VIC) 3:54:35 23:13 2:15:29 1:13:21
Tim Berkel (NSW) 3:56:10 23:24 2:15:06 1:14:51
Peter Schokman (NSW) 3:56:25 23:23 2:15:15 1:14:59
Clayton Fettell (NSW) 3:56:39 21:54 2:12:37 1:19:23

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Deco day in the Bay

The blueseventy head office, is actually located in Napier New Zealand, not under a volcano, as previously rumored.

This small town was flattened by an earthquake in 1931, and the resulting rebuild, means that the town features a lot of Art Deco architecture, and a annual festival. to celebrate the good times, we are all in our deco livery today, and baring the tri gear, wetsuits, computers, phones, etc etc, it looks just like a film of the 30's....

oh, and our office is appropriately located in the back of the pictured blg...

Happy deco'ing
the team at blueseventy

Monday, February 15, 2010

blueseventy Buy Back Program Goes Live!

The blueseventy nero buy back program went live last night at midnight EST in the U.S. For all of you folks out there that have 2009 neros and have been waiting to participate in the program now is the time!

Here is a link to the form for the buy back program: http://www.blueseventy.com/specials/nero_buyback

To participate just fill out the form found at the link above with all required information. We will then issue you a discount code that can be used on our website to receive 50% off a neroTX suit of your choice!

Hit us up with any questions at nerobuyback@blueseventy.com and we are happy to help!

Cheers,
blueseventy

Monday, February 8, 2010

Nerotx feedback continues to be a hit.

THis just in from someone in Austrlaia who has decided that the neroTX product is the best thing since, well since she has been swimming.

thanks for this info.
my daughter put the suit on again yesterday arvo and swam for 90 minutes.
it took around 20 minutes to fit, so that's not too bad.
she said the suit felt amazing in the water, and when she swam this morning in her regular swimwear she said it was like swimming in her clothes.
with her new swimsuit, at the end of a 7km set, she did a pb for her 200 free.
she gives the blue seventy a huge thumbs up.

Regards,
Ian