Category: News

  Many of the team woke up with butterflies on Wednesday, as the morning of the much anticipated Ocean Swim dawned hot and sunny. Very few had experienced surf racing, but as former ironman champ Graeme Brewer had kindly invited the Abb swimmers to participate in his weekly splash off Noosa Main Beach, it was a great chance to learn from the best – especially as the water was choppy with a strong current. Graeme not only took the whole team under his wing but led the swim after imparting some valuable tips. His top 5: always swim with a buddy of the same speed; hug the shoreline so you can stand up if necessary; keep your head down; don’t let your legs sink or the current will carry you away; and  always wear a cap as well as goggles. As Graeme expertly guided the group around the point and back over 1.6 km, water safety was at a premium as they were also watched over by Jordy, Genevieve and Riley, experienced members of Noosa SLSC, on their surf skis.

Then, for the girls, armed with phones and money, it was the hustle and bustle of Eumundi Markets, with many fabulous wardrobe purchases – “only $10!” – showed off on return. A big big thank you to ever-patient Brandon, who waited in the heat for two hours under a tree until it was time to drive the chicks home again in the bus.

With no pool swimming today, it was still a  a busy afternoon, with the boys off on kayaking safari and the girls heading back down to the beach for a surf with Leanne, followed by ice cream.

Team activity after  dinner (tacos and apple crumble) was Trivia, with all groups showing off their creativity via themed dress ups. With  point scores climbing, the competition is hotting up!

 

There could hardly be a more beautiful place to meditate than Noosa Heads – and now Abb swimmers can tick that off their bucket list after an exhilarating Shavasana yoga session in the park. As 36 teens held “corpse pose” for an impressive 13 mins, Leanne was even asked by an astonished passerby if she had “waved a magic wand to get all the kids to lie so still”. Michelle the Abbotsleigh yoga teacher would be so proud! Also held in the great outdoors was the Dryland Warrior Challenge – an exhausting super circuit completed by both coaches and swimmers and followed by a mad dash into the ocean for a recovery swim. After mornings like these, it’s imperative to refuel hard-working bodies. But hungry Abb swimmers always have confidence they will return to a nutritious feast, thanks to Nicole and Liz. Just the fruit and veg component of the daily menu they have devised is remarkable –  by the end of the week, the team will have demolished 26 kg bananas, 30 dozen eggs, 13 kg apples, 6 watermelon, 9 rockmelon, 18 kg pineapples, 10 kg kiwi, 10 kg tomatoes, 10 kg cucumber, 3 kg lemons, 13 kg oranges, 10 kg pears, and 6 punnets every day of strawberries and blueberries. That’s a lot of chopping!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know it’s Abbotsleigh camp time in the tropics when the singlets come out, the coaches wear fluorescent boardies, and the smell of sunblock is in the air.. Welcome to Noosa! An excited crew of swimmers flew up from Sydney (impressing the Jetstar hosties and Rose with their smiles and good manners), to be greeted at Maroochydore Airport by Raf, Liz, Nicole and Clynton, as well as beautiful blue skies and sunshine. What a week this will be, if Day 1 is any indication of the weather conditions. Even better, the accommodation – Noosa Breakaway Holidays, just off the main drag at Noosa Heads – is perfect for Camp Abb and is proving a huge hit with all the kids, with each villa enjoying their own palm-shaded swimming pool. Because apparently, you can never have too much fun in the water. With all the talking, bonding and making of new friends, there is certainly plenty to do that doesn’t involve technology, so once again the Phone Box in the managers’ room is full to the brim!  A big plus this time is the close proximity of the camp base to the training pool – Noosa Aquatic Centre at Sunshine Beach, not even ten minutes away. The centre itself is beautiful, with an outdoor 50 metre pool (as well as a 25 metre outdoor pool and grassy surrounds) so the team is looking

forward to lots of long course practice under the guidance of Abb coaches Leanne, Brandon and Raf. Session 1 on Sunday afternoon proved an ideal start on that goal: the main set was – surprise! – a 5 kilometre time trial. Proving that the Camp Coffs motto of “No Complaino” is on again at Camp Noosa, there were only a few laughs and a little bit of splashing (none towards the coaches) before swimmers dived in for the endurance set.  Matt was first to the wall, clocking an impressive 1 hour 1 min, followed by our open water standout, Callum, and there were many PBs all the way down the line. Everyone cheered on the baby of the group, 10 year old Sammy, as she powered her way to the finish. Incredible effort! Two exhausted and food-seeking busloads arrived back at the villas to dive into a amazing meal of lasagne and salad  – thanks to Mrs Kym Short for the ten delicious lasagnes she every generously cooked and sent up to feed the hungry swimmers. Much appreciated by everyone on night one!

The Camp Noosa bus is packed and on its way north to Queensland with Raf at the wheel. The rest of the team are following by plane over the weekend. Leanne, Katie and Tash have headed south to Canberra with Team NSW for the State Teams Short Course Championships at the AIS. Both our girls did the club proud by posting PBs in their first event tonight. Here they are in their new uniforms.

Singapore Sports School and their Head Coach Leonard Lim Tsuyoshi visited Abbotsleigh on 8th September to train with our squads. They are selected swimmers from various Singapore swim clubs chosen to compete at NSW State Age and State Open. During their 2 weeks in Sydney they have been training with us, Knox, Willoughby and Ryde Carlile.

Late night batter making amongst a squad of intrepid swim club mums powered Abbotsleigh through our first ever Pancake Saturday on 6th September. Jo C, Jo W, Angela, Ruth, Roisin and Nipunika traded recipe and quantity advice, shopped and prepared batter so that 500 pancakes could be freshly cooked shortly after dawn broke on Saturday club morning. “I was making pancake batter at midnight” one tired mum was overhead saying as she arrived at 5:30am. Thank you everybody for a great morning. More maple syrup anyone?

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to highlight the latest fantastic achievement by the Abbotsleigh Swimming Club.

Over the weekend, the NSW Winter State Championships were held at Homebush. Many of our members qualified and were competing for the first time at the State Champs. Abbotsleigh achieved a best ever result of 6th in the State as a club and is now number 2 in our SMNE region behind Carlile.

A detailed report will be coming from Leanne and Brandon in the next few days but there was some amazing team and individual results including a win for the girls 12 & under 4 x 50m freestyle relay! Just as importantly there was a mountain of PBs.

Congratulations to the whole team on a great performance and a great endorsement of our fabulous coaching team of Leanne, Brandon, Raf and Chris.

Our club is on the move.
Regards
Chris Fydler
President
Abbotsleigh Swimming Club