From Hamilton, New Zealand to Gotenberg, Sweden...... James Venimore like many of us out there have always been keen just to put ourselves out there and to give anything a crack.
I came from small town Pahiatua in 1986, leaving the Joinery Trade behind to shift to Hamilton (Or "the Tron" as it's commonly referred to nowadays) where I joined the New Zealand Fire Service is a full time Firefighter.
Here's a video link below from James
A bigger place opened my eyes up to the big wide world but still the fundamentals of applying grass roots thinking and number 8 wire technology have always been the strong groundings to everything I've put my mind to.
James like many of us, who loosely knocked around together through multsiport had many things in common, we hung out with great people like Danny and Chris from Dankris Cycleswear and Bags. We did events like the North Island Coast to Coast, the Mountains to Sea and also monthly kayak events run by the Auckland Provincal Canoe Committee.
Events like the North Island Coast to Coast run by "the Colonel" Tim Saunders and Gary Towler were simply run, and just awesome and we all meet a wide range of people.
One guy who stuck out for me was one of my NI C to C teammates Jim McMurray the most awesome Team mate (he told me he was the best team mate I ever had, he was right) Jim was easy going, could switch his hand to swimming, but boy was he an awesome cyclist. With Jim as a Team mate everything was possible and he was also a fiercer competitor than I was at the time, he kept us up in second place just behind Kim Harker and Dave Spring in the teams section for the two years we teamed up. This is where I also meet another Legend Simon McLarin and his then partner Adele Froude.
In "the Tron" I later went on to assist Double Olympic Kayaking Gold medalist Alan Thompson in running one of the National Long Distance Kayak Series events in Hamilton and also accomodating the Gizzy boys when they ran their first sprint regatta in Hamilton the year after. I was a bit of a stress bunny back then so found it overwelming in many ways....but you do learn, when you leave your comfort zone and make the odd mistake along the way.......we're all human.....it's just admitting mistakes and apologising and moving on is the hardest thing for many of us.
Anyhow I left Hamilton in 1990 for Napier where Sharlene and I met halfway........she came up from Levegas (Levin) we ran the Ngaruroro River Race for 6 years and also ran the Mohaka River Race for two years........as a pre event for the Mohaka Madness Multisport event run by Bill and Janet Turvey. Bill and Janet also ran the 3 Rivers Multisport event back then also. Strong influences in Napier also came from Tony Free who headed Canoe Sports New Zealand...who is was a real life Mentor for any of us stragglers who came through his factory.
As my Mate Corey Hogg from www.millenniumpaddles.co.nz reminded again last night remember how you just about set the factory on fire grinding my new titanium tip wing paddle blades with sparks flying up the extraction flu. Talk about Dumb arse.......so lucky and quick on the Fire Extinguisher....but how we never had a dust explosion we'll never know..........more good luck than good Management there!
I spent a bit of time every now and again, during the Napier stint, around Mike Rowley from Dannevirke who set up Ruahine Kayaks........(as I spent 6 years in Dannevirke most while at Dannevirke High School while there) we loved to thrash out ideas for kayaks and he loved it when we communicated around the traps mainly by phone and snail mail back then........he loved the word Networking.....with a big wide smile on his face. Mike was also the driver behind the Akitio Challenge Multisport event.
Sadly I never really owned any of his kayaks, apart from an Intrigue that I loaned out.....too stuck on K1's and tippier boats like the Andrew Martin Advantage back then.
Well that's a drawn out yarn............yet again. I promise I'll have more photos and our latest water sports exploits on Tuesday!
I came from small town Pahiatua in 1986, leaving the Joinery Trade behind to shift to Hamilton (Or "the Tron" as it's commonly referred to nowadays) where I joined the New Zealand Fire Service is a full time Firefighter.
Here's a video link below from James
A bigger place opened my eyes up to the big wide world but still the fundamentals of applying grass roots thinking and number 8 wire technology have always been the strong groundings to everything I've put my mind to.
James like many of us, who loosely knocked around together through multsiport had many things in common, we hung out with great people like Danny and Chris from Dankris Cycleswear and Bags. We did events like the North Island Coast to Coast, the Mountains to Sea and also monthly kayak events run by the Auckland Provincal Canoe Committee.
Events like the North Island Coast to Coast run by "the Colonel" Tim Saunders and Gary Towler were simply run, and just awesome and we all meet a wide range of people.
One guy who stuck out for me was one of my NI C to C teammates Jim McMurray the most awesome Team mate (he told me he was the best team mate I ever had, he was right) Jim was easy going, could switch his hand to swimming, but boy was he an awesome cyclist. With Jim as a Team mate everything was possible and he was also a fiercer competitor than I was at the time, he kept us up in second place just behind Kim Harker and Dave Spring in the teams section for the two years we teamed up. This is where I also meet another Legend Simon McLarin and his then partner Adele Froude.
In "the Tron" I later went on to assist Double Olympic Kayaking Gold medalist Alan Thompson in running one of the National Long Distance Kayak Series events in Hamilton and also accomodating the Gizzy boys when they ran their first sprint regatta in Hamilton the year after. I was a bit of a stress bunny back then so found it overwelming in many ways....but you do learn, when you leave your comfort zone and make the odd mistake along the way.......we're all human.....it's just admitting mistakes and apologising and moving on is the hardest thing for many of us.
Anyhow I left Hamilton in 1990 for Napier where Sharlene and I met halfway........she came up from Levegas (Levin) we ran the Ngaruroro River Race for 6 years and also ran the Mohaka River Race for two years........as a pre event for the Mohaka Madness Multisport event run by Bill and Janet Turvey. Bill and Janet also ran the 3 Rivers Multisport event back then also. Strong influences in Napier also came from Tony Free who headed Canoe Sports New Zealand...who is was a real life Mentor for any of us stragglers who came through his factory.
As my Mate Corey Hogg from www.millenniumpaddles.co.nz reminded again last night remember how you just about set the factory on fire grinding my new titanium tip wing paddle blades with sparks flying up the extraction flu. Talk about Dumb arse.......so lucky and quick on the Fire Extinguisher....but how we never had a dust explosion we'll never know..........more good luck than good Management there!
I spent a bit of time every now and again, during the Napier stint, around Mike Rowley from Dannevirke who set up Ruahine Kayaks........(as I spent 6 years in Dannevirke most while at Dannevirke High School while there) we loved to thrash out ideas for kayaks and he loved it when we communicated around the traps mainly by phone and snail mail back then........he loved the word Networking.....with a big wide smile on his face. Mike was also the driver behind the Akitio Challenge Multisport event.
Sadly I never really owned any of his kayaks, apart from an Intrigue that I loaned out.....too stuck on K1's and tippier boats like the Andrew Martin Advantage back then.
Well that's a drawn out yarn............yet again. I promise I'll have more photos and our latest water sports exploits on Tuesday!
No comments:
Post a Comment