Between Two Beers Podcast: Blair Tuke: Epic stories from the ocean (re-release)

On this episode of Between Two Bears, we're rewinding the clock back one year to when

we sat down with Blair Tuch. Tuch is one of New Zealand's most successful and best sportsmen.

He's won an Olympic gold medal in two silvers, two America's cups, six 49er world championships,

and with teammate Peter Berling was named New Zealand Sports Team of the Year in 2017.

In this episode, we talk about his dubious hole-in-one on a par-four in Arrowtown.

Waaitana Umanga, Christian Cullen and Dom Harvey stated his house when he was 10,

the brutal realities of the round-the-world ocean race, working four hours on,

four hours off for 23 days, his relationship with Berling, the best stories from the Olympics,

the journey to the top of Team New Zealand, and much more. This was a really cool one that we

wanted to re-share with our new listeners. We'd never met Blair before this, but he came bouncing

into the studio with the most upbeat, positive, fun attitude and really gave us everything

with his thoughtful answers and willingness to share. Listen on iHeart or wherever you get your

podcast from, or watch the video on YouTube. A huge thanks to those supporting the show on

Patreon for the cost of a cup of coffee a month to get involved head to betweendobears.com. Also,

follow us on Insta and TikTok where we cut up all the best videos from each episode.

This episode was brought to you from the Export Bear Garden Studio. Enjoy!

Blair Tuch, welcome to Between Two Bears. Kia ora guys, thank you for having me.

We're excited to have you. You're quite a hard man to pin down. I feel like every month you're

in a different country. Is it quite nice to be back in Auckland? Yeah, back in NZ for well,

only a few weeks really. SLGP is pretty busy program. So yeah, we're in Bermuda a couple of

weeks ago and off to Chicago next Friday. So yeah, real busy schedule, but nice to be back in

NZ. Been up in Kiddikiddy for the weekend actually, so always nice to get home. You've said Bermuda

there and Shay and I discussing this episode. Discussed that you just recently returned from

Bermuda and there's one question Shay had about that, wasn't there Shay? Well naturally, I always

just, well I was wondering whenever you go to a regatta in Bermuda, are you concerned at all

apprehensive about maybe getting lost to or from the Bermuda Triangle? Actually making it there in

the first place. Yeah, well before we went to Bermuda the first time for the America's Cup in

2017, like you'd always heard about the Bermuda Triangle as a kid growing up and all the

wives tales etc. But I didn't actually know exactly what it was. So I think a few of us did a bit

of research. Obviously we weren't genuinely worried about making it right. You know like

because everyone's asking the same things, you're like oh you should want to understand this a little

bit more. So obviously Bermuda's one point of it. Then I think it's down to Miami and then across

the Bahamas or something. But yeah, I think it centers all around the Gulf Stream which runs

from the Caribbean up along the east coast of the states and then across the UK. So something to

deal with the weather and then a lot of ships over the years, planes gone missing. No one wants to

hear the science behind it. It's all about the myth. I had a book called Unsolved Mysteries Grown

Out which was a favourite and there were three things I was terrified of and it was a Bermuda

Triangle. No we needed Bermuda but a skier to that. Quicksand and spontaneous human combustion.

Three things which I thought were going to be a real big factor. Quicksand was always one after

watching the never-ending story I think. Is that when the the horse gets stuck going down in that.

I wonder why Bermuda were the country that sort of you know thought one point of the triangle,

why they were the ones that got the name you know.

Miami Triangle is probably something different. It's got a maybe quite an appealing thing.

Anyway good place to start. So a little bit about us. We're from Hamilton, landlocked. We're not a

sailing background. We've done our research. There's going to be some good questions. There may be a

few bad ones too. So I feel like that might have been borderline bad questions. I think you've

done me a disservice. I've got the ocean running through my veins. My mum's from the Solomon Islands

so Pacific Ocean you know runs through there. I am terrified of being in the water but on top

of the water I can I can live with so yeah sorry didn't mean to say how usual. Hey now that's okay.

Look okay we've got a wide range of areas we want to go but the first place we're going to start

is a really random combination of characters and I got fed the story that I think maybe you were

about 10 and Christian Cullen, Tana Umanga and Dom Harvey, who we had on last week,

came to stay the night at your family house for a number of nights. What happened there?

Yeah that's a good story for sure. So it was the same before or Kitty Kitty's home for me so

grew up there and it was a bit of a random connection but my dad's good buddy from school who

he had grown up in and Kitty Kitty moved to Wellington. He was running the Ronald McDonald

house there and well he had a connection to the Ronald McDonald house in Wellington and

through that they obviously had connection to the the hurricanes and all blacks etc and somehow

through there Christian, Tana wanted to come on holiday up to the Bay of Islands so they

he had up my parents said can they come stay for a little bit. Dom and Christian were good mates from

palmy days or something like that so Dom came up too and yeah it was like Christmas time

between Christmas and years when I was like nine or ten years old and we got these that was in like

97-98 right when yeah like Christian was like absolutely the man then Tana was I think still

playing on the wing maybe or just like but on his way up and Dom was yeah I think he was obviously

at the edge then but we knew him as Baldi I was listening to your podcast last week as well he

was Baldi when we came up and it wasn't until like later that uh they we knew him as Dom so

yeah hey what they stayed for a couple of nights? Well you're not longer than a couple it was like

a week or something like that yeah well your parents are running a B&B operation or are they

just DOS on the couch or something like that? Well my little brother Jesse and I we were sharing

rooms at that state or the whole time growing up and I think Dom and Christian actually uh

like slept in our room and we were in the tent down on the lawn and uh yeah I remember I'm pretty

sure Dom actually slept in my bed and Christian was in Jesse's bed but then I just told everyone

that it was um Christian slept in my bed because he was a bit of a star right he was a legend yeah

it's only I guess you go into school there hey guys you're not going to believe who's who's at

my house at the moment like in Christian Cullen and Tana Umaga no smartphones then either right

and Dom you had to like there'd be an element of like having to prove bullshit bullshit Blair

bullshit they did you must have had some like some actual hard photos yeah got some actual um hard

photos it's I saw one oh a year or two ago actually and we uh yeah I was neat to see that just

literally me my best mate my brother's sitting on the lawn with uh with Christian and Tana just

you know just I don't know what we're talking about there but uh yeah epic and yeah so that's been

I guess hurricanes fan ever since then because when you gotta you know those legends come stay

at your house at that age you're pretty hard um yeah I guess that's was just like full support

from there have you um if you can't connected with them as adults since yeah keep in touch with um

Dom a lot more and then you haven't like a little bit with Christian Tana but not that much but uh

a friend of mine running uh ran into Tana the other day actually over at their All Blacks game

and uh the legends and oh Madrid yeah yeah and he was cracking up at the story too at that stage so

that was pretty funny amazing nice a few other little talking points before we get into it a

source who knows you very well has called you lever hands and I'm looking at them now he described

them as the crustiest things I've ever seen and he said you've been through all the moisturizing

brands you desperately need a sponsorship I'm looking at them they might have been a bit hard

done by the end but I know Deon Nash listens to the podcast so if Triumph and disaster want to come

on board you know would you give those a bit of a yeah definitely um hit up Deon and the team there

a few times so no I guess um yeah I don't know who fed you that info but yeah leather hand's been

to something since I was a kid but obviously with my profession it hasn't uh doesn't help out too much

I've seen I think some dermatologists what some days said to me they're the only thing you can do

is spend less time in the water and I was like well that's not going to happen so then that's

been it absolutely they don't seem they don't seem bad at all I think you're being done a very bad

disservice and now you're probably going to have like a complex and put your hands below the desk

let us hide them up okay and the last bit of mail is uh tell us about the hole in one you got on a

par four if this is the start of question it's going to take a little bit to get through this so

okay um I haven't told this yarn for a bit so I've set the scene a bit it was down in a

Aro Town Golf Club and um down south down there for a friend's stag do so as I don't play any golf

basically I can hit the ball okay sometimes but pretty terrible um but doing this stag do I think

we were playing the the back nine and second yeah so it was on the 17th at Aro Town for anyone out

there that knows of course it's probably it's probably not good saying what about all of this

because it's going to make it less believable but uh yeah it was a stag do we were playing best

I think we're playing with four of us playing best ball and we were versing another four or five

different um groups or our mates and the other ones so we all teed off I've got a pretty bad drive

always sliced it so I started super far left or pretty far left and it sort of went over towards

the uh the hole and it was sort of like down a little sloped and it was a it was a good hit

and so we were like and then the other three were pretty um shitty hits so we basically picked up

their balls on the way and in the cart um I'll just go on the stable one thing so right at the

start of the hole because we're just it was stag with golf you know we're um see 17 years deep

no not quite 17 we're only playing eight holes maybe no but uh we we basically we well I hadn't

looked to see what ball I hit because we'd like just been chucking chucking the ball back in the car

and we just grabbed one you know it wasn't very serious so that's that's a key thing to remember

because you'll realize later uh so basically it had gone over the this um little ridge and run off

down towards the green somewhere and we picked up all the other ones went over and we're like all

right where's this you know ball to hit from we're looking around for ages and then after probably

five minutes we're like oh we've already picked up the other ones so we weren't going to go back to

where we were so like it must have been here somewhere you know and then at that stage we I

think we'd hit like two onto the green or something and my other mate was like have you checked the hole

and I was like no whatever and like walked over and kind of like peered into the hole

and there's a bloody ball sitting in there and so and we're just like what you know like no way

it was like 250 or 270 yards or something ridiculous and so we picked up this ball and

they're like it must be and I'm like no no you know and but the to this day we'll never know

because I don't know what ball I have yeah are you are you celebrating it like as a whole

you got to shout the whole clubhouse don't you did you there weren't many people it was pretty

much just our stable party when we got back to the uh to the clubhouse so we did have a few uh

jugs of spades but yeah the guys in front of us like without like prompting them or telling them

what happened when we got there were like did you clear the hole no yeah 100 so wow when we sort of

saw them finishing up so I don't you know I don't it's going to be one of those unsolved mysteries

that's the thing right when we got back to club like even now it's what two years on or something

and you kind of still trying to remember the story a little bit you know and it's like at that time

I was like I'm this is it's never gonna know any any way like good or bad you know from here so

it's gospel now it's down on podcast land it's true that's accurate with the male said it was a

describe is what a controversial I think dubious was the dubious was the adjective that was used

to describe it so yeah it's nice it's a good yarn all right so let's get into it so when we get a

guest like you it's really hard to know where to start um but we've decided to narrow in on the

ocean race to start with um so to set the scene you've won silver at London Olympics you've gone

on this amazing sweep haven't lost a race in the 49er you've won gold at the Rio Olympics with Pete

and then 10 months later you've won the America's Cup in Bermuda and then after that you decide to

enter the Volvo ocean race with map free you want to say that right uh going for the triple crown

which had never been done before and so this is the part we're looking through all the stuff that

really fascinates me I think it's sort of caught the imagination of Shay and I so we've got a lot

of sort of questions to dig around with but in a living leg race and you're out there sometimes

three weeks at a time four hours on four hours off the whole time right is that hell like that

sounds like hard work is that hell it was yeah it's pretty much it so the race starts in Europe

and has what 10 or 11 stops around the world and yeah I think it's 45,000 miles in total just

because you in the race has got a few more stops in it like you don't quite do it in one as quick

as you could if you did it like direct or don't you'd be like 25,000 miles or something so you

the biggest um extra length actually when you go to we went from Melbourne up to China and then

back down to New Zealand so instead of going just across there you're doing that big extra

stint but yeah awesome awesome race it was uh it was something I'd wanted to do right since I

started sailing so the I guess the ocean race had captured my imagination yeah right when I started

in Dingy's and then I was pretty fortunate that I'd done a sail up to Fiji with my dad and a few

friends when we used to have a boat so doing a blue water crossing when I was like 11 or 12 or

something like that had set it off and then yeah I think it was right around that same time that

there was a 2002, 2003 there was a Volvo race and I'd read the book and stuff and there was heaps of

cool stories and I was like yeah that's something I'd love to do just the adventure aspect of it

like the uh going between countries and and then the competition obviously tied in with that so

it'd been something I wanted to do for ages and yeah great to have the opportunity to do it with

Matt Frey. Okay we're going to get buried into the details here because I got a lot of questions

so four hours on like you sleep for four hours and then you work for four hours right but on those

first shifts I can't imagine you're sleeping off the bats like everyone on sort of buzzing around

you know looking for jobs to do and then as the days and the weeks roll on that four hours are

you kind of like looking at the clock thinking shit okay my shift's up I'm going to go down and

catch a kit. Yeah so the crew basically yeah essentially that's what you do four hours on

four hours off and then had a navigator on board that he just floated around and did

just kept up the weather skids and all that sort of stuff so he had his own watch but when you're

in your off time you're not getting four hours sleep because you got to eat and by the time you

get down and get out of your gear and stuff so like in a good off watch you might get three or

three and a half hours sleep straight but most of the time you don't get that all off because

anytime the boat needs to do a manoeuvre or a sail change you need crew on deck so you can

sail the boat on deck with three or four people no worries so the other but half but then yeah as

soon as you do a manoeuvre you need everyone on deck so you might have only just got out of your

gear got in your bunk been there 20 minutes and then you'll get a you know a tap and saying

come on we'll go to a sail change or we've got a dribble tack so yeah you're not you're definitely

not getting your four hours off is it like a siren or a yell or what are they were they just saying

i can get up here be like oh yeah it depends sometimes if like comes down with a bit of a

loud voice or if it's at the end of your you know watch and someone's come down they're like all

right i'll just give you a little a tap and um so say all right time to go to work or whatever

but that depends like sometimes depending on what sleep cycle you're in sometimes you wake

straight up and other times you're pretty pretty out of it you know but it really quite varied

i've got so many questions my brain's going over time you mentioned get like getting out of your

gear is it like a fireman like how long does it take you to get in and out of like the cold weather

stuff particularly yeah it's a there's a big difference from when you're in the southern ocean

to when you're going across the doldrums or the equator when you're just going on deck and pretty

much your shorts and a t-shirt you know you're pretty straight up but yeah in the southern ocean

sometimes it can take probably 15 minutes to get get ready because you're really trying to get into

your bunk and just like pretty light thermals you've got a thick sleeping bag so you don't want to

you know well the number one rule is that you don't want to get your bunk or your sleeping bag

wet so you get out of all your wet gear and just go down to your sort of first base layers because

yeah you wouldn't be very um popular with your your mate that you do your it's basically hot

bunking so you haven't got a bunk each you've got you are always opposite someone so when yeah

just at least the sleeping bag's warm when you get in wouldn't want to be bunking with amber hood

or anything like that seems to bring around every episode it's really topical one i'm really

following i'm gonna be i don't know what i'm gonna do some people gonna be listening to us in an

eight years time say why is he always talking about amber yeah sure i forgot about the time

stamp thing sorry yeah anyway um we'll be right back after this short break

okay so like how hard when you're on for four hours how hard are you working are you at sort of

60 percent 70 percent or is it is it really really tough it really depends on the conditions but

yeah pretty much you're on the whole time so the time actually goes pretty fast so

yeah i guess life becomes quite simple when you're doing the ocean race because you're just

basically trying to make the boat go fast eating and sleeping and that's kind of it and you're just

like in the cycle for two or three weeks at a time and then obviously you get the stops at the

each city you go to but then you're back into it again so yeah when you're actually on deck the

time goes relatively fast you change up the jobs within that so say like when you first get on

deck you might be just grinding for the people trimming the sails or then you might be trimming

the sails or you could be then driving so that's kind of how my watch was i'd get on and i'd sort

just be on the grinding handles for the first hour and then i'd normally trim the sails for

a couple of hours or an hour and a half and then and then drive for an hour and a half at the end

so yeah you're kind of changing it up what does trim the sails actually mean because i hear a lot

of sailing terminology and it's very familiar i don't actually know what any of that means grinding

i know i just remember craig monk was a grinder way back in the day yeah he came to kitty kitty

high when i was like 14 or something here it is um trimming the sails is that like tightening them

yeah or when you're yeah when you're pulling it on that's tightening the sail and then

i guess you can ease the sail as well so if you're the trimmer on predominantly the main sail when

you're going like a lot of downwind stuff in the ocean race you're just you're changing that

angle of attack or like the the sail in and out on the main sail right so yeah there's a trimmer

that will be pulling it on and when someone needs to grind to pull on to create that power and then

i guess it's a free ease around the winch to ease it so yeah there's no room for this is a

nautical term there's no room for slacking though is there like if you're if you're a crew you can't

like you can't like like duck off and like have an on-call right you're not ringing in sick are you

nah but you like a sleep sleep deprivation such a big thing on those boats you really want the

people on deck to be busy like as busy as you can and then and then if you're not working hard then

you should be sleeping because at some stage it's going to get tough like even if you've got an easy

day or you know or easy couple days you know that at some stage you'll be a big weather system you

got to get through or you'll need to do a lot of maneuvers so you you really have to try and just

like be super efficient with your time the whole time i imagine is it kind of like a mental roller

coaster like are there times when you're in the middle of the ocean the middle of nowhere your

loving life thing and this is the best job in the world and then you're going through one of these

storms or something and you're freezing cold and you can't sleep and you and you're thinking this is

fucking shit yeah there's i mean you get the highs and the absolute lows but that's what makes

i guess the low points make the high points better and like the cool thing is most of the time when

you're going in those big like weather systems you're going downwind or a lot of when you're in

the southern ocean you are so like the sailing it's absolutely epic it's the coolest sailing you

can do you know you're on this boat and there's normally when you're racing around here in the

hodaki gulf or something you got got upwind for but then you go downwind and you have to turn

around at the marker boy whereas this you're going like downwind for a week so you're on this like

sleigh ride of a boat with like yeah basically with with your mates just sending them sending it

you know but it's freezing cold when you do say with your mates like that that crew chemistry

how important is that like is it is is that done by design or is it just like let's get

some bunch of dudes together and whatever happens happens yeah it's uh you know super important

to get that crew dynamic right especially in that race where you're spending so much time

together and you're seeing people in you know the toughest environments both mentally and physically

and especially when it's you know you're sleep deprived and it's cold you get all these elements

which just bring out you know put people into situations which you've never seen them before

and we certainly saw that in the race and for me personally I went into places I've never been

before so yeah I guess it was awesome to get approached by Jubby who we'd race against in the

49 actually actually a Spanish guy a really successful Spanish sailor and he was heading up

Maffrey and he pulled together a predominantly Spanish team but with a few of us internationals

and uh yeah it was just neat like to be when you've I guess been in like a Kiwi culture

or a western culture I guess the whole whole time to then be in this like yeah the Spanish team was

yeah it was absolutely awesome really really good group of people what does that mean if you're able

to expand on it go into places you hadn't been before he talking about mental hardship uh what

what is that yeah I guess mental hardship and and physically like you're you're running on

really not much sleep physically it's pretty pretty challenging at times back to the hands like

your hands get wasted just from being wet for so long so you know they'll get you know if you

go on a I guess it's best to liken it to if you're in a spa pool or something and yes this

guy I can't stand spa pools and your hands start going all you know super soft and yeah so it's

I guess the same as that when your hands are like wet for that long they go soft and you know then

you're trying to use them to like trim the sails again yeah so and and they like when they're soft

it's actually not too bad but you go down to go to sleep and you obviously dry out and then when

you come back on deck your hands of like the whole everything's dry down you might have like cracks

in your hands and stuff and then to get them working again so it's some of the most painful things

you can wow yeah and that's not just me a lot a lot of people have issues with their yeah their

hands on the boat but doing my research on this one is the obr is the thing on board reporter

yep so you've got so you've got a guy on board everyone's working hard everyone's getting out

there on the tools but one guy who's just there whose job is just to document everything he's

taking photos and writing notes does he get a bit of shit from the crew yeah yeah he does uh

our guy uh Ugo he was I actually see him now he was um he does a videographer for the uh for the

Spanish sail GP team so I see him around lots which is which is cool but uh yeah I guess this

Volvo was or the Ocean Race in 2017-2018 was the first time that they had obr's which were like

in a central pool of people so that before that they'd had the same sort of on-board

reporter but that person had been part of the team and been training with the team

oh right for like the two or three years leading up so they really felt super part of the team

whereas this one uh Ugo was part of our team but he was also in the central pool and they kind of

listened not to us and there's some strict rules but what he couldn't couldn't couldn't couldn't do

so yeah he like there was I guess it had changed a lot where that person like yes they were taking

photos and doing all the um video stuff but then they would help out like also pitching and yeah

they're pitching they'd cook people food they'd do the bilges they'd do you know that when you

do a manoeuvre you got to move all of the gear both up on decks all the sails and then all the

food bags and all the gears downstairs need to change from one side of the boat to the other

and you know that person would normally chip in but he would like he would grab his bag

and it's like drone box which is as loud to and he would move that and we're like striping for this

other stuff and then he would he would just like no I can't touch him we're like mate we're in like

the middle of the southern ocean you know as if anyone's gonna just give me a hand brother I'm like

battling here that that guy's chat must be so important they I'd love to help guys I just

you know the rules are the rules and I just and then yeah he would they would just they would

do like more of a um normal shift because they can't film at night time a lot so then they'd

go just be in his bunk for like six or eight hours straight and you'd like just miss if we're

going on straight line obviously we have to move in the falls um but he got better at the end of the

race and I think the organiser's actually like softened up on it a bit because it just didn't

it didn't work as well as what previous but yeah you mentioned the resentment building up towards

that guy yeah on day 22 and you just see him snoozing in his bunk for the seventh hour

Sudoku just yeah I got it yeah this guy um you must have seen some shit out there like

biggest way like huge waves what you've seen whales like what what did you say yeah I guess

the yeah you get to see the ocean in the most raw powerful form of of itself I guess and that's

both in like a really you know I think naturally people go straight to like the southern ocean all

the really rough stuff and it is super tough down there just relentless and it's cold wet there's

gray for days and days and then you get these schools coming through where you see the big black

cloud forming and then like see it starts raining sometimes it's hailed and like even towards

Cape Horn it was snowing a couple of times out of those schools you know so you're seeing the ocean

and like a super raw form down there and then there's also parts of the race where you're seeing

in like most beautiful um you know situations I guess like going across the the equator or up

through the doldrums which is like the convergence um between north and south and like the I guess

the power of of nature at that stage you see these like clouds forming it's a beautiful day like no

wind at all and you see this like whole cloud forming out of nothing and like like form for

like two or three hours and we've moved like not very far you're going like one or two knots you

know just drifting along not moving and then all of a sudden this cloud sort of gets closer to you

you get the wind from it which is awesome we start moving again then it pours with rain and then like

all of a sudden it's like that gone again and you're just back to nothing you know so you get to see

the ocean and like yeah the most unique and like I guess yeah just what other people you know

haven't seen before which is pretty awesome do you see like commercial ships kind of cruising

around or is the course designed in such a way that you never cross over with them no yeah you do

really go through um a lot of a lot of shipping lanes but the ocean's um fairly big so you're not

like seeing not seeing them all all the time but we said there'd be some bad questions yeah and I

want to come in on the back of that yeah and ask another potentially really bad question well let's

finish let's you do you do see ship you do see commercial ships yeah yeah especially and like

when you're coming out of uh europe like we sailed out of the mid you're going out of the

brolter straight so that's like one of the busiest shipping channels in the world so there's places

like that and then um going through the southern ocean I don't think we saw a boat for two weeks

you know so um go stupid question number five I feel embarrassed to ask but no no no no no pirates

is that a concern are they on the radar yeah not in the route that we took but like in the

additions before when they sailed from like Cape Town um in the bottom of Africa up towards Abu

Dhabi and they sort of passed um I guess that's where they had a lot of issues over the years around

some are the end is that right no it's not right no close yeah but you they did go through the

market straight at that stage but yeah that's a not terrible question but back to your question on the

sorry the one about like what you did and didn't see I guess and I guess we'll go to it at some

other stage but some of the wildlife what you didn't see was probably some of the the reasons why we

formed live ocean in the end you know like you always people say like oh what what do you see

was there a lot of rubbish in the water or was there a lot of debris and stuff things that

shouldn't be there and yes there was some of that but there's also like we'd heard stories for years

about all the you know whales you'd see all the bird life and in some parts it was absolutely

amazing but then there was big portions that you know just wasn't like it it should have been so

that's um that was quite an interesting and probably a sad part of the race just the lack of

diversity of like the wildlife yeah live ocean I'm really keen to talk about that it's the charity

that you and Pete have started up was that when it formulated on literally on the the ocean race

that you thought shit we really need to do something here like had it been in your mind

before that and that sort of cemented that it was something important for you to do yeah I think

returning from the ocean race was the well yeah doing the ocean race and once we'd return

was the catalyst really for for starting live ocean so we'd had a passion and a real connection

to the ocean right since we were kids and that's definitely yeah it's always been the ocean first

for me like a first and foremost just love being out in the ocean it's where I feel

um yeah most alive I guess and then pretty lucky now to have a job which

lets me do that like every you know every day or so much time of the year so I guess

always had that but then doing that race like just there was a couple of things that happened that

said like we came back and said okay we want to keep trying to do well in sailing but we

also want to try and use the platform we have in sport to connect people to the issues that the

ocean faces and that's really where the journey for live ocean started did that give you kind of

like a second wind in terms of you'd achieved so many things racing but then to have that connect

back to the kind of the thing that you were on top of did that kind of give you motivation more to

kind of continue with it yeah I I think for sure what we're doing with live ocean having that right

at the core of everything we're doing now and really trying to champion action for healthy oceans

like giving us a huge amount of energy and and drive and we still want to keep doing well in

sailing like very competitive people and there's a lot of things we still haven't achieved yet but

having that real purpose and everything we do now is um yeah it's awesome it hasn't been an easy

few years like there's definitely been some things that have worked and some things that

haven't and it's not to be doing it right at the peak of our careers is difficult like

when you're already so busy to have something like that going on but um yeah we're both so

I guess motivated to use the platform we have in sport to try and change the course of of ocean

health so that that was 2017 it's been sort of nearly five years since then what is the thing

that you're most proud of that live ocean has achieved or is achieving or is achieving

yeah well the journey to start live ocean was really yeah when we returned in 2018

then we we spent a year just talking to people in the sector really in the ocean sector

scientists ewe other NGOs just really understanding where we could be and us as yeah as sports people

could have the biggest impact we didn't want to start a charity to begin with just for the sake of

starting a charity it was actually we were trying to stay away from that but after a little bit of

time it became apparent that there was quite a gap in looking at the ocean in a real holistic approach

in that wide that wide view a real diverse ocean so yeah that that was the first year

and then we launched at the end of 2019 and have taken on some great projects since then we started

with the Antipodean albatross so it was it was neat to have that project as our first

project because we'd had the connection with those birds in doing the ocean race which we've

just been talking about so yeah in the southern ocean when you're down there and like in all

those conditions which talking about this these birds which just like circling you and following

you around and they've come from the same place you have you know like a lot of those birds we

would have seen when we're south of is that quite a spiritual kind of a thing when you're in when

you are in there and you see this the symbol almost yeah absolutely like uh yeah it is it is

like a symbol and a connection to home you know those birds were a lot of them we would have seen

in the south pacific were new zealand birds they were home on you know a lot of this southern

islands in altero so that's that's pretty awesome and you know they're up they're making it look

like super easy you know they're just cruising along like what are you idiots doing down there

is looking like smashed by waves and stuff yeah i think that's really cool it's really awesome what

you and peter doing and what you've set up and like you say you are so busy and we're going to get

to the busyness soon but to take the time to establish something like this and give something

back and make the world better is really impressive we'll be right back after this short break

revolution

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um i just want to i've got a few more questions about the ocean stuff uh before we move on

were there any times when you were genuinely scared for your life

no i don't think there's any time genuinely scared for our lives there's times when you have

a real understanding and respectful where you are in the situation you're in like in the southern

ocean at at times and it can happen in any ocean around the world it can get rough but

what both southern ocean leagues we did were really rough even for uh like i think it had been

one of the roughest additions of the race ever like so when we left uh new zealand heading to

brazil around uh around cap Horn bottom south america we went through like three big systems um

and yeah on the second one actually uh we got the terrible news that one of the other people on

the boat had fallen overboard fish yeah yeah fish yeah uh so that's just absolute worst news you

can get you know it's for us on board the boat like you you know that threat the whole time that

you really always got a uh you know the old saying have one hand for the boat but you you

always know that you you're clipped in when the conditions are rough and unfortunately they'd

you know found out later they don't know like a crash jib but um and then he hadn't been clipped in

and he got hit by the the boom or the um and then basically fell fell overboard and you know in

those conditions you know as soon as we got the news you know that you they're not gonna find them

do you get the news when you're still on board you're still in the race yeah we did and it was

I was actually um in my bunk at the time would been through like one of the I think it was probably

the roughest nights of the race it was like super dark night obviously if it's cloudy during the day

and you can you know it's like the day we've just had yesterday here and you know Auckland went at

at night time when it's like that it's obviously really really dark um you know you can't see the

difference between the waves and the and the sky it's just black and you've got these numbers which

are following which basically show you you're you're heading and the angle to the wind and your boat

speed obviously and then you're just feeling the boat under under your feet so yeah that night was

pretty wild I remember just like you know hooning down these waves like doing 25 30 30 plus knots

and just you don't know where the bottom of the wave is you can't see it and you're trying to get

out of the you know surfing down this wave before you crash into the next one and then

trying to keep it going so it'd been a super wild night and I'd been down in my bunk and

we got woken up to do a manoeuvre to uh we had to jibe over and uh so and as I was sort of waking

up I was coming to a little bit I heard uh Rob Greenhill who's a watch captain on the other

watch he he was saying to Juan out navigator he was saying like the first words I heard was

because if it's my sister I want to know what's going on what's he on about you know and Rob's

sister was on um on Scallywag the boat that had lost fish overboard and and I was sort of coming

to still and then just and he was like just send an email and find out who it is because I want to

know if it's my sister you know he was he was pretty calm about actually given the um circumstance

and then heard and like shit so we had to go up on deck to you know and you've got

that in the back of your mind but then we're like go up on deck and it's like no he's always

light by this stage and you could actually see the size of the waves in this situation you know

and that's the thing at night time you don't actually you know it's like wow but it's almost

because you can't see anything it's almost better in some ways so you get up and it's like this is

on you know like it's really serious and we so for a little bit they're just sort of really

concentrating on doing the next maneuver of our boat and and then go back downstairs and then

sort of understand the situation a little bit more and yeah pretty much you know that like

you've seen the size of the waves there you're like if we somewhere fell over here it's really

hard to actually get back to get them no matter you know oceans are big and powerful place so

yeah I think by the time maybe four or five hours later we heard the news that they sort of

given up the search for him and we're heading to Chile and yeah it was definitely a really somber

mood on board the boat and everyone just fish was such a legend so everyone paying like their

respects to him and people do that in different ways at the time but I remember like remember

really coming together as a crew and just saying to each other like how we're still in a pretty

tough situation here and let's the only way really get through is to keep pushing the boat hard and

keep trying to get to Cape Horn as quick as we could and we'd actually had quite a serious

issue with our mainsail and in the mast so we had that extra I guess stress of trying to deal

with that situation so yeah pretty quickly in those you know like your mind just goes to look

your own self sort of needs on the boat and we just pushed on for another probably four days

till Cape Horn really. Those shared experiences with the crew together over I mean good and bad

that's obviously the worst of it but over 11 legs must make you really tighten it with the

moments where it was quite quiet and relaxed that you could do sort of I don't know initiations or

drinks or was there something over the equator that you did that was a bit different? Yeah well

when you first cross the equator so your first time ever crossing the equator I think it's I don't

know exactly where it comes from but you have this basic ritual that if you haven't done it before

the people that have done it basically get yeah the ganged up on really and everyone sort of

King Neptune comes to visit them so that can be however it's normally the most experienced person

on the boat will dress up as King Neptune and yeah the crew that have been already across will

have been gearing up for the last day or two for this moment so any of the leftover food which would

you know normally been thrown out or sometimes we get like flying fish would land on the deck of

the boats at night time so yeah that stuff which would normally that you know would have gone back

in the morning would just be kept on board the boat and then they kind of make it up into this

like stewie thing and then basically just when you cross the equator everyone would be up and

they'd do this initiation basically which would normally include getting all that stuff thrown on

you and smothered all over and then some sort of something to do you know that yeah take a razor

on board and or clippers and I had this big like um stripped straight through my little equator on

your head yeah basically equator on the head yeah so that was and it was short too like when we got

to Cape Town and Pete obviously wasn't on my boat but we went to the the barber at the same time and

the only way to get it out was to shave everything off you know we were so yeah we're so short like

we both look like criminals yeah when um when you do get into like a port how one how long are you

there for and two what like do you just go crazy or do you have to kind of rein it in knowing that

you're back out soon no I think that's one of the the coolest things about that race is that

that experience you have when you you're getting to places and you do feel like you've really achieved

something you know even in the legs that we didn't get first or you know you've like we arrived into

Brazil after that leg and we had got fifth place or something but you arrive with this like real sense

of uh I guess satisfaction of what you've just achieved because even if the first two competitors

it's still an amazing um a thing to have achieved so yeah you those times at ports are awesome for

sure and you connect back with the rest of your team you know the shore team and the wider support

team you know it's really tough for them though and families of course like you're you've just seen

them in New Zealand now you're in Brazil you know and what they've gone through during those three

weeks or whatever it is like where they're living it and understanding every single situation you're

into you actually yeah you probably don't get it like as worried or anything like that you know

even with the fish situation I know that's for sure like all the families back home that's

you know the worst news you can get and then the worry about how everyone is on our boat and you

know all of that's like it's pretty tough on the family back home when you're out there just

you know on these boats in pretty um tough situations that that was actually a crazy race

right like everything we've talked about 11 legs and then it came down to this incredibly close

finish and one of our sources said they've never seen you so gutted at the end like you talk us

through that that that last leg yeah so the last leg of the race was from it was a short one just

from Gothenburg and Sweden back to the Hague in the Netherlands we had a couple of little laps

around sort of Scandinavia which I think it drew it out to about two three day three day leg I think

and when those short legs were back to the right when we're talking about the four hours on four

hours off when you get to the short legs that kind of doesn't exist yeah you're just on and you know

the ends what three um three days away so you can kind of see the end at the light of the tunnel

you you just go you just go so you're tired like you've never believed there like any sort of

change in wind strength you know if it was in the ocean you might just say we'll just

hold this sail for a little bit and it should come right and if it doesn't in half an hour or

whatever it is we'll change it and there like every gust you're changing every shift you're

tacking or driving so yeah it was a really tough leg we went into it uh tied on points with

Pete's team Brunel and then Dongfeng the Chinese team which we'd had a really tight battle with

the whole way around the world and then uh Brunel had sailed a really good second half of the leg

race and come up so all of us were tied on points basically whoever won the leg or won our mastery

we're gonna win win overall so we I think probably two-thirds of the race we led for and coming into

the Hague there was this point where we had to go around a virtual there's all these traffic

separation zones in Europe when the um when the or to keep the ships apart there's so much

shipping traffic so there was this TSS there that traffic separation zone which they basically put

exclusion zone around so it becomes like a virtual island really so we're coming into

the Hague and we had to decide if we're gonna go like left and go inshore towards the top of

Germany and along the German coast and then into Netherlands or if we went around it out towards

the UK and back into the the Hague that way and we were leading so we had to make the decision first

and we decided to go towards the UK and um Pete's team Brunel came that way with us

and then Dongfeng went the other way and yeah that there's probably about 12 hours from there to

finish and we were like we were showing all the routings and stuff which you have on board the

boat was still showing that our way was uh gonna be better and then the last two hours into the

finish we basically went around the traffic separation zone and the wind angle was uh

predicted to be one whatever whatever it was and it was slightly different so it meant that we

were basically going straight downwind to the finish from where we were around this virtual

island and they were coming reaching straight in on their angle so um yeah it was well most

yeah tough 20 or 30 minutes of ever experience yeah just uh like we could see them basically just

on the horizon or like coming across in front of us you know and we've done this awesome job to keep

Pete's team and the boats there behind us and we were coming in thinking we were you know like

they could have appeared anywhere they could have appeared 20 minutes behind us from there and just

yeah to lose plus the weight of 10 legs of work on top of it and then I guess like

as well because you've just been up for this basically three days so that it was pretty hard

to hide the emotion at the end of that because you just realised that you hadn't achieved you know

what the team had set out to and that was I think for that group like that's Spanish team that was

like some of their like fourth or fifth attempt at it and they'd come really close a couple of times

and uh yeah the whole group not to achieve that success was uh super super tough but you know I

guess once the dust settled a little bit it was still amazing and it was uh of what we achieved

during that race and the experiences we'd shared just and like you talked about that those bonds

you with with the team mates no one will ever take that away from you and um yeah through the

good times and the tough times was just unreal experience something you think you'll do again

yeah hell hell yeah yeah I'd love to at some stage in the in the future I mean we're pretty

tied up for the next couple of months how often how often is it raced uh it's about every three

or four years but yeah there's a race starting next early next year which yeah I won't do but

maybe the race after that or or some race in the you know in the future will be cool there's

definitely a sense of unfinished business here and just it would be neat to have a Kiwi team

in that race again I mean this country's had so much history with what was the whip breed and then

the Volvo ocean race and to try and get back that back again would be neat yeah it's cool man that

that definitely captures the imagination that around the world stuff and wakes at a time out on the

ocean can I ask two more questions yeah please one's one's not a serious one and then one is a

serious one or two three questions maybe one is someone on board in charge of like music do you

have a yui boom or anything like that to pass the boredom oh no not we don't have like a sounds

going as a team but quite a few people will sleep with their own okay like noise canceling

headphones on that should be part of the OBR's job that's what I would that's what I would have thought

yeah DJ um he's concentrating too much on his eight hours sleep for that second reason like second

just a pure curiosity you get into port you get off everything what's your go-to meal is it always

the same or is it very depending on where you are that's a really good question and when you're out

there you're always thinking oh I'm gonna go get a burger or a big feed of whatever it could be but

the thing is you've actually you've been eating like rehydrated food for three weeks and you can't

actually just want some like fresh fresh food so like quite like yeah just fresh food and veggies

is that's definitely good okay supplementary question which has just come to me you can just ask

the quick you don't need to frame you just ask yeah okay I'll just I'm just can't just can't just

can't just it might be just like around the world episode no one's throwing a poll off the back while

you're in the doldrums not in the southern ocean in the doldrums and just get a little mahi mahi and

yeah we did actually see a couple of mahi mahi because they quite often like come under the

under the boat you know but I'm in predate in midwater yeah but no we don't take a line on

board but when we were at some stage we oh the the life rafts on board have you know if you yeah

you know you don't want to end up in one of those but they've got fishing line on them so I think

at some stage we were um yeah it was actually the leg from from New Zealand to Brazil we ended up

having to stop at Cape Horn after what we were talking about before and try and fix that so we

end up behind like the people in front of us and we couldn't catch them so then we were running out

of food because we got stuck behind this weather system so anyway some of the team we're trying

to catch some fish well I don't actually think they had any luck but yeah um number two's on

board do they just go straight in the water or are they stored straight in the water yeah okay you

can either use the toilet yeah uh or the head down downstairs or or people just um sort of

goes straight off the back yeah yeah gonna be a bit better for um for people down below because

when they are normally like you're in your bunks which is kind of more towards the back of the boat

like we're in the southern ocean like going real fast you're in your your bunks but as the

when like there's a lot of time when you're in really light winds too yeah and then everyone

like sleeps forward and you're just sleeping as far forward as you can and you're in the boat so

at that stage you're right up the front and the the head's actually up by that yeah you're there

and so and there's like it's like not kosher to use the toilet when people are sleeping up there you

know oh really well like you're literally like two meters from someone you know and like trying to

sleep and it's pretty easy at that stage to go off the back but um is that a hard rule is it

written into the well it's not written it's it's unwritten rule but uh yeah it's a couple of times

I think maybe Rob um he's a British guy that was on board he uh snuck up there you know like someone

broke the rules yeah it's not good and there's no escape either right you're just gonna have to sit

no it's not like it is when you're going one knot it's not as much airflow coming through the hatch

okay my my genuine question is those were genuine questions no well yeah they they were but this is

a slightly more serious one but when you're going through the Pacific in particular

are the are you having moments in your own mind of thinking like how the

fuck did our ancestors do this in a double-hulled like wooden canoe like are you thinking that

consciously at the time yeah well that's awesome question actually that's probably something more

of stardust understand uh in recent times we've been doing it um or hanging out with the Te Tuki

whanow Te Tuki voyaging trust and uh yeah just learning about that aspect of it of how Maldian

Polynesians first got around the Pacific and down here to Aotearoa and just you know that's

thousands of years ago they were coming here you know the navigational skills alone was phenomenal

how they got here using both the stars and all the different things around them nature

wildlife all everything you know wave angles um but then the actual sailing skills to keep the

walker going straight line trimming the sails to that it's phenomenal would you do one on

on those ocean voyaging yeah i'd love to i'd absolutely love to i mean i'll put you in contact

with my sister yeah she lives in she lives in the Cook Islands in Raro so she's really invested

in that yeah that'll be cool yeah yeah uh we did a little trip um from Muraitai up to the Bay of

Islands a few weeks ago actually before we were in Bermuda with uh with the Te Tuki crew and that

was that was neat they carried on all they were taking uh the Honui around to Kawhia so we jumped

on for that first part of it yeah so it was only 36 hours or something but uh it was really neat to

get a get a little taste of it cool just be wary when she says he's going to do something with a

guest he told Shane Cameron he was going to do his 12 week fitness program but if you've been

whoa you're gonna put me on blast like that huh you've been in touch no i'll definitely take you

up on that how we need that whole voyaging community's epic right from people here in

Aotearoa to all through the all through the islands and it's something that's just growing super fast

now as people understand like that um yeah all of that history and it's i think it's a real you

know shame that like for me personally i didn't learn that stuff at school you know so why didn't i

learn learn that we thought like whatever a few hundred years ago people were coming here from

england you know whatever and it's like that's not you know Aotearoa wasn't

discovered that way yeah yeah it's pretty amazing yeah i want to start building the picture of

Blair to you mentioned when you were 11 you sailed with your old man from was it Bay of Islands to

Fiji yes which is what like a seven day trip yeah like that seems like quite a big thing to do when

you're 11 years old was that the moment that cemented your sort of future as a sailor yeah i

think we were pretty lucky that we had a family yacht growing up from probably when i was about

seven or eight and after a couple years of having it i was like dad was doing those trips and i was

like keen as and they wouldn't let me to i think i got to like 11 or 12 or something but yeah doing

the first one i still remember now like that if we left kitty kitty in the afternoon or whatever and

sailed through you know the first night and then getting up in the morning and like looking around

and not seeing land you know it was like oh this is epic and then yeah getting to going up to Fiji

and feeling the difference between you know like being pretty i think it was coming into winter like

this time of year so it was like pretty cold when we left and then as you stuck in further north you

stuck in these like kind of rogue warm puffs of breeze that you just feel as you stuck in that so

that was you know just being on the ocean was was epic so yeah i think that's what really

started the journey and i didn't know where it was going to go from there and then obviously going into

the sailing dinghies and then on to the olympics and then yeah so you kind of caught the bug there

i'm going to connect the dots a little bit but when you were 17 you were uh check this world

splash world champion at 17 right and at that same time you'd moved from kitty kitty to Auckland

and we're going to school so your world champion at splash what is splash world champion biggest

bomb yeah i wish i could have his profit pretty good uh splash is like a single hand like a one

person boat similar to uh a laser so for people might not a laser it's yeah similar to that

it was wasn't ever that big here in NZ but quite big in in Europe and we're a good crew that sailed

them in in kitty kitty so uh Andy Maloney who we do a lot of sailing with now started at the same

time as me Brad Farrand um yeah a lot of really good good crew and i think that's what really helped

us just having that like because you're i guess growing from a small town you got to try and

find some sort of advantage to go take on the the kids from the city you know so having that real good

team that pushed each other and then would come down to the city and and take on um take on them

and then you get an opportunity to go overseas and and race from like you know 14 onwards and then

to yeah win that world champs and i was yeah i think just yeah just 17 was was awesome so that

had turned your head right you're the best in the world at discipline when you're 17 you're still

going to school but you you dropped out of school right you you knew that that schooling what wasn't

for you you'd you'd committed to sailing at that point yeah i'd yeah i think it was yeah by the time

i'd won the splash worlds i'd actually yeah dropped out of school because my brothers

be quick to remind me i say i left school but they say dropped out uh but yeah i decided to take on

an electrical apprenticeship so i think i came down from kitty kitty went to st kent's uh for a year

and a year and a little bit and um you know i just didn't really i'd actually say i'm pretty good

at school at at st kent's and um you know really big change from kitty kitty high where you've uh

like just put in this completely different uh culture and stuff and like everyone's like work

ethic and the teachers were amazing and stuff and actually got some pretty good grades but i didn't

really see myself going to university and um didn't want to keep kind of wasting my parents money i

guess at at school if i didn't want to be there so they sort of tasked me with finding a job before

i could leave they weren't going to let me leave and yeah had this um opportunity come up to start

an electrical apprenticeship and yeah took that on and um had really lucky they had a great boss

that just could kind of see what i was trying to do with sailing but um so he was pretty pretty

opened to me taking quite a lot of time off so it was pretty drawn out apprenticeship and around

this time you appeared on big peat big peat burlings radar and there's an email in the maritime museum

i think of him saying you want to come and sail 49er with me is that around that same time yeah

it's yeah pretty similar time a couple years after that so i um then sailed a few different classes

between um the splash and then pete asking me to sail with him and yeah pete had then been to the

beijing olympics at that time so yeah he was 17 and i was 19 or something like that um did you

know did you know him like is it like other sports where like if there's a top teenage kid in another

town and you're in that sport as well like you know who they are is it is it like that in sailing

yeah we hadn't because i'd grown up up north and this splash wasn't a class that pete actually

sailed so uh we'd come from kind of different pathways uh but we'd raced together i sailed

with andy maloney when we were like 16 in the 420 class we've um we'd raced against pete and um

his sailing partner carl who they went on to go to the olympics and yeah they they were really good

at that stage so they'd won the world champs and stuff i think we got like seventh or something but

yeah we'd raced against them a little bit and then i got put in a team with pete

and carl like to go to the youth olympics so we'd it's been a team together like

yeah when we're like 16 or 17 and then um yeah just approached me after the olympics and he was

keen to do the 49er and i'd been sailing those types of boats a little bit like skiffs and the

tornado catamarans and like these but sort of faster boats and um yeah so you went sort of

building up you went to london and got silver but how long which was an incredible achievement

for you guys you were so young the youngest team there but how long into that partnership with

pete when you'd linked up did you realize you had something really special there well we just

started off pretty casually and said let's see how it goes you know you don't want to put a big

goal out there without you know knowing that it's going to work but i think within a few months we

had enjoyed um i guess the partnership and and where we were it was a huge learning curve like we

were to think where we were even looking back now like four years out from the olympics or

three and a half by the time we really got into it so getting a silver medal was a yeah it was a

crazy learning curve like we were 49 is a really difficult boat to sail when you're starting

like the boat handling and not to capsize and all that stuff so we were like capsizing loads we were

breaking things we were you know this learning curve was um so steep but yeah we just lucky we

got some really good people around us and helped to i guess channel our energy and our drive um

quite a lot to have some quite experienced people come around our campaign like in the 2009 2010

sort of time it was um yeah we were very lucky and then the last couple of years leading up to

london started to get some good results was it a case of your skill sets complementing one another

or was it kind of like just by sheer force you were successful no i think yeah any partnership

you definitely got a you know what to be the most efficient and the the best together as a team you

got to try and use your strengths that you have and um i think and a lot of things when you're

you know on a steep learning curve the thing you'd run out of time normally so you got to try and

use your time most efficiently and uh yeah i think we're pretty fortunate that we come at it from

quite different backgrounds and different skill sets but there's a lot of shared um shared skill

sets in there as well and you know that drive from both of us to just wanting to be better every day

was um you know probably the thing that was most in common we'll be right back after this short break

in those early days before you went to the olympics did you think i mean obviously what

you've gone on to achieve is incredible but did you see a pathway for that in those early days

no i don't think i did really um yeah and peep probably the same but definitely not for me like

you just we were so focused on just trying to do well and do our best in the in the learning phase

on the way up to london that we didn't even think past it you know like when we finished in london

we were just like we took ages to like you know figure out what how we were going to approach

the next little bit it wasn't like and even going into Rio we're the same you just put everything

in your life towards that one thing i think you're pretty lucky in as sports people that you can do

that you know like you can just you know maybe it's a little some people see as a little bit

selfish or what but you just you put your everything into into that one thing so yeah

i mean it's amazing the journey we've been on since then right till now but um yeah i think it

definitely started just with that that goal of trying to win a medal for alt at all yeah and

what an incredible achievement but when you did win the silver like at the olympics was the

my own thinking that the the sailing whatever village or set up was removed from cornwall

weymouth but on the way down to cornwall yeah from the other village like did you get to celebrate

that with the other kiwi athletes or how did you get to celebrate the silver yeah so we were about

three hours south of london um and yeah firstly it was a celebration with the you know the rest of

the kiwi team there and like we had a lot koala family over and stuff and then yeah getting up to

london was awesome i think out of all three olympics that was definitely the best party and time

afterwards i think partly because there's a lot of or mainly probably there's a lot of kiwis in

london they had a kiwi house at that time so that was kind of like the point you went to afterwards

to to celebrate and where people could gather and stuff so that was that was epic and then just

yeah like some of the um parties that were like put on and he's like yeah it was pretty phenomenal

really no issues with jake wilkins looing you back into the uh into the athletes village back in

london no no jackey was all right he's a good man actually but uh no yeah like the whole village

and stuff that was all new for us because we've and it's the same even the last two olympics we

haven't stayed in in the village we just stay outside and then only go in for you know a couple

of nights and stuff like that but yeah the london experience was unreal what's your what's

your i've always asked people that were at that what's your like athlete village memory or your

moment where you went fuck wow that's cool oh look there's a lot but just you always hear stories

like the food hall and stuff like that oh yeah it's probably changed over the time but i remember

like we ended up like i think it must have been after closing ceremony but i end up like back at

the food hall really late at night and there's just like you know still like thousands of athletes

here and just you see these people from all different walks of life different shapes and size

you know because every sport or like they've got different shaped people you know like and so you

got like really small people really you know like i guess the sales were kind of just like more like

normal normal people you know but like it's seeing all them and then just yeah like real late at night

so and every yeah it's pretty classic it's cool eh yeah and then all the mcdonalds you can eat

yeah it's amazing i was there i was there i was in i was in london 2012 we i was with the football

team oh yeah nice so we decentralized but um i told this story on another episode with our

physio but we had a cheeseburger eating competition before the support staff before our um i think

our event started and i think the women's hockey team put a complaint in and in their post game

Steve brief about the the uh footballers were weren't taking competition seriously they were

just having a cheeseburger eating competition i just want to go on record again it was no athletes

it was physio and team operations um but we then did you win ah yeah yeah i got him i got him 1312

and how long uh it was just it was i don't know what the actual sitting was but it was it was

yeah i mean i lost two days afterwards there yeah it was it was horrible let's just say if i'd been

on the um on the boat that head would have got destroyed absolutely destroyed there would have

been no p's and q's didn't matter who was sleeping anywhere that was going to be a destruction

um all right so you catch fire after london and you win about a million races in a row and this

is this is probably going to be a difficult question for you to answer but i'm going to try

anyway you're sailing against the other best sailors in the world and you don't lose a single

race and then you go and win gold at rio by the biggest margin ever so what is it what how were

you so much better than the rest like the field what was it what specifically was it that made you

and p incredibly better than ever ours yeah uh well it was certainly a a heck of a run and uh

yeah i don't think that's um you know really been done before in sailing to go that many

that many races um unbeaten and i i guess the reason it has in sailing because you're always in

different conditions you know you might do one race in a light weather venue or the next one

in windy or in waves versus flat waters it's never exactly the same and it's it's hard to be

better than people in all of those different um conditions but i guess that's where we got to in

the end and uh well not quite in the end but like in that from 2013 2014 onwards where we

when we went way better in every we're just like a little bit better and across everything where

there was you know the boat speed and the light medium and heavy conditions or the way we started

or the decision making around the course just globally we were just stronger really and in

sailing you're lucky because it's not just yes it's one old one regatta you know it's one regatta

or one competition so we're not beating everyone in every single race but across 10 or 12 or 15

races in a competition that's where you can you can get that consistency so yeah it was a phenomenal

run and yeah some you know that was some awesome memories through that time there's one story which

i think kind of captures how far ahead you were it was the 2014 world sailor of the year

which resulted in a misflight right not quite a misflight not quite a misflight yeah very hung

over flight maybe yeah yeah that would be right okay that's a good yarn uh so yeah we had this

regatta in Rio actually it was i think it was our second trip there and like at that stage you

know two years two and a half years out from the Olympics you're really trying to get as much time

at the venue as you can Rio was a super tricky place to sail right on the harbour there in the

bay so we're trying to get as much time as we could there so it was like November 2014

at that time we'd been nominated for the world sailor of the year awards which were up in

Parma in Spain so that was our first time being nominated it's quite a big big thing so like okay

we'll we'll go up to that but then we'll fly straight back and just it was the regatta that

was going on in Rio wasn't like a big regatta it was i think it was the South Americans or something

like that and so we're like we'll go pick up the last two days or three days with that regatta

it was a four day four day regatta so you're always going to miss one day yeah we're always

we thought we were going to miss two days to be honest we thought we're going to do two days and

and you know so the result was relevant we're like i'll just turn up and try and get the time and

whatnot so we go to this world sailor of the year awards uh it was Jimmy Spittle actually won it for

that was on the back of winning america's cup in 2013 so he was there he won it and the thing

about those awards is not actually it's not like a huge glitz and glamour event it's actually

done it like the world's salering awards and there's only only the finalists for the men and

women of theirs there's only probably like 20 sailors or something like that no it's not a

very big event so we sort of finished everyone's in palma in like november there's not much going on

so we ended up at this irish bar as you do and into a fairly large night or really big actually

and uh basically had to get a flight from palma at 6 a.m or something so there wasn't much sleep

go through madrid airport which is like a massive airport especially if you have to change terminals

somehow like we're literally sprinted from one to the other getting on trains and stuff made onto

this flight direct to rio from madrid and went just like exhausted super hungover like at least

we're here so we basically slept all the flight got there must have got there in the evening because

we had another night to recover yeah and then we started the next day and we were just like

that was the second day of the regatta and we just started like rigging up the boat we were in

like a huge rush and then like half we got the boat rigged up and then our coach hamish was like

why don't you go and just get into it like no we haven't sailed for a bit you know we don't want

to just go out cold and he said no no go for a best way to yeah get back get into it so we kind

of like got a little bit more of a hurry on got out to this regatta so now we're doing three days

out of the the four and yeah started off that day really well got like a couple of firsts or

something like that and then basically went on to win the regatta somehow even though that we'd

had to carry like three uh or yeah we had like three last places from the first day

in like 25 boats so yeah it was a it was a classic I hope word got out to the other sailors about

like what you'd been through just to sort of rub it in how no they did because like some of the other

I think like Charles Scott was one of the other people who he like sails within EOS now and

gold medal in the fin in Tokyo and he was there that night he didn't even make it on his flight so

like he the word had got back to like the British sailing scene it was like quite a big night and

someone else like had come to a similar fate so yeah I mean it was just a it was um yeah we're

pretty lucky we even made it to be honest you mentioned the um like the organization to try and

get through the airports etc etc do you guys travel just the two of you or do you have a little

entourage or is it down to you guys to make that all work and are you good at organization and making

sure you've got everything that you need in order to compete yeah so all the 49ers of all the Olympic

stuff's a pretty tight team so yeah predominantly we flow just the two of us or sometimes our coach

Hamish um and then yeah at times you sometimes have the wider New Zealand sailing team like the

Olympic sailing squad and they offer like a reasonable amount of like logistical support

whatnot but um yeah I think that's the unique thing about that Olympic environment and sailing

is that you're doing a lot of the organization yourself so we for peter and I would be across

every single aspect of of the campaign and whether it's knowing how a boat was going to get from one

venue to the next or how we're going to get the sails or what's your accommodation we're staying in

or yeah all every single detail would be across were you good at that at the start uh you have to

learn that as you know you definitely learn it like I mean like you do you ever get to a regatta

shit we've got to send the boat or any like any any horror stories like that no I don't think we've

forgot a boat but there's um yeah certainly times we forget like a um minor part or a bit of clothing

or something but I think that was definitely one of our strengths just that like attention to detail

across so many things and um yeah as you go on our lives got busier was something that we really

pride ourselves on still nailing like not trying to let some bits slacken off or

or whatnot just you kind of just end up having to you know have a bit later night to make sure

you get it sorted or whatnot but yeah we're pretty um pretty famous for leaving things

quite to the last minute so if we're packing still at like one or two or three in the morning

before a flight the next day that'd be pretty normal that's the best way to do it yeah so 28

major regattas you won between 2012 and 2016 28 uh and six world titles um and then it's Rio

and you get named as the the leaders of New Zealand was it flag bearers lead the team into the stadium

and you win gold like that experience looking back now I mean a gold medal you know from from the

beginnings of what we talked about it must be something that is one of the proudest moments

of your career I imagine yeah absolutely that whole experience in Rio was yeah phenomenal was

definitely now you know even we look back and know that that was you know probably the proudest

moment of our of our careers to firstly be named as as the team captains and carrying the flag into

American R stadium and actually not just that part but like I think two days earlier when we had the

announcement you we basically were in this like semi circle of uh um at the village and like all of

our other teammates were there the whole rest of the team everyone was in the number ones and

they're all there didn't know who the team captains were at that stage and we basically get

walked in and and um you know had the opportunity to speak to them at that stage and

yes did you have a hunch that it was you no we knew we knew already so but that like they didn't

they didn't know so everyone's kind of like yeah but then you've got like New Zealand's best athletes

there and you've got the honor to lead the that team and the country into the Olympic games is uh

yeah because you get cloaked is it when you get cloaked then yes yes um yeah so we we had them

on obviously it was the first time having two at that point now we have a um uh like in Tokyo we

have a male and a and a female uh leader into the team the whole time so um yeah to that kakaho was

awesome actually yeah it was um it was yeah the whole thing was super cool and then we had like

five days and maybe a week before we actually started racing so it was it was for us personally

even though it was some people saw us like added pressure whatnot we actually love the experience

and we kind of needed that kind of I guess that all the added um boost to like really get us into

the right mindset and then you know from that point we could just really concentrate on our

work and get stuck in but yeah it was it was neat did you have a hierarchy on who held

flag did you swap halfway through no if it was Pete carried the flag and I don't I think I carried

it then I was just there um helping along and making sure he didn't stuff it up you know

but uh yeah it was it was amazing uh my brother and cousin who actually was working in the Olympic

event they were there like it as we walked out the gate you know like so that was that was pretty

neat to have you know know that they were there at that point awesome do you have moments with

Pete where you know you've been with him for 10 years or so at this point where you give him a

little nudge you're like holy shit Pete like look at what we're doing this is crazy yeah well I think

there was actually a photo that came out of us doing a selfie which we never normally do really

but at the point we kind of like done the first part and we're like then we're just like holy

fuck look at this like you know like it was it was pretty amazing so I don't know if you can do it

around the world race and a selfie I think those two things don't really see those will be frowning

on different boats okay so we're gonna get to the America's Cup stuff soon but I just want to

sort of close the loop on the Olympics through the highs of Rio and then I don't want to say

disappointment because silver medal is incredible but from where you had been and winning everything

obviously your focus shifted in that time how difficult was it difficult to win silver

yeah well I guess I mean we've had to talk about the ocean race and that's the two

points of my career where we haven't quite achieved when you really wanted to you know

but um yeah I guess at the time in in Tokyo to lose by such a small margin you know right on

the finish line like that was yeah it was hard to hide the the disappointment when we'd put

so much into it like it was yeah but at the same time to it's a silver medal at the Olympics and

you know I think we remind ourselves at the time that like I think it was in London actually where

we like we were so ecstatic to have won the silver medal because we'd been on this learning curve

like that and and at that time I remember seeing people that like got bronze or silver and they

were like you know gutted you're like you're still you know medal at the Olympics I couldn't

quite fathom it at that point and um yeah I think we definitely remind ourselves after Tokyo

about that moment and tried to really still enjoy it for for what it was and about insane

that it was difficult to to hide that that emotion at the time when you'd come so close

but yeah it was a it was a tough road in like it was always going to be hard to back up from the

America's Cup three months later to try and basically get to the top of our game and in

that time was um yeah it was very very challenging and we got bloody close you know yeah that's what

makes it even tougher it was an emotional games right we've we've spoken to Sarah Hiddany we've

spoken to Tom Walsh um on the podcast as well and they both kind of reflected on those two in

particular had very publicized emotional moments but Tom Walsh in particular talking about the

lead in and how challenging all of the tests all of the anxiety about wanting to avoid catching

COVID-19 was it the same experience for you guys yeah it was the same for us we'd obviously been in

New Zealand for a year and then had the America's Cup and then had to get straight out we were off

to sail GP events straight away afterwards and then we went on to Europe from there and then

we did one trip back to NZ going into MIQ but yeah that whole time was pretty challenging like you

at first you didn't really know like they weren't telling you like if you'd had COVID how long

you know beforehand you could then compete and whatnot and yeah it was it was challenging like

definitely you know even leaving New Zealand was hard at that stage but pretty quickly once you got

over you kind of knew you had to go about your work and you were just trying to be as smart as you

could not to not to um catch it and and to stay healthy all the way up but at the same time you

couldn't wrap yourself in um cotton wool and especially for us because we'd uh you know needed

to get race experience to get time back on the boat like the thing with the 49er is you couldn't

you can't just step back in and think 10 years of experience is going to help you is it right is

it right yeah it's like so much like of the timing between Pete and I the intuition between us the

to get all those real like you can get back to a pretty good level rather quickly but to

finish it off is um is challenging when we didn't quite get there in the end like we didn't

we definitely weren't as good as as what we have been at other times there's some parts of Tokyo

that was we sailed out our best in that particular spot to when we talked back to you know before

Rio when it was that real well rounded um you know team we didn't we weren't quite good enough in

and whereas so that was yeah it was just challenging to you know the three or four months of just

trying to just we were just scrambling to um try and get back to that level and yeah you know we

both wanted it so badly um you know we knew we wouldn't deserve anything um but we when we pushed

hard for it how does the debrief go post-silver um you've obviously walked away from the 49ers

or parked that however you want to say it um but like is it a day after you reflect on what we

could have done differently and then you make the decision like how hard was it to make that decision

yeah no we gave ourselves time for sure and I think back half of last year was probably the

first time that we've really stopped for for 10 years and kind of um yeah taking the time to

look ahead for for for a bigger plan and and take in just what we've achieved in the journey

that we've been on so yeah we didn't rush to that and obviously we've made the you know final decision

to um to hang up the the boots for uh for now at least um you know a couple of months ago but

I guess we were both heading that way we just wanted to make sure that that's how we felt once

like that initial emotion and um subsided I guess that's that's the thing you always want to make

the decision when you're in the right headspace and you can you know a lot of people especially

after something big like that in in life you go on to making a decision really fast and it's got a

bit it's a bit more emotive so yeah we definitely took our time with them we're we're lucky we've

got such good people around us it can help and have been around us for 10 or 12 13 years that

can help us with those discussions you're lucky you've got a few other things to keep you busy

so keep your mind occupied uh I want to talk America's Cup do you have memory how old would

you have been in 95 the whole Red Sox campaign is that six so six yeah do you remember any of that

not really to be honest I remember we were um I think in the final race in in San Diego I was

yeah we had we had it on TV at home it must have been like a real small sort of boxy as TVs

I think all the TVs were yeah yeah a little 14 inch yeah NEC number yeah and uh my brothers and I

were actually around the rocks I can't remember what we were doing looking for crabs or something

like that up north you know just because we lived by the water there and um I remember someone yelling

out like the last race was on so we rushed back home and watched it but yeah I mean I wasn't into

sailing at all at that stage like I was we were always in and around the ocean but now it wasn't

into sailing as a sport at that stage San Fran 2013 you're silver medalists uh where you have

got Vivian I was in Queenstown watching that all unfold eight one up and and then the the wheels fell

off um do you remember where were you watching that from yeah so we were at the start of it we

were actually in San Francisco we had uh just raced the Youth America's Cup so in like the

small catamarans um and then we'd headed to after a couple of days we'd headed to Marseille for the

49er Worlds actually and we were basically racing alongside it at the same time so we were like

racing during the day in Europe and then it was on like in the evening there with the time zone

like I think racing from like 10 to 1 a.m or something so every night we were just like

yeah anyone else just like tuning in and just yeah it was tough man just like yeah because we'd

had a little wince because we've been in San Fran and been quite close to the team but we'd like

so we knew enough but not we were basically watching as as spectators but yeah it was brutal

you end up joining Team New Zealand the year after do you remember watching it thinking out

hypotheticals of if they win it'll mean this if they lose it could mean that we're pulled in

like do you think like that not really at that stage I mean it's no not not really to be honest

like I we were definitely trying at that stage to get as much experience as we could like in the

professional sailing um yeah and that sort of industry I guess we're taking opportunities when

they presented itself like doing um some other series around Europe and and stuff but

the America's Cup is so hard to know because you don't know that you know like if there was every

chance that Team New Zealand would have stopped after that you know that it wouldn't have continued so

then you know it's it's really hard to know so it wasn't until it got back and said the team was

going to go again and then um yeah that's when the opportunity came up for Pete and I yeah and when

you do Linkup is at another moment like holy shit Pete we're doing it we're in like a where America's

Cup baby yeah New Zealand yeah it was actually classic um since we're talking about the Olympics

the uh because I think it must have been like December or something that we signed even though

we didn't get announced till January February the next year but we'd um we'd like gone out for a drink

just with I think it must just been the two of us like we don't do that very much you know but like

it's like quite a big step in our careers and um we're at Danny Doolan's of all places like

it must have been like a Tuesday or something I don't know it has to have been a Tuesday actually

gonna be any night at Danny Doolan's with just two of you and uh the New Zealand Olympic uh

committee like their team that we've just been uh you know knew pretty well from London and stuff

they were all out for their Christmas too and they were like looking I said what are you guys up to

you know and we're like oh he's out for it you know he's just cruising and like obviously we were

like celebrating and anyway we never I don't even know if I've told them since they're probably just

like well yeah shut that real tight team just you know Tuesday night it's a secret to their success

um so since then it couldn't have gone much better really your your path with the America's Cup

you know winning 2017 winning in New Zealand reflecting on that part of the journey I mean

it was you and Pete in a little boat and it was just you two operation and now you're the head of

this huge operation right like there's like 80 people involved in Team New Zealand did you feel

a sense of pressure as your position got elevated and you became the main man

well I mean you certainly go into a very big organization and I guess our role

from the Muda to um here in Auckland so this next one's like it's changed throughout you know

we haven't just been thrust straight into it um and yeah that responsibility and the wider teams

grown as we've um as we've been involved for longer but no I it is a big shift from going from a

a team where there's you know Pete and I and a couple of other really tight people in our team

to being one of 80 hundred 130 people in this in this organization so you really gotta

and you're not going to be across everything obviously compared to the Olympics where you know

as we talked about before you're like you know details and everything whereas you in this you

got to be across your role and do your role really well and trust the person next to you's

going to do do theirs and then collectively you sort of come together so yeah it's been that

that was a real learning curve and uh you know now looking back like you kind of been lucky to see

different teams operate you know whether it was map free or this or now with our own team with

Sal GP you you see all these teams come together and how collectively you can be the best unit

but yeah it's been an awesome awesome journey um right from 2013 to now that's a part that people

don't kind of realize is that team New Zealand you think oh yeah it's that's the dudes on the boat

and it's a couple of guys on shore that do all the other bits and but it's a massive organization

hey and and when it's overseas the whole everyone goes like I could imagine it's like the like staff

meetings is it all in staff meeting do you know everybody that works yeah yeah you know you do

what at least um zoom calls must be a lot of windows on the lock down um yeah it's a it's a huge

organization and everyone plays a very important role um you know the sailing team well the last

couple times been between 10 and 15 people um so you're only a really small percentage

of the whole organization obviously you're the ones that have to go out with the complete package

and race to beat um the opposition on the water but to get to that point it's a huge team effort

right from you know the initial design stuff structurally to building the boat to you know

then going out testing and developing all the time so yeah it's awesome how that all comes together

and uh we're pretty lucky at the team that it's a lot of the core people uh have been the same

right the way through and you know people grown and developed and taken on different

responsibilities and you know I I guess you can then work your people's strengths a little bit more

after you've done it two or three times you know what works and what doesn't so yeah it's it's pretty

neat group we got there I kind of feel like it's an interesting one like you know how in rugby

when Richie McCaw was at the top of his game right everyone was sort of like yeah he's pushing

he's pushing the the the rules like pushing the on the edge of the rules and how things play

it's probably the same in Team New Zealand except no one would ever know who the Richie McCaw is

because it'll be like a designer who you just don't know they don't get any is that kind of is

that kind of accurate is that like a really good analogy without two in my own horn is that amazing

insight because I thought about that for an hour and a half driving up here and I didn't want to

say anything and then I thought oh shit I'm going to go for it yeah I mean there's like you're kind

of Dan Carter put McCaw's in the background there's like because it's such a development race as

well as you know compared to the other types of sailing we do like the technology side of it and

creating the fastest boat is such a big part of it and there's you know a lot of I guess

collaboration between the sailing team and the design team to get to that point but yes there's

a lot of very smart people that in their own right are the best in their field whether it's a

software person or the CFD analyst or whoever the structural person like people in the team are the

best in their field across like so many different skill sets so yeah people like in Bermuda for

example saw the you know the bikes and everyone talks about the bikes and that being the difference

between us in Oracle whereas that was one factor because it helped us to produce more power which

meant we can control the sails and and things better but that was only like one one thing that

the team did there's like to get to that point is like another hundred things you know and it's

but the public or people don't necessarily relate to all of them so yeah there's there's heroes right

throughout the team which was what was more of a buzz for you winning in Bermuda or defending

in New Zealand oh yeah really um hard question and thought about a bit but

the initial time to like to win it and bring it back was um was pretty unreal really like there's

so many people within that group that had been trying to win the the cup for Team New Zealand

for their whole careers you know like for well since since 2003 really some people had been

through and some people then joined in 2007 and you know another 10 years so yeah it was um

seeing the look on their faces in Bermuda when we achieved that success was

unreal and then bringing it back to New Zealand and seeing what it meant to people all around the

country with that tour that we did was yeah it was it was awesome and then on the flip side here

racing in the Haudenosaunee Gulf and just seeing everyone out there watching on you know like

seeing New Zealand at its best and then knowing that the rest of the country was behind too is um

yeah that's a different um buzz and like obviously very amazing too but I think that I think I'd

probably go to Bermuda if I got put on the spot just because of that initial um of winning the cup

and and what it what it meant it really is amazing how it pulls the country together because it's

quite a niche sport really like not many people I know have sailed or been on a boat but when the

America's Cup like you look at the analytics I do all the live blogs and things you know for the

last couple of America's Cup the audience is huge like the biggest thing bigger than the All Blacks

like day after day those live blogs are cranking and our columnists writing about the America's

Cup and the secret sailing professor and things they're all the biggest hits it's like the the

audience is ginormous in New Zealand for America's Cup and what was your question of how big is it

worldwide right yeah is it the same when you kind of go outside of the country the the country of

the syndicates that participate or do people not know in parts I think yeah and always surprise me

the people that do and don't know but yeah your right sailing is like in general terms quite a

small sport but there's these different um different things that people then connect with

whether it was the whip bread or the America's Cup or you know sail GP now that people kind of

have connection to but I think for sure like the America's Cup especially back through like when

Australia first won it um off the Americans and stuff like people's in America still talk about

that now but then yeah I think the way New Zealand gets behind that's probably pretty unique I would

say it's cool how it also kind of brings an interesting cast of characters like into the team

as well like Stephen Ferguson like yeah son of Ian Ian Ferguson yeah yeah Alex Ferguson

not many people know that Robert Dell jump on a boat yeah in the in the past as well I got that

right yeah yeah yeah it's like it kind of brings all these different kind of athletes from different

sports into it which I guess there's a lot about the boat itself and kind of how it's just a piece

of machinery far beyond what you kind of think it is yeah well I think all those athletes you

mentioned in general have come you know from high performance sport elsewhere and uh with the power

demands and grinding and cycling and um where the sport's gone there are specific roles on

board the boat which are just you know the athlete can needs to produce the most power they can and

that means going into the diverse range of sports to get that athlete and that'll be the same

this time around to get Tom Walsh on there yeah grinding yeah we're back to cycling this time

okay so so sort of wrapping things up uh like we've talked about so much and we've even talked

about sail GP which you're just back from in Bermuda um things haven't quite been going to plan but

what what's going on what was the difference between sail GP and the racing that you've

been so successful at yeah so we've just started what sail GP season three our second season in the

league um it's been a pretty steep learning curve uh to be honest um probably liking it to back where

we were in the in the 49er in those early days in the lead up to London where um yeah although the

boat's quite similar to the one we raced in Bermuda in the America's Cup in 2017 the F50s now

they are a little bit different and especially different to how our boat was and how we controlled

it in in Bermuda then um so yeah to to figure out the boat and how to get the most out of it's

taken a little bit um we're sailing the boat in a little bit of a different way where um Andy

Maloney's doing the flight control which was was my role and I'm uh controlling back to your word

uh hear the trimming of the sail so I'm controlling the the wing sail uh so that's for us to get

those positions downpats probably taken a little bit longer than what we um would have hoped but

yeah it's difficult I mean last year as a team it was it was hard with uh the Olympics being

right in the middle I mean ideally we wouldn't have had you know America's Cup sail GP in

a little bit of a distraction yeah but that's you know like the Olympics getting shifted I mean no

one could control that so uh yeah getting that consistency and getting I guess between the

team was hard and you know compared to Olympics or America's Cup where you can go and put many

hours on the boat to like hone your skills and you don't actually get that so once you're into it

like we are now for season three like we're racing in Chicago in a couple of weeks and we get like

two training days before the event so that's what we had pronounced a whole of last year so

you're on this big learning curve but you're not really getting much time in the boat so

yeah it's been challenging but also um you know rewarding in a lot of ways it's been fun to

be leading a new a new team with Pete sort of as co-CEO's there and build the team from the ground

up and yeah it's been neat to do that because how many people are you leading in in that

that organization uh so our teams are around about 15 audits um but the unique thing about

SLGP is there's a lot of shared resource so you you work with like a centralized team quite a lot

so you're like there's a lot of people in that pool that you like work with on certain projects

and is the idea of of of SLGP kind of like the seven circuit like that kind of

condensed tv friendly lots of different places around the world tell you what my friend you are

nailing these analogies that's real nice oh well yeah i could say no i i think it is like that um

it's i guess formula one style a little bit where um although that the formula one obviously

has a lot of development more like the americas cup but the way that you race quite often um so at

the moment we race at a 10 or 11 different stops uh around the world so pretty frequent um when we

get into like july august september in europe we're racing every couple of weekends so yeah it's a style

of racing that hasn't been done before in sailing having like these boats which are at the real top

end of technology and they are super fast hard boats to sail on a really tight race course

in some of the most iconic places you know around the world so yeah it's a new formula um and it's

you know it's been challenging for us in new zealand to grow the brand with uh because people

haven't seen it you know like it's like no it's america's cup or the whip bread or you know sometimes

maybe us through the olympics but the slgps oh what's what's that it's a it's a bit different but

um yeah i think it is an awesome format and and style of racing and i think it's really going to

have um a long future in sailing larry ellison's dream child right he founded it you ever meet him

yeah i've met larry a couple of times met him on the dock in the muter after we um

met him in the americas cup um he was there to congratulate us with um alongside russell which

was real nice but uh yeah i guess he and russell had this vision it was actually kind of what they

wanted to do with the america's cup had are they won it again turning it more into this

grand prix style of sailing um but we had you know we bet them and um took it in another

directional kept it how it how it historically has been which is it's great for the america's cup but

they've gone on to create this um sail gp and yeah it's really starting to gain momentum

in chicago so that's a fresh water yeah so we're like yeah nice my man you're on this yeah

is that the only fresh water stop on the circuit yeah i think it is yeah wow so yeah i mean chicago

is a pretty is it oh the windy city yeah the windy city yeah and they're a pretty big sporting city

so yeah we've raced here once before and the uh people there really get behind it so it'll be it'll

be a good stop but yeah we got a bit of bit of work to do um to get to where we want to go and um

yeah it's a it's a good challenge i mean we're not stoked on the performances we've been having and

it's been pretty disappointing especially in the muter when we've been showing quite a lot of promise

in the lead up and then to not perform like that was um yeah really disappointing but

and saying that the i guess the challenge we've got in front of us and the opportunity to grow

as a team's um one that's pushing us pretty hard we've covered a lot and everything you've done

has involved a large amount of travel right like you spend a lot of your life away overseas is sailing

kind of a young man's game like is there a can you project forward and think yeah i've probably got

like another 10 years or 15 years and and if so can you think about what you might do after you

stop sailing professionally yeah i mean i probably hasn't been one of my strong suits to plan too far

and into the future um as we talked about before but really like to throw everything into you know

the the things that we've got in front of us but i mean we're lucky in sailing that you know we've

got a lot of mates in their olympic environment that we have represented the country for at the

olympic games and their chosen um sport hasn't got the you know the longevity or the professional

side of it and we're lucky that our sport um has so that's given a lot of us opportunities to be able

to do it as a profession going going forward so yeah i think for me personally competing there's

still a lot i want to want to do um you know the first two with the america you know trying to get

three in the america's cup and then trying to get this lgp team um to the front of that league

is um you know the two ones right in front of me and then from there there's still you know the

ocean race stuff and a few other things so and that's me competing and then yeah i mean we're

already sliding into that um management style and running team so that can be something we can do um

you know as as long as we kind of really want to i guess yeah a lot of options a lot of options

you're still an omega ambassador yes uh yeah nice yeah does that does that connect you with other

omega ambassadors around the world have you had any cool kind of stories of getting together and

changing your time oh yeah i mean it's a pretty uh awesome uh company or brand to be a part of um

we've been in the family with them for like five or six years now and yeah i mean they do

some awesome activations around the olympics they had like in rio they had when we were

early days with them they like had this omega house right on um cup of cabana beach and they

invited all of us in on um for one night for the you know after competing which was which is pretty

unreal and i mean the last couple of years have been pretty hard to to do too much but yeah certainly

looking forward to um you know they've got an awesome i guess network of athletes right across

different well not just athletes actually a lot of different uh ambassadors across heaps of

a range of different things so we need to link up some of them

hmm i told a few people that you were coming on the podcast and my wife's friends took particular

interest so i'm asking on behalf uh are you what's your your marital status you're single at the

moment are you in in a relationship i'm single at the moment single at the moment because i've

heard pete might be in a new relationship so i wonder if maybe he doesn't have so much time for

you anymore that might be uh oh if i'm getting a bit lonely because pete's yeah those tuesday night

drinks down at daniedale was just just you know it's for one now i might need a test to that test

out a friendship i'll text him after this and see what he's up to is it is it seriously though is

it tough to try to form a relationship when you're on the move so much and and so many different

cities around the world yeah i mean our lives for 10 or 15 years of you know until

covid year when we're in nz for a year it would be like two or three months would be the longest

you'd be in one place and then quite often you'd be away for four or five months a year in different

places so yeah i guess that that side of it is you know there's a lot of awesome things about

having the opportunity to represent your country doing the thing you love

but you know some of those things or like your close friendships or family you know some of

that stuff it is challenging but yeah you put the time into the things that you i guess are

closest to you and you care about the most hey i'm single too just for bonnie's friends

just throw that out for all the guests that we haven't got a wide audience these days

someone will have a double there um that has been so good i got one more thing on my list

and then i think we're done can you still hold your breath for three minutes

yes i think a lot yeah yeah longer how long can you go well it depends if you're doing

another pull like statically or yeah longest you've gone what's yours steve you did the

wim Hof stuff you yeah that wim Hof stuff i got near about three just under three i think i think

maybe like um i think it's around about four minutes or something like that but over yeah

we're yeah i mean free diving is one of my favorite pastimes so uh yeah love getting out in the

in the ocean for that so um we did when i was doing that we were doing like some pull sessions

down at tip of bass just when we like weren't getting out that much i think and that was we were

doing quite a lot of laps and then doing some like static stuff um but now yeah i just go diving

so don't you don't really push it so much when you're um when you're diving yeah safety mum

if you're listening right that has been amazing thank you so much i know we sort of spoke before

you came in how you know you're away so much you like reflecting but you don't often get the chance

to do it so hopefully you've enjoyed it as much as we have because um man we've covered a lot and

it's been really really cool okay no yeah your sporting kind of side of it and the success you've

had is awesome but what i personally what i really like is that element that you're bringing

around the connection the connection to what you have done so much stuff on which is the ocean and

i think seeing that kind of progress as you go through is is going to be a really powerful

thing for you personally so i look forward to seeing how that progresses no cool thanks

shane yeah thanks for very much for having me on it's been awesome cheers cool cheers

hey guys if you've made it this far hopefully that means you've enjoyed this episode

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important for helping us grow catch you next week export ultra and the acc are giving you and a mate

the chance to go on tour with the acc and visit the best beer gardens outside of new zealand

it just so happens the export ultra beer garden tour will be on at the same time as a certain

tournament in france in october flights accommodation for a week in paris hosted by g lane matt heath

and mania stewart just text paris to 3236 follow the link to register and you are in the drawer

easy as that give the new export ultra try 99 cub free refreshment

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