Sunday, December 28, 2014

Perth roadtrip

This year to start our Christmas Holiday break we decide to head west to Perth and do a road trip through the South West forests of the state. Originally we had planned to head North to Coral Bay, however after further research we realised that the distance was huge and we would end up spending our whole holiday driving, rather than relaxing.
We rented a Britz Hi Top Camper Van for 6 days, and then booked a few powered campsites for the week to ensure we could water and charge up during the busy holiday period. The other nights we figured we'd just wing it depending on how far we wanted to drive or where we wanted to stay!
We booked in for night 2 at Hamelin Bay, on the strip of coastline just below Margaret River, and then on the 3rd night in Walpole, a town of 250 people just west of Denmark on the southern coastline of WA. THe rest was all going to happen between these stops and Perth, so this is what we came up with.
Day 1: Perth to Bussleton. We had decided that we wanted to make it to Bussleton for our first night. Bussleton sits about 250kms South of Perth. By the time we had landed at Perth airport and got to Britz, we hit the road at about 9am, and after a quick pit stop to pick up some supplies, it was just us, the highway and the lonely planet to guide us to fun en route to Bussleton. On the drive down we stopped by Safety Bay Marine Park. Here we got our first view of the most amazing clear blue water that I have ever seen! I was totally blown away and immediately relised that we were in for a week of sun, sand and beautiful salt water! Here we also scoped our first marine life with some dolphins that were hunting fish a few meters from the shore.


After this stop we drove along Tuart Drive as an alternate route to Bussleton, This drive took us through Tuart Forest National Park. This National Park is the only remaining forest of the Tuart Tree. The Tuart tree (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) is a very specific Eucalypt that only grown on coastal limestone so this was a very unique forest to see and was noticeably different to everything else that we had seen.
This drive then took us past historical Wonnerup House and then onto Bussleton via some beautiful wetlands and coastal dunes.
Upon arriving in Bussleton we promptly parked the Van and went for a walk along the Bussleton Jetty. The longest Timber post jetty in the southern hemisphere. I was absolutely blown away to see that the water here was even clearer and bluer! I couldn't stop gawking at it. I also noticed that there was a very large area of ocean enclosed by shark nets. Game on! Obviously an ocean swim was now on the cards....although I didn't bring my wetsuit.

Anyways, this jetty is almost 2km long, so we wandered out to the end and back, by which point we had decided we wanted to spend the night in Bussleton and headed to Kangaroo Campground and booked a powered site. This campground is about a 2min walk to the jetty and is run by the most classic husband and wife team. They were rad to chat to. The wife inspired me to camp there for Bussleton Iron Man next year!

The rest of the day involved wandering around Bussleton, going for a refreshing swim, catching some squid with a cheap ass suid jig, then losing said squid jig due to my shithouse know tying skills. Now as Perth is 3hrs behind Adelaide we were ready to zonk at about 8pm. Tomorrow off to Hamelin Bay! Day 2: Bussleton to Hamelin Bay
Funny! I woke up on holiday probably just before 4am...due to the time difference and then wondered why no one was around the campground (it was already light and I had turned my phone off for the whole week so I had no way to tell the time). I then realised how early it was after making a bit of noise and talking at normal volume..whoops! Anyways, I figured I may as well go for an epic swim seeming I was up so early, and that way by the time I got back Kate would be up and ready for brekky!
After smashing an epic bowl of museli and a coffee, we filled up the vn with water and then hit the road. First stop Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse! We wandered a few kms of trails, seeing some beautiful coastline. We decided to not go into this lighthouse and save the $$ for Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse in a few days! Funniest thing about this walk was when Kate saw an Iguana, momentatliy after I had seen it. I was in the process of saying "Oh look at that!", when Kate saw it she got the absolute beejezus scared out of herself, scaring the Iguana into the bush, and sending her heartrate skyhigh for a few minutes :D Next we headed to Ngilgi Caves. Our first cave experience for the trip!


After this we continued down the coast, checking out Vasse Felix Winery, some local breweries and the town of Margatet River to get some supplies and fresh fish! We then headed back to Old Coast Road to head to Hamelin Bay Caravan Park, slipping in minutes for our 5pm check in. The drive to Hamelin Bay was amazing. The forest was so varying and without a a doubt what looked like the most diverse forest species wise that I have ever seen! The Xanthorrhoea were amazing!
Once we set up in the campground we cooked up a nice fresh meal with the fish we had just bought then headed to the beach for sunset and a swim. Once again, amazing blue water, but as we had been blessed with cool conditions, it was chilly as and the double layered hoodies were making an appearance and thus the swim was short lived!
Another early night and I was stoked because with morning would come our first trail run for the trip!


Day 3: Hamelin Bay to Walpole
Up early for a run this morning! Kate and I headed South along the Cape To Cape Trail. We wanted to run for about 2 hrs so we just headed a hour out, and a hour back....along the most amazing coastline I've ever seen. The run really went by super quickly. It was amazing with different coastling and vegetation around every corner, and we didn't see another soul. We finished this run with a refreshing dip in the ocean :-)
After a quick brekky and pack up of the campground, we set out for what was to be the longest driving day. First stop was the huge lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin - the highest lighthouse on mainland Australia and also positioned at the south-western most tip! The light can be seen 48kms out to sea! Kate was feeling a bit queezy at the top as it is pretty high and very windy! The lighthouse guide was really informative and a true character. After the tour Kate had to smash some Devonshire tea, fresh out of the oven scones and jam!


Following this we set off on the road trip to Walpole, however midway we planned a stop in Pemberton! Pemberton is a cool little town. We resupplied the van here and checked out some little shops, made a quick lunch and decided that we would stop here properly on the way back up the coast...low and behold, when we drove back up to Perth we totally didn't stop here :-) So on we went to Walpole, and as we hadn't stopped as much as we thought we would we made good time, and hit Walpole with plenty of time to do the "Valley of the Giants" treetop walk in the afternoon before checking into our campground. The treetop walk takes you 60 or so metres into the canopy of the giant Tingle trees. It's pretty spectacular and such a good way to view these beautiful trees. Once again Kate surprised me with feeling a bit queezy up on the walkway!

Next we finally got to our campground, and priority number 1 was going for a swim.Quick side note I managed an ocean swim every day, so yes, I didn't shower once until the last day of our trip once we were back in a hotel. It was rad! So the campground sat right on the "ocean", or atleast I thought it did when I booked it. What it actually is is a massive tidal area where a river meets the ocean, but it is almost like a lake with a tiny mouth into the main Pacific Ocean making it a very unique area. The water was super warm, brownish in color from the leaf matter and river water and apparently really good for fishing. It was also really nice to swim in because copmpared to the ocean, it was like taking a warm bath. The other unique part of this area was the vegetation, once again WA dished up another kind of vegetation to explore, ranging from stunted coastal shrubs and small trees to the giant Tingle tree forests. One of the most notable species being the greenish Kangaroo Paw that was flowering everywhere.



Day 4: Walpole to Conto Campground
The day prior I had spoken with the caretaker of the campground regarding walking trails and had been advised of a nice trail that was about 7km one way and would take me to see some more giant Tingle trees. I obviously had to run this! I set out early. The trail took me along a beautiful coastal trail and then up into the coastal forests. The trail probably only rose a few hundred metres but offered some amazing views of the Walpole area. Running this trail was amazing, being amongst such wise and ancient trees, I was truly inspired and had one of the best runs that I have ever had. I finished the run with a few kms through some beautiful marshland to make up almost 20km.
Our driving journeys today would take us back up to the Caves Highway near Margaret River, where we would stay at Conto Campground. A first-come-first-serve campground that was just near the Lake Cave. We decided to head back to here as we really wanted to see the Lake Cave, and figured that this part of coastline was probably our favourite that we would love to explore a bit more! The weather this day was crazy, starting with misty rain and thunder in Walpole, and taking us into hot, windy fire conditions by the time we got to Pemberton area.
En route to conto we stopped in at some places well worth noting! 1)The bicentennial tree. We had been warned about the "ladder" to the top of this tree! We couldn't believe it when we saw it.

2)An amazing Marron farm off the Vasse Highway where we met an awesome old couple who owned a largeish property and farmed marron. We met their dogs, one of which always was required to be chained up, as when both set free they would always end up roaming around on the highway! Their garden was beautiful and they had an amazing fruit orchard from which we were given some of the most amazing lemons that I have ever tasted. We purchased two huge Marron to cook up for dinner. Needless to say after battling the marron into the boiling water and feeling like a massive a**hole, the meal was well worthwhile!

3)We stopped through Nannup. A quaint little town with some beautiful historic buildings.

Arriving at Conto was a relief after some hectic winds throwing the camper van all over the road! To help Kate de-stress I cooked up our marron and served it up with a delicious Vasse Felix Chardonnay.
Although being super tired, we dragged our half asleep ases out for a walk to the beach (which ended up being waaaay further than we anticipated...and way steeper); and we were lucky we did. A dark raincloud passed while we were walking, and then was followed by intense white sunlight creating the most dynamic lighting conditions for sunset and some of the most amazing coastline I have ever seen. It was a long walk but well worthwhile, and topped off with a whale sighting as we were leaving! We spent the whole of sunset sitting on some large granite boulders looking out over the Indian Ocean as the swell rolled in and the rain clouds passed. It was pretty amazing as the colors and light conditions constantly changed. By the time we had walke back to camp it was pretty much time to set up the beds and zonk out. While on the beds, the back of the Britz van was super easy to set up and surprisingly comfortable! Despite the hot day, we were once again blessed with another cool night! So far we had had to double blanket it each night to keep warm enough, which given we were sleeping in the back of a van was totally cool, as it would have been difficult to cool down on a stagnant hot night otherwise!



The campground was beautiful and quite remote. There were a lot of "resident" kangaroos so I had to snap some pics especially for our Canadian buddies!

Day 5: Conto Campground to Bussleton
I woke early again, peeked out the window and scoped a whole lot of the resident Kangaroos just near the van. One had a joey so I had to get some pics to send to the Canadian crew.
Following my 'roo photo mission a trail run with Kate occured. We ran the Cape to Cape trail again, but obviously a different section that overlooked an amazing part of the coast again. I can't get over how amazing this trail is! Anyways, after a very near run ending ankle rolling by Kate and a root trip and face plant by me (thankfully it was a sandy section), we decided to finish the run on some less hazardous 4x4 trails which took us through some amazing coastal "Grass Tree" forest out to the Lake Cave, which we were going to visit later today!
So, first roatrip stop after clearing camp was the Lake Cave, only about 5 mins drive from Conto! Wow! THis cave was amazing to say the least. It has the only "floating" pillar in the world that is open to the public to view. Weighing in at about 5 tonne, it hangs suspended above a lake making for amazing photos!

Day 6: Bussleton to Perth
Day 7: Perth!

Morning run from glenelg to seacliff

Amazing morning for a beautiful run along the beach. 

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Walpole giant tingle tree run

What an amazing morning this trail run was. We spent the night in a great caravan park in Walpole. Walpole is known for a giant tree known as the tingle tree. From our campground there was a trail out to a grove of these trees, about 15km return.

The trail was amazing. Nice and wide, not too many tripping hazards and a little bit soft, making for a really nice fast run and I was able to look around at the amazing trees. This run was so inspiring. Running amongst these huge ancient trees was humbling. I really felt honoured to be able to immerse myself in that forest amongst these trees that just gave off an amazing aura of wisdom and history! It really put it into perspective that we are merely dots on this planet and there are presences out there that are so much more powerful than us. Running this trail really made time dissappear as I cruised along admiring these giants.

This run really reminded me of why I run. All of these amazing views I was experiencine would have gone unseen had I not run as it just takes too long to walk there. I was also running at about 5:30 in the morning so the air was nice and crisp and there was not another soul around. Once deep in the forest I really felt like the only person on the planet.

It was such an amazing and inspiring run, and to think it was only a small 10km section of what is a 1500km long trail network. It would be amazing to get out there and explore more of these trails with some good mates!



Cape to cape trail run

While on our recent Perth road trip we spent some time on the strip of coastline between Dunsborough and Augusta, most well known for the strip of coastline associated with Margaret River, but as I discovered also lesser known for the amazing 135km Cape to Cape Trail.

I managed to run maybe 15 kms of this trail, and it was amazing. The most amazing views made the run an absolute joy and we quickly passed a few hours of trail running.

The first time we ran the trail was a 10km strip south from Hamelin Bay. This part of coastline was absolutely amazing. Quite rapidly Kate and I ended up far enough around the coast that we could no longer see our campground, and then for the next almost two hours of running it was only us, the trail and the ocean!

The beaches and vegetation varied so much from low coastat shrub to ocer head height dunal forest. Huge granite boulders jutted out of one beach, whereas the next beach would be lined with wave ravaged limestone cliff. The views were amazing and we wanted to keep going, however at 10km we forced ourselves to turn back, aware that the heat of the day would make the return leg way more taxing.

The run back flew by again, taking in the trail from a different viewpoint. Finally returning to camp the run was topped off with a ice cold swim in some of the clearest water I've ever seen.

Such an amazing run and just a great way to see some coastline that I would have not seen otherwise. Next step is an organised trail run along the whole 135km Cape to cape trail!

Friday, November 14, 2014

Clealand Trail Run

This morning I hit an epic trail run. After talking dreams with Ty and Bernie about trail running holidays I was all inspired to get out there and hit the trails. The rule this morning was to not push it too hard, and if I saw a trail I had never run down before, to run down it. The result was an epic run, 24kms long and some beautiful scenery with no one around. I saw many kangaroos and a koala, so I had to stop at one point to capture the picture below for my Canadian friends! 


Murray man Cont...

So I have some pics from Murray Man to post, as well as my split times which are pretty interesting, plus they also show how rad the timing system was that they had setup.















































Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Murray Man

So Murray Man has come and gone! What an epic event. The organisation was flawless, hands down the best event that I have ever been involved in! The course was amazing, the volunteers were awesome, everything worked like clockwork and the competitors were super friendly. The whole vibe of the event was so good!
At the finish line there was a competitors "finish area". This was so rad, it had ice baths, blow up couches, massage, delicious endless food including brownies, fruit, icecream endless drinks etc and also the well used medical tent :-)
Onto the event. I love events like this where it become a road trip and weekend away. It meant that Kate and I finally got away together. We drove up on the Saturday morning. The drive takes you north of Adelaide, throug some very arid looking regions and into the riverland. The drive is about 250kms and you get to see some amazing scenery including vast arid planes, productive farming land and the beautiful Murray River.
The race was held on Lake Bonny in Barmera, but we stayed in Berri, at the main hotel there which happened to be a sponsor and held an info night the night before. The hotel looks totally like a highway 66 budget motel, but the rooms were great. Once we had signed into the race and dropped the bikes in transition, kate knuckled down to study and I wandered the streets of Berri......wow, country towns are DEAD on weekends. It was say 3pm and nothing was open. You could have shot a gun down any road and the bullet would have dropped to the ground before it hit anything. Funnily I was trying to find somewhere to get dinner so I asked some locals..and they had no idea where you could get take out pizza or anything after say lunch time at that. LOL. Don't think I could live in Berri.
Sunday morning came by. Alarms set for 5am allowing me to smash a good coffee and a bowl of museli before we headed to the transition zone in Barmera, a 15 min drive away. The temp was stark in contrast to the day before. Sat was low 30's, sun morning was 9! Needless to say it was chilly in the transition zone! Kate didn't want to take her shoes off until the absolute last minute.
We did get to the transition zone pretty early, but it gave us a lot of time to familiarise ourselves with everything and to organise our gear without rushing (just the way I like it). Anyways the race finally neared, we wandered to the start line and had a quick swim to get acclimatised. Next thing we're lining up to start, a quick hug and kiss to kate and then we were off. The swim was beautiful, the lake was an amazing temp and I felt good. In the end the 2km swim was 34 mins. Pretty stoked.
I was feeling great out of the water and set into a steady ride. The course was beautiful. Long the shores of Lake Bonney, 10km out, 10km back. Unfortunately the back leg was slightly more uphill, and into a decent headwind. Funnily enough, everyone was smashing me with the wind, but I was smashing everyone into it? Strange. It must be all the hill climbing!
Being broken into 4 20km loops, the ride actually felt like it went pretty quick. Nex thing onto the run. Another decent transition, and off for 20kms. The run comprised of 4x5 km laps. This was a really great way to structure the run, once again mentally helping as 5kms is easy right....and I only have to do it 4 times. In the end I was stoked, after needing a toilet break at the end of lap one, I progressively got faster finishing my last lap with an avg pace of 4:24 min/km, placing me 2nd for the run in my age group.
Feeling strong I passed Kate at the end of her first run lap, she was in suffer town and I felt pretty bad for her, but kudos to her she stuck it out.
I ended up crossing the line in 4hrs29mins, and then proceeded to chill out in the race finisher zone, munching some nice food, soaking up some rays and getting a massage. Not to mention meeting some rad crew and hearing some crazy race and training stories.

Kate ended up crossing the line in 6hrs 9mins with a lot of encouragement. She was pooched to say the least. So proud of her.
Now we headed quickly back to Berri for a freshen up in our late checkout hotel room, the shower was amazing. Smashed a coffee and some food and then embarked on the 2.5hr drive home, which was surprisingly good seeming I just did a long distance triathlon. What an amazing weekend. It has filled me with enthusiasm to ramp up my Iron Man training and maybe get a proper TT frame :-)







Friday, November 7, 2014

Photos From Adelaide

I have finally been out and about with the camera again. It's nice to finally "explore" Adelaide again. I feel like I've barely had the time to poke around the city since we got back 10 months ago. It really is a nice city :-)






Coffee Roasting

I have now roasted a few more batches of Coffee and am strating to get the feel for it. Less heat, giving a longer and slower roast. This has given me some great flavour in the last two batches that I have done. The batch here is a Papua New Guinea Bean.


Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Chappie

I can finally share the first trailer of chappie. It was amazing working at Image Engine and producing the rNd and rigging for Chappie. I'm so stoked to have been involved in what looks like is going to turn out to be an amazing film. Image Engine is killing it again!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Unley pool evening sessions

It's been so good getting some warmer weather finally. All the outdoor pools are open and kate and i have been making the most of unley pool. It's so good as it's right on the ride home from work so i can be in the water by 6, home by 7:30, eating dinner by 8! A bit better than iSwim.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Roasting Coffee

So there is this cool little mom and pop cafe that a few of us pop by after a nice coast ride. They cook all their own products, and to my joy, they also roast their own coffee beans. However they don't roast their coffee beans in a proper roasting oven, but the male owner will sit outside with a gas stove cooker and a wok and roast the beans that way.
I had a discussion with him and he taught me a lot about roasting coffee, how to tell when the coffee is roasted and we also discussed the obvious inconsistency in product when roasting this way.
So he roasts the beans, which will always turn out differently as air temp varies, sometimes there is a breeze and as he is manually turning the beans some will always get different amounts of more intense heat. Anyways, he roasts in super small batches, and many different varieties, stores them for a few days, tries them and if the roast is good he'll serve it to customers.
This inspired me so I went and bought some green coffee and roasted my own. Bang. It was different, but still nice and it was cool to roast a few different batches and to see how the results varied. Now I just need to find a cheaper bean supplier and I'll save a lot on my coffee addiction.


Clipsal 500 TVC - Latest and Greatest from Resin

I was totally honoured to be able to work on this TVC with the crew at Resin! It was a super fun project and we got to do some really cool and creative work, as well as some very nice solutions to dealing with a lot of cool shots.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Recent Photography

Life has been busy, but I did manage a few photographs recently. These are a few pics from the last few weeks.



Learning Houdini

The last few weeks I have started teaching myself Houdini. Some work that was very Houdini centric was required recently at work and I could see the benefits of Houdini over Maya so I started embarking on the long process of learning this amazing bit of software.
It is amazing. So complex and so much to learn, but as I start working through everything and getting the basics down, it all just starts making more sense. I am working through a bunch of online video tutorials and keep applying what I have learnt to work.
I'm pretty stoked with the first rounds of work that I have produced. Check back for more to come as I post some WIP and tutorial shots!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Photos from Adelaide

I got outside last Saturday to enjoy the beautiful sunny spring day. I wandered around the local Plympton area, and also headed down to Henley beach which is only about a 10 min drive from us. It was nice to finally have some inspirational settings to take some photos again.




more here:

Finally...the Dirty Dozen!

The 2014 Adelaide Dirty Dozen was an amazing event! I was looking forward to it for so long, and thankfully Adelaide graced us with beautiful weather for the Sept 6th "social" ride.
The Dirty Dozen has been running for a few years, however this was my first opportunity to take part. In summary the event is a socially organised ride that tackles 13 of Adelaides steepest climbs. This covers about 3km of vert and 115kms of road. Funnily enough I had done next to no hill training for this. Since moving to Plympton I have been doing a lot more long flat riding, so needless to say I was slightly concerned seeming in the past 3 months I think I had a total vert count of maybe the total vert of this one event.
Anyways I'm always down for a challenge so I was at Red Berry Espresso 6:45 am sharp for the rider briefing, and then by 7:30ish we hit it. First up, Mt Osmond. See the full hill list below.
Mt Osmond (Hayward Dve) - 2.3km @ 9.7% Gill Tce - 0.6km @ 14.7% Kensington Rd - 1.3km @ 11.5% Coach Rd - 2.4km @ 9.8% Coach House Dve / Woodlands Way - 2.7km @10.1% Cleland Wildlife Park access road - 1.2km @ 10.6% Whitewood Dve - 1.1km @ 10.3% Heather Rd - 0.6km @ 12.4% Ridge Rd - 1.3km @ 9.5% Morgan Rd - 1km @ 10.4% Pole Rd - 1km @ 9.9% Lynton (Caroline) Bike Path - 0.7km @ 11.1% Sheoak Rd - 5.2km @ 4.7% (incl sections of 0.5km @ 15.2% and 1km @ 8.7%)
Anyways, the day went so well. The organisers were rad and had bananas and drinks at the top of a few of the big climbs which was totally unnecessary, but so appreciated. The total bitch of a climb went to Sheoak Rd, as expected. Final climb and what a son of a bitch. Talk about nail in the coffin. Some people were struggling big time up there!
Obviously I didn't take a map, or even really look at the route before hand and thus was totally relying on other people for directions. This led to me doing an extra hill climb that wasn't on the route and adding probably an extra 10kms. So my dirty dozen was actually 14 hills and ~130kms including ride from home to the event. This didn't bother me too much, however one of the guys that took the wrong turn with me was super unstoked when he realised. I thought he was about to throw the towel in!
This ride took some amazing roads through parts of Adelaide that I am ashamed to say I have never been too before. It was so beautiful and I'll have to get back out there now that I know where all the roads go. There are also some damn steep hills in Adelaide so no excuses to not get those hill muscles going.
Overall it was an amazing day and I'll definitely be hitting it again next year.

Friday, September 5, 2014

The day my 365 project failed.

So I have been working on a 365 photo project this year, until the other day. I failed to take a photograph last Monday. I didn't take my camera to work, rushed home and then went swimming. Upon returning from swimming we made dinner and were totally thrashed. I thought I gotta take a photo of dinner to do my photo for the day. That's where it ended. I ate, showered and zonked out. I didn't even realise that I had forgotten till later the next day. I had been disliking the project for a while as I didn't have the time to focus on it to do it well. Since I have failed and stopped pursuing the project, I have found that I am already taking more interesting photos, and I only take my camera when I want to. It's way more fun. The rules I set myself for the project were cool, if you had a lot of time to work with them. The first part of the series in Vancouver and while I was unemployed in Adelaide are great. They adhere to the rules more or less, but also the rules at this stage of the project gave me ideas to seek out subjects. Once full time work ramped back up and more intense triathlon training, I just ran out of time and motivation. My goal for next year, and maybe the end of this year is going to be switched to making sure I produce one good photo a week. This gives me time to write about it, and choose a rally nice photo. I hope you enjoyed watching, the project that ended at day 235 took me to some cool places and allowed me to take some great photos. Writing this a few weeks later I am really not regretting that I let it skip. I just think I was trying to do too much and my heart wasn't in it. It has been really nice just taking photos when I've wanted to rather than feeling I have to each day. Everythings fun, until you force yourself to do it :-)

236/365


My trustworthy Subie. This point of view brings back many memories.

235/365


Torrens, Linear Park with Kate while House Hunting in Klemzig. One of the first "warm" weekend days for a while. It was nice to just sit and chill in the sun for a while, a small moment of peace in our hectic schedule.

234/365


Picking Kate up from The Gilbert St Pub after friday night dinner at the folks. Beautiful bokeh of city lights with my 85mm 1.8.

233/365


I was out wandering around town capturing some reference photos for work and saw this cool piece of public art. Also, it was such a beautiful day, finally after weeks of crappy cold winter weather.

232/365


Surprise present from Kate! I was so stoked with this T2 thermos. I take it everywhere, especially to morning swimming for a hot drink afterwards. No shit, it keeps the tea so hot that two hours later it is still too hot to drink! Amazing.

231/365


On Tuesdays Kate is out for choir rehersal, so I roast up my favourite veggie dish. Roast everything, lots of sweet potato tho, rice, chick peas, tahini, nutritional yeast, avocado! YES!

230/365


Delicious fresh Vietnamese inspired dinner! One of our staple go to feeds.

229/365


That lame achilles again! The woes of running. Now I just gotta get it healed for Murray Man!

228/365


Work in progress tri-bike build. It's really good fun building your own bike from individual components. Keeps me preoccupied in my spare time thats for sure.

227/365


Flower marked, lunchtime, Friday, Rundle Mall. I write this post a few weeks later, and it is still going and really creating a cool vibe in the Mall. It's great to see these kinds of initiatives being implemented.

226/365


Moroccan lamb curry al a Kate :-) Delicious, until we got to all the fat that cooked out of it..kinda reminded me why I like eating vegetarian.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Beautiful day in the hills to end winter

What an amazing Saturday afternoon hanging out at Mt Osmond with Kate. Beautiful views of Adelaide and amazing sunshine.



My new tri bike

This was a lot of fun to build. I bought the groupset separate from the frame. Yes it's a Team Discovery Channel Trek :-) Came with a supply of EPO!



Sunday, August 31, 2014

225/365


Vegan, sugar free, gluten free cupcakes..and they were epic. From Gweneth Paltrows book "It's All Good".

224/365

223/365


Lift broken at work. 5 floors of stairs. If only all lifts didn't work, the world would not have as many issues with obesity!

222/365


Beautiful stroll along the Torrens with my mum and grandma. These reeds in the Torrens were so tranquil.

221/365


Big table for brekky with kate after a 4km swim and short run....we deserved it :-)

120 km ride

This morning I headed out with some mates on an epic ride. As the dirty dozen ride is next weekend, I figured I should hit some decent climbs so I started with a solo mission up Mt Osmond. This hurt a bit. Then the ride continued to go up climbs unexpectedly as the week before the group ride hit one climb and a bunch of coast. So I ended up with Mt Osmond, Euro Norton, Windy Point and then Sheoak Rd with 20% grade in sections. 

Anyways, at the top of Mt Osmond at 6am the sunrise was beautiful. Such an amazing day to be out on the bike.


Saturday, August 30, 2014

Resin Rocks at AEAF

Super stoked on this news. Resin wins gold at AEAF for their "Two Left Feet" interactive mobile app, as well as Bronze for a viral web video of a "Dasyurus Maculatus" gone rogue. I'm super Stoked on this as it is one of the first projects that I was working as Head of VFX for the studio. For a 4 man team, holding up against larger studios like Cinesite VFX is damn impressive!

Dasyurus Maculatus

Back running again!

I'm back running baby. Two runs in the last few days, albeit short runs, but runs none the less! Stoked!
The physio gave me good news and some things to work on / think about. So now it's ramp up carefully for Murray Man, 9th Nov. :-)

The day my 365 project failed...

So I have been working on a 365 photo project this year, until the other day. I failed to take a photograph last Monday. I didn't take my camera to work, rushed home and then went swimming.
Upon returning from swimming we made dinner and were totally thrashed. I thought I gotta take a photo of dinner to do my photo for the day. Thats where it ended. I ate, showered and zonked out. I didn't even realise that I had forgotten till later the next day.
I had been disliking the project for a while as I didn't have the time to focus on it to do it well. Since I have failed and stopped pursuing the project, I have found that I am already taking more interesting photos, and I only take my camera when I want to. It's way more fun.
The rules I set myself for the project were cool, if you had a lot of time to work with them. The first part of the series in Vancouver and while I was unemployed in Adelaide are great. They adhere to the rules more or less, but also the rules at this stage of the project gave me ideas to seek out subjects.
Once full time work ramped back up and more intense triathlon training, I just ran out of time and motivation.
My goal for next year, and maybe the end of this year is going to be switched to making sure I produce one good photo a week. This gives me time to write about it, and choose a rally nice photo.
I hope you enjoyed watching.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Colleen's Masters Swim Club

Loving the swimming at the moment. Masters swim club, 5:30am at Immanuel College. 1.5 hrs and 4.2kms later I'm suitably thrashed to start the day. Lifes too short to not push it as hard as you can!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

My trusty BMC

I've put a lot of kms on my trusty companion :-) one of my favourite rides being the triple crown in Vancouver. So stoked I did that ride while I was there! Now she has been relegated toy wet weather training and commuting bike, but I still love her. After all she saves me the most cash and I also probable do the most kms on her too.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

I can't believe.....

....that I have ended up in the same place again a year down the track! One year ago give or take I recovered from achilles tendonitis. Since then I managed another marathon and have been very smart about not pushing running too fast and easing into higher training loads. 

Anyways, now, literally a week after signing up for IronMan and forking out a good part of 1k for that race entry, my achilles flared up. Now I forsee a good few months of recovery and easing back into running. So lame and disappointing given all the hard work put into preparing myself to be in a good position to start Iron Man training. Oh well. Shit happens and now it'll be a challenge to try and get back on board for Murray man in November and Iron Man in March. :-(

It's funny how shit just flips upside down!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Colleen's Masters Group

When we first moved to Plympton I was struggling because I was in a routine of swimming at Norwood pool. I stressed out that I wouldn't find another pool to use, and hence my swimming would really drop off. Then I discovered Unley Swimming Centre. The most beautiful 50m pool, outdoors, just nestled into Forestville. Sweet, I hit this up for a few months and it was perfect as it was located right on my way to work.
Then I discovered that it is closed over winter :-( I just assumed that being hot old Adelaide it would be open all year, I mean Kitsilano Pool in Vancouver was colder at 5 in the morning in summer than Adelaide is here in winter...I thought, until this winter when I realised Adelaide is bloody freezing and that I would have absolutely no interest in swimming outdoors.
Anyways, I started moping about once Unley Pool closed as I figured I wouldn't be swimming all winter. Then I found iSwim at Immanuel College. A beautiful indoors 25m lap pool. I initially thought 25m pools were lame, but in winter beggars can't be choosers, and I have realised that you just do your training differently. More drills, more shorter high intensity stuff, and it forces you to learn to tumble turn :-)
Anyways, after swimming here for a while I discovered Colleen's Masters Group. A set training 3 days a week at 5:30, that is super similar to the fastlane sessions that I used to go to in Vancouver. It pushes me a lot and I can see I'm going to improve on my swimming quite significantly by swimming at these sessions. There's nothing like getting 4km in the pool done before work to make you hungry all day thats for sure!

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Murray Man Half Iron Man

Days after signing up for Iron Man Melbourne, my lovely wife, Kate, tells me that she is also going to do Iron Man. Yeah right. She hates swimming and hasn't tried to swim laps for a long time.
Anyways, a few days later she is still going on about it and has decided that she's going to do Murray Man. I say OK, but you gotta get in the pool first. We head down after work one day and I take her through a drills session at Immanuel College. She smashes out a good hour session.
We hit another swimming session and a few bike rides and she's killing it. Anyways, a week later I'm convinced that she is pretty keen, but expect a bit more training before making a decision. So, I fall asleep one night, totally pooched from training, and wake up to an email that she has signed up for Murray Man after I fell asleep.
So I have now signed up too, and we've been doing some training together, and it is just so awesome to train with my wife. I spend so much time doing sport that it is just amazing to be able to share this passion together. I can't wait for the race in November. It was amazing finishing Victoria, BC, Marathon together; I can't imagine how good it is going to be finishing a half iron man, and potentially a full Iron Man. :-)
Murray Man

Building My Own Tri Bike

I recently bought a used a Lance Armstrong Team Discovery Channel Trek Road bike frame at a super cheap price. At the time that I purchased this frame, I thought it was going to become my training bike with a cheap build kit. However about a month later I signed up for Iron Man Melbourne, and decided that I needed a time trial bike, so this frame now became the basis to my TT bike.
A whole lot of research ensued ionto how to build a TT bike and what is required. I have now ordered a full Ultegra groupset with TT shifters and brakes. Next I need to buy some aero bars, stem, carbon seat post and good saddle, then the most expensive part being new wheels. This is going to be a bit costly, but such a great fun project.
Hopefully the groupset is in next weekend, so I'll be hitting the roads on my TT rig in no time. WIP pictures to come.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Training and Injuries

I know I post on this quite often. But it is something of interest to me, and very close to heart. Over the last few years, endurance sports have taken their toll on my body, but I have also gained tremendous results from them.
The worst thing about injuries is the mental worry that is left behind. I find myself constantly feeling niggles in my right achilles. Anyways, one good thing about injury is that I have finally started to pay attention to my body and what it is telling me. Don't get me wrong, I could be better, but baby steps right.
Anyways, a few weeks back, 1 week after signing up for Iron Man actually, I had a 18km training run, and at 13 kms I got a good old pain in the right achilles. Stupidly I had been feeling something all run which I ignored, but to be fair, it felt more like a "I'm being paranoid pain", rather than anything serious.
Anyways I flagged running straight away. 1 wk off before testing it out again, then physio and a test run to decide whether to continue with the Marathon or not. The physio came up with some good advice, I followed it, and hit out a training run on Sunday the 2nd Aug. The rule was if the run went well, do the Marathon, if it didn't, don't be dumb, and flag the Marathon. Anyways the run went well, but for once common sense kicked in, and I decided to only run 15kms of the 35kms that I wanted to do, thinking it was silly to run so far after an injury scare.
From this run I pulled up fine, and the leg felt fine all run, but I realised that I like running so much, and Iron Man is so important to me that cancelling the Marathon was the smart thing to do.
Nonetheless, I got a solid 8 weeks of training in for the marathon in which I gained some great fitness which will put me in a great place for starting Iron Man training in September.
Now a few weeks on, I am running and loving it. Sometimes it pays to listen to the body ;-)

220/365


Friday! Thank f%$k! Heavy work week. The team pumped our some amazing looking work. So stoked! Ready for a weekend to refuel and smash out some more amazing work next week!
On the ride home I was about to cross the South Road overpass on the bike track that I ride everyday, but had to stop to take this pic. I always love the pattern of the lights, but tonight the sky and the lights just looked so rad, so I paused on my ride to capture this. Sometimes you just gotta stop and look right!

219/365


Dinner at Kates parentals. On the way home we noticed the gas prices were the lowest they've been for a while so thought we should fill up. I took the opportunity to take a photo of something different. After such a crazy work week it was awesome to have dinner with the in laws, just being nice to chill and not have to get home and cook ourselves.

218/365


Our dried herbs. Once again, ridiculously busy day at work and totally thrashed from swimming in Colleens Masters swimming group at 5:30am at Immanuel. The masters swim group is a 1.5hr drill session with about 4 - 4.5 kms of swimming at a pretty high intensity. The arms will be feeling it tomorrow.

217/365


Early morning in work, looking out the office window. It is an awesome location for the office, providing a lot of inspiration within a short walk. Also providing a lot of incentives to spend a bunch of cash a bit too easily ;-)

216/365


Crazy day at work, but the project is looking rad! This was about all the creativity I could conjure up. Sorry.

215/365


Kates first Choir recital. It was awesome and I was so proud to see her up there singing. I took some photos for the group too. My parents as well as Kates parents were there to support her :-) The performance was followed by munchies. I can't believe how old people swarm on free food ;-) As good as seagulls I tell ya.
My old choir teacher from yr 8, Mr Sils is the conductor and it was a laugh catching up with him again after about 15 years.

214/365


In Adelaide it always pays to look up. I was dropping Kate off for choir rehearsal on Hindley St and I glanced upwards from the car while I was stopped. All of the upper levels were beautiful old architecture like this. I loved the vibrant color and the classical columns and arches. It almost momentarily took me to Jerusalem :-) Following this I waited in the Sports Med waiting room for a hour, got into the appointment 45mins late, seen for 10 mins and charged $59. Assholes. To be fair they seemed to fix the problem with the advice they gave. Then I was off to the rentals for lunch :-)

213/365


The new steed. She rides like a dream. Super stiff carbon frame allows you to really lay down the power when you need to!

212/365

,
The view of our shitty little backyard area from our window on this bleak cold Adelaide winters day. The bonsai are laying pretty dormant, thank god cos I've been so busy as you can tell from my average photos, that I would not have had the time to prune them at all.
With more light in spring when they start growing, hopefully I'll get out there and do some "gardening".

211/365


It's been a crazy busy week at work. What a relief to have Kate cooking dinner tonight! Wicked scrambled eggs, rice, soy. Stoked!

210/365


The makings of a healthy lunch and breakfast. Yep I like green and am totally digging cabbage at the moment.

209/365


Another isue of my one year wedding gift from Kate. Early morning reading. Keeps the stoke for the bike going while the weather outside is shit and cold!

208/365


My favourite marker. Gepps Cross Market. So many characters. It's so vibrant, the produce is so fresh and it's always so cheap. It's always a fun morning and I have usually done a big run before hand so I treat myself to a bunch of fresh fruit for brekky. It's always fun trapsing the aisles for a bargain with Kate, going by the rule of thumb that if it's more than $3 per kg, we wont buy it :-)

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

207/365

206/365

205/365

204/365

203/365

202/365

Iron Man


I finally manned up and signed up for Iron Man. After talking about it for a long time, I committed to Melbourne Iron Man, March 22nd, 2015. I originally wanted to do Lake Taupo or Brussleton, but the logistics of actually getting to these events, and the cost involved made them much less appealing than Melbourne. Maybe for my next Iron Man ;-)
Anyways, training as Marathon training as per usual at the moment, bar a few little niggling injuries, but with my main focus being staying in good health to start Iron Man Training on Sept 22nd, for 6 months of "Game On!" before race day. It's going to be hard, but I am super excite about the challenge.
I am also stoked as I have now got the opportunity to build a time trial bike :-) Kate will be stoked with the prospect of a 3rd bike in the house :-)

Saturday, July 26, 2014

201/365


House hunting again. This was an interesting fence next door to the place we were checking out in Mile End. This fence may give an idea as to how run down the place was that we were checking out...a definite dooer-upperer :-)

200/365


Wandering through Hahndorf. Hahndorf is such a cute little town, very touristy but it has managed to maintain it's German feel without becoming too tacky and full of shithouse tourits chiches. This stroll and nice arvo in Hahndorf was followed by date night, which comprised of Blue Cheese from Udder Delights, a mad chocolate Pate and gluten free crackers along with fresh hills grown apples. Amazing. I then signed up for Iron Man Melbourne! All this was started with a market shop in the morning and a run around the Torrens with Kate. Her first run since her Knee operation! All up an amazing day.

199/365


Kate at the Benjamin on Franklin for Astruds birthday drinks. I got her to throw this pose. I thought she fit in really nicely with the old school lamp and couch.

198/365


Wandering Rundle Mall in my lunch break, these Adidas breakdancers were killing it...inside a giant glass cube. Pretty cool and dynamic. Rundle Mall is really starting to get some cool stuff like this.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

197/365


Wandering around Adelaide looking for photo reference, I scoped this cool facade with a broken window that a tree was pushing through. Reminds me of Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park - "Life always finds a way".

196/365


Lunch break sitting in the stairwell. Munching on my salad, I didn't last too long as it was ridiculously cold.

195/365


New business cards. Hopefully they bring in the photo work ;-)

194/365


Our new planter boxes. Repurposed timber palates to grow our fresh herbs and veggis. This kept Kate and I busy for Sunday afternoon. Wish it had been a bit warmer to enjoy the outside a bit more.

193/365


My awesome friends Laura and Tomasso got engaged today! I was there to capture some pics as they fell from the sky into Royal Adelaide Golf Course. Tomasso proposed in the air, and then got down on one knee as soon as they landed. Such a special moment and I was so stoked to be able to capture some nice photos for them.

192/365


Embarking on my second 19km training run for the week. I headed up to Unley Pool, then North along West Tce, around the parklands, memorial drive, through North Adelaide, Melbourne St, the Torrens and to work. I think the best 19km I've ever run, and with 11km of Marathon pace in there it felt really good.

191/365


Quatchi posing for a portrait. Need I say more.

190/365


Getting ready for another early morning 19km run. Raining, not so nice, and headed straight to work. Thankfully there is an awesome shower at work, and I got in early so I headed to the supermarket and treated myself to an epic museli brekky.

189/365


Busy on a project at work! Steve is in the zone comping together our final renders.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

188/365


Late at night and running out of time for a photo. I decided to get creative with a self portrait. I actually quite like it.

187/365


Heading to the Wayville Showground Farmers Market form a beautiful morning of eating good produce. This was a really enjoyable morning market trip as we had already bought our groceries at the Central Market on Friday night, and hence this shop was purely enjoyable and relaxing. It made the market way more fun and was much easier to take in all of the nice flavours.

186/365


Taken on Rundle St just out front of a dress store that Kate had just managed to spend over a hour in at a buy two get one free sale :-) Yes she got a good deal...while she was doing that I took random photos and went to T2 to get some Yerba Mate and Lapsang Suchong.

185/365


Once again, another busy and late day! Cooking up a storm, I kinda liked this cliched global knife and chilli shot.

184/365


What can I say...late and running out of inspiration. This is the cash that I borrowed from Kate to get to Immanuel pool the next morning :-)

183/365


My quivver of snowboards. The oldest one being my Burton Bullet that I got in 2002. The newest my Dark Series that I purchased at WWS Board store, Bellingham, fall 2012.
The Burton Jussi came from a South Lake Tahoe Boardstore, 2004, purchased while I was there on a ski season at Kirkwood. Finally the Lib Skate Banana, ordered with my $800 from K-Rudd, just so happened to be ordered from the same boardstore that I got the Jussi from, just a few years later, 2009, and first ridden in NZ with some amazing pow at Cardrona.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

24 km training run



Another large sunday training run. 24km from home to brighton then down to semaphore. Beautiful morning for a run, except for the ridiculous downpour about 10 mins into the run that left me soaked to the skin for the rest of the run.

19 kms were ran at marathon pace, 4.22min kms. Still not what i'm after, but ok. 

The rest of the day was awesome with many coffees,  a nice morning at the wayville farmers market with kate.

I then managed a 60 km bike ride on my rad new bike and am now suitably smashed. 

Finally i cooked an amazing fish pie for dinner! Awesome sunday!

Friday, July 4, 2014

Lobethal Run!



So last weekend we went to a mates vineyard in lenswood. It was a rad weekend away! Kate and i camped out in the vineyard, we all cooked up amazing food, and i hit a beautiful morning 20 km run on sunday morning! I headed out along croft road, left onto edwards hill rd, right on fox creek rd to lenswood, left on lobethal rd to lobethal, last left before lobethal out to croft rd, back down fox creek rd then back up the trails to croft rd and back to the vineyard. What an amazing morning! All while this was happening, the sun was rising, the cows and horses were rising. Such a beautiful part of SA. 

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

182/365


Adelaide sewer covering, Featherstone Place. Lunchtime walk and phone call with mum for some good old motherly advice! Really, what would we all do without our mums :-)

181/365


So I asked Bicycle Express if they could hook me up with a old frame to use as a commuter as I cracked the headtube of my old bike. They come back with this. Trek Discovery Channel Lance Armstrong frame....$50. What? Thinking of building it up as my tri bike maybe. Too good for a commuter.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

180/365


What a beautiful day. I started with a 20km run, watching the sun rise over the Adelaide Hills. The sun then came out and gave us a superb day after the crappy week of weather that we have had. The sun shine was nice and warm and it made for some perfect vibrant shots of the vineyard. I enjoyed this view while chilling on an old bamboo "couch", sipping coffee and reading my Zen Buddhism book. A perfect place for reflection and soul searching.

179/365


I think this is the coolest "outhouse" I have ever seen. It has so much character, a window with no glass and a door that doesn't close properly. So when you are on the can it's a bit breezy, but kind of relaxing looking out at the environment. We were at our good friends vineyard for the weekend camping. It was so beautiful and quiet up there, albeit cold and wet. However we were super impressed with our cheap camping gear that kept us cold and dry, even though I'm guessing temps would have got to 5ish degrees with the clear evening.

178/365

Thursday, June 26, 2014

177/365


Wandering in my lunch break. Scoped this rad bike at Gawler Place in front of Nespresso. Had to take a photo! Love the chrome finish of it and the exposed welds. Nice!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

176/365


Me on my lunch break in the stairwell at work! Just grabbed a big ass block of Organic Tofu for dinner :-) We were making Vietnamese cold rolls with peanut sauce and tofu :-)

175/365


Looking sky high out front of my work at a glimpse of one of the rare glimpses of blue sky that we have had recently. It was bloody freezing and so damp. The last few days have been interesting commuting to and from work that's for sure. It seems that Adelaide puts the nice weather on during the day while we are in work, and then pisses down on me when I'm riding home..oh well. It makes you feel alive!

174/365


My pretty new bike :-) I am going to have a lot of fun on this machine. Such a beautifully made piece of machinery. It rides so nicely; feels like it is on rails! I got her from Bicycle Express through some of the guys that I used to know from way back in the downhill days. I got my first downhill bike there, and it's funny that 15 years later, I am back there buying a bike from one of the guys that was there when I started downhilling. That passion for bikes always brings the crew back together.

173/365


A rekky mission with my good friends Grace and Daniel. I have been given the honour to photograph their wedding, so we thought a day visiting their ceremony location for some photos would be a good way to have a test photo shoot and check out the area. The venue is beautiful and I feel that Daniel and Grace will be very fun to work with on the day. Looking forward to it!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Swimming

As the hammy is feeling a bit shit house, my long endurance Saturday morning session became a swim :-( Unfortunately as I was really hoping to hit my 27km trail run today..oh well. Anyways, I dashed down to Immanuel College this morning for a swim. Even though it is only 25m, the pool is really nice and I thoroughly enjoy swimming there. I was feeling really good in the water this morning and ended swimming 4kms, and finished feeling great and putting some of my hardest effort into the last km.
Todays session was one of those great sessions where you clear your mind and manage to just ponder on problems and issues while you are swimming. You kind of get in a rhythm and forget that you are doing that repetitive motion and entertain yourself with problem solving and different trains of thought. When you get in the zone like that it makes endurance sport thoroughly enjoyable.
To top the session off, I happened to bump into a bloke out front of the pool afterwards ho asked me if it was busy and what the pool was like. He was visiting Adelaide and said it was his first time to the pool, but it had been recommended to him. It sounded like he previously came from Adelaide from the way he spoke, but he now lives in Panama and has headed up a running group there which sounded super interesting, and funnily enough this worldwide running crew is home to the founders of Iron Man ;-)
I believe this group is an Aussie started running group called the Hash House Harriers. Check it out.
All up a beautiful morning!

172/365


House hunting Saturday. Shitloads of open inspections and a good afternoon spent driving around and snooping through other peoples houses! This is a really nice feature wall in Brompton, just accross the road from a beautiful house we were looking at. Unfortunately said house is way too expensive :-( However we learn a lot every time we go out looking and are slowly adjusting what we are looking for as we learn the market.

171/365


I love lighting fires, so I made the most of the in-laws fire and timber supply. I sat in front of this fire while getting it going for a good hour, adding timber and reading my Zen Buddhism book. I got caught in the most ridiculous downpour on the ride home from work, so this fire was well and truly necessary to a) warm up and b) dry my riding gear which was so wet that I was wringing water out of it. The downpour was so heavy that you could see headlights beaming through it like thick mist. Funnily enough I was loving riding in it, it was like being a kid again.