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Different folks and their power strokes
It’s a thriving sporting community occupying the Karapiro Domain this weekend.
The Sir Don Rowlands Centre is cranking to the sound of New Zealand band Shapeshifter and every few minutes a couple of hundred kilos drops to the floor and shakes the building.
The door handles are covered in talcum powder.
Jewel Tassi has just set a new national record with a lift of 260.5kg to finish the NZ Powerlifting Championships with a bang.
Meanwhile, out on Lake Karapiro, the first day of the National Rowing Masters Championships is in full swing.
Demonstrations of power are everywhere.
Chris Brake, the Accelerator
Chris Brake’s just done a “warm-up” on the erg!!!
There’s no doubt he’s enjoying the endorphins from this little workout ‘cos he’s got a big smile on his face and is jumping out of his skin to get racing.
“I did two 250s,” says the North Shore man who’s rowing the double tomorrow with Olympic champion son Michael. “Hard as. Sprinted them. 1.30 splits. Got me warm alright.”
AH: “You want to win this one?”
“Yeah, definitely. Want to win every race.”
We’re standing next to Blenheim’s club captain Mouse Taylor, whose face says it all. Clearly nothing much has changed from the hyper Marlborough Boys’ College Chris Brake that rowed for Blenheim back in the late 1970s.
So, what about this race tomorrow with the son, Chris?
“We've had a few training rows, reluctantly I put him in stroke seat, so we're doing 45 out of the start. I'm actually quite looking forward to it. It'll be such a good blowout.”
Transatlantic rower Steve Westlake clearly enjoyed the big blowout after winning the Men’s D Single Sculls gold medal.
“It's good for the lungs," says Steve. “Keeps the lungs young. The fact that you have a heat, short turnaround, sort of 30 40 minutes, and then you've got the final makes it interesting for the old fellas, which is me included.”
Steve definitely ascribes to the “use it or lose philosophy”.
“As long as you keep enjoying it, and you've got your feet above ground, it's good to keep going.”
This is a guy who’s had four rotator cuff reconstructions, hip and knee surgeries and, thanks to the perils of cycling in Auckland, some broken bones as well.
North Shore's Chris Brake and his old Blenheim mate Mouse Taylor. Mouse joined Blenheim in 1969, Chris rowed for the club in the 1970s. Photo: Andy Hay.
Love and Marriage, love and marriage...
St George’s is experiencing a massive revival out of its Panmure base on the Tamaki River in Auckland. By Friday afternoon, their oars had taken up residency in a healthy proportion of the racks.
Like any club with a Masters programme, they’re proud of the family traditions that run through the generations, but their Novice Men’s and Women’s Quad surely boast a unique family connection.
The first hint was a good luck kiss just as both crews were about to go on the water.
Turns out there are four married couples across the two boats.
There’s Brad and Anna Taylor, Anthea and Riaan van Greuning, Andi and Nathan Reeve, and Kathryn and Rob Taylor.
They’ve had kids that rowed at school so thought of giving the sport a go themselves. The boys won the Novice Coxed Quad in a row over, the girls got gold in their four-boat final.
A couples combo followed in the D-F Mixed Eight.
ROWMANCE: St George's rowing romantics Brad and Anna Taylor, Anthea and Riaan van Greuning, Andi and Nathan Reeve, Kathryn and Rob Taylor. Photo: Andy Hay
WERCing out is a lifelong habit
West End’s women’s eight is a formidable combination.
Seven seat Suz Goldsbury started out when Takapuna Grammar was under the West End umbrella.
“I started back in 1989 and then rowed at Auckland University and then was president at Canterbury University rowing, but every summer I'd come up and row at West End,” she says. “I'm master's captain at West End now, so trying to keep all of these people in line and getting them off to regattas and things.”
Many of her crewmates rowed at school and there they were holding on to their unbeaten run in their age group since 2018.
“We've kind of got a core group and we all train four times a week and love getting on the water, it's nicer than going to the gym, so we just keep on rowing.”
Next month she’ll be keeping everyone in line again when they fly to the Head of the Charles in Boston.
“Definitely aiming to win it. Those American crews are pretty fast and there's a lot of international crews but we're pretty lucky...we're in the 50 to 60 age group and we're like 50.75 [average age], so we're hoping that’s going to be in our favour.”
They’ve been using part of Robbie Manson’s programme when he was a coach at the club a few years ago and now getting some invaluable help from former Mt Albert Grammar coach Hasan Pathan.
“He's been incredible, he sets our boat up perfectly, makes little adjustments and gets us really rowing technically well, got a good race plan.”
Watch out Boston.
West End’s women’s eight. Photo: Picture Show Ltd
In a boat he’s just like anybody else
Ian Winson will be recognisable to many.
In 2011, the former Watercare engineer was inspecting an underground pipe in Auckland’s Onehunga when there was a gas explosion in the enclosed system 500 metres away.
One of his workmates, Philomen Gulland, was killed and five others were injured. Ian lost both legs among other devastating injuries in the explosion that he has described as like being caught “in the barrel of a gun”.
These days he works with Health New Zealand and ACC. He’s cycled the New York marathon, is a Para swimmer and for the first time today, rowed at the Masters Nationals in the Open Para Single with the great Ron Satherley in the lane beside him.
Just the one race this weekend but all worth the hour and a half drag down the Expressway from his home in Auckland.
“Can't complain,” says Ian. “I really enjoy getting out and doing stuff. I can't sit at home and not do anything. It would kill me.”
His coach Alasdair McGeachie and another support person carry the boat down while Ian puts compression tights on his residual limbs and walks to the dock.
“I’m fortunate to be able to do that,” says Ian. “Not a lot of people can do what I just did on the end of their legs.”
He’s only joking when he says don’t tell his surgeon.
“I think he’ll just be too happy to see me actually doing this stuff.”
Ian straps himself in and he’s away. He’s confident on the water.
“Once I’m in the boat I’m just like anybody else so it’s pretty cool.”
West End Rowing Club's Ian Winson. Photo: Picture Show Ltd
The breath of life
This time last year at Twizel, Trevor Rush was campaigning the pair with his great Aramoho-Whanganui mate Richard Brock.
It hasn’t been an easy 12 months as Trevor manages his prostate cancer.
“We’ve ditched the pair because he kept pulling me around,” says Trevor.
“As soon as I get into racing mode I run out oxygen. I can row 18 to 20 strokes a minute 10 to 15k, no problem at all. But as soon as the rating goes up I can't get enough oxygen into my bloodstream and my muscles all crap out and that's because of the blood pressure stuff, the cancer treatment.
“But, you know, there's a lot of guys who've got my cancer dead now, so. I just keep going, man.”
Trevor’s two daughters, Jacs and Steph, are also here competing this weekend.
They rowed the D Double Sculls together and bookended the C Coxless Quad.
Rowing’s been a bond in the family since “the kids”, as Trevor fondly calls his grown-up daughters, were playing hide and seek on the riverbank all those years ago.
“They drove me up,” says Trevor of the road trip from Whanganui. “They borrowed my car and drove me up. And they'll drive me home too.”
AH: “Do they get to choose the music?”
TR: “Ah, we listened to a podcast.”
Jacs: “I picked out an audio book that we could listen to. Four guys rowing in the Northwest Passage, the ice and the snow and the blizzards. We'll find out if they make it on the way home.”
Steph: “One hundred percent rowing.”
You can say that again.
Steph and Jacs had a hand in bringing the youngest rower at this regatta into the sport.
Maryam Naminimianji is 27. She met the sisters through work and they encouraged her to go down to the club.
Rowing is a new phenomenon for Maryam, who was born in Turkey but has lived most of her life in Iran.
“I was so excited when I was introduced to rowing it was something completely new and I was so excited to start,” says Maryam, who’s just moved to Rotorua Rowing Club.
Her favourite boat is the quad, which she’s rowing this weekend in a composite with the Rush sisters.
But there’s something special about getting out by herself on Lake Rotorua as well.
“I also really enjoy a single because on the weekends you can wander around and go explore the water.”
Jacs Rush (far left) and sister Steph (far right) with novice rower Maryam Naminimianji (red and green singlet). It was also a big day for Jane McGimpsey (middle), competing in her first Masters Nationals and making the final of the D Single. Photo: Andy Hay
Mouse Taylor and the Malborough Man
Tomorrow, Brian Hutchison, the oldest athlete at the regatta will be exploring the water with 60-something son, Ross.
They’re entered in the H-M Double. Mouse Taylor’s face says it all again.
This time it’s a hyper-keen Malborough man of 92 who first rowed for the black and white in the late 1940s.
Brian Hutchinson - 92 and ready to race. Photo: Mouse Taylor.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and rowing coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
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- Home
- /
- Masters Rowing
- /
- Different folks and...
Different folks and their power strokes
It’s a thriving sporting community occupying the Karapiro Domain this weekend.
The Sir Don Rowlands Centre is cranking to the sound of New Zealand band Shapeshifter and every few minutes a couple of hundred kilos drops to the floor and shakes the building.
The door handles are covered in talcum powder.
Jewel Tassi has just set a new national record with a lift of 260.5kg to finish the NZ Powerlifting Championships with a bang.
Meanwhile, out on Lake Karapiro, the first day of the National Rowing Masters Championships is in full swing.
Demonstrations of power are everywhere.
Chris Brake, the Accelerator
Chris Brake’s just done a “warm-up” on the erg!!!
There’s no doubt he’s enjoying the endorphins from this little workout ‘cos he’s got a big smile on his face and is jumping out of his skin to get racing.
“I did two 250s,” says the North Shore man who’s rowing the double tomorrow with Olympic champion son Michael. “Hard as. Sprinted them. 1.30 splits. Got me warm alright.”
AH: “You want to win this one?”
“Yeah, definitely. Want to win every race.”
We’re standing next to Blenheim’s club captain Mouse Taylor, whose face says it all. Clearly nothing much has changed from the hyper Marlborough Boys’ College Chris Brake that rowed for Blenheim back in the late 1970s.
So, what about this race tomorrow with the son, Chris?
“We've had a few training rows, reluctantly I put him in stroke seat, so we're doing 45 out of the start. I'm actually quite looking forward to it. It'll be such a good blowout.”
Transatlantic rower Steve Westlake clearly enjoyed the big blowout after winning the Men’s D Single Sculls gold medal.
“It's good for the lungs," says Steve. “Keeps the lungs young. The fact that you have a heat, short turnaround, sort of 30 40 minutes, and then you've got the final makes it interesting for the old fellas, which is me included.”
Steve definitely ascribes to the “use it or lose philosophy”.
“As long as you keep enjoying it, and you've got your feet above ground, it's good to keep going.”
This is a guy who’s had four rotator cuff reconstructions, hip and knee surgeries and, thanks to the perils of cycling in Auckland, some broken bones as well.
North Shore's Chris Brake and his old Blenheim mate Mouse Taylor. Mouse joined Blenheim in 1969, Chris rowed for the club in the 1970s. Photo: Andy Hay.
Love and Marriage, love and marriage...
St George’s is experiencing a massive revival out of its Panmure base on the Tamaki River in Auckland. By Friday afternoon, their oars had taken up residency in a healthy proportion of the racks.
Like any club with a Masters programme, they’re proud of the family traditions that run through the generations, but their Novice Men’s and Women’s Quad surely boast a unique family connection.
The first hint was a good luck kiss just as both crews were about to go on the water.
Turns out there are four married couples across the two boats.
There’s Brad and Anna Taylor, Anthea and Riaan van Greuning, Andi and Nathan Reeve, and Kathryn and Rob Taylor.
They’ve had kids that rowed at school so thought of giving the sport a go themselves. The boys won the Novice Coxed Quad in a row over, the girls got gold in their four-boat final.
A couples combo followed in the D-F Mixed Eight.
ROWMANCE: St George's rowing romantics Brad and Anna Taylor, Anthea and Riaan van Greuning, Andi and Nathan Reeve, Kathryn and Rob Taylor. Photo: Andy Hay
WERCing out is a lifelong habit
West End’s women’s eight is a formidable combination.
Seven seat Suz Goldsbury started out when Takapuna Grammar was under the West End umbrella.
“I started back in 1989 and then rowed at Auckland University and then was president at Canterbury University rowing, but every summer I'd come up and row at West End,” she says. “I'm master's captain at West End now, so trying to keep all of these people in line and getting them off to regattas and things.”
Many of her crewmates rowed at school and there they were holding on to their unbeaten run in their age group since 2018.
“We've kind of got a core group and we all train four times a week and love getting on the water, it's nicer than going to the gym, so we just keep on rowing.”
Next month she’ll be keeping everyone in line again when they fly to the Head of the Charles in Boston.
“Definitely aiming to win it. Those American crews are pretty fast and there's a lot of international crews but we're pretty lucky...we're in the 50 to 60 age group and we're like 50.75 [average age], so we're hoping that’s going to be in our favour.”
They’ve been using part of Robbie Manson’s programme when he was a coach at the club a few years ago and now getting some invaluable help from former Mt Albert Grammar coach Hasan Pathan.
“He's been incredible, he sets our boat up perfectly, makes little adjustments and gets us really rowing technically well, got a good race plan.”
Watch out Boston.
West End’s women’s eight. Photo: Picture Show Ltd
In a boat he’s just like anybody else
Ian Winson will be recognisable to many.
In 2011, the former Watercare engineer was inspecting an underground pipe in Auckland’s Onehunga when there was a gas explosion in the enclosed system 500 metres away.
One of his workmates, Philomen Gulland, was killed and five others were injured. Ian lost both legs among other devastating injuries in the explosion that he has described as like being caught “in the barrel of a gun”.
These days he works with Health New Zealand and ACC. He’s cycled the New York marathon, is a Para swimmer and for the first time today, rowed at the Masters Nationals in the Open Para Single with the great Ron Satherley in the lane beside him.
Just the one race this weekend but all worth the hour and a half drag down the Expressway from his home in Auckland.
“Can't complain,” says Ian. “I really enjoy getting out and doing stuff. I can't sit at home and not do anything. It would kill me.”
His coach Alasdair McGeachie and another support person carry the boat down while Ian puts compression tights on his residual limbs and walks to the dock.
“I’m fortunate to be able to do that,” says Ian. “Not a lot of people can do what I just did on the end of their legs.”
He’s only joking when he says don’t tell his surgeon.
“I think he’ll just be too happy to see me actually doing this stuff.”
Ian straps himself in and he’s away. He’s confident on the water.
“Once I’m in the boat I’m just like anybody else so it’s pretty cool.”
West End Rowing Club's Ian Winson. Photo: Picture Show Ltd
The breath of life
This time last year at Twizel, Trevor Rush was campaigning the pair with his great Aramoho-Whanganui mate Richard Brock.
It hasn’t been an easy 12 months as Trevor manages his prostate cancer.
“We’ve ditched the pair because he kept pulling me around,” says Trevor.
“As soon as I get into racing mode I run out oxygen. I can row 18 to 20 strokes a minute 10 to 15k, no problem at all. But as soon as the rating goes up I can't get enough oxygen into my bloodstream and my muscles all crap out and that's because of the blood pressure stuff, the cancer treatment.
“But, you know, there's a lot of guys who've got my cancer dead now, so. I just keep going, man.”
Trevor’s two daughters, Jacs and Steph, are also here competing this weekend.
They rowed the D Double Sculls together and bookended the C Coxless Quad.
Rowing’s been a bond in the family since “the kids”, as Trevor fondly calls his grown-up daughters, were playing hide and seek on the riverbank all those years ago.
“They drove me up,” says Trevor of the road trip from Whanganui. “They borrowed my car and drove me up. And they'll drive me home too.”
AH: “Do they get to choose the music?”
TR: “Ah, we listened to a podcast.”
Jacs: “I picked out an audio book that we could listen to. Four guys rowing in the Northwest Passage, the ice and the snow and the blizzards. We'll find out if they make it on the way home.”
Steph: “One hundred percent rowing.”
You can say that again.
Steph and Jacs had a hand in bringing the youngest rower at this regatta into the sport.
Maryam Naminimianji is 27. She met the sisters through work and they encouraged her to go down to the club.
Rowing is a new phenomenon for Maryam, who was born in Turkey but has lived most of her life in Iran.
“I was so excited when I was introduced to rowing it was something completely new and I was so excited to start,” says Maryam, who’s just moved to Rotorua Rowing Club.
Her favourite boat is the quad, which she’s rowing this weekend in a composite with the Rush sisters.
But there’s something special about getting out by herself on Lake Rotorua as well.
“I also really enjoy a single because on the weekends you can wander around and go explore the water.”
Jacs Rush (far left) and sister Steph (far right) with novice rower Maryam Naminimianji (red and green singlet). It was also a big day for Jane McGimpsey (middle), competing in her first Masters Nationals and making the final of the D Single. Photo: Andy Hay
Mouse Taylor and the Malborough Man
Tomorrow, Brian Hutchison, the oldest athlete at the regatta will be exploring the water with 60-something son, Ross.
They’re entered in the H-M Double. Mouse Taylor’s face says it all again.
This time it’s a hyper-keen Malborough man of 92 who first rowed for the black and white in the late 1940s.
Brian Hutchinson - 92 and ready to race. Photo: Mouse Taylor.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and rowing coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
