12 Weeks

Whitney did incredibly well. 3 Golds and 2 Bronze medals!!! One of those Bronzes in particular I would have liked to seen as being another Gold and I’m sure she would have too!! There is no reason why she can’t throw 40m with the 5WT. Whitney is just  a wonderful caster and competitor. A truly outstanding result.

(I’m not including the combination events medals because that’s just a bit weird. If you do include them too then there is another Gold, Silver and Bronze for Whitney. They’ll be giving away medals for brushing your teeth next! An overall combined competition does make sense, but only for those competing in all six events — and then add up total final positions like we do in Sexyloops Shootouts, including the positions from the finals (which aren’t currently included!!). That would be worthwhile and a lot of single-handed casters would take up the DHD to be involved. As it is they are just silly and no one likes them, nor the ceremony which now takes a half a lifetime to get through).

And Joel, who I also work with, threw very well in the 15’ Spey coming in 8th place (his main event), and threw the 5WT as far as he regularly does in training. So a good solid performance from him. Definitely more to come!

 "Look, we're on TV"

We really must organise that this event is broadcast live. Many people asked me how to watch it online. Until that happens then it’s always going to be largely competitor-funded and expensive as a consequence. Broadcast the event and you have marketing opportunities, there will be more people attending and it’s not difficult to get prizes donated. If we can find prizes for Sexyloops meets, then they can certainly get them for the World Championships!!!  But someone — or actually some people — have to make this happen.

I might offer to help with the broadcasting. I did in the past bring them an online platform who were keen to broadcast the event live, but no one from the competition followed back on the introductions. That’s just crazy. I’d actually enjoy getting involved in this and interviewing competitors would be fun. I’m sure I can get the funding to do this and I’m also happy to put some Sexyloops funding in behind it too to make it happen.

So those are my thoughts. Happy, disappointed for Rickard, would love to see it move forward, would love to see it more affordable again. There were a lot of people not there that one would have expected to see, including me. There are reasons for that, which needs serious discussion.

Well done to everyone who attended! And a huge congratulations to Stefano for winning TD!!! Well done!!! Great to see Rick up there too (sorry to see that he hurt his middle finger!). That looked like a great event and I enjoyed the WhatsApp messages keeping me updated!!

12 Weeks…

A more affordable event for me is the Malaysian Ironman. Yes entry fees are expensive. About 800USD. But they close roads and there is a huge support network involving over 1250 volunteers. I do actually spend a week in Langkawi and the total experience for me and my wife costs me around £2000. This includes hotels, transport, event fee, all meals.

It’s now 12 weeks to go to IM Malaysia. I have an excellent base level fitness. My go-to training base load is about 10-13hrs training per week. Over the next 12 weeks I’ll average 15-20hrs/week training. Swim-bike-run. 3.8km-180km-42.2km. The challenge here is that it’s 85%-100% humidity, with an average daytime temp of around 33C. It’s like competing in a sauna!

It’s certainly one of the harder (slower!) IMs and mostly because of the tropical climate.  There is about 1800m climbing on the bike. The swim is warm — water temp is 30C. The run is a complete bastard. And you have to fuel yourself in this heat and control your Heart Rate from blowing up.

The last three times here I’ve struggled, but every year I get quicker. I certainly was faster when I was doing them in Hungary. But it’s also a lot easier over there.  Even 40C in Hungary js nothing  compared to 34C with 90% humidity here.

The question maybe is why do this at all? Well for me there is nothing that focuses my attention on getting fit like IM does. There are three disciplines, all of which separately are challenging. Go back to back to back and this is something that really makes me train. There is a feeling of invincibility that it gives me afterwards.

And I do think that being physical, being fit, is good for having an active life and also good mentally too.

Unlike most of my fellow competitors, IM is not my main event in life. That’s fly fishing of course. But if you want to be fit to fly fish then you have to train. And to train I need a challenging goal. So that’s really what it’s about for me. No excuses. No reasons not to. If I can think of a reason not to then that is probably a very good reason to do it!

Long Distance Switch 

I’m planning a long distance Switch and Spey Casting video that will be highly technical and aimed at Advanced Level fly casters. Maybe I’ll shoot it today. I also have a video on the Triple Stripper with Andy that got a lot of interest in Italy at the WCs.  The Switch Cast request came via a YouTube comment. If you would like me to make a video on a specific topic of interest to you, then you know who to call. Email me!!

I’m enjoying the NZ All Blacks tour of South Africa. A good game on Saturday. I get to watch it for free here with online streaming via Rugbypass.tv And then I mirror my phone to my MacBook. It worked well on Saturday. In fact I watched the match during the final 2 hrs of my 5hr indoor bike ride!

Rugby was my sport when I was younger. Probably a good thing I stopped playing when I did and started travelling, fishing and following the summers. Otherwise I would undoubtedly be carrying injuries now.

I’ve certainly lost some flexibility but I work on that. The airfield where I run around in Gerik, has a chap who is considerably older than me and does yoga. He is amazingly flexible. He can bend it half, place his forehead against his shins and fold his arms around the back of his legs. Just amazing. But I’ve also seen him do pull-ups. And I think he can do more than me. Very inspiring.

I couldn’t touch my toes a few years ago but I can put my palms on the floor now. Still a very long way to go to reach his level of flexibility however!!!

The body is a machine that needs exercising. Most people take it for granted and fall apart. Don’t be most people! The human body is designed to run animals down over very long distances. It’s designed to throw. We are mostly endurance machines with a throwing capability, an ability to climb, swim and sprint short distances.

 The Tornado

Right, on that inspiring note, I’m going fishing!!!

Remember: every Sexyloops rod comes with a casting lesson from me, and a 1 in 666 chance of winning an all-expenses paid fishing holiday. Andy is building all the rods at the moment. So get in fast, give me your order and we will make you the very best fly rod in the world.

And then we will do it again. Another 1 in 666 chance of a holiday. Eventually this will be one per year. That’s where we will get to. Or who knows… maybe two/year!! If it ever becomes three/year then I’m buying a bigger boat and a new hat!!

Oh and big congratulations to one of my flycasting students from Germany. Last week Marcel raced the Ironman in Estonia. His first IM!! Congratulations my friend. What a year!! First fly fishing in Malaysia and now this!! Come over and do the IM here, we will drink beer and chase Snakehead afterwards. It’s at a great time of year to fish here.

And David the Enlightened: I have some Carry Drills for you. Let’s get together on Zoom!

Have a fantastic week everyone!!

Cheers, Paul

POD it’s a bit hazy here.  Fires from Indonesia. Nothing like as bad as it has been in the past but not good either.