So close but yet so far...

Perri, Cam, Tom, Mun, Harry, Cara, Lauren, Alisha, Bethany, Tash, Ruby and the Max's have arrived in Sydney. We missed our connecting flight and are now booked onto a 2pm flight landing in Melbourne at 3.30pm. (For the record..not sure that we have ever been so early for a flight!!)

We had some food.. breakfast or lunch..who know's, and are now relaxing at the terminal.

We are looking forward to heading straight to Balwyn for a quick training session but most of all we are looking forward to seeing everybody in a few hours.

Farewell Grand Rapids .........

Once we had all of out team in the terminal, it was a quick and straightforward process getting to Chicago and then ontp LAX. Once in LAX , everyone made that flight leaving LAX for SYD, except for Jane & Charlie who who were booked onto the LAX- Auckland-Mel flight

Had a team meeting where the following announcements were made:

The swimmers voted Cara Davidson as swimmers of the meet. Runner up was Max Halson and Coaches Award was won by Charlie Thorn.

Message from Lauren

Hi everyone,

We are at the Calvin Long Course Meet. We are starting to pack for our long plane trip home and are looking forward to seeing you all. We are not looking forward to the cold weather.

We have just been for a final big spend up to make sure everyone's bags are over weight!

Missing you all but seeing you soon!

Love Lauren and the Team xox

Day two at Calvin College : 7 More life time Best's

Congratulations to the following swimmers who swam life time best's today. There were also a lot that were within one second of their PB. It was a great day of competition by all.

Tash and Cara get some encouraging words!

Beth and Ruby

Chuck and Cam have some fun picking up the Ladies!

Chuckies Fan Club!

Check out Cam's Smily Face (Not sure that Tom is impressed!)

Life time Best's:

Cara Davidson 200 IM (also a National Cut!)

Tom Crabb 200 IM

Charlie Thorn 100 Breast

Cam Crabb 200 Fly

Max Halson 1500 Free (14 Second PB)

Max Thorn 1500 Free (18 Second PB)

Charlie Thorn 1500 Free (16 second PB)

Tomorrow we have one more session of competition before starting our journey home.

Ivan From Russia 4 life time best's so far this meet..and there were more in Orlando!

We would like to say goodbye to our friend Ivan and wish him a safe trip back to Russia tomorrow. Ivan, we have loved having you tour the US with us. Congratulations on your great swims especially your three life time best's today!

Eugene Tee on the Australian Flipper Squad

Eugene Tee on the Australian Flipper Squad.

We farewelled Eugene after swim camp in Mississippi- we were sorry he wasnt able to keep travelling with us but Australian Team commitments needed to be met

Last Friday Eugene departed from Mississippi and headed for Melbourne to join up with the Australian Flipper Squad for the trans tasman series.He landed in Melbourne Sunday morning and joined the team later that afternoon. They have competed in Melbourne, Wagga Wagga and are currently in Canberra.

We would like to congratulate Eugene on his performances so far. He has swam five life time best’s and still has one more swim. Eugene will return to Melbourne on Saturday!

Well make sure we do that Walmart trip for you Eug!!! Looking forward to seeing you again when we get back!

First Day of the Grand Rapids Meet - Three more life time bests!

Back in to competition mode today with the first day of the Grand Rapids meet. It is a timed final meet, so there is only one session per day. Today we competed in the 400 IM and the 800 Free.

Congratulations to Harry Thorn, Tom Crabb and Max Halson who swam life time best's in the 400 IM. Lots more photos in right sidebar.

Calvin College

Hi all,

its day one here in Grand Rapids and we are staying at Calvin College.

The school is a NCAA Division III school with some great facilities. We sleep in dorm style accommodation with every 2 dorms connected via a bathroom. There is plenty of room and its very comfortable. Below is a picture of the building where are dorms are.

There are large kitchens and a big dining hall with lots of food and heaps of variety. The best bit though, and my personal favourite is the sports complex. Here is the left side of the building:

And the right side of the complex is below:

The recently completed centre is comparable to Melbourne's MSAC but newer and better. There is a 50 metre pool and diving well, surrounded by stands, the pool itself is covered in 2cmx2cm tiles all the way along. There is a weight room filled with the latest gym equipment, volleyball courts and a large basketball arena similar to an NBA arena with seating and a large scoreboard hanging from the centre of the ceiling.

There is also a rock climbing wall in the middle of the complex

We have already enjoyed training in the pool already and look forward to racing this evening.

Hope everyone is enjoying school holidays and training well.

Harry

Here are some random shots from around the College:

Looking Good Pat-looking good......

Just giving an update. I'm gettin up and out of bed easily now. Kevin and Heidi came last night with some great gifts and cards which was very kind of them. Not much chest pain, just tightness there. Got great pain management and physio team here, so all good. Speak soon, Pat :)

Hey Tess- are you out there-how are you going- we'd love to here whats happening back in your neck of the woods if you have time!

Arriving in Grand Rapids in Grand Style!

ALL PHOTOS FROM YESTERDAY POSTED IN RIGHT SIDEBAR

We have arrived in Grand Rapids ready for the meet which begins tomorrow.

We travelled in style thanks to Dave's parents letting us ride in their second home- the Winnebago RV. It's HUGE! Girls travelled for the first half of the trip in the RV with boys in the rental van and then we swapped over half way. Here we are having a team meeting in the RV and some team pictures outside.

It was a lively and enjoyable trip had by all and it was an amazing experience for our swimmers (and staff)to ride all the way in such style. Sincere thanks to Dave's parents not just for opening their RV to us but for all of their help since we arrived in Michigan.
We are staying at Calvin College in dorms- it seems a great set up- we are all staying on one secure level with only two in each room. The pool where the meet will be held is less than 150m away so transport will not be an issue for this trip!
Will post a few photos from this afternoon in the sidebar- until I obtain a wireless password, i am limited with the functions I can access for the blog.
Greetings to everyone at home!

Detroit Mile: Scanty Results

Unofficial results: more soon.

5k

1- Max T

2- Max H

3-Mun

4 & 1st female- Lauren

2nd female- Beth

? Harry, Ruby, Cara, Chuck, Alisha, Tash- all finished well, i just dont know what place!

Mile

1- Ivan

2-Tom

?- Cam (but did not drift into Canada!)

After the first finishers- i took a bus load to pool for warm down and have no idea what happened! Great event for the kids to experience though and many won prizes for their efforts! More soon.......

Training At Bayonne and more Photos from Cayman -right through

Here are some photos from last night's session in the Bayonne Pool in NJ: click here

If you want to see lots of what the girls have been up to on our trip BESIDES swimming you might like to check the photo links in the sidebar. Tash & Alish have some beauties !!! This is one of my favourites......

Same Path- Different Sides of the World

As we are getting ready for the Detroit Motor Mile to be held tomorrow we want to say Hi to Pat recovering well from surgery at LONG last. Great to see pics of you Pat and the results sound amazing- keep us the great recovery and thanks for the update xxx love from all of us

New York to Michigan

This morning we woke up to our last morning in NYC and had one last training session at Wagner College. We went out for breakfast and enjoyed a large selection of pancakes, waffles, french toast, eggs, bacon..and probably any other breakfast you can imagine including ice cream!

We were then transported to the airport. Thank you so much to Coach Scott and the other staff members at Wagner College for organising pretty much every aspect of our stay on Staten Island. A big thank-you to all the host stay families as well.

Dave and the boys flew with Delta Airlines and Perri, Jane and the girls flew with American Airlines. All planes out of New York were grounded due to a bad storm. We had to sit on the runway for about an hour and a half before being cleared to take off. Imagine around 50 planes all lined up, just like peak hour traffic. When one plane took off, all the others rolled forward.

We eventually arrived in Detroit and were meet by Mr and Mrs Kelsheimer (Dave's parent's). We went straight to the pool and trained before heading to the hotel for some much earned rest. We will be up early tomorrow for the 5km swim.

Sightseeing in Manhattan

We trained early this morning before heading off to the Staten Island Ferry with Perri & Jane. Once we had arrived in Manhattan we caught the subway to Grand Central Station.

We walked through Grand Central and then headed up to 5th Avenue.

The boys walked on the left side- which featured the NBA store whilst the girls dreamt about Tiffanys and other exlusive clothing and jewellery stores. Beth was no taking no chances with her foot and was pushed wherever possible. We learnt New York gutters are not wheelchair friendly!

I have to get some of the girls photos off their cameras and should do so soon.

We walked to Times Square and enjoyed looking at the theatre precinct and Broadway. M&M World was a big hit!! We could not have done all we did without Christa and Christina, two of the homestay swimmers from Wagner- thanks so much for all your help girls!

We then went to TGI Fridays, sat down, caught our breath and ate!! Good to get off the legs and enjoy some air conditioned comfort for a while.

We then rode in a NY cab back to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and caught the 2.30pm ferry and be collected at the end by our host families. We can fit a whole team in an elevator!!!

More soon..........

Quick sleep and then it was time for another training session in a beautiful 50m pool in New Jersey. Thanks to the Bayonne Clippers for letting us train tonight with you all. We are heading out now to a BBQ with all our host families.

More soon..........

And a stack of photos taken by all sorts: click here

Surrey Park Swimmers Take The Big Apple By Storm!

Photos from today: click here

Perri taping Beth's Foot

Group stretching at Wagner Pool

The Big Apple

We have arrived in New York -boy have we arrived! Swimmers so excited, even the boys were using multiple sentences with lots of adjectives as we drove over the bridge to Staten Island! We were collected at the airport. The swimmers have all gone to their host families who were all very excited to pick them up. We did a training session at Wagner College as well. Thank you to Coach Scott, Mark and Pat for picking us up at the airport and letting us train at the Wagner Pool.

Lots of News from As Many Swimmers As We Could Get!!!

Hi its Lauren here, and we are now on the flight to New York. Camp was heaps of fun! I loved meeting lots of different people from different countries. They all loved us Australians and on the first night they were like “ I never knew Australians would be so much fun.” They loved the way we talked but we did have disagreements about the way you pronounced different words like Cara! Also they call lollies, suckers which we found kind of funny. Some were even crying when they were leaving camp.

Working with the Olympians was really cool as well. They are so nice and very funny. They were making me laugh 24/7 and just really nice guys. They helped us heaps one on one with our strokes and turns which was great. They also were really friendly when we asked for pictures with them and there signatures. Tash and I also got underwater pictures with them which was so cool and then they put me in their swim cap and lifted me up out of the water. It’s hard to explain but when you see the picture you will get it!

We all are having heaps of fun and cant believe the trip is nearly finished. We heard Melbourne is 14 degrees and we don’t want to come home. But we miss you heaps!!!!

Love Lauren xo J

Hi everyone it’s Ruby, as Lauren said we are on our way to New York! Camp was amazing and everyone had a really fun time. It was really good to work with Neil Walker, Ian Crocker, Chris Kemp and Drew Mackay as they helped us both in and out of the pool. I really enjoyed Neil and Ian talking to us about their swimming careers and what they went through to get to the level they did. It was really good as we could relate to what they were saying.

I hope the weather is warming up for us when we get back!

Love Ruby xoxo

Hey y’all, this is max speaking. I’m sure that you know by know from reading the other guys blogs we are on our way to New York. Swim camp was lots of fun and was an amazing experience. We all got to meet heaps of nice people as well as getting our training done. Neil, Chris, Ian and Drew all ran skills sessions for us between training sessions. It was an awesome opportunity to work with world-class athletes one on one. Ian and Neil shared the story of their swimming career and what they had been through.

We are all enjoying ourselves a lot and the weather is delicious!!
Not looking forward to cold Melbourne weather L

From Max JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

Hey y’all,

It’s Chuck here. We’re on our way to New York! Camp was fun, but we were still training hard. We had to fit in an extra session yesterday because of our shortened training time in New York. It was also really good to be able to work with guys like Ian, Neil and Chris. They were all super helpful and super kind, happy to do anything that will help your swimming. The weather was nice, we were cruising at about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 30 Celsius. Soaking it up before we come back to freezing Melbourne.

Hope all is well and everyone is training well,

Chuck

Hi, it’s Ivan.

We are now flying to New York. The camp in Biloxi including skill sessions and hard trainings was very important for all swimmers. Naturally it is a very good experience not only in swimming as a physical work but also mentally. Thanks to our coaches and Olympians! Stories of Neil Walker and Ian Crocker could help guys and girls to find their own way to success through serious mental preparation, which has a very-very big part in sport.

There was a lot of fun in the camp and everywhere around it, once in the shop a salesgirl asked me if I’m from Africa. I look like a guy from Africa maybe J. Dave tried to learn some new Russian words, it was not very difficult for him. But nobody could say my last name right J.

It is a great experience for all us to make this trip and train in different pools, climates, and also to see different interesting places.

That’s all and don’t forget your water bottles J

Hey everyone it’s Tom,

The trip so far has been great. I had never been to the Cayman Islands, and it was fantastic. Frankie Flowers was a really great guy. Gotta go because the air hostess is getting angry as we are in descent into NY. Talk more later

Swim Camp

This week has been a great experience for everyone. We have all thoroughly enjoyed the last week here in Biloxi, Mississippi. The days were filled with a lot of intense training, food and rest. Many of the campers we met were only used to training 4-5 km a session so they did a great job in taking on the challenge and joining the surrey park group in two 6-7 km sessions a day. We all made many new friends and hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with those people when we get home. The food here was great and the cooking staff we amazing in not only cooking for us but holding back the meals several times (especially Saturday when we were especially late) to make sure we were fed. It was great spending some time with the Olympians Neil Walker (or Weil Norker), Ian Crocker and former American Record holder Chris Kemp. They were really nice people and were very generous in giving their time. They taught us many new tricks of the trade and were very helpful and sincere in their advice. We all really appreciated Neil and Ian’s stories on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and how genuine they were in their talks. We hope to be able to keep the relationships with them and Surrey Park for the future. We must thank Coach Dave, Perri, Coach Meaghan, Coach RICH, Coach Jamie and Jane for all their organization and help to make the camp an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Harry & Mun

Eugene Relaxes in the Lounge in LAX

With the Flippers competing this week in Melbourne, Wagga Wagga and then in Woy Woy, Eugene Tee is winging his way back to Oz tonight. Since we flew in from Seattle, and Eugene's coming in from Dallas, I was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to find eachother amongst the throngs of people at LAX. But it must have been the SP hoodie! We found eachother no worries and now we're relaxing in the lounge, waiting to board our flight home. See you in about 14 hours!

Day Four of Camp

We had a massive day at camp today! Two training sessions and a skills session with Neil, Ian and Chris Kemp (who arrived late last night!)

The local Media also came to the pool and Max Thorn was interveiwed on TV.

Lauren, Chris Kemp and Tash.

There was a swim of between Chris and Drew for the Breaststroke place in the coaches relay team. (Chris won!)

Bethany swam (or should I pulled) her first double session since breaking her toe.

For some reason, the photos aren't loading anymore. I will try again later!

Day Three of Camp: Ian and Neil Arrived!

Neil Walker

Ian Crocker

The highlight of today was the arrival of Ian Crocker are Neil Walker. We spent two hours in the pool with them this afternoon and worked on starts and turns.