Racer’s Edge
September 2016
Two mates having a dig Meet Jon Nixon and Kristen Brennan the
father/son duo taking on
ski racing on a united front
The official Ski Racing Australia publication
In this issue
Directors Deck..................................6 Two Mates Having a Dig.................8 Jones among the FITTEST.............14 The Grafton B2B Returns...............16 5 Minutes with Mick........................21
Major Events 2016/17 AU G U S T
2 0 1 6
Hawkesbury 120, NSW.....................................August 27-28
O
2 0 1 6
c t o b e r
Grafton Bridge to Bridge, NSW...........................October 1-2 Barrie Beehag, VIC..............................................October 15 Murray Bridge 110, SA...................................October 29-30
N
o v e m b e r
2 0 1 6
Ted hurley Memorial Classic...........................November 12-13 Bridge to Bridge 2UP, NSW............................November 26-27
J
2 0 1 7
a n u a r y
Australian Championships, NSW.......................January 11-15
F
e b r u a r y
2 0 1 7
Southern 80, VIC...........................................February 11-12
M
a r c h
2 0 1 7
Robinvale/Euston Ski Race, VIC...........................March 11-12
A
p r i l
2 0 1 7
Mildura 100, VIC................................................April 15-16
M
a y
2 0 1 7
Barry Carne Interstate Challenge, NSW..................May 13-14
Directors Deck Racing underway, AGM & Membership The first River Classic of the season has come and gone, and I must say what a great event the Hawkesbury 120 was!
involved than ever before. If the recent start of the season didn’t get them across the line for a 2016 membership of some form, then a little extra encouragement won’t go astray.
While there were some mid week concerns about the weather, it was great to come from Victoria to what was a warm weathered weekend for the racing, and the river appeared to be just asking to be skied on. Like I said, it’s a great waterway.
As with my last column, I like to sign off with a bit of trivia. This month I found an interesting story from the 1960’s on why Mercury products are painted in black – especially considering the recent arrivals of all white Mercs in Australia. Check it out below.
More recently you would have received an official notice of details for the 2016 SRA AGM, which is to be held on the October 19 in Melbourne. The AGM is an important part of any association and I trust many members will attend; location details and start times are covered in the notice details for those wishing to be there.
*C/o the Mercury Founder Carl Kiekhaefer and his long time off sider Charles Strang:
Coming up the River Classics season continues on the Clarence River in GrafThat region of ton at the start of October with the Grafton NSW is an absoBridge to Bridge. The organising commitlutely magnificent tee at the Big River Ski Club have been location to highworking tirelessly to ensure this year’s light the sport of ski racing. Admittedly we event is a competitor and crowd pleaser! were a little down on participant numbers I look forward to seeing members at this from previous years, but for those that superb event and its enticing surrounding were the racing was enjoyed by all and locations. You can read a little more about provided an exciting spectacle. the event on page 16 of this publication.
It’s been pleasing to see that SRA Memberships are continuing to flow in over the past month and are creating a strong 2016 membership base for SRA. Please do not forget to encourage any friends who have shown an interest in the sport that there are now more ways of getting 6
Charlie said his mother is the reason why Mercury motors are now painted black. Back when Mercury was coming out with the 1000 Mercury, the prototype paint scheme was a white motor with silver and black trim. Carl Kiekhaefer, when viewing the prototype, thought the motor looked too big and bulky in white. Charlie told his mother about Carl’s comments, and Charlie’s mother commented back that women sometimes wear black dresses to look a lot slimmer, why not paint the motor black? Carl liked the idea, so Charlie had one of the new Mercs repainted black. Carl loved the slimming effect of the motor in black and ordered the paint scheme to be changed to black for all future Mercury outboard motors.
Wesley Llloyd, SRA CEO
Ever thought about giving Ski Racing a go? If that’s a YES Ski Racng Australia has several different types of memberships!
From beginner to advanced, there is an option for you!
Call our membership team 03 9681 7058
email: memberships@skiracing.com.au
Let’s get you on the water!
Two mates Having a di Jon Nixon and Kristen Brennan, better known as ‘Bull’, are teammates, friends, family, father and son.
themselves attacking the Australian River Classics as part of team Sonic Boom, owned and driven by Nixon, with Mark Spencer observing and Hayley Hodgson joining Bull on the skis. It’s a team that currently races for the love of the sport, rather than the need to feed an insatiable appetite for victory.
Their story is one of respect and pride, and one that has flourished since the pair reunited and decided that ski racing was a common love and something they could They’re a team that is on a learning curve together, and one day may climb atop bond over. the winners list, but there is no rush to be there just yet. It’s for this reason that they now find 8
ig
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Team aspirations and plans aside, at the nucleus of the team are Jon and Bull. It has taken the better part of 10 years for father and son to finally end up skiing together. Nixon was the first to take the plunge into the sport, initially with good friend Ross Harris.
serious about it.
“My ski racing history is not that long, I have been in the sport for six years and started with Ross Harris and his team Harrasment,’ Nixon said.
The family involvement took longer than expected.
“It all started with plenty of campfire discussions at Torrumbarry (on the Murray River) over the years with Ross talking about buying a race boat and I was just waiting for him to do it…well, I said we would have the conversation when he got 10
“Then suddenly he got a boat and I was in. I did a bit of driving, mainly observing and we worked through the classes. Since then I had been waiting for family to get involved.”
Ask Nixon and he is open about the relationship he has with Bull. It’s one of a childhood spent riding motorbikes together, a period where they split didn’t play together so well, and now finally they’re at a point where the bond over ski racing. Despite the reunion, Bull was initially
hesitant about signing up.
at home, or at a friend’s house. I needed something to lock in for the year and get “I finally got here because I love the sport, excited about. I have skied all my life, but the decision to come racing was because of dad,” Bull “I don’t regret the decision at all. I love said. this sport.” “He kept pushing me, well not pushing, but asking me if I wanted to get involved and to be honest I ummed and ahhed about it for a while about getting time off work and having the money to be involved. Then it became the right time in life to get right into it.
With everything lining up for Nixon and Bull to get together and go racing it then became a matter of how they would do it. Ski racing is a sport that rewards hard work, tenacity and skill when all three work well in unison. It evokes passion and is competitive, but only as competitive as a team wants it to be.
“The tipping point was when I realised that I wanted to start looking forward Look up and down the riverbanks at any weekends. I was in a place where I wasn’t race and you will see families banding doing much other than work or I would be together to compete. Some are driven
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by the chance of victory, but all are eager to race at their best irrespective of the result. It is the latter category that Nixon says defines team Sonic Boom. “Look around and all you see are families getting involved in racing,” Nixon proudly says, nodding to Bull as he does so. “The sport for most of us has pressure, not for results, rather it is pressure to not let the team down. That is an element that exists for almost everyone. “When we race together everyone is driven to make the start, they want to do the best they can. For me as a driver I don’t want to break out. No one wants to let the other person down – and normally you 12
have driven a long way to make it all happen, so you want to do well! Still a newcomer to the sport, Bull’s first race was the Barry Carne in Wagga Wagga, NSW in March this year and since then he has listened to any advice sent his way. Like his dad, his focus for now is ensuring he always puts his best foot forward. “Even though I have done a lot of skiing, racing is only recent and it is very different to skiing for leisure. The preparation is more full on, but it’s actually great. I love pushing myself, focusing on technique and learning off the advice and tips better skiers pass on,” Bull enthused.
“At the Barry Carne I had Tony and Martin Rowe take me for a spin for a few laps to teach me a bit more. To be honest, I did terribly the first day, but then listened to their advice to come back and won on day two. “I think my main goal for now is to continue having fun, keep all four limbs working and not push myself too far. There aren’t too many ambitions to go crazy. If we can step up to 70 mile per hour class next year and cruise in that and get better, we might step up into something else if we can.”
for this pair everything comes back to not just what they are doing, but that they are doing it together. “I am so proud to have Bull skiing with me, it’s amazing. We’re growing together and our first aim is to finish each race,” Nixon says with a smile. It’s a sentiment shared by Bull. “This has definitely brought dad and I closer together, it’s a great family sport and one I want to continue when I have kids.”
Although it is easy to get swept up in a vortex of discussions about skills, technique and admittedly competitiveness, 13
Jones among the
FITTEST
Its official, Australian water skiing ace Ellen Jones is the tenth fittest 17-year old on the planet. In July this year Jones put away her ski and travelled to Carson, California where she was a competitor in the CrossFit Games, the event that is promoted as the ‘world’s premier test to find the Fittest on EarthTM’. It’s an intense competition that is based on functional movements of ‘moving large loads, long distances, quickly’. Essentially it tests the fittest athletes from different sports in the same place at the same time. It’s brutal. You can read about Jones’ lead up to the CrossFit Games in the May edition of Racer’s Edge. CLICK HERE. Jones never intended to end up competing among the best athletes in the world using an array of gym activities. Let alone do it in front of a cheering crowd at the ‘StubHub Centre’, California. She had simply hoped to maintain skiing fitness, and did so by completing CrossFit gym 14
sessions that were periodically released online. As a part of the training process she entered her CrossFit scores online, and ended up among the top 10 in the world, and had a chance to become number one if she travelled to the USA to compete. With her skiing season wrapped up by this year’s Mildura 100, where she won with Chelsea Blight, Jones and her family boarded a flight to the USA for the CrossFit Games, an experience she said was fun, and relatively stress free. “The whole experience was a lot of fun, and it was cool to be out there competing with my name on all my clothes and competing in front of a crowd,” Jones said. “It’s a very different experience. When we ski there are crowds, but not right in front of you like there were here. I guess the difference is that there are expectations of me when I ski, but there weren’t any
here. It was relaxed and I wasn’t all that nervous. “All the other competitors were really nice too and they are good at what they do. They do this sort of training all the time.” The event in the USA wasn’t all that was on Jones’ plate at that time either. A year 12 student, she also had her trial exams on the agenda and they would take place soon after she arrived back home in Australia. It meant she needed to try and balance study with training and competing. “I needed to come home after the competition for my HSC (NSW Higher Schools Certificate) trial exams,” she said. “I tried to study, but didn’t do too well at that. Fortunately I had done a lot before we left for the USA. “My gym coach said that for every hour of training I did, I also needed to do an hour of study.” With the foray onto the global fitness scene now over, Jones’ attention has turned back to ski racing, where she has teamed up with fellow up-and-coming female Shantelle King and the 3 Carat team. Their opening race of the season at the Hawkesbury 120 saw them finish first in the open women’s class, and 12th overall. Once exams are over, Jones will look ahead to a strong season, and also aim to represent Australia at next year’s world championships.
May 2016
RACER’S EDGE A CONSISTENT DAWN
FAST & POWERFUL
MEET ELLEN JONES, THE SKI RACER TURNED GYM ATHLETE PREPARING TO TAKE ON THE FITTEST PEOPLE ON THE PLANET
The official Ski Racing Australia publication
The Grafto Br There’s plenty to celebrate in northern NSW, with the return of the Grafton Bridge to Bridge on the Clarence River as an official Ski Racing Australia River Classic event in 2016. Since its inception the race has been one of the most gruelling for competitors, thrilling for spectators, and most satisfying for the team that can put it all together and win on race day. Hosted by Big Rivers Ski Club in Grafton, the 2016 event comes armed with a handful of changes, the most notable being that there will be no shootout to seed competitors for the main event. 16
on Bridge to ridge returns Instead, the club has introduced ‘The Championships’, an event modelled off the popular qualifying process of the Ted Hurley Memorial Classic in Wentworth, that sees two skiers complete one leg of a two-leg race each, their times combining to decide a winner.
winner,” Disson said. “However unlike Wentworth, this is not the qualifying procedure, but an event in itself.
“This event is open only to single engine, outboard boats and there will be no sepaBig Rivers club president Jason Disson ration of classes. Each team will complete said that the change was all about chang- two laps around ‘Susan Island’, which is a ing the event up to keep it enjoyable for 10km course with their first skier. all involved. “Then they will swap skiers, we’ll reverse “This year we are using a similar format to the starting grid for the second leg and Wentworth with teams splitting their skiers see if the same teams can top the times. to complete a 1UP leg each, the comThe fastest crew on combined times will bined quickest time being declared the win.” 17
THE CHAMPIONSHIPS An event just for the outboard competitors! It’s new It’s different It’s exciting AND It could win you FREE ENTRY into the 2017 Grafton Bridge to Bridge! Despite the absence of a qualifying event on the Saturday, the main race on the Sunday is still expected to be one of the most thrilling events of the year. The starting order will be determined by a random draw within each class, the race to be led out by Superclass. However concerns of faster teams getting stuck behind slower teams as they try to overtake is something Disson says will be mitigated by the nature of the course. “The river is very wide, which allows teams the space to be able to race around each other,” he said. “It’s a long race, 108km and there is no stop at the turnaround point, teams will begin the run home immediately and there will be two-way traffic on the river so there will be chop to contend with too. “It will be difficult to win.” With just a handful of weeks until the 18
event, entries are looking strong – particularly in Superclass. The event will also honour the memory of club member Jared Coey who passed away 12 months ago while competing. There will be a memorial on the Sunday morning prior to the main race. The Grafton Bridge to Bridge will be held from October 1-2.
Grafton Bridge to Bridge
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5 Minutes With Mick!
Name: Trevor Bray Age: 27 Team: Tr marine, thanks mum Lives: Corindi Beach Years Skiing: 17 Years Racing: 7 Favourite Team: Ultra Troublemaker Favourite Skier: Brad Williams Favourite Race: Sydney Bridge to Bridge Mick Kelly: Righto Tricky, what’s the story mate? Keen for another year of racing or what? Trevor Bray: Yeah pretty pumped for another year on the water, it should be good fun. MK: Last year you ran 6-Litre with the super quick Ultra Troublemaker – how much fun was that? Meet Mick kelly A world champion observer, former winner of the Southern 80, top racer, menter to newcomers - at time outspoken (but always with good intentions) - mick’s always up for for a chat! In each edition of Racer’s Edge, Mick puts one of our members under the spotlight for an in-depth chat. They’re not always famous, nor prolific winners, but each person is committed and loves the sport...that’s what turns Mick on. Sit down, have a breather and spend 5 Minutes, With Mick! 6
TB: Mate it was unreal, I had an absolute ball with the boys and they are top blokes! MK: What was Cunningham like to ski with? TB: Yeah I was lucky enough to get him out of retirement & had the chance to ski with the great Cunningham after Joely forgot how to social ski & broke his ankle. As you would know Micko the man can ski! MK: And just how fast is that rocket ship? TB: That little thing is ‘stupidly fast’ - put it that way! MK: It would seem a lot of people would 21
rather use a bigger unlimited boat, even if they were not going quicker. Do you think you and Richie changed that – made it cool again? TB: Yeah everyone seems to think to go fast you need a big boat these days. Richie & I were on a mission to prove that isn’t the case. We managed to stick it to a lot of them too. As for making it cool again, we tried to! Unfortunately we just couldn’t manage to make it look as cool as you & Benny behind SPR though! MK: Not hard to look cool skiing with a Brock HDT themed 18 Stephens! I think we got you in most of the races we finished too!! (Go the eight litre!)
too cool to ski with me! But then Russell rang me up & asked if I was keen to ski for him & here I am. MK: A good skier should also be a good manager of their equipment I say. What’s your take on that? TB: That is 100 per cent accurate. I try to take as much care with my gear as I possibly can. After all that’s our lifeline really. MK: My advice is don’t lend it to Cunningham then! Does that mean there is a reason for staggering your ropes when skiing two up? TB: That’s strategic mate. If you’re in front by even just a little bit, that’s winning!
TB: This is true. Although I only recall the MK: Coming from Grafton you’ve got the Southern 80 being the race where you mighty Clarence River there to train on – beat us. In our defence that’s the only one pretty good setup yeah? we finished I think! TB: The mighty Clarence is unreal for MK: You pulled a few decent times last training. The problem is that there are not year, what was your best outright spot? enough boats to go training with. TB: Yeah, we pulled a couple of slick times. Our best was Mildura with a sixth outright. Not bad for a 6 Litre boat.
MK: A lot of people seem to be spooked of the Grafton Bridge to Bridge as a race. What do you need to do to own it?
MK: Tell me that you made a big deal of that to your mates that ski in higher classes?
TB: Yeah it’s a very daunting race for some because of the down & back concept on a wide bit of river with no rest.
TB: Of course I did, it would of been rude if I didn’t!
You need to be fit, focused & mentally prepared for the long gruelling straights.
MK: You learnt from the best there!
MK: You smoked me last time I ran that race – expecting the same this year?
TB: I definitely learnt from the best. You are a fantastic teacher! MK: You’re skiing behind Top Gun this year – talk us through that.
TB: We will see how the cards play out for you mate – you never know the tables might have turned.
MK: Your rise to being a bloody good ski racer has been pretty quiet and on the TB: Well first of all, we tried to get another down low – are you sneaking in, or did it skier for Ultra Troublemaker, but you were just take people a while to realise how 22
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quick you were?
where you are today?
TB: I don’t know about that mate. But as loud as a person I am I like to keep quiet with that sort of thing. No need to big note, you just need to let your results speak for themselves.
TB: Mate there are a lot of people who have helped. There are a number who have given me advice or towed me in races & training. But I think the biggest hand I got would of been from Travis Stone, who took me for training runs when I wanted to step it up.
MK: Who’s looking good for racing this year, who are your top boats and skiers? TB: You couldn’t go past Superman, those boy are on fire! But you also have Merc Force nipping very close on their heels that’s for sure. Plus Stinga has a pretty good combo now so it will all be fairly close I’d say.
He definitely helped my skiing a lot.
MK: Name your ultimate wingman whilst racing, who would you sign up tomorrow? TB: Without a doubt it would be Brad Williams. That kid is a freak on the water. He is my all time idol! MK: Now who is the last person you’d choose? TB: Geez mate I couldn’t tell you. I’m happy to ski with anyone. MK: I hear you’ve got a secret love of social class? Want to run it? Yuck! My days of social are done. I’ll only run it if you run it with me & you’re on the right. MK: I’m in. Do you reckon Scott would tow us? TB: I’m sure he’d be keen! He’d be crazy to say no. MK: You’ve got a wing boat I see – ambitions of driving a ski race boat one day? TB: Yeah mate, it’s a bit of fun winging around. One day when I get off the ski it could be on the cards. MK: Finally, who has helped you get 23
September 2016
Racer’s Edge