East Coast Swimming

END OF AN ERA, but not the end of the Story!

The Original — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:34:47 +0000

I think it is safe to say that we are all deeply saddened by the absence of Coach David Wright this week at the deck of both Pompey Park and Aqua Crest. In his tenure at those pools he has accomplished many great things, not the least of these were two world masters records and a winning relay at the Ft. Lauderdale Hall of Fame International meet. We will miss him, dressed in a winter stocking cap, heavy coat and shorts on those cool, crisp winter mornings. We will miss that stylish cap that alway adorned his head , like a skirt for his ears. I am also sure the local Coca Cola distributor will shortly notice a significant decrease in revenue. But most of all, we will miss his endess knowledge and ability to get all ages and abilities excited about the sport.

As I am sure you can surmize, this will not be the end of the story for David. We know he will go on to other great things and wish him and Alison all the best. Also, this will not be the end of East Coast Swimming, it can’t be! We must continue the work he started and be true to our team’s symbol. The Kuro is a symbol of rebirth and rejuvination. We have a unique oppertunity to again remold the swim team into something better, something different, something special. I know that is what David would want, I know that is what I want. I assume that is what “you” want too?

“Kia Kaha” is in the signature line of all of David’s email. How many of you actually know what this means? It’s Maori meaning is “be strong”. Linguistically, kia kaha consists of the desiderative verbal particle kia, which is used here as ‘an encouragement to achieve the state named’, that is, an encouragement to achieve kaha or strength. Kaha derives from Proto-Polynesian kafa, meaning “strong” or “great”; kafa is also the Proto-Polynesian term for sennit rope, a strong rope made from coconut fibres and used for lashing canoes, weapons, and buildings together. For those of youdehorn doubt what David would want, I urge you to see how many emails you recieved from David with this simple but true statement. His greatest gift is right there in his email signature, he wanted us to all, “be strong” and “be great”. I know he wants the same for ECS.

Kia Kaha
East Coast Swimming

AND THEY’RE OFF!

The Original — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:49:53 +0000

Here is a great picture from this weekend’s competition at North Palm Beach. Bobby and Miles are closest to the camera, while Spyder is on the other side of the pool, executing a picture-perfect dive. Many thanks to Lori for taking some great photos throughout the day. They’re all on the team’s Facebook fan page (do become a member!)

Well done this weekend, everyone. See you all at the pool this week.

ECS SWIM MEET RESULTS

David Wright — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:46:27 +0000

The results of the swim meet are shown below. After such a bad spell of cold weather you all did very well.
NAME EVENT TIME PLACE COMMENT
Liam 200 FR 2.38.11 5th Very good swim for first 200
Kendall 50 FR 38.11 5th Your first swim meet and well under 40 – good
Zealand 50 FR 40.75 17th We will do some starts this week
Bobby 50 FR 40.03 2nd Very good first 50 swim
Spyder 50 BK 45.13 10th I thought you looked very good
Emily 500 FR 7.38.42 5th Very, very good swim – well done
Miles 50 FR 35.69 7th Very good swim – well done
Liam 50 FR 31.79 5th We need to work the start and turn – good swim
Kendall 50 BK 49.89 6th Real good first back race
Zealand 50 BK 56.85 8th This was your best swim – well done
Liam 50 BK 42.52 1st Keep your head back – good swim though
Zealand 100 IM 1.53.61 13th Very good first medley – you did well
Spyder 50 BK 1.05.57 8th Good placing – shows what you can do – good
Miles 50 BK 56.33 6th Foe a first race a good result
Bobby 50 BK 49.69 1st Lovely backstroke – careful of that head
Daejah 200 IM 3.42.56 - A very good race – you are a very good swimmer

GOOD LUCK TO THE JUNIORS

David Wright — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:33:21 +0000

The junior team are entered in the North palm Beach Club’s swim meet this Sunday. Best wishes to you all. For three swimmers it will be their first meet. In practice they look pretty good to me.

FOURTEEN OVER 100

David Wright — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:20:55 +0000

We now have 14 swimmers over 100,000 meters since Sept 29 2009. Here is the list. Mike M you are only 1200 meters away from the big 100.
Gundersen, Nicole 239200
Stille, Ben 214350
Emily 176700
Worner, Leslie 166500
Liam 151000
Pechter, Stuart 142600
Sara 138800
Louis, Sonia 134400
Radovcic, Sergio 128500
Barhydt, Wendy 126500
Kerness, Tracey 125400
Collin 109700
Wenzel, Christine 108000
Dajaeh 101500

LYDIARD POST – MISTAKEN URL

The Original — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:21:49 +0000

Earlier today, we posted a link to an article Jane wrote on her website about Arthur Lydiard. We got the URL wrong in our link (it has since been corrected), but just in case, here’s the correct link once more: Running into Obsession: The Church of Arthur Lydiard.

Here is a copy of one of the images in the post. It is of Jane and Arthur, at Arthur’s house in Auckland, in 1999.

ARTHUR LYDIARD

David Wright — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:21:39 +0000

Many of you will know the emphasis ECS put on following the training principle of the track coach, Arthur Lydiard. Jane has written and published an article on Arthur Lydiard and our contact with him. She has also found a picture I have never seen before taken in Arthur’s kitchen. We will post this picture on the team’s website shortly. In the meantime here is the link to the Lydiard story:
http://http://janecopland.co.uk/2010/02/running-into-obsession-the-church-of-arthur-lydiard/

BOTH POOLS EVEN STEVENS

David Wright — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:25:49 +0000

Last weeks attendance, inspite of the cold, was close, with both pools within one swimmer of each other
Mon AC 8 PP 0
Tue AC 10 PP 12
Wed AC 10 PP 8
Thu AC 0 Pool Closed PP 10
Fri AC 12 PP 8
Sat AC 6 PP 7
Sun No Swimming
Total AC 46 PP 45 Total 91

2010 SPLASH FOR CASH

David Wright — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:58:28 +0000

This years 2010 Splash for Cash has been set for Saturday morning March 20 2010. Put this date in your diary! It is the team’s most important fundraiser each year. It is also an ideal occassion to get your summer swimming training underway. More details will be emailed to you and posted on the website shortly.

NORTH PALM BEACH MEET

David Wright — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:01:31 +0000

I will be sending the entries off tonight for the juniors NPB meet next weekend. It looks like we will have a team of 11 taking part.

A NEW LEADER

David Wright — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:59:50 +0000

I see Nicole passed Ben as the leading distance swum since Sept 28 2009. Congratulations Nicole and a push for Ben to correct this situation. Well done both of you.

BOARD MEETING

David Wright — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:38:31 +0000

ECS will have its next Board Meeting on Friday at 6.30pm this Friday Feb 12.

AQUA CREST POOL CLOSURE

David Wright — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:36:53 +0000

Due to the cold weather Aqua Crest will be closed tomorrow morning – Thursday. See you all on Friday morning. Pompey Pool will have practice as normal on Thursday afternoon.

Coach David said he could do this, no problem!

ESC Website Admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:21:37 +0000

NEW MEMBERS

David Wright — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:02:07 +0000

Welcome to Josh and Tyrese who joined East Coast Swimming this week. Good to see you here.

WE LOSE A DAY TO LIGHTNING BUT IT’S STILL A RECORD

David Wright — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:10 +0000

We lost a day at Pompey Park this week because of lightning but still had a record attendance. Well done to all of you for a great weeks training.
Mon AC 0 PP 0
Tue AC 14 PP 0 Lightning
Wed AC 16 PP 15
Thu AC 9 PP 8
Fri AC 10 PP 11
Sat AC 14 PP 14
Total AC 63 PP 48 Total 111

2000 Swims and a new Team goal.

ESC Website Admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:43:05 +0000

Today will be a big day for our little team. Assuming that at least 3 people show up for practice this afternoon and log some distance, we will have surpassed the 2000 swims mark. What this means is that since the 28th of September 2009, the team as a total, has had a total practice attendance of over 2000 swimmers. In this time ECS Swimmers have swan 3,599,600 meters or 2236 Miles. This means that we have more then swam from Delray Beach to New York and back. Congrats to all.

This is great, but where do we go from here? I suggest a new team goal. Lets do the distance to swim around the world. At the equator the earth is 7926.41 miles around. Today we have completed 28.22% of that distance. I think we can make it the whole way by the end of this year. What do you think? Can we do it?

I’ll put a chart and website to show our progress. Lets make it happen!

FIVE NEW MEMBERS

David Wright — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:35:35 +0000

Welcome to five new members, Chris, Jeanett, Kaeli, Charles and Jon. I know you have been here for a while Chris. It’s just that we never said welcome.

TRACEY ASKS A FAVOR

David Wright — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:14:55 +0000

We have been asked to tell you that Tracey swam 5×100, 2000 kick and 5×100 warmdown this morning. We do not know why she wanted this known.

Many thanks to the BEO!!

ESC Website Admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:26:59 +0000

BEO newly inducted leadership www.najdaneptunephotography.com

On Saturday, January 16th East Coast Swimming was invited to attend and speak infront of the Palm Beach County Caucus of Black Elected Officials(BEO). East Coast Swimming would like to thank the BEO for having us. We enjoyed meeting with them and discussing our plans for the future of East Coast Swimming and the Adopt-A-Swimmer Program. We also enjoyed discussing with them the plans for swimming in the county as a whole and how we could impact their constituents.

It was also a very informative meeting for the members that attending. Coach David Wright, Nicole Gunderson, Chris Kane and Ben Stille were delighted to spend time learning about the BEO and

Ben speaking to the BEO photo by Nadja Neptune

the amazing things that they are doing in the community. We were privileged to learn from Verdenia C. Baker, Deputy County Administrator on how the county operates and their procedures for implementing new programs. The group also, got to witness their induction of a new board. This is a very impressive organization working for the betterment of all Palm Beach County residents.

We would especially like to thank former Commissioner Addie Green for inviting us and for providing us with this great opportunity. We would secondly, like to thank Nadja Neptune Photography for graciously supplying us with the pictures from the event. Nadja can be found on the web at http://www.nadjaneptunephotography.com/ or via phone at 561-584-0262.