In this copy Fitness Journal takes a look into my 2016 year. The ups the downs and all!

Enjoy!

Love always

Ella xx

Im so estatic to take out the 2016 Hauraki Thames Coromandel, Sports Person and Sporting Personality of the year!

Such an honour to win these two incredible categories.

Great way to finish 2016.

Ella xx

Over the years I’ve come to learn that when traveling there will always be road blocks, obstacles and adventure. This trip ensured all of that in a funny way, so I hope you enjoy my little story of our journey to Nicaragua…

The beginning…..

We were on the plane ready to start the journey to Tahiti, LA, Houston – Panama and Managua…..away we go! We made it through Tahiti then LA and were on our way to Houston, or so we thought………

Detour time!!!

There was a big storm in Houston just at the time we were due to arrive so we had to redirect to another airport and wait it out for 3 hours. Our quick three hour flight had turned into seven as we eventually landed in Houston, but now we were behind time as had a connecting flight that we had just missed. Another detour!!! Now we were off to Panama for the night and Nicaragua the next morning….

Touchdown…..

What a relief it was to finally arrive in Nicaragua, but we still had an exciting drive ahead of us. My Dad Dean was driving and after two and a half hours on dirt roads trying to find our way with the GPS and everyone’s directions, we made it to our final destination, Popoyo beach where we were staying! Yay, so happy to have made it, that was stressful stuff!! It’s about 40 degrees and I all I wanted to do was get in the water! We drove down to the beach and the break was amazing, a perfect left and right, good size and pumping! It’s world class.

It was so nice to get into the water, mind you the water temp was about 35-40 degrees and so hot you didn’t really cool down…..

The Competition…..

After a few days of warm up surfing and getting to know the break the comp. began. It was great to get my feet in the wax!

You have to surf a lot of heats to get to the final so I was taking it heat by heat and day by day as I progressed through. The waves were the most consistent, pumping magnificent waves I have ever had for a contest. I felt so lucky that we got the opportunity to surf such great waves and show what we could really do, how we could really surf.

I made it to finals day!!!

Wow, what a long week it had been…..4.30am, get up, early surfs, 8am breakfasts and then surfing most days! The days were big and very hot so I really had to plan what I was going to do for the day and also how I was going to save energy for my heat coming up. I was super happy to make it to the finals but I didn’t get too excited as it’s easy to get wound up in the excitement. I had to think of it as just another heat, take it 29 minutes by 29 minutes and remember that I could possibly surf two or three times that day; two if everything went well and three if I went into repechage.

I can do this!!!

To be honest it all happened really fast. I surfed my first heat, there was a lot of water moving and it was tricky conditions compared to what I had surfed the rest of the week. I needed a backup and unfortunately didn’t get it so I went into repechage. I had another life; I was so fired up to win!!

I had 15 minutes before I had to get in the water again so I didn’t have time to re-gather, but that’s why we train in the off season, for moments like these.

I had a great heat and won it, I was through to the final!!!! Whoooo!! Super excited but still not done yet. Again I had 15 minutes to get ready and paddle back out.

Picture this……

It’s 41 degree heat, 35 degree water temp, there’s a thousand people on the beach watching and crowding you, teams are yelling and cheering for each other and there is one title on the line……

I found a small spot on the beach with my Mum and Dad, put the NZ flag over us and just re-gathered, reminded myself why I was there, what I wanted and how I was going to get it. It’s all in the mind.

The final….

I paddled out and the swell was picking up. I was hot and could not cool down. I made it out the back, the hooter went and it was finals time!!!

I got one really good wave all the way through and a great score for it. I needed a backup wave which would allow me to take the win. I know I could do it with my surfing I just needed to get a wave.

The result…….

The thing with surfing is it’s a very unique sport. You cannot predict Mother Nature and you know some times it’s just not your day. I didn’t end up getting the score but I know that if I had got that one wave I would have given it my all and maybe had a chance of taking the win. But it’s ok! I ended up with the Bronze medal and I got to represent NZ! I feel so proud to be a Kiwi and show the world what I can do. And I can tell you one thing is for sure, I’ll be back to get that gold medal

With love always

Ella xx