Canadian Nationals Fly fishing Championships Montebello 2011

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

Well it was a great Championships with team Airflo running away with it. There was a mixup with the team standing but our team pulled Silver and Bronze went to Ospreys and Ivo got a Bronze and dedicated it to the team that was the best part of the night. I had some hard fought battles with Chris Pfohl and Donald Thom in my group it pushed all 3 of us. Mergansers are really starting to gel and we all had a great time, I'll write more when I decompress.



Here is the top 20

1   Randy Taylor   Equipe Airflo
2   Robbie Bell    Equipe Airflo
3     Phil Short     Team EnDiable
4     Ivo Balinov      Mergansers
5   Mark Andersen   Equipe Airflo
6   Kim Rood   Dregehogs
7   Keefer Pitfield   Dregehogs
8   Chesley Shepherd   Double Hauls
9   Tom Irvine    Ospreys
10    Jeremiah Hamilton   Mergansers
11    John Beaven   Equipe Airflo
12    Marius Dumitru     Ospreys
13    Chris Pfohl   Team Cormorant
14    Donald Thom   Equipe Airflo
15    Graham Murfitt     Mergansers
16    Jason Doucette     Double Hauls
17    Sorin Comsa    Double Hauls
18    Todd Oishi      Team Cormorant
19    Jim Iredale   Team EnDiable
20    Rob Stroud   Team Cormorant
 

[Chris Smith]

Congrats guys!

[Dejon Hamann]

Congrats to everyone. Incredible finish for Airflo!!

[Todd Oishi]

Congratulations to everyone involved and to Team Airflo for an absolutely incredible perfomance!!!

Unfortunately there was indeed some technical difficulties and errors in the scoring and awarding of medals at the closing ceremonies, so without further ado...
here are Fly Fishing Canada's official results for the awarding of team medals:

Gold medal team - Equipe Airflo:
Randy Taylor
Robbie Bell
Mark Andersen
John Beaven
Donald Thom
(67 placing points)

Silver medal team - Mergansers:
Graham Murfitt
Ivo Balinov
Jeremiah Hamilton
Arron Varga
Chris Puchniak
(111 placing points)

Bronze medal team - Team Cormorant:
Terence Courtoreille
Todd Oishi
John Nishi
Chris Pfohl
Rob Stroud
(116 placing points)

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

Todd I just got the email too great job!!!

[Chris Puchniak]

Very happy to have been a part of the Silver medal team.  It was certainly an excellent team performance!

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

Team Results

1   67   Equipe Airflo      116   96020
2   111   Mergansers      73   61160
3   116   Team Cormorant      74   59980
4   123   Double Hauls      61   50160
5   129   Ospreys         57   47080
6   131   Dregehogs      60   49200
7   131   Team EnDiable      58   46820
8   164   Team Mustang      43   34960
9   175   Manitoba Kingfishers   30   24400

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

Chris you are great fit for the team and we are glad to have a talented angler like you on it.

Very happy to have been a part of the Silver medal team.  It was certainly an excellent team performance!

[Chris Puchniak]

That's a good compliment coming from you J.

[Aaron Laing]

Jeremiah,

You cut the list off at 20! Man I'm hurt. I guess 21st is close but no cigar

Had a great time and got a chance to fish with some great rods. Some lakes were tough and others easier, but a few fish either way made a massive difference (as usual). As a team we fared poorly, but had good results on many lakes. As I was saying to Chris yesterday, I met my personal goals of a 50% or better finish, no blanks and fishing as a team. Lots of room for improvement in the Loch style category for this stream guy, but it was a great comp.

Aaron

[Janos Boda]

Well, I am not sure if I could talk about my performance or our team performance positively, however the tournament was a great experience, and still we caught tons of fish least at the practice sessions . We met and fished with great anglers, put faces behind names, and we enjoyed to being at Kenauk.

[Todd Oishi]

Finish   Competitor        St/Prov   Team         Placing Pts     Fish
1   Randy Taylor    ON   Equipe Airflo   8   28
2   Robbie Bell   UK   Equipe Airflo   11   22
3   Phil Short                QC   Team EnDiable   12          21
4   Ivo Balinov   ON   Mergansers   13   23
5   Mark Andersen   QC   Equipe Airflo   13   21
6   Kim Rood                ON         Dregehogs   13   19
7   Keefer Pitfield   ON   Dregehogs   15   17
8   Chesley Shepherd   ON   Double Hauls   15   15
9   Tom Irvine   ON   Ospreys                16   17
10   Jeremiah Hamilton   QC   Mergansers   16   15
11   John Beaven   BC   Equipe Airflo   17   27
12   Marius Dumitru   BC   Ospreys                17   22
13   Chris Pfohl   ON   Team Cormorant   17   18
14   Donald Thom    QC   Equipe Airflo   18   18
15   Graham Murfitt   QC   Mergansers   20   17
16   Jason Doucette   AB   Double Hauls   20   17
17   Sorin Comsa   ON   Double Hauls   20   12
18   Todd Oishi    BC   Team Cormorant   22   13
19   Jim Iredale   QC   Team EnDiable   22   12
20   Rob Stroud   BC   Team Cormorant   23   18
21   Aaron Laing   BC   Team Mustang   25   13
22   Terence Courtoreille NWT   Team Cormorant   27   13
23   John Nishi   AB   Team Cormorant   27   12
24   Darin Benoit   NWT   Ospreys                28   7
25   Denis Landreville   QC   Team EnDiable   29   12
26   Ian Troup   ON   Dregehogs   29   12
27   Brent Else   MB   ManitobaKingfisher 30   12
28   Sunny VanDerKloof BC   Team Mustang   31   14
29   Arron Varga   ON   Mergansers   31   10
30   Chris Puchniak   BC   Mergansers   31   8
31   Jan McDougall   MB   Manitoba Kingfisher31   7
32   Randy Patton   BC   Team Mustang   32   7
33   Byron Shepherd   QC   Double Hauls   33   11
34   Janos Boda   MB   Manitoba Kingfisher33   6
35   Jonathan Furigay   AB   Team EnDiable   33   6
36   Ernie Kalawa   ON   Ospreys                34   8
37   Mark Feldberg   NWT   Ospreys                34   3
38   Claudel Dery   QC   Team EnDiable   35   7
39   Peter Huyghebaert   BC   Double Hauls   35   6
40   Brad Baker   ON   Dregehogs   36   5
41   Wayne Yoshizawa   BC   Team Mustang   37   4
42   David Forgeron   ON   Dregehogs   38   7
43   Norm Godding   BC   Team Mustang   39   5
44   John Veenstra   MB   Manitoba Kingfisher40   3
45   Joan Forbes   MB   Manitoba Kingfisher41   2

[Robbie Bell]

Hi There,

Ladies and Gentlemen I would like to use this forum to personally thank everyone who contributed to this recent competition.

If I may I would like to single out a few for special Mention.

Aaron Varga for driving me around to all the competition venues. (Hope you got the hat!)

Ian Troup for driving me from Ontario to Kenauk.

David Forgeron for picking me up at Toronto Airport and his wife Susan for her generous hospitality before and after the competition.

The whole Dredgehog team; Ian, David, Brad, Kim and Kiefer for there hospitality and hilarity in Rough Cabin during the practice days.

A special mention for Kiefer’s Bacon!

Team Airflo; Randy, Donald, Mark and John for their generous welcome into their team and of course the whisky.

Randy Taylor for the running of the competition. How you did all that and still win the Gold Medal is borderline superhuman.

Jack Simpson for his calmness in the insanity that was Pine Cabin….. Ha Ha.

Finally and most importantly all the Volunteers without whom events like this just would not take place.

I thank each and everyone of you.

On a personal note, Todd and Controller Dave for rowing me around and Sunny for being my best looking Boat Partner ever!

However my thanks really do go to each and everyone that was there. I was treated royally by all and can only hope to join you all again in the future.

Well Done Canada!

Best Regards

robbie

[Chris Puchniak]

Lol!  I think everyone that met you Robbie was thoroughly impressed with friendliness and fishing aptitude!  I know I was whenever we popped by into Pine!

[Janos Boda]

Robbie:

It was great to see you again in Canada and I really enjoyed to talking and listening to you after the tournament. I hope we will meet again.

Cheers,
Janos

[Jason Hearle]

Wish I could have been there.  Maybe next year!  Sounds like it was a great event!  Congrats to all involved!

[Brent Else]

Anybody want to talk about their experiences at the NFFC?  I learned a lot... Here's a bit of a rundown of what my week was like:

The practice sessions were a lot of fun.  Our team was probably the least experienced team at the tournament, and our first challenge was to figure out a type of fishery we'd never encountered before.  In Manitoba they stock trout when they're still little and by the time they're worth catching they've already been chasing minnows and bugs for a couple months.  In the practice sessions, we had to figure out the most effective way to catch newly stocked trout that hadn't figured out what food was yet.  We eventually started fishing boobies and blobs and other flashy things, and we were pretty happy with our catch rates.

Then, the competition sessions came, and things were a little different.  I don't know if it was the weather, or if the fish figured out not to hammer sparkly things, but our catch rates went down.  This time our team didn't manage to adapt well, and I think we got left behind by teams that were able to adapt to the changing conditions.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?  Anybody from the more successful teams want to comment on how they managed to keep getting fish in during the competition?  Did you have to adapt your style from the practice sessions?  Or did you maybe use the practice sessions to find more than one reliable approach?  Anybody know how Airflo managed to be so dominant?

-Brent.

[Todd Oishi]

Hi Brent,

I suppose that "local knowledge" was a contributing factor to a competitor's ability to successfully locate fish and understand the nature and feeding habits of the fish in these lakes. Just take a look at the locations of the top 10 competitors and you'll see what I mean (all of them are residents of Ontario and Quebec -with the exception of Robbie, who's team mates are from Quebec and Ontario and have all fished this venue before).

Keep in mind that the top two teams have fished and know these lakes very well and as a result have a gathered a wealth of knowledge on how to fish them at this time of year (this is an excellent example of how a trip to prefish the venues a year ahead can prove to be a winning strategy - I certainly wish that we had). That being said; skill was still the key to putting decent numbers of fish on the scoreboard.

The drastic changes in the barometer and weather (the severe windstorm didn't help our cause any) and the ever-increasing angling-pressure putting down the fish were two of the main reasons why the fishing changed so dramatically by the time the competition began. For example: I landed over 40 trout in one 3-hour practice session while that same venue produced a fair number of blanks during the final sessions of the competition. The information that other teams and mine had gathered during the earlier (highly-successful) practice sessions was fairly ineffective as the competition progressed and serves as a prime example of how a good practice session can be a big disadvantage when the conditions and mood of the fish change so severely.

In the end it was the teams and individuals that learned how to adapt that were fortunate enough to score a few extra fish and avoid those dreaded blanks. I personally felt that I've benefited and grown as a competitor based on what I learned as a result of competing under such challenging and difficult conditions.

Hope to see you at next year's national championship in Calgary, Alberta or at the B.C. Loch-style Championships..

[Chris Puchniak]

I know we wouldn't have done as well as we did without the strong knowledge that Ivo, Jeremiah, and Graham knew personally about those lakes.  Those guys were our anchor points, and it showed in the standings. 

I think it really helps to study how fish react to both INTENSE fishing pressure, and also weather patterns.  I suspect both factors changed the fishing just as you and Todd have pointed out - going from serious catch rates on one day, then dwindling into scraps just a day or two later.  Determining where the fish go once pressured.  Which fish haven't been pressured yet.  Adjusting flies and retireives to something different that they haven't seen.

I think it is key to also have confidence in your team mates that have fished prior to you and use their Intel to help formulate your plan of attack on the water as well.

One of the best things I can think of to help improve is to fish highly pressured waters at home.  It's always tempting to go and fish the remote lakes where no one else will be, to get privacy, etc... but sometimes we learn more fishing over fish that are heavily pressured.  I know myself I would far sooner follow someone like Todd (or another good angler) on a river or lake, letting him cover the water first, and then see where I can pick up fish behind him.  Anyone can successfully fish for 'fresh' fish, but it really takes something to be able to fish successfully over fish that have been pounded by a good angler or two..

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

This all starts way before the competition ever starts, preparation is the key, over the last year, I have worked very hard. I got my self in great shape, and worked hard on my skills and mental game. I put more time on the lake this year then I have on rivers, I picked lakes that have high trafic and stayed away from places like Baroux and Kenauk as much as can because they are stock so often, its hard to learn, sure its nice to have high number days but you don't learn much when its easy.

I trained this summer as I would train getting ready for my first rugby game of a season. I chose to bike every morning, my bike had a small seat and it hurt my ass for the first month then I forgot about it. By doing this I could sit on a board all day long with out thinking about it, take that part out of my mental game.

As I did interval training on my bike fast for 30 slow for 60, by doing these I was training my self to count under stress, I made sure I would count the same way I would count down a line, counting down every number the same way I did this everyday.

I looked for a sport that is close to fishing and chose golf because you are really never competing against another competitor your competing against the course, like us we are never really competing against another competitor we are competing against the fish and if you can beat the fish then you will win. I found a book called zen golf and zen putting, read them, I practiced the focusing techniques to keep me focused under pressure, and this helped a lot.

I tried to study a hour or more a day during the week on what other competitors are doing and analyzing what I have learned from my days on the water. I am lucky to have a great memory so all the stuff I learned I can recall it when I need it. Our team used foam and at least 5 pre-tied leaders so that when we had tangles we would just cut, drop the tangle in the bottom of the boat re-tie and back casting in less then a min. we have a simple system to gather as much data fast and have it ready for the next session for the next guy fishing the lake after you.

Trust our selves, trust each other, we all can fish well, we have different motivations and under standing each of your teammates and how they tick is so important. I made it a point to find things that will motivate them Ivo, I know he is ver competitive so when Graham made a contest over a wooden box for top rod of the team I new I had my trigger. I would keep telling Ivo that it was mine and I was going to kick his ass and get top rod that started the fire burning. Now Graham just give him a plan, having a direction makes him relaxed. Arron is easy just keep positive re-enforcement and have fun with him making him laugh, getting his mind off things. Now Chris is still new but I feel perfection and drive to learn what drives him so when we fished Brookies I just loaded him up with info and he just wants more, still working on Chris.

We had most of our fly tying done before hand so we didn't have to stay up late and got a good night sleep for each day of the comp keeping our mind clear.

Pre-fishing strategy
I tried to fish alot of these lakes a year before and I put together this for the team, I made these maps with my sonar we didn't have contour maps then

Here are the reports of the lakes I have fished so far, I am going to try and get on to Taunton if it still open next weekend.


Otter
Day  #1
Temp: low -1 high +3
Water temp: 51
Wind: 5 mph
Weather: Sunny for an hour in the morning but mostly cloudy and rainy all day
Fishing: Fish where high up and both Combo #1 and #2 worked all-day


Otter
Day  #2
Temp: low -3 high +2
Water temp: 49
Wind: 5 mph
Weather: cloudy and rainy all day, with a noticeable drop in temp that shut down fish durning the day, with some glass like conditions
Fishing: Fish where high up and both Combo #1 most of the day but when the cold hit and glass like condition Combo #2 worked to pull fish. Also double damsel gave me some doubles.


Green
Day  #1
Temp: low -6 high +3
Water temp: 46
Wind: 5 mph
Weather: Sunny spot durning the day but mostly cloudy and small snow all day, with some glass like conditions.
Fishing: Fish where high up and Combo #1 most of the day but when the cold hit and glass like condition Combo #2 worked to pull fish.

Green
Day  #2
Temp: low -1 high +4
Water temp: 46
Wind: 5 mph
Weather: Sunny all day , with some glass like conditions and temperature drop at one point.
Fishing: Fish where high up Combo #1 did do so hot Combo #2 worked to pull fish all day.



Combo #1
Weather: works well on over cast days, but will work on partly sunny days.
Line: DI3
Count: 5
Action: 2-4 fast strips make the strips from .5ft-2ft long, then pause figure 8 to keep up with line if boat is drifting fast, but make sure there is a pause to let the flys sink. Make the strips erratic.
Leader: 15ft with 5ft between flies
Rig:
Top Dropper: Orange or Sunburst Blob
Middle Dropper: Vampire leech or Green sparkle damsel
Point: Green sparkle damsel

Notes: They really like the hitting the damsel on the drop or when it starts to be pulled again, but will hit the Vampier. If it over cast then the fish where not deep, when sun pops out for a bit, count down to 10 and should start hitting fish again. If there is a sudden drop in temperature and fish seems to turn off and counting deeper doesn't work try Combo #2.


Combo #2
Weather: all Conditions, will work on bright sunny days, Flat Calms and when sudden temperature drop
Line: Midge-tip or floater
Count: just let them sink
Action: 2-4 fast strips make the strips from .5ft-2ft long, then pause give it a really long pause more then Combo #1, figure 8 to keep up with line if boat is drifting fast, but make sure there is a pause to let the flys sink before stripping. Make the strips erratic.
Leader: 15ft with 5ft between flies
Rig:
Top Dropper: Cormorant with red flash in body
Middle Dropper: Vampire leech
Point: Green sparkle damsel

Note: On bright days the they will go crazy for the Vampire some of the takes on the midge-tip are tiny bumps, but this rig will still pull fish when everything shuts down because of the sun or cold.





Here is an email I sent to Chris when I was explaining our booby fishing and one of the strategy we came up with that we used to the end and was a blank saver on even the hard sessions.

Well Chris
 
When I first studied booby fishing I came a cross an article that the guy mentioned that he liked to create a wake be hind his booby all the way to the boat just for the pure fun of having the fish chase and smack it. In John Horseys sinking line workshop he talks about plopping the booby as soon as hits the water to bring in fish to his flys, he also talks about if he could tie a muddler to his flyline he would because it makes a disturbance pattern to the boat. One more example was in MB last year the Unabomber plopped a booby across the surface to pull a big brown in muddy water when Arron was in the boat with him.  So this summer I started playing around with this idea on a lake near my house that holds browns, and it worked very well on just plopping this booby across the surface, in a washing line setup. Now this comes back to two weeks ago in the morning I was picking up fish on the sparkler all morning before Ivo and G came but then thing started to slow when Ivo got there. We where one or two fish every once and wile, not like the morning, we went deep thinking that is where they went, but nothing. Then I put a sparkler booby on the point and a slow glass on, I just started stripping the fly across the surface like a crazy indian, few cast later boom first fish on the sparkler booby. So I did a bit of a mod and kept the sparkler booby on the point  and moved my sparkler to the middle dropper and a invicta muddler to the top dropper, now I had two wakes coming across the surface and shortly after I was in to my first double with two fish jumping at the same time. For the rest of the day Ivo and I fished big eyed boobies across the surface with doubles and even triples coming to the boat. And this style of fishing worked on a different lake in different conditions as well, so a bit more testing but I think we have a strategy to try that the other teams won't try. It should work for day one and two until the fish get smart.
 
Jeremiah

I'll do a session break down later I have to work, but this is what made us win silver all the hard work before hand, I was driven by the thoughts that Todd and Donald are doing the same so even when I didn't want to wake up at 4:30am for my bike ride I did it for the team.

[Chris Puchniak]

Great information for guys to disgest there J!

[Jason Hearle]

Jeremiah, that is one heck of a break down.  Nice job putting that together.

[Janos Boda]

Thanks Todd, Chris, and Jeremiah for the valuable comments.

Jeremiah you are a true fly-fishing athlete, I think to approach any sports we need physical and mental preparation beside the general knowledge of the sport.
 
It was my pleasure fishing with you Jeremiah on Sugarbush and Mills, sometimes a boat partner could make a difference in our results.

Cheers,
Janos

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

Thanks Janos remember you guys are a young team, you'll learn to relay on everyone on your team.  We all know all our strengths and weaknesses, so when we come up with a strategy we try to make it so everyone can fish it and comfortable with the plan, its important to have everyone have a good understanding why we do it the way we do so that if something happens they can adapt. I trust what Ivo, Arron, Graham, and Chris says and if they say something is working I will do and not do my own thing unless it doesn't work for me after a giving it a good try. I was not looking for any individual metal I was focus on getting us a team metal.

So I'll break down my sessions why I did what I did so I am going to as blunt and straight forward, I looked at my group D, first thing I did is ranked the threat individual and team threat. When I looked at my group Donald Thom was the guy I had to beat and Chris Pfohl was number two. Donald won the Silver in the worlds, has a private lake and is local, now Chris is on a Strong team and will have a great team strategy and is a great lake fisherman. Not that the others in my group are not good fisherman in any given session but those two are consistent and I have to beat them to win any kind of team metal.

 
Session 1 Tauton
I new where the fish where from fishing last year and practice sessions, our booby plan I was going to start with. As I was getting the boat ready I was watching water all the time, seeing rising in the middle of the lake I started to make a plan. I was hoping to pull a boat partner that would let me control the boat, or hoping for one of the too threats then I would go head to head with making a lot more fun. Well I pulled the controller witch was great he would let me go where I wanted to. So we headed out I started with a orange Blob a Dabbler and Mink booby on the point, fished on a clear intermediate, 8 mins in the session I got my first torpedo coming after my Minky booby, I just kept stripping faster he hit, hit again I keep telling my self just keep stripping don't set, then the feeling I was waiting for the line locked up and I gave it one good strip and he was on. What we found was that if you set when the fish is torpedoing after you would lose it, so you would just wait for it to lockup tight before you give it one last big strip.  its hard to wait ask Arron when I showed him this technique he lost the first few fish that where coming after his flys. So I landed my first fish in a short order the monkey is off my back Donald and Jim where fishing close to me and I know they haven't had a fish yet. Then my battery dies!!!!!! So Donald yells at my controller that he has a spare in his truck, but I said wait its going to take us 15mins to get a new battery, and I told him I can row back to the top of the drift in 1-2min each time so forget about the battery I'll row to save time. I get back to the top of our drift in short order a few cast later another big wake is following my booby, strip, strip, strip fish is going crazy splash and jumping after it, I just keep stripping then what I am waiting for lockup, hard strip fights on and coming to the boat, then off damm!!!! I horsed this one, tried to get him in to fast, its one of those I should of moments. A few cast later here comes another one, this time he is coming after the Orange Blob on the top dropper, I bring him right to the boat but he just doesn't want to take, so I pull the flies away from him he boils, I dropped them back now he starts chasing the booby but he just wont take so I take the flies away from him again bang he killed the blob this time when it hit the water. To my controllers amazement that a fish keeps coming back chasing so close to the surface it was exciting for him, second fish in the boat. Deadtime things started to cool and fishing start slow, my controller started to get hits lower so I switched to a Di3 was hoping they just moved deeper fish this for sometime but no action. 45min left in our 2hour session I went back to the plan, right away a chaser as soon as the flies hit the water, its a long ways out I can see he is playing with the orange blob, I just keep stripping, half way to the boat I pull the flies off the water and cast it back with out adding any line, so the flies hit the water where I took them out. Boom the reaction I wanted I had my third fish coming to the boat on the orange blob. DAMM you fish gods I didn't horse this one he just came off!! I am kicking my self 4 fish on but only two landed. There is still time left I keep casting, 5mins later there it is a chaser, stripping double speed to see if I can get him to hit faster but he is still chasing so I stopped, he crashed in to my Booby and he was on, deep breath, I got him to surface and water surfed him in to my net. So happy, I was thinking everyone else is just killing them, but keep telling my self I didn't blank. I had 5min to go and I just kept cast and stripping looking for a chaser, didn't hang much because my thought was chasers will follow so I just have to find one, but the time ran out!!!! When I got to the dock everyone had a hard time and I was sitting in first but Donald and Jim where not in yet, but I know I beat Chris just hoping Donald had a ruff time too. As I was loading my gear in Chris's truck I got the news that Donald put 7 in the net and Jim 4, I had my chances on this lake to do better and our plan was solid. Clear mind on to the next session.

-Things I learned if a plan is working stick to it, I wasted time switching but when I went back to the plan I started hitting fish again, I should have just kept searching for the chasers

Donald Thom
Jim Iredale
Jeremiah Hamilton
Chesley Shepherd
Brad Baker
Chris Pfohl
Randy Patton
Ernie Kalwa
Janos Boda

[Robbie Bell]

Hi There,

I  am a bit like Jeremiah and started training for this event a while ago.

The Fulling Mill catalogue was vigorously perused and stock bought in.

Fly boxes were filled when the staff were not looking.

I practised sleeping in an armchair to get ready for the flight.

About a month before the competition I cut down on the lunchtime pies and even went next door for them myself instead of getting them delivered. 

In preparation for the rowing I did some weight training with beer kegs at my local pub.

That definitely works up a thirst.

Whisky was confined to weekend drinking and for the last week I even took the batteries out of the TV remote. My wife really liked that bit but I am not sure why.

Maybe I was getting to sleep more quickly………

At the event I took one for the team by making sure I was the last one in bed and everyone else was settled down before having a nightcap and I rigorously made sure this did not last beyond 01.00 hours. My Navy training came in real handy there.

On the competition mornings I even made my own Tea so to be sure it was just right.

Skipping breakfast gave me more time for my meditation which proved vital in remembering all my kit.

At the lunchtimes I was only taking small sips from the hip flasks that were being passed round and was really impressed with my own discipline.

Back at Pine Lodge I had a no more than six beers before dinner and my steely determination ensured I had no whisky before 21.00 hrs.

Nothing comes easy in this life and I was really proud of my work ethic.

I really hope this helps some of the newcomers to know just what it takes. 

Best Regards

robbie