Was watching the All Whites big win on the weekend so exciting that you can’t possibly wait until the World Cup in South Africa to get your football fix? If the answer is “yes” here is a suggestion; go to a Phoenix game.
There are six current All Whites in the squad (including Teen Blog fave Leo Bertos), passionate and vocal fans, and the handsomest uniforms in the A-League. What better way is there to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon than watching some quality football and shouting loudly? And it’s cheap too, tickets start at $17 for students.
Also, keep up to date with the happenings in the world of football with the libraries’ magazine selection here.
Is zombie fiction the new vampire fiction? Zombies rise in teen lit. (Read our interview with Amanda Ashby, author of The Zombie Queen of Newbury High.)
Two mothers spend US$28,000 to get Twilight star Robert Pattinson to kiss their daughters. (You can also pay to be taken on a tour of the film set in Vancouver, Canada: “Twilight fans don’t have to schlep all the way out to New Zealand for their fan fix.” Hah.) There are some exclusive pictures from New Moon here.
Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro discuss their plans for the forthcoming films of The Hobbit. (Del Toro is in Wellington, and was recently interviewed by Stuff.)
Could a virtual racing champion be turned into a real-life racing champion? Well?
Chase cryptids via CryptoZoo. The game’s creator was inspired by freerunners in Wellington (you can even see the library). We’re famous!
This isn’t really a Top 10 list as such, since I know zero about sports fiction and have no idea what’s top and what’s not; this is more a selection of young adult fiction that has sporting themes of different sorts. See what you think anyway. Let me know if you’ve read a good sports book recently too (I refrained from putting my favourite book here, Life at these Speeds, but, oh no, there I go, I’ve mentioned it anyway (athletics)).
If you liked the Almost Amazing Race (or wanted to do it) check out the City Safari, which will take place on the 17th of May. It’s an all-day orienteering competition around Wellington that utilises public transport. School teams may enter. Take a look at the website for more information.
This Saturday, 14 Februrary, is important for two reasons: romance and pro skating! Yeah, we all know it’s Valentines Day - the chocolates, the roses, the cards and sickly sweet P.D.A. (Public Displays of Affection) – but did you know that this Saturday a whole bunch of professional skaters will be competing at Waitangi Skatepark for the biggest prize purse in NZ skating history? So make a date, take a date, to see the thrills’n spills of Bowl-o-Rama 2009.
(9am – 6pm, Waitangi Skatepark, Waitangi Park. Postponement date: 15 February )
Young Wellingtonians will be able to shoot hoops with basketball legend Kenny McFadden when the Push Play Summer Streetball Series takes place on courts around the city this summer.
[The] series is a casual six-week programme giving young people the chance to develop their ‘game’ … [more]
Streetball is like basketball, only with fewer players and half the court is used. The series was very popular last year and can only be more popular this year. It’s free as well.
Heads up: two of the quarter finals of the Under 17 Women’s World Cup are at Westpac Stadium this Saturday (being tomorrow, the 8th of November) at 1pm and 4pm. For just $7 (if you’re under 17 – it’s a whole $10 if you’re not) you get to watch the might of Denmark take on the best the Korea Republic has to offer, closely followed by football powerhouse Germany up against Canada (who beat New Zealand in pool play). Sounds like a good time. Visit the stadium website for time and ticket info. For all the news, views and statistics go to FIFA.com.
Most of us have given rock climbing a go at some stage, usually on a school trip or at a local indoor wall. It’s an easy and fun thing to do with a few friends and probably for most of us this will be our only experience of rock climbing. There is of course other types of climbing. There is bouldering, top roping, lead climbing, and free soloing. The latter apparently comes with a high likelihood of death should you fall since there are no ropes or safety measures … hmm – maybe not for me. Anyway whether you just want to have some fun on one of the indoor walls, or start climbing outdoors, here are some library resources to help build up some skills and find places to climb in Wellington.
Rock Climbing: A Practical Guide to Essential Skills, by Malcolm Creasey
Classic Rock Climbing in New Zealand, by Mark Sedon
Wellington Rock, by Kristen Foley
Climb Magazine
And some external sites;
www.climb.co.nz
NZ Climbing in NZ (YouTube video)
Climbing walls in Wellington
More free-running news!
The world’s first free-running championships took place in London last Wednesday. Contestants had to complete a course (and provide their own soundtrack) and were judged for their ‘flow’ by other free-runners. The BBC have a brief video interview with the organiser of the event. The winner was American Gabe Nunez (who can be seen in this 3 Doors Down music video), while second and third places were won by Britons.
I don’t think the 2012 London Olympics have a demonstration sport picked out yet …
If you read our post on parkour and free running last month and are keen to further your interest, check out Parkour New Zealand, the NZ Parkour portal. It has videos taken around the country, and a forum for like-minded people. The Wellington subforum has the most posts, which is a good sign!
ColourLovers is a very nice blog about design. They have created a history of modern Olympic design, beginning with the 1896 games in Athens and ending with the proposed (and controversial) design for the 2012 games in London. I like the trivia noted next to each design. Did you know that one of the gymnasts at the 1904 Olympics won six medals – with a wooden leg? Or that in 1912 a wrestling match lasted 11 hours?!
It makes no mention of the mascots created for each Olympics, unfortunately.
Our Olympic medal tally mightn’t be too wonderful, but NZ has done very well at the World Cyber Games Asian Championship in Singapore, winning a gold medal in Guitar Hero III and a silver medal in DotA All Stars - and so earning them the Asian Championship Trophy. NZ’s top gamers are represented by the eBlacks (you can listen to an interview with an eBlack that aired on National Radio this morning here). Nice one!
It’s a matter of hours before the Opening Ceremony of this year’s Beijing Olympics. The modern Olympics have been captured on film for almost a century! The official Olympic website’s history archive has a clip from every Olympic Opening Ceremony since the 1912 Opening Ceremony in Stockholm.
From midday each day over the next two weeks, TV One will be offering extensive coverage of the Olympics. Those of you with easy access to hi-speed connections and plenty of bandwidth may want to watch online via TVNZ’s website; they will have four channels streaming live.
The thing I really like about alternative sports is that when any sport starts to become a bit too mainstream someone dreams up something new. When adrenalin junkies got bored with bungy jumping and skydiving they came up with base jumping, which stepped things up to a whole new level.
Free-running is an especially interesting development because although it’s a physical activity it is not considered a sport. Free-running developed out of Parkour which originated in France in the 1990s. The idea of Parkour is the aim of moving from one point to another as effeciently and quickly as possible with the abilities of the human body. Both are considered to be more of a physical or performance art. Where the two movements differ is that Parkour is all about efficiency of movement whereas free-running is about absolute freedom and expression of movement.
The development of free-running is a move towards the mainstream – there is even a world championship run by Urban Freeflow next month in London. This is in conflict with the principles of the art so it will be interesting how it handles this development like many alternative sports before it. Some groups are performing in movies like Bond and The Bourne Ultimatum. There was even a challenge on Top Gear where free-runners raced a car to the centre of a city. Anyway there is no point talking about an activity that is all about movement, so here is a clip from Wellington – where free-running has quite a following (the back of the central library is popular) – after the jump, and for much, much more, check out this page.
Kiwis are more creative than most when it comes to ways to have fun outdoors. We are especially well known for thrill-seeking activities such as bungy jumping or the Fly-by-Wire. More recently various multi-sport events are growing in New Zealand. Well-established events such as Triathlon and Duathlon are being transformed by taking the format but completely changing the nature of the diciplines. One example of this is Triplecross, which involves a trail run, mountain bike, and moto x leg instead of the traditional run, cycle, and swim format.
The great thing about multi-sports is that there are endless options and variations to suit most interests. Like the idea of triathlon but you’re not keen on swimming? Try duathlon, or replace it with a kayak leg. Or maybe you like both but don’t want to run or cycle on the streets; no problem, just go for a trail running and mountain biking version like Xterra.
The New Zealand Endurance Sport website has events and clubs for adventure racing, cycling, mountain biking, multisport, orienteering, running, and triathlon. So have a look and give something a go - in the meantime here are some library resources to help get you started. These are all from the adult collection so the magazines have a 50c charge.
Magazines
New Zealand Multisport
New Zealand Triathlete
New Zealand Orienteering
Books
Triathlon Made Easy by Zoe MacDonald
Get Carter : The Hamish Carter Story by Phil Taylor
Starting Triathlon by Mark Barfield
Adventure Racing: The Ultimate Guide by Liz Caldwell
Yukon Alone: The Worlds Toughest Adventure Race by John Balzar
Orienteering by Ian Bratt
Outward Bound Orienteering Handbook by Martin Bagness
There are 302 events scheduled for this year’s Olympic games. If you had to list them all you would struggle to come up with a tenth of the entire list. Some are variations of a sport, like running, rowing, or swimming. But some are delightfully different from the rest, and many people don’t realise they’re Olympic sports at all.
So here’s a list (we like lists).
Modern pentathlon - this is a series of five (hence the ‘penta-‘ prefix) events; shooting, with an air pistol; fencing (sword-fighting); swimming; horse riding; and finally running. These were chosen by the founder of the modern Olympics in 1912 as the five things a 19th-century infantryman would need to do behind enemy lines. Which makes it a very cool sport indeed.
Synchonised swimming – also known as ‘water ballet’, this sport comes from Canada. Think of it as dancing to music in a pool. New Zealand has a duet competing this year.
Tug of war – to be fair, this was only an Olympic sport between 1900 to 1920. But what a sport! Unfortunately New Zealand never entered a team – we would have cleaned up the medals.
Wushu – at each Olympics a ‘demonstration sport’ is chosen, usually by the host country, to promote the sport and to add a little flavour to the games. At the Beijing Olympics Wushu is to be on display (though not officially as a demonstration sport). Wushu (武術) was created in China in 1949 in an effort to nationalise the various martial arts. Sparring one another is part of the sport, and performing a routine, like gymnastics, is also a large part of it – instead of throwing a ribbon and ball about, competitors perform 720 degree jump kicks and backflips while wielding a sword. Awesome.
Trampolining – Competitors bounce and do flips and so on (but without swords). The last time I used a trampoline – at high school – I dislocated a toe, ending any Olympic dreams I had.
Handball – this sport was first in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, as Hitler was a fan. It was re-introduced in the 70s. Handball is a bit like football, but competitors can only use their hands. Sort of like volley ball or netball, I guess. But without nets. Well, sure, there are nets, but like hockey goals. I hope that explains it to you.
Everyone who enjoys so called ‘alternative’ sports should be grateful to skaters like Tony Hawk. He began the process of turning what people previously viewed as a pass-time hobby into fully professional sports with his amazing skills. The first Summer X-Games was in 1995 and since then has exploded in popularity and diversity with Moto X becoming a feature and a Winter X-Games first taking place in 1997. The X-Games have been a catalyst for a change of perception for alternative sports so now you should be able to get out on your board without old folks shaking sticks at you.
We certainly think so which is why we have plenty of resources you can make use of at the library.
FICTION
Slam, by Nick Hornby
Payback by Michelle Kelly
NON-FICTION
Thrasher: The Radical Skateboard Book - YA 796.21
Skateboarding is Not a Crime: 50 Years of Street Culture - YA 796.22
Skateboarding: New Levels, Tips and Tricks for Serious Riders - YA 796.21
MAGS
New Zealand Skateboarder
Transworld Skateboarding
Thrasher
Slam: Australian Skateboarding
DVD
Rising Son
Best of Ra Vol 1
WEBSITES
Council site for Skate Parks around Wellington
Wellington Skateboarding
Wellington is one of the best places for mountain biking in the country. I started last November after getting sick of dodging cars on the road; a few months earlier my brother-in-law failed to avoid an 18-wheel truck and was lucky to survive it. So I bought a friend’s old bike and went out to Makara Peak and instantly caught the mtb bug. I’ve since upgraded to a full suspension bike and ridden mtb parks all over the North Island. Whether you’re tempted to give it a go or are already a diehard mtbiker here are some resources you can find at the library. (You could also check out the NZ Mountain Biking site and Vorb.)
There are several resources for you to take advantage of at the library. You can find books and magazines on maintenance, improving your riding, and where to ride. The best guide for where to ride in New Zealand is the Kennett Brothers. It outlines all the best riding in Wellington and they have played a huge role in the development of mtb in Wellington so they know what they are talking about. You can find Spoke, New Zealand Mountain Biker, and Australian Mountain Biking Magazines. On DVD there is Zinn and the art of mountain bike maintenance and Klunkerz: A film about mountain bikes. These are both in the adult documentary section so cost $4 and the magazines 50c each to borrow.
There is a cycling and mtb map that can be found at the library information desk. The map is a guide of places to ride in Wellington city that range from beginners’ and family rides to the most advanced single track in town. The best thing about it is that it shows some of the myriad of ridable tracks that are probably just outside your door. Also available at the library is a brochure on the free tours of Makara Peak Mtb park. This is aimed at beginners, families and those new to town, but is open to everyone.
So maybe your 2007 rugby demons are beginning to be exorcised? With recent results everyone should be feeling better about our national game. The Super 14 title is back in New Zealand and the U-20s have won the World Cup. The NZ Maori team are undefeated in the Pacific Nations Cup so far and the All Blacks have won three in a row and looked better each game. Even if the prospect of the Tri-Nations is a bit daunting it still feels good to thrash two different English teams in the same weekend.
Keep up with all our teams and world rugby in general through the All Blacks website.
Sporting expert, Jack, has compiled a Top 10 5 list of sport websites. If you can add any, leave a comment!
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