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Roger the Shanghai Master

On the latest tennis news. Roger Federer just won his first Shanghai Rolex Masters against Gilles Simon by the scores 7-6(6), 7-6(2). Federer's form was incredible that entire competition dethroning the defending champion Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals. Gilles Simon himself also played substantially well this tournament upsetting both Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych. To all Federer fans out there such as myself, this win has placed him back in world number 2, replacing his great rival Rafael Nadal and this may be a sign of the king returning to his throne. If Roger continues to play in the upcoming Australian Open Grand Slam in this form, I think he has a great chance of taking it.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/10/12/1413113060890_wps_41_SHANGHAI_CHINA_OCTOBER_12.jpg

Interested in giving surfing a go?

Surfing is such a fun sport that I highly recommend people try.
Here are a few surfing schools on Sydney's north that I will mention for beginners to engage in.

  1. Manly Surf School.

    • Sydney Surf School and Manly Surf School are Sydney's largest surf schools, teaching surfing in Sydney for 17 years. Manly Surf School is Manly's only full-time surf school operating exclusively on Manly Beach and Sydney's northern beaches seven days a week, all year round.
    • For more information visit www.manlysurfschool.com

  2. Sherpa Surf School. 

    •  Sherpa Surf School offers small group and private surf lessons on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Their focus is not only to give you an experience of surfing, but to develop and fine tune your surfing skills so that you can learn to tackle all conditions. All welcome- beginners, intermediates, corporates, parties, young and not-so young. Join them at Dee Why beach this season! 
    •  For more information visit http://www.surfinglessonssydney.com.au/default.aspx

  3.  Sydney North Surf School

    • The Sydney North Surf School Surf has been running surf lessons for many years on Sydney’s Northern Beaches including: Narrabeen, Warriewood, Mona Vale, and Newport. Also providing yoga instruction for improved health and better surfing, this surf school is serious about your health and well-being!
    • Have a great and memorable experience within a controlled, structured, and safe learning environment. Surfing and yoga lessons suitable for all ages 8 to 80, individuals, groups, birthday parties, Christmas parties, and corporate days out. They thrive on giving beginners and regular surfers an awesome experience in the waves, and better flexibility through yoga.
    • For more information visit http://sydneynorthsurfschool.wordpress.com/

      Have fun surfing!


Basketball competitions available

Basketball is an awesome sport to partake in, and it is available at the majority of the major stadiums around Sydney. Not only at your local stadium but also schools have competitions for you to join. 

For parents who would like to enrol their children in the game of basketball, it is an option for you to approach the schools sports masters to see how you could join, the school basketball is during the summer season. 

Further there are local competitions available for you to join in different areas for example: Castle Hill, Hornsby, North Sydney, Narrabeen. 

  1. Hills Hornets, Fred Caterson - Hills Basketball Association offers a wide variety of basketball competitions. The majority of games are played at the Hills Stadium, Fred Caterson Reservce, Caterson Drive, Castle Hill. Where demand exceeds capacity alternative local venues may be used.
  2. Hornsby Spiders, Brickpit Thornleigh - Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Basketball association also offer a large range of basketball competitions for a wide variety of ages. The games are played at the Brickpit, Thornleigh statdium.
  3. Norths Bears, North Sydney - The Northern Suburbs Basketball association also offer local competition at their venue. Having a wide range of competitions available to choose from.
  4. Manly Warringah, Narrabeen - The Manly Warringah Basketball association have a wide range of different local competitions to join

These are just some examples of areas where you can join to pursue the sport of basketball. Also available at all these stadiums is not also the local competition, but if you believe you are up to the challenge you can try out for representative competition. This is offered during the winter season. 

Mr Olympia

Hi everyone, today I want to discuss something not about racquet sports but rather about bodybuilding. More specifically this years Mr Olympia. For those who follow or pay attention to the scene you would know that this years Mr Olympia was full of controversy, discussion and speculation. Most of this uproar of attention was due to the friction between Phil Heath and Kai Greene, the winner and runner up. Here is a video of the prejudging where things between Phil and Kai got a bit heated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWaXBzSbRgY
There are many speculation as to who was to blame for this conflict, now I'm going to be a bit biased here but during the prejudging posing it was clear Phil was not giving Kai enough room, they were all asked over and over again to shuffle over to give each other enough room. However Phil refused to move, intentionally or unintentionally could be further speculated but Kai was obviously frustrated because of this and was pushing onto Phil during the poses to get him to shuffle over. I'm not exactly defending Kai either, he wasn't smart with the way he dealt with the situation, that behavior on stage only makes him look like the bad guy and it did.
Finally I would like to talk about the results, (spoiler alert) 2014's Mr Olympia winner was Phil heath making this his 3rd consecutive win, and Kai obviously being the runner up. I know bodybuilding is basically a beauty pageant with muscly men so its all subjective and riddled with politics. However there is a certain criteria of which it is based upon so I think Kai Greene was better than Phil heath in many aspects. Probably the most noticeably thing that I could point out is Phil's stomach, it was out of control while Kai's stomach was in control, flat and abs were showing. Kai wasn't looking as dry and hard as he did in the previous Mr Olympias but he was definitely more conditioned then Phil is especially in the legs and back which are always Kai's strong points. I guess the point of this post is just for me to rant about the disappointment in the results, I felt Kai was robbed of the title of Mr Olympia. Here is a comparison photo, you guys be the judge.
http://www.flexonline.com/sites/flexonline.com/files/styles/article_image_600xany/public/philvkai_olympia13_1.jpg?itok=IuxUDL4V

Surfing News




2013 proved to be another successful year for Australian Surfers on the world stage. The following is a summary of some of our top acheivers both international and domestic.


ASP Men
Mick Fanning1st
Joel Parkinson 3rd

ASP Women
Tyler Wright 1st
Sally Fitzgibbons 3rd

ASP Junior Men
Matt Banting 3rd

ASP Junior Women
Stephanie Single 5th

ASP Longboard Men
Harley Ingleby 3rd

ASP Longboard Women
Chelsea Williams 2nd


Gilmore Wins Cascais Pro, Scores No. 1 Spot



The Final of the Cascais Woman's Pro was a powerhouse battle pitting the World Rankings leader Sally Fitzgibbons against the Title race frontrunner Stephanie Gilmore. Though Gilmore could no longer clinch the Championship in Portugal, a win at Cascais would see her overtake Fitzgibbons in the rankings and give her the yellow jersey for the final event in Maui.
Gilmore drew first blood, winning the opening exchange by a narrow margin. She won the second exchange with a midrange score for multiple forehand hacks, but Fitzgibbons fired back quickly, managing two closing maneuvers. Her efforts earned her a 7.17 and the first lead change with 20 minutes remaining.
But Gilmore answered in a big way. She raced down the line throwing powerful, vertical hacks to earn the first nine-point ride of the day -- the third of the event -- and force Fitzgibbons to hunt down a high score in the backend of the heat. Fitzgibbons found a wave and improved her two wave total, but it wasn't enough to overtake the heat leader. Gilmore won the event Title by a fraction of a point, and with it came the yellow jersey. It would be her first time at the front of the rankings pack all year.

News on the NBA

Well, the 2014/2015 NBA season has kicked off to a start.

There were many big changes during the off season, with some big time players changing teams. 

- Lebron James - signed back with his old team Cleveland Cavaliers 
- Tom Parker has been signed to a muilti year contract extension
- Chris Bosh - signed a five-year contract with Miami Heat
- Dwayne Wade - was re-assigned with Miami Heat

To see further trades it can be seen on : http://espn.go.com/nba/transactions

Also there were great draft picks during the off season where some great players were picked!! 
First pick - Andrew Wiggins 
Second pick - Jabari Parker

To see the 2014/2015 drafts: http://www.nba.com/draft/

Some big changes has been made during the off season, not knowing what do expect during the 2014/2015 
Hoping that it will be a great NBA season ahead,