Post 3 of 8. 1981 - 1985.
My entry into the New Zealand Workforce.
My introduction to the workforce
was as an apprentice carpenter for a local very reputable builder whom my
mother had organised for me. I began working on a contract where overtime was
available so I was allowed to work the maximum number of hours an apprentice
could work – that was around 60 hours per week – and I even amassed 70 on some
weeks. I was physically fit and soon discovered I was capable of the overtime.
However, all wasn’t as well as I expected. In short, my apprenticeship ceased
after a few months and after that I found my own employment with another very
reputable local surveyor as a chainman-labourer and I instantly loved the work
and the men I worked with. It was a completely opposite working environment to
my previous employment. At about the same time as I was offered a position as a
trainee surveyor in the business I had found another job that paid very good
wages for a young 18-year-old, and I accepted it. I am more than happy to admit
this is one of my life’s regrets.
While working as a labourer in
the new cardboard recycling business I advised the boss to take on a new
employee whom I knew from when I was a milk boy and he did. We developed an
excellent working relationship again, just as we had when we were milk boys.
One day at work he asked me if I knew about the sport of rowing. I didn’t. He
suggested it was an excellent water sport, and I would fit into it well. So I
joined the Invercargill Rowing Club for the 1981-198 season. As a novice
oarsman I was part of a coxed four and it was split into two coxed pairs. I
knew the stroke of our coxed four and it was the guy who had beaten me in the
Senior Cross Country at Cargill High School in 1979, he won, and I was
runner-up. I went on to represent the school at the Southland Secondary Schools
Cross Country Championships as I desperately wanted to compete against the guy
again so I avenge my loss. The weather conditions were damp and cold that day
and I was really looking forward to the race. However, I couldn’t see the guy
at our school team pre-race meeting. He hadn’t shown up. Sadly, I never got the
opportunity to avenge my loss to him. During conversation at the rowing club he had
disclosed he had ‘targeted me’ in the race i.e. he knew who I was as I was
known about the school as a good runner. He was also working as a milk boy that
year in 1979 and was fit. I remember the race and once I hit the front early in
the race I just stayed in front quite comfortably. I hurdled the final fence
and all I had to do was run down the rugby field to the finish line around
200-300m. I never bothered to check behind me to see if anyone was there. The
guy had shortened the distance to me and was right behind me…I never even heard
his footsteps on the grass rugby field, and he sprinted past me to win the
race. I was gutted to be runner-up, and it was the first time I had been beaten
in Cross Country for 4 consecutive years.
My novice year at rowing
culminated with winning the Men’s Novice Coxed Pair at the Southland
Championships. At the end of 1981 my mother suggested I apply for another
apprenticeship as I needed to ‘get a trade behind me’. She explained having a
trade behind you would be a great step for my future in the workforce as I
could always ‘fall back to it’ if I ever had to. They were wise words, and I
always listened to my mother. So, I applied by hand mail to two companies, one
a joiner and cabinet making apprenticeship and the other an automotive
engineering apprenticeship. Although I wanted to work more with wood, the
pressure was put on me after I visited a truck workshop and the service manager
asked me ‘do you want the job or not?’ – so I said ‘yes please’. I began my
automotive engineering apprenticeship working on General Motors Bedford and
Isuzu trucks and buses in 1982. Around 1981 and 1982 I began my relationship
with 2 influential aspects in my life; 1. Alcohol, and 2. Motorcycles. I began
sneaking into my father’s beer stash when I was about 12-13 years old. My
parents attended Masonic Lodge balls on a Saturday night, and my sister was
allowed to go out and socialize with friends. So being home alone I sneaked
into my father’s beer stash and would open a 750ml bottle and scull it down. I
liked how the alcohol made me feel. This would continue all through my
relationship with alcohol. Sometimes however I would drink excessively, and
this too would become an issue. I believe I was always going to ride motorcycles.
So did my father. He knew I was a petrol-head from my early days mowing the
grass lawns with his 2 stoke Vickers reel motor mower. I never mowed them fast
and took care when I did mow them. I loved mowing grass lawns and was never
told I had to mow them. It as the same with chores when I was a child. Our home
had a coal range in the kitchen and a small open fire in the lounge. As soon as
I was strong enough my first chore was taking the two ash tins out to the
roadside curb to be emptied by the council ash cart and then bringing them back
in. I swept ashes from the open fire through the grate into the small ash tin
below it and then prepared the fireplace with newspaper and kindling wood and
lit a fire during colder autumn and winter days after school – then emptied the
ashes into the larger outside ash tin. I was skilled in using a smaller hatchet
axe to chop kindling wood and would chop an empty banana cardboard box full for
my mother to use to start the kitchen coal range fire in the morning – there
was a wetback that heated the copper superheater for hot water in the large
cupboard next to it and I stored the kindling wood in it. And then as soon as
my father believed I was skilled enough I mowed the grass lawns with a motor
mower and placed the cuttings around the side of the home or on top of the
vegetable garden. And of course, I also dried dishes. I got both my drivers and motorcycle licences
as soon as I was the legal age. And more or less immediately within a short
period was involved in a speeding offence while driving a friend’s car and
because it was a more severe offence I lost my driver’s licence for 3 months
and was fined $100 at the age of 15. Not a great way to begin your driving
career.
I continued playing rugby in 1981
and joined the Old Boys Rugby Club. I had played on the wing in the Cargill High
School 1st XV in 1980. However, at Old Boys I wanted to play prop in
the scrum. The coaches allowed me played me in the front row of the scrum. We
had a great forward pack and set of backs. I was one of the smallest in the team. But I
was strong and fit. I loved playing in the forwards and enjoyed my time at the
Old Boys Rugby club in the Under 18 Rugby Team in 1981. Thank you to the coaches,
manager, and president. Our team record for the winter season was:
Played 14, Won 7, Lost 5, Drew 3.
I completed my first half
marathon in 1981. It was quite different to the full marathon, and I loved it.
1981 and 1982 were my introductory years to the New Zealand 40-hour workforce
and it was time to knuckle down. The first rowing coach I had at the
Invercargill Rowing Club once stopped the coxed pair I was learning to row in
on the Oreti river and said something so profound to me I have never forgotten.
He knew I was impatient at learning a new skill although I was as keen as
mustard in wanting to learn it, and he knew I was physically strong and fit for
a relatively short young adult. He shouted from the coaching boat not angrily
but wisely, ‘SMITH – learning to row is like riding a bike – once you
learn you never forget’. I also discovered off the water this incredible
rowing coach was a lower leg amputee. This was an omen that at the time I never
understood, I was 18-19.
My friendship developed quickly
with the stroke of our Novice Four in 1981, and he and I both became automotive
engineering apprentices in 1982. Our love for motorcycles was also a hugely
bonding reason for friendship. We rode them together for many hours and
adventures. We also enjoyed venturing to the many watering holes in the city
where we socialised with other friends and acquaintances we got to know. It was
a great time in our lives. He and I decided to compete in the 1983 Winstone
Marathon from Riverton to Invercargill on the day of my 20th
birthday. Remember he beat me at Cargill High School in the Senior Boys Cross
Country Race. He was taller and bigger than me, however, make no error he was
very strong and fit from rowing. I did finish ahead of my friend that day in 41st
place, but only just.
Another incredibly influential
rowing coach in the Invercargill Rowing Club approached me and asked if I would
be interested in being part of the club’s Lightweight Four. The lightweight
classification was a relatively new category in rowing and the club had
successful lightweight rowers. I never hesitated and was very eager to be part
of the crew. Our intermediate lightweight four combined with club’s premiere
four [mainly heavyweight oarsmen] to form the club’s Senior Eight. The club
held a rowing training camp over the Christmas of 1984-1985 on lake Hayes
located in between Queenstown and Arrowtown in Central Otago/Central Lakes
district. We trained like possessed young Olympian rowers over the duration of
that camp. I can remember that camp still to this day. Rowing up down and
across Lake Hayes in glorious sunshine with our tops off and our loyal coach
alongside us in the instructing. Our crew, the Senior Eight was training in a
brand new Eight [skiff] named ‘The Helm’ – after iconic Invercargill Rowing Club
member Keith Helm. After receiving instructions from our coach when the skiff
was idle on the water at the north end of Lake Hayes, the coxswain would give
the initial command to prepare the skiff to move by saying; ‘Are you ready?’
Then all rowers in the skiff would move up their slide to the front of it, stop
and position their oar in the water. Then the coxswain would issue the starting
command for all rowers to begin rowing; ‘ROW’ and all eight rowers would begin
the full rowing stroke. The skiff however would only be moving at a slower pace
as the coach took up his position in the outboard motorized coaching boat just
to side of the skiff and in front of it. After a minute or so the coach would
then give the instruction to increase the ‘rating’ – this term is the stroke
rating a rower performs in a minute and can vary depending on the type of skiff
a rower or a sculler is – this can be anything from a single scull [individual
single sculling boat/skiff] to a ‘double’ [ two scullers in a double sculling
skiff] or a coxless or coxed pair [two sweep oared rowers rowing in a coxless
or coxed pair, then either a coxless or coxed four [four sweep oared rowers
rowing in a coxless or coxed four] or a quad [four scullers] and then finally
an eight [eight sweep oared rowers rowing in a skiff all together].
Lake Hayes is approximately 2.8km
long so its a relatively short lake compared to others. As the speed of our eight-skiff
increased with the instruction from the coach to increase the rating, the
coaching boat increased in speed as well and every rower in the boat could
clearly hear the outboard motor engine increase in revolutions too. And every
rower in the boat that day could also hear the outboard engine motor really
start revving as our Eight skiff began to pick up speed. Here’s where it gets
interesting. If by some wave of a magic wand I can remember the Eight skiff
really picking up speed as every oarsman in the boat that day pushed with their
quadriceps muscles and pulled with their arms to maximum effort, heart and
lungs at full power, and guess what happened? Our Eight skiff pulled away from
the coach in the coaching boat – I’ve never forgotten that moment – and he
never decelerated the throttle of the outboard engine motor one notch. At the
conclusion of the rowing camp over the Christmas period 2 other rowing buddies
and I decided to ride our touring bicycles up the West Coast of the South
Island to Nelson - a journey of approximately 800 km. It took us just over a
week from rough memory. We then had to catch a tour bus to get us home as we
had to get to the start of the new year rowing regatta in time to race. The
distance from Nelson to Invercargill is 968 km and it took us a heck of a long
time to get home.
[a note on fatigue] All
throughout my 4-year [8,000 hour] automotive engineering apprenticeship I
worked a 40-hour week and during the summer rowing season we trained 3-4 x per
week and raced in the weekend at a regatta. I can remember travelling by bus
from Invercargill to Twizel on a Friday night leaving around 6pm for a
championship regatta to be held on Lake Ruataniwha over a weekend Saturday –
Sunday. The bus usually arrived in Twizel around 11pm sometimes later that
Friday night. We would have to be at the lake ready to weigh in as lightweight
rowers around 8am on Saturday morning. The bus would then leave the lake on
Sunday afternoon and travel back to Invercargill where we’d finally arrive at
around 8pm on Sunday night. On a Monday morning at work maintaining and
repairing trucks and buses, starting at 8am I felt as though I was in Disney Land,
and I could barley hold a spanner in my hand. Several of the fellow mechanics I
worked with believed I was booze crook because it must have appeared like that.
However, I can assure you that I hadn’t had one beer during the weekend,
so it was fatigue. I would have had about 6 races over the weekend plus
unloaded all the skiffs, riggers, and oars/sculls from the boat trailer and
then reloaded them all on the Sunday afternoon after racing finished. I can
assure you that rowing during that era [early to mid-1980s] was more than just
‘training on the water’. Rowers also helped with fund raising [selling garden
fertiliser] and helped maintain equipment over the winter months.
Our Invercargill Rowing Club
Senior Eight was never beaten locally that rowing season 1984-1985. The
lightweight four I was 3 seat [position in a skiff] in peaked at the South
Island Championships winning the South Island title. I also was part of the
Invercargill Rowing Club Premier Coxed Four who was placed first at the prestigious
Legion of Rowers 25th Annual Regatta held over the 15th
and 16th December 1984 on the Oreti River course [2,000m]. I was
also part of the Invercargill Rowing Club Open Eight who was placed first at
the same prestigious regatta. These were rare wins for me in this incredible
team sport.
Rowing could be considered an
all-year-round sport in some ways. In the later years rowing I also began
biking out to the river from where I lived. This was around 15km one way. So,
by the time my rowing career was ending around 1986 I was extremely fit.
One day in 1985 while riding my
bike in the city, a gentleman driving a taxi [white HQ Kingswood] came
alongside me, leaned over from the driver’s seat, wound down the passenger
window [I was on his left] and yelled out to me, ‘Do a bit of biking do you?’ I
looked over to my right at him sitting in the driver’s seat of his white Holden
HQ taxi, and replied ‘a wee bit’…he yelled back ‘there’s a bike race this
Sunday morning starting at 10am outside Kew Bowl why don’t you come along’…by
this stage I think a car had come along to the rear of his taxi and as he had
slowed down it was almost at a point where the driver was going to toot his
horn so he accelerated off. Later that evening I had a think about the
gentleman and thought to myself I may as well head along to the bike race he
informed me about. And I did. I was 22 years old. To this day I have never forgotten
this bike race in early April 1985. It was a handicap race that meant riders
didn’t all start together at the same time, rather several groups of riders
started at staggered intervals i.e. the ‘limit’ groups of riders started first,
and the ‘scratch’ group of riders started last, and in between all the other
groups were set off. As the race distance was around 25km, the total time
between the ‘limit’ and ‘scratch’ riders was around 12-14 minutes. I was placed
in the ‘9 minute’ group’ with around 5-6 riders. There is a standard protocol
in road cycling in a group or bunch where ‘lapping’ takes place, this means the
groups cycles or revolves/rotates as a group either clockwise or anticlockwise
depending on wind direction while in pairs on the road. This means that each
rider will face the wind when it is their turn at the front of the group. To
get the most out of the slipstreaming effect riding this way means that the
closer a rider positions themselves to the rider in front of them, the more
slipstreaming they will get – so the front wheel of a rider’s bike is as close
to the rear wheel of the rider’s bike in front of him. This requires a lot of
skill, experience, and most of all courage, especially when there is a strong
wind to content with. As I was so new to the sport of road cycling it did take
me a while to learn the skill, as also requires ‘cat-like reflexes’ – so a
rider can react to sudden changes in speed/velocity and direction of the rider in
front of them they are slipstreaming behind. About 5km into the race I believed
the group of riders I was part of were riding too slow, and I wasn’t the most
patient of people at the best of times. So I made the decision to ride as fast
as I could in front of the group. I didn’t know it but this was a very difficult
way of riding in a road cycling race as there is so much combined power in a
group versus a single rider. However, I persevered on racing as fast as I possibly
could. I ended up crossing the finishing line in 8th place and had
my name feature in the local Southland Times newspaper. I couldn’t believe it.
I was approached by a few members
of both the Glengarry and Invercargill cycling clubs as I had raced well and
clubs were keen to attract new members. It was a very difficult decision I had
to make on which club I would eventually join as both clubs had excellent
members who were only too willing to help me succeed in the sport of road
cycling. I discovered the taxi driver who had approached me was a stalwart in
the Invercargill Amateur Cycling club. I was approached by a member of the
Invercargill club who had also been a harrier and he and I seemed to click
straight away as I was also a harrier and member of the St Paul’s Harrier and Amateur
Athletic club. I made the decision to join the Invercargill Amateur Cycling club
in 1985 and I also influenced a few fellow Invercargill Rowing Club rowers to
try the sport of road cycling as well.
A prestigious road cycling race
was coming up in 1985 and I was training as well as I could. The Invercargill
Cycling club had offered to help me by asking an older more experienced member
of the club to semi coach me. This gentleman was inspirational, and I listened
to every word he told me. He had suggested that during my shorter training rides
around the city, I increase tempo at every second-third power pole along Layard
Street but not to get out of the saddle on my bike. He instructed me to really
push hard on the pedals and semi-sprint for as long as I could and then ease
off the pressure and repeat on other streets. If you think that is easy then I
suggest you try it.
The purpose of the training is to
simulate racing conditions and the increasing and decreasing tempos within a
race and this training would be put to the test in the prestigious 55th Gore to
Invercargill Cycling Classic in 1985. I also remember this race as if it was
yesterday. There was a field of just over 30 riders that Saturday. The handicapper
placed me in the ’11 minute’ bunch. The scratch bunch gave away 21 minutes to
the ‘limit’ bunch i.e. the first bunch of riders to start. If you can
understand road cycling is really a maths test…it is also ‘chess on wheels’ in
the strategies riders use to calculate how to win a race. I didn’t believe I
was great at either…Therefore the 11 minute group I was part of, to catch the ‘limit’
group, would have to reel in 10 minutes [remember Limit was 21 minutes]. Also
riding in our group was one of Southland’s greatest athletes at the time who
owned Gold’s Gym, he was an outstanding triathlete, who had played rugby and
took aerobics classes in his gym – he was extremely fit. He decided to ride clear
of our group over the top of the Edendale Hill. Meanwhile I was riding well
within myself and lapping it out with my fellow riders in the group. The
scratch group was riding more than 50km/hr in its attempt to catch all the
groups and get to the front of the bike race. Our group began picking up the
other groups in the race and we became a very powerful group. This now made it very
difficult for the scratch group to catch us as we were speeding along as well.
I began to feel a sense of great excitement as we began approaching the city of
Invercargill where the race finished. This excitement seemed to accelerate into
the whole bunch of riders as there was an opportunity to win the race. With
only 1500m left to go in the race our bunch caught the front markers [limit
bunch] and now it was ‘game on’ as to who would win the race – the race was up
for grabs. I can remember entering the city of Invercargill at Tay street and
the pace kept increasing in the bunch. I kept trying to ‘follow wheels’ – choosing
the correct rider to follow as the pace increased. I was really racing on ‘gut
instinct’ as I was so new to the sport. The finish line began appearing and
with about 100m to the finish line I burst from following a wheel in front of
me as I knew this was my only chance to win the race, I sprinted as hard as I
possibly could and crossed the finish line in first place, beating several
seasoned road cyclists. It was my first major cycling success and I couldn’t
believe it. A few people came up to me to congratulate me and I wondered what on
earth I had done…I had just won the prestigious Gore to Invercargill Cycling
Classic at the age of 22 in my first season as a senior road cyclist. Do you
really know who helped me win the race? It was of course the race handicapper. Over
the course of my new road cycling career I would get to understand just how
crucial the role and the person performing it is in the sport of road cycling.
As a result of my win, I featured
in The Southland Times newspaper and my photo crossing the finish line was taken
by one of the Southand Times greatest photographers and outstanding road
cyclist Barry Harcourt. My name began appearing in The Southland Times
newspaper in road cycling articles and in the pre-Queenstown Cycle Tour article
it stated ‘Southland is well represented with a strong young team led by Gary Smith,
the winner of last week’s mini tour at Bluff Jared Stock and Leighton Smith the
surprise winner of the recent Gore to Invercargill Classic. Obviously no one
was more surprised than me. I wondered what would happen next in this new sport
of road cycling I had transitioned to from rowing. Ironically it would be in another
new sport I took on, triathlon. My rowing coach from the Invercargill Rowing
club Dave Galbraith who I admired and respected immensely asked me if I would
be interested in joining a triathlon team he was organising to compete in the
local Foveaux Homestyle Bakery Triathlon. I would be the cyclist as part of the
Homestyle Bakery Team. The team was made of a canoeist, swimmer, runner, and
cyclist. The team took out the win and won the beautiful huge sterling silver
cup.
I continued competing in half and full Marathons
during 1984 and 1985 and placed 68th in the Coronet Peak Marathon
and Half Marathon Arrowtown to Queenstown event over Easter 1984. I placed 68th
in the half marathon finishing in a time of 1 hour 27 minutes 43 seconds. I completed
two marathons in 1984. I finished the Speight’s ’84 City of Dunedin Harbour
Marathon in 65th place in a time of 3 hours 42 minutes 54 seconds.
It was a challenging event with strong cross winds from Dunedin to Port Chalmers
and I ended up walking for a bit. That could have had something to do with the
couple of beers I had with my dinner the previous evening. I was 21. On Saturday
3 November 1984 I completed the 75th Jubilee 15th Annual
Winstone Riverton to Invercargill Marathon aged 21 in 73rd place in
a time of 3 hours 40 minutes 37 seconds. In 1985 I completed the Air New
Zealand Winstone Half Marathon in 11th place in a time of 1 hour 14
minutes 24 seconds, it was a tail wind that day, I was 22, and it was a personal
best time and I’m taking it.
I graduated as a New Zealand Trade Certified Automotive Engineer mid way through 1985. I then made the decision to leave and begin working at the Alliance Ocean Beach Export Freezing Works in Bluff and began working there at the start of the 1985-1986 killing season. I eventually was employed in the Smallgoods Department. Before starting the season I was employed at Tappers Ltd Invercargill as a motor mower mechanic. I loved this job and have the Service Manager John Bath to thank for recommending my employment to owner Ted Tapper.
It was now onto 1986.
PHOTOS:
Pic 1 is 1981 Old Boys Under 18 Rugby Team. I am seated third from the right.
Pic 2 is 1981-1982 Invercargill Rowing Club. My novice year age 18. I am pictured third from the right sitting on the seat.
Pic 3 is 1981 Athletic Attic Laser Half Marathon [21.1km] completion certificate. Note I had to fill in the details. I finished in 1 hour 45 minutes. Age 17.
Pic 4 is 1982 Athletic Attic Laser Half Marathon [21.1km] completion certificate. There was a more professional look to the writing/text now. I finished in 71st place in a time of 1 hour 25 minutes 48 seconds. Age 18.
Pic 5 is 1983 Athletic Attic Laser Half Marathon [21.1km] completion certificate. Back to having to write in details manually...Age 19.
Pic 2. 1981-1982 Invercargill Rowing Club. I am pictured third from the right sitting on the seat. Age 18.
Pic 13. 1984 Legion Of Rowers 25th Annual Regatta. I was part of the Invercargill Rowing Club Premier Coxed Four that placed first 15th - 16th December. Age 21.
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