And the Gulf Cup goes to...

This is the 10^thyear we have awarded the Gulf Cup. For those that don’t know, Karen Hunt was the instigator of this annual tradition. She found the John Maddock Golf Cup in a drawer at work and decided to repurpose it. The rest is history…

A lot has changed over the 10 years we’ve been awarding the cup. Me for instance, I’ve lost speed and gained weight and grey hairs. The group has changed too. We used to rely solely on the faithful 8 o’clock at the toilet block blog. Now we’re texting, What’s Apping and Facebooking. We were swimming in dirty water 10 years ago, but we just didn’t know about it. The Takapuna playground hadn’t been conceived, although they were drawing up plans for smart new changing sheds. And the ‘toilet blockers’ were a dedicated and social bunch, much smaller in number than today, and enjoying stops at each Takapuna buoy, and of course the occasional adventure swim. 

The previous winners of the Gulf Cup are the ones who decide which person it is handed onto. And let’s get one thing straight: there are no criteria, which makes the decision very difficult for a pedant like me. Lots of worthy candidates were suggested this year, so it was a decision that required some thought.

For me the Gulf cup is about creating a tradition, celebrating camaraderie and being ever so slightly eccentric. Over the years more people have enjoyed swimming at 8 o’clock at the toilet block. We’re all from different walks of life, but none of that is important. What binds us together is a love of the ocean, and in particular swimming in the Hauraki Gulf, at Takapuna. I decided that those factors should drive my decision.

This year’s custodian of the cup is certainly not carbon-neutral. Like me, this person would struggle with the lack of criteria for handing over the cup, and would probably come up with an algorithm to determine next year’s minder. (S)he certainly knows their numbers, and the race times of many of his/her peers, particularly the ones in close range.

This person is a bit of a bard, and has expressed some of their political views through poetry. They’ve clocked up a ‘tron’ of mileage getting to and from weekend swimming — I estimate more than 30,000 km over the years.

If you haven’t worked it out by now, this year the Gulf Cup goes to Steve Atkins (aka Hamilton Steve and Rico’s mentor).

Well done Steve!