Adam Ryan Design

In response to the catastrophic failure that bred the sustainability trust rant I thought it would only be fair to present the other side of the coin and discuss some example that radiate awsomeness.

Redux; For a long time Nik has been introducing me to some slightly more alterative vocabulary, ‘redux’ is one of his many gems and thus gets credit for the blatantly stolen title.

Lanes; After one certain Sunday beer escalated into a photo shoot with the Hurricanes cheerleaders, ‘The Lanes’ has become a second home to my friends and I, and rightfully so! Their place is way nicer than mine and they never seem to run out of beer. The staff members are extremely friendly and accommodating, and will even let you pick the music on quiet night, provided you remind them that it is your photo up on the wall.

All joking aside, they have, in every sense ‘got it right’! From décor to food to layout to marketing, the powers that be have; as my bank account can attest, created a little corner of the world that is very difficult to leave.

Exodus; I am officially addicted! In addition to my standard vices (beer and women) there is now a third, far more healthy option. Exercise. After taking the grand tour a few weeks back I did what any poor student would do and I shopped around for the best deal. Imagine my shock when the biggest, most equip, most accessible, and newest gym was also competitive on price!

They got everything right so far… How do they rate on experience? From being greeted by the lovely girls at reception to the huge changing rooms to the expansive floors of cardio and weights, I was impressed, even the music kicks ass! But for me Exodus’ crowning jewel is its Fitlink system. In brief how it works is that you log onto a machine, enter the weights your about to lift and go for it. It counts the reps for you and even displays a little animation to ensure you make the full range of motion. Great huh? It gets better… if you do more than you did last time it fires you a wee message saying congratulations. Finally at the end of the workout you go to log off and it calculates and summarises all the work you did in this session. I was astonished when after my first visit it told me in the last hour I lifted just under 8000kgs and even more impressed when the next day it read 11,340kgs.

Real, usable, vital, data. For me it’s become a game where I try and out do the last session and at the end of the day isn’t that the point of exercise. Well done Exodus and Fitlink!

First things first lets acknowledge the glaringly obvious oxymoron in the title because… well… that’s what I’m going to talk about today.

I play in a social Indoor Soccer team as a way to stay somewhat active and as a scarcely satisfactory substitute for not having the spare time to commit fully to a more serious Soccer team/club.

Tonight we had our last game for the ’season’ so naturally everyone was pretty amped to go out on a high note. The team I play in has had a good run winning all our games bar 3 with the remanded boiling down to 2 draws and 1 loss.

History aside however, tonight I was floored when the referee cautioned me for kicking the ball “too hard” because one of my shots on goal struck a young lady in the ankle. Excuse me? Literally speechless (a rare occurrence for me) I was startled into apologising for something, as I look back now I’m not the slightest bit sorry for. I love trying to kick the leather off the ball, shit even the team and spectators love seeing a shot crash full force into the back of the net or even just bounce off the wall (note that the ball is more of a big fuzzy tennis ball thing and not actually made from leather), its all part of it. Rest assured it was not some malicious attempt to injure your team-mate… I actually was trying to score a goal.

In a game that is essentially 8 sweaty people running around trying to kick the ball at 2 other slightly less sweaty people and I am forced to aim for a target that is 6 feet wide and 3 feet high the best option is to try and drill it in low and fast. Apparently however in social competition (there’s that oxymoron again) I’m expected to hold back and go after victory half arsed.

I am fully aware that it is a “social” thing.
Most teams know each other personally
The games are frequently played in high sprits (read tipsy)
There is no sledging of the opposition defence as they try to mark you
Girls aren’t tackled roughly buy the guys (half the time the girls are actually rougher)
If someone gets hurt the game stops immediately
We all just have fun!

But now with the social covered its time for the “competition”
We keep score
The winning team gets a prize and bragging rights
Girls are given 2 points if they score

When you weigh things up like that I realise that it’s actually the social aspects I enjoy the most. Get rid of the prizes. Forget the score. I honestly wouldn’t care. Running around with a few mates and having a beer should be made compulsory. But then the foundation of sport is destroyed. We play because we know there is some reward to it all.

Social Competition has managed to bridge two arenas while at that same time managing to fall into a hole where it is beginning to discourage competition. In the sublime and utterly flawless words of the great Tana Umaga, “This is rugby, not tiddlywinks!” (You can sub in any sport you like where rugby is. (And yes pun intended)). It’s a sport. Shit happens! If I kick your foot be assured it’s an accident. If I hurt you, I will help you up. And regardless of what transpired in the last 30mins I will shake your hand.

Social Competition is still a competition. Social Competition doesn’t mean going out half arsed and just having a kick around, I can do that without a ref. Social Competition means regardless of the outcome we can all still share a beer and be friends. And if I did something in the game that means I need to buy you one, shit I’ll do that too.