Its been 3 years since I began sailing with John Dane. We have had some amazing victories, some humbling defeats, and felt every other emotion along the way. Were number 1 on the 2007 US Sailing Team, Top ten ranked team in the world. We have been around the world and back again 4 times….

It means nothing….

Over the next week and 16 races, all that matters is consistency and winning the Olympic Trials… 19 Boats 16 races, 1 discard = winner goes to the olympics….. pretty simple….

We have been in Los Angeles since Sept 17th training with Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada, as I said in previous updates from China, Robert is a 9 time laser world champion, 2 time gold medalist and 1 silver medal… He just won the star world championships, and won the gold at the Pre-Olympics… Needless to say we had a great training session with Robert & Bruno… We were able to help those guys improve their upwind performance and they took our downwind skills up to the next level…

I am a big believer in training with people/teams that are better than you, I feel that if you train with better teams you will get your game on that next level…. The biggest mistake is sailing with people that are off the pace, or working with people who just don’t get it for that matter…… Lots of wasted time etc…. not very productive…

Some numbers that I have been calculating: we have
4 star boats here
2 tenders here
1 team house for past 6 months
weather team
strength coach/trainer
massage therapist
3 coaches (Hans Wallen 96’ Silver medalist from Sweden, Marc Pickel from Germany and Rod Hagebols from Australia)
we have ridden over 200 miles on our bikes just warming up (the past 15 days)
we have spent about 30 hours in the gym
an average of 4 hours of on the water tuning, testing, practice racing daily
After hours debrief, more meetings, more sail testing, more meetings to schedule meetings…..
coaches sleeping on the couch because the other coach snores..
tested 15 masts
tested 4 booms
gone through 2 boxes of paper for printing our weather reports, mast pictures, side bend, fore aft bend, every type of picture or video you can think of we have done it…
more stretching, dog calls, elevated mountain climbers, swiss ball crunches, & wall sits…. those suck.. gone through more bottles of sun tan lotion than wal mart wanted to sell us..
had some seriously long days, and some serious gut checks, some long looks in the mirror
1 trip to the hospital, 1 trip to the orthopedic surgeon
More days living out of a suitcase, sitting on airplanes and away from home that I care to remember…


As I type this email I am reflecting on the past few years and how lucky I am to be in this position. We are the most prepared team here. We have won the big events, we have proven to ourselves that this is possible. Our expectations are high, they should be, If you want to be the best and make the Olympic Team you need to peak at the right time…. The time is now. Nothing else matters, I am totally focused and totally committed to winning this thing…
Its not going to be easy, every inch, every point matters…. My one word, one belief for this regatta is BELIEVE……

You look around the boat park, people are bunched and nervous…. You can see it on peoples faces and their actions… Some people flat out tell me that they don’t think they have a chance? I ask myself what are you doing here?

I am trying to un-clutter my mind and relax, but bottom line is I am ready to get in that boat do my job to the best of my ability give it 100% every second…. The rest will take care of itself.

This regatta is so much bigger than just the two of us in the boat, its the guys back at the shipyards in Mississippi that work day in and day out who constantly get bothered by me after their long day is finished so they can build a custom piece for one of the boats, for the workers at the City of Gulfport who cheer and support us, for our families who never see us, my wife sally deserves this much more than I do…. These goals are not possible without the support of a great team…. We have the BEST TEAM!

Here is an email I got from a friend back home… I think it’s very inspiring….

Hope you are doing okay. Think of you and all your dreams ….keep dreaming and keep going! You are so special, find that inner balance needed for the long haul, b/c I think you shall have a long, good life. I am praying for the trials and no matter what happens in the next week or so, get this in your head: You have already and will continue to accomplish more than 99% of your peers. Jealousy is an ugly thing and Brother, you are a lightening rod for folks to exercise that emotion on. Shrug it off ….Don’t internalize the negative words or deeds done to you. While you did not need this email to tell you any of this, I needed to tell you these things for myself and also to remind you that plenty around you pull for you to achieve all your goals!! You are loved and blessings are spoken over you. Go, go, go toward your destiny of greatness and bigness, and goodness, but remember to remain your precious humble self, you are but dust….even Alexander had to succumb to his grave. Leave a full and balanced legacy.

Whatever happens after this next week, I can sleep at night knowing that I have left no stone unturned….


BELIEVE!!!

Austin