Happy New Year!

2010 started off in grand style. Andy MacDonald and I won the Bob Levin Regatta this past weekend in Miami. It was the first regatta of the season.
We had about 20 boats registered for the event, unfortunately for the competitors we were greeted with 28 degree F weather rain/sleet and 25kts of breeze.

I think that must have been the world record for the coldest temperature Miami has ever encountered. I am still cold and the event ended last weekend!

This season, I will be sailing with Andy MacDonald. We are putting in a full court press for 2012. This being our first year together we have decided to take things slow and train in the US with the possibility of a few European events. Then when 2011 rolls around the full court press begins. Andy has been sailing full time for as long as I can remember. He is a member of the US Sailing Team Alpha Graphics and finished last year’s ISAF World Cup events in 6thplace with his crew Brian Fatih.

I am really looking forward to getting back in the boat with Andy. He is a tremendous sailor/athlete and an even better guy. Going forward we are planning on sailing the following events.

Harry Walker Regatta – January /Miami
Miami Olympic Classes Regatta – January /Miami
Bacardi Cup – March/Miami
Western Hemisphere Championships – Nassau, Bahamas/April

See you on the water.

Austin

Where do I begin? It’s been about 5 months since I updated my website and lots has happened since the last day of the Olympics.

Sally and I flew to Hong Kong a few days after the last race. We skipped the closing ceremony in Beijing and opted for a quick trip to see the sights in HK. The trip was awesome and I highly recommend it. We stayed at the Peninsula Hotel and all I can say is – 10 stars with the best service!

Only days after Sally and I returned from the Games we pack up all of our worldly possessions and evacuated from Hurricane Gustav! God, I love hurricanes…. No damage but lots of wasted time and energy and money.

Hans Wallen, Steve Erickson and ROOODDDDDNNNEEYYY Hagebols all said I might fall into a bit of depression after the Games were over. I never believed them until I got home and it happened to me. It was rough. For so long I had had a regimented schedule with training and travel and suddenly it was over. If you have ever experienced this you will know what I mean but it’s very hard to explain. I just had a hard time to motivate myself to do anything. My jet setting lifestyle, the past three years sailing around the globe, hanging with my best friends was over for the short term – until I figured out my next move. Luckily, I had been preparing for this long ago. I knew it would all end sooner or later and I positioned myself for my next deal.

Sally and I have actually formed a new company called Pizza South, LLC. We own and operate Fregene’s Italian Pizzeria under this company. We have been open about a month and it’s been nothing but a raving success! We have the best pizza on this planet and I am not just saying this because I am the owner. It is literally a mouth changing experience. Thin crust gourmet pizza, there is nothing better.

I am also finally able to help in the store. I am recovering from knee surgery that I had five weeks ago. I had a few loose bones in my knee that were tearing my patella tendon in half so thankfully the US Sailing Team Alpha Graphics has a relationship with Dr. James Andrews (world renowned orthopedic surgeon) who performed the surgery and I just got off the crutches about a week ago. I do two hours of rehab a day and last week we had a big step forward. I was able to ride the stationary bike for five minutes.. Like I said, it’s the small things that make me happy!!

So here we are still living in Gulfport. Proud owners of a new Fregene’s Pizzeria and just crushing it! Things are going well, my development/management company is going fantastic and I was just accepted to college, I enjoy learning and going back starting this summer!

I am slowly adjusting to my new lifestyle but I am fighting it, I miss my friends and miss the competition.

My motivation for 2012 is starting to knock…

Austin


Fregene’s Pizzaria
1116 Cowan Rd.
Gulfport, MS 39507
Phone -(228)604-2750
Fax -(228)604-2757
www.fregenes.com

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and 2008 brings good health and prosperity.

Sally and I headed out to San Francisco for Christmas. We had a fantastic week with Paul and Val Erickson who hosted us at their wonderful home in Tiburon. I love that place. Every time we visit it gets harder to leave. I was asked to do a speech at my yacht club (the St. Francis Yacht Club) the day after Christmas. I felt honored that I was asked to make the speech and jumped at the opportunity. I spent many days and nights going over in my head and on paper what it was I would exactly talk about. After a few minutes with my father, we decided that it would be most interesting if I talked about the process of putting together a winning team and preparing for a regatta like the Olympic Trials and ultimately, the Olympic Games.

I was really stressed before I gave my speech. I was worried if I was prepared. I was also worried that no one would show up given it was the day after Christmas. Well, I made it through the speech in a standing room only setting and people actually said it was fantastic. I don’t think it was the best talk I ever gave, but apparently people loved it. All good.

John and I left for Miami on January 4th bright and early. We held a training session with our training partners Marc Pickel & Ingo Borkowski and Hamish Pepper & Tiny Williams from Jan 4th until the 13th, with a two-day regatta on January 5 & 6 run out of the Coral Reef Yacht Club. We did a bit of sailing before the regatta mostly to get our heads into it and take the boat out for a shake down sail. We sailed two races on Saturday, against 38 other boats.

After the first two races and at the end of day one, we were in second place. One point out of first. Sound familiar? Sunday we had only one race and we missed our opportunity to close the door. At the end of the day, we ended up 4th overall. It’s a little disappointing given the fact we had an opportunity on the first beat to lock the race up, but unfortunately this is life and we learned a lot in one race. It’s interesting you would think after sailing day in and day out all your life, how is it possible to learn anything else. Sailing is funny; every time we leave the dock we learn something. I love learning so I am really into it!

Over the week of training we made huge gains on what we learned. I don’t want to go into what we did, but I honestly can say we learned a ton in one week! At the end of the day we were going well, very well! It was a very productive week of training.

We did manage to have some fun this trip. We brought our 3 Finn’s (another type of sail boat for one person that is also in the Olympics) to Miami for some additional training action. Our days were more of the same wake up too early go to the gym for two hours, come home do a little work, have a few meetings about the day then go sailing four about four hours then back to the dock.

Here is where it gets interesting and fun, Hamish’s crew “Tiny” and I would take the Finns out after we got back in from the four hours of training in our Star boats and go back out sailing to battle against each other until dark. Man, I felt like a kid again playing ball outside until Mom called us in for dinner. When you sail every day things get boring but I can honestly say, Tiny and I had the best time out on the water without any coaches just grinding upwind and pumping our asses off downwind. Just trying to kick each other’s teeth in on the racecourse! Awesome!!

Tiny (this is his nickname he is 6’5” and built like a NFL linebacker and is one of the most fit people I have ever met) well he cried uncle before I did when we were sailing upwind in the breeze in the Finns. (Thank God he did cause my quads were about to explode) the Finn is one of the more difficult things I have done in recent times. It’s a great way to get in shape!!

We also had a team building night out in South Beach… nuff said….

I am back home for a week, where my company the EMS Group just acquired another mobile home community and making some final preparations in anticipation of the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta which is held in Miami from Jan 28-Feb 2nd.

I will keep everyone posted!

Austin Sperry