What a great year we had last year! Five great meets followed by the Provincials held in Surrey. Thanks to Aart and his crew for all the hard work to make the Provincials a success. And a big thanks to all the meet managers and volunteers for the work you put in so that swimmers can enjoy each and every meet.

There were many great swims at the Provincials, as well as at the Nationals, where the MSBC team was number one overall in addition to setting six new Canadian records in relays. Congratulations to all those swimmers who broke so many Provincial or Canadian records.

Many of us spent the summer swimming open water events and triathlons. I would like to thank all the Master swimmers who are involved in making these events a success. This year was the first year of what will hopefully be an annual event in the Masters Swimming Canada Open Water Swimming Series. The western Canada event was held in Kelowna, and 45 swimmers competed with swimmers from as far away as Iraq . We look forward to seeing many more Masters take the challenge to compete in the open water championships next year.

On the National front, we have a new President. Frank Coy has been elected by the MSC board to take over the president’s position left vacant when Chris Smith stepped down in June. We thank Chris for all the work he put in and we are all looking forward to working with Frank as he takes MSC to new and greater heights.

We have the Million Meter Challenge continuing. More and more BC swimmers are using this great website to record their mileage, and this year we should see a few more changes to make it an even better site. If you haven’t been using this site, check it out at http://mymsc.ca!

I would like to welcome John McManus as our new webmaster. Please contact John if you would like something posted on the site (webmaster@mastersswimming.bc.ca). I would also like to thank Greg Perkins for all the work he has put into our website over that last few years. Greg did a great job keeping the site up to date and making sure it ran well.

We have three new members to our board for this season. Welcome to Steve Wallace and Gilles Beaudin as Directors, and Claudia Sperling as Editor. If you have anything you would like to get into our bulletin please contact Claudia (sperlingclaudia@gmail.com).

Now that we have all enjoyed the super BC summer it is time to start another season of great swimming. Time for the registrars to get their teams registered. Any problems? Please contact our registrar, Tony Zezza (registrar@mastersswimming.bc.ca).

This year will once again offer 5 great meets and finish with the Provincials being held in Kamloops, followed by the Nationals in Quebec City to celebrate that province’s 400th birthday. As well there is the World Masters Swimming Championships being held in Perth, Australia.

I would now like to welcome all MSABC swimmers back for another year and a special welcome to all the new masters swimmers. I know everyone will have a great year competing, swimming to stay in shape, or swimming for great social reasons.

Hope to see many of you at the meets.
Have a great 2007/2008 swim year!

Glen Mehus
President, MSABC
president@mastersswimming.bc.ca

We are looking forward to another great year of meets! If you’ve never participated in a meet before, why not give it a try? It’s a great opportunity to meet new people and spend the day completely immersed in this sport that we love so much. And better yet, no previous experience is required!

For additional meet information, please see our website: www.mastersswimming.bc.ca/upcoming.html

Date	Meet Name	Type	Location	Details
Nov 18/07	UBC Meet	SCM	UBC Vancouver	Details TBA - see web site at: www.ubcmasters.com
Dec 01/08	Nanaimo Ebbtides Meet	SCM	Nanaimo	Details TBA - see web site at: www.ebbtides.ca
Jan 27/08	Cowichan Meet	SCM	Duncan	Details TBA
Feb 10/08	EBSC Love to Swim Meet	SCM	UBC Vancouver	Details TBA - see web site at: www.englishbay.org
Mar 15/08	Victoria Masters Meet	LCM	Saanich Commonwealth Pool, Victoria	Details TBA - see web site at: www.victoriamasters.ca
Apr 15-25/08	FINA World Masters Championships	LCM	Perth Australia	www.2008finamasters.org
Apr 18-20/08	MSABC Provincials	SCM	Canada Games Pool, Kamloops	Details TBA
May 23-26/08	MSC Nationals	SCM	Quebec City, PQ	Details TBA

A very special “thank you” to all of our coaches, not only for the many hours that you put in (most of them volunteer hours), but for bringing out the best in each of us as swimmers, motivating us to swim better, and supporting us when needed!

We would like to remind all coaches that SwimBC conducts skills courses throughout the year. Details can be found on the SwimBC website (www.swim.bc.ca/sbcnccp.aspx) for up and coming courses. And don’t forget, anyone completing the Level 1: Skills Coach NCCP program and 30 hours of coaching with a registered Masters Swim Club in BC is reimbursed $150 by MSABC upon producing a completed and valid application!

And this important message from SwimBC: Coaches who are currently certified as “Level 1”, must complete the “Making Ethical Decisions” (MED) module by December 31, 2007, to maintain their certification. Instructions on how to do this are on the SwimBC website. All new coaches must also complete MED prior to being granted certification.

Many of us are taking a short break from training right now, but before we know it, it will be time to pull out those new goggles, dust off that polyester training suit, and make a commitment to train better, harder and/or more consistently than last year!

How about setting some goals this season? I’m still new to swimming, having learned to swim as an adult, and I still have a lot to learn. Last year, for the first time, I went through the process of setting two goals for myself. They gave me something to focus on in workouts and before I knew it, I had achieved them! Goals can be grand ones that will amaze others, such as setting a Provincial/Canadian record in your age group, or they can be grand ones that will amaze you, such as learning to do flip turns, participating in a meet for the first time, or getting better at the stroke that you like the least! Or you may want to work on improving your core strength by taking up yoga, regularly doing stretch cord exercises to reduce the likelihood of shoulder injuries, or weight training to strengthen various muscle groups. Or better yet, your goal could be to head up a Social Committee to ensure that your Club has a good balance between working hard and having fun! Think about setting reasonable and achievable goals for yourself this swim season!

MSABC has some great resources to help you with your training. Check out our website to find out about borrowing the video camera and underwater lens (www.mastersswimming.bc.ca/camera.html). Arrangements and bookings can be made by contacting Glen Mehus at gmehus@shaw.ca. Or check out our video/DVD library (www.mastersswimming.bc.ca/video.html). We’ve just moved into the 21st century and purchased 15 new DVD’s and they are available for a 2 to 3 week loan period. Contact Claudia Sperling at sperlingclaudia@gmail.com to borrow videos or DVD’s and have a “Club Movie Night” soon!

SwimBC, The Arthritis Society, and the Arthritis Research Council have partnered together to raise awareness of Arthritis in the community and to promote life-long aquatic activity as a fundamental part of healthy living. Masters Swim Association of BC has signed on with Swim BC to support this worthy cause, and we have some great ways in which you can participate.

Click here to download a Word Doc with information on how you can get involved today!

Our new webmaster, John McManus, has been doing a fabulous job updating our website! If there is anything you would like to see posted, or if you have any feedback on our website, please contact John (webmaster@mastersswimming.bc.ca).

Do you have news, articles, or information of interest to Masters Swimming? Sent it to the Bulletin! Contact Claudia Sperling (sperlingclaudia@gmail.com).

Deadlines for submissions:

• October 15th for November/December issue
• January 15th for February/March issue
• April 1st for May/June issue
• June 15th for July/August issue
• August 15th for September/October issue

Lastly, do you know of anyone who is not receiving this bulletin? If not, they need sign up on the MSABC website. Ask them to go to www.mastersswimming.bc.ca/bulletin.html and enter their email address in the appropriate spot – and why not print out a copy of this bulletin and post it on your Club information board at the pool?! Thank you, and have a wonderful 2007/08 swim season!