We just ended the Montreal training camp and are on our way to Lima, Peru today. The team has been training well and the Island boys look good. The coaches say this is the best group of Juniors they have ever taken to an International meet. The psych sheets are out and the Canadians have 2 swimmers in the top 2 heats in each event. This will be the first real International meet for many of these kids. There are 64 countries and over 600 swimmers entered with all the swimming powerhouses including, USA, Australia, and all the European countries. It's been a long 2 weeks since Nationals and Age Groups. The boys and Aaron have been in Montreal for a month getting ready. Today is a long travel day to Lima, over 12 hours and we arrive at 1 am. I will update everyone on our arrival.

Alex Brothers

Not your typical boy!!

Well, I thought I was finished but I just had to post this photo...Pinches was getting ready to go to the pool. He also left this morning to travel by himself to the Caribbean, I hope he survives the trip! He might even make some money with that lunch kit, if he opens it up and begs a bit.

Good bye from Montreal!!

We ended the meet with our team dinner so here are some pics to finish off the trip.
Betty-Ann and I decided we deserved a special treat after the week...

The girls presented Cindy and Neil with some little gifts and the kids all signed a shirt for Neil as this is his last swim meet.

The kids are having their last hour with each other before they part for the summer and then they are off to bed to be up for an early cab ride to the airport.
It has been a great trip and we both had a blast working with your swimmers.

I would like to give a personal thanks to Neil for being such an integral part of our family's experience with swimming. It has been wonderful traveling with you to different meets and seeing you work with all the kids throughout the years. Thank you very much from the Bradleys!

I will sign off now, I hope you have enjoyed keeping apprised of our adventures here in la belle province!
Now hopefully we can corral the kids and get them into their own rooms!

That is it!!!

PICS: The chaperones...
Cindy, Heidi and Karen
The group in the tent tonight.
Luke getting his GOLD.
Heidi with the subway police
Peter and his 400 bronze.



Wow, last night of the meet and our finalists tore it up. Every swimmer improved their their time!
First up we had Heidi in the IM, she moved up from 10th to 7th and dropped her best time. Then Peter was up, also in the IM, he came out with the silver with a great time. Heidi jumped in again for the 50 fly and went from 8th to 6th with another best time. Then the crazy swim of the night had Luke in lane 2 for his 400 free, he took off like a rocket and raced his way to the GOLD!!! Our last race of the night saw Peter in a battle in the middle of the pool for the medal, the 3 guys went back and forth and he ended up with the bronze!! 3 medals on the last night was a pretty sweet way to end the year!!!!! Just found out that the little girls medley relay came 4th, big girls 11th and the little boys 16th.

We are now off to Baton Rouge for dinner and then who knows what they will get up to tonight. We are in cabe tom

Day 5...or what we are calling 'Finally'

Here is our BIG girl relay team, they all swam both the free and the medley. Then we have the team just hangin' out in the tent. Oh yeah, and Finn the trucker!



It's another beautiful day in Montreal, this is the first year that we have not had a least one day of hellishly bad weather!!

With this being the 5th day of the meet, you might think that our kids would start to slow down in the pool...not the case! It looks like most of them are stepping up and digging in for some best times.

For finals tonight, we will have 6 swims. Heidi in the 200IM and 50 fly, Peter B. in the IM and 400 free, Luke in the free and Finn squeaking into the free too!

DAY 4

A few more action shots of our adventures...
Some of the kids after they all stuffed their faces on a huge Greek feast.
Noah really enjoyed the dinner tonight and couldn't get enough of the greek rice we made. Peter won the silver medal in the 100 back, Cindy and Sarah finally stood still long enough to get a shot of them together and Taylor just wanted a picture of her in here so I had to put in the last one.


The end of day 4...well, that didn't go as planned. We were just getting the kids tucked in and the fire alarm went off. We all proceeded down the stairs in an orderly fashion and congregated on the vast lawns in front of the hotel. In came the fire trucks, all 4 of them, and an ambulance. Of course the trucks all held your run of the mill fire fighters...all of whom were calendar worthy, they grabbed their axes and ran to check out the problem. After sitting outside for an hour we got to come back inside. We have a number of different versions of what may or may not have happened but what we do know is that the kids got back to their rooms and settled right down.

We have a big day tomorrow with the 200IM, 50 fly, medley relay and the 400 free. All but Lisa have at least one event and some(Noah, Heidi,
Maddie, Egor and Peter B) have 3!

Finals tonight went very well with Island having 4 swims. Peter won silver in the 100 back, Cassandra and Finn both had best times and moved up spots in the breast and Luke finished it off with another best time and rose up a couple of spots.

One more day of fast racing and then we are on our way home!!

A few more pics to keep you going. Here is JO, Lisa and Chantal by our team tent, then we have Heidi and Noah after her 100 fly gold. In the third pic, Rebecca and Chantal are dressed for their cat dance...we still haven't seen it yet but we have heard all about it. Finally we have Neil with his parasol. I bought it as an umbrella but we have not had to use it.

If you are wondering how I have so much time to blog, it is all thanks to Betty-Ann, while she washes dishes and does general cleanup I get to lie on the couch and fill you all in on the day's events...that's the life!!

In case you are wondering what we have been feeding them, here is a little sampling: BBQ ribs (thank you Byron Powell) and Parisian potatoes, rotini and sauce, chili and baguettes, BBQ chicken/rice/caesar salad wraps, chicken souvlaki, greek rice and greek salad. Tomorrow night we are going out for a team dinner.

I missed some of the top 10's last night, the younger boys swam their 800's in the morning so here are their results: Luke, 5th, Finn, 7th and Peter B. 4th. Nicely done boys!!

Just a quick addition for those of you who aren't friends of Island Swimming on Facebook...which you really should be because Andrea updates stuff about our club/swimmers about every 10 minutes so you would never miss a thing.
Here is our team(minus Alec), they are an excellent group of kids and Betty-Ann and I are having a great time watching over them.
I just added a couple more of the group so you can maybe see your child in there somewhere and realize they are actually here, in case I haven't mentioned them specifically in here. I can assure you that we haven't lost any of them yet and they all survived traveling on the subway yesterday with the huge crowds swarming onto the island to see Eminem and whatever other crazy bands were playing.
Just a little sidebar...for those of you in Victoria who think we have a lot of homeless people, come to Montreal, it is unbelievable how many are on the streets and in the subway stations asking for money.
We are now off to shop for more food when the store opens and then to the pool to watch our kids swim. The greatest part about this trip is that Betty-Ann finally gets to see her boys swim at a pool other than SCP, where she is volunteering on deck the whole time! Her boys have both stepped up and are giving her an amazing show, way to go Pages!!

Day 3-Finals

Here are our twin towers getting ready for their 50 frees!!!!!































Well, after realizing that Eminem was out of the equation, the kids got right back to the pool in time to see the girls swim their 50 free's. Cindy and Neil say they do not remember Island Swimming ever having any swimmers in the 50 free final at this meet, so it is pretty cool that we had 2 tonight. Maddie started things off with another best time, from 28.87 to 28.76, and moved from 10th to 9th. Heidi came up next with a move from 6th to 5th with another huge best time, from 27.89 to 27.47.
Next up was the fastest heats of the 800's. Taylor took off and had a battle for a medal with a girl from Cascade, it was back and forth for the whole race then Taylor waved bye-bye and raced in to grab the silver medal with a huge 6 second best time from her time at Senior's last week.
The boys were up next in lanes 3, 4 and 5,(Alec, Keegan and Will) and that is how they ended up with Alec getting the gold and Keegan the silver in the 17-18 age group. Will was 3 rd in the race but won the 16 yr age group. It was another pretty great night with 5 of 6 swims being best times and grabbing 4 medals!!
That's 3 down and 2 to go...we can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.
-Thanks to Neil for the great podium pics!!

Day 3-Prelims

Today we had 100 breast, 200 fly, 50 free and 800 free. It started off fairly slowly with no one making finals through the breast and fly...during which time Cindy and Neil decided we would give the kids the night off and we wouldn't have them return tonight. Then came the 50 free!!! Out of nowhere, along came Maddie, she swam a best time and grabbed the last spot in the final!!!! Heidi went in 23rd, swam a best time and is going in 6th tonight. There went the idea of not returning tonight! We also have Taylor, Will, Keegan and Alec in the 800 at the end of the night so it will be great for everyone to go back and cheer. The other kids don't have to get in the pool tonight so they are just there to cheer, that will be a nice break too. If we are lucky, the meet will run long and we can catch a bit of the Eminem concert that is happening 300 metres away!! This place is really hopping, tomorrow there is the Gay Pride parade running just outside our Metro station...let's see if we can catch some of it!
That's all for now, Betty-Ann and I are going to have a little rest before we have to start cooking/shopping/yelling at your kids! Just kidding, they have all been wonderfully thoughtful, considerate and polite.