I’m originally from New Zealand. After several visits to the Sunshine Coast myself and Jan (my wife) decided that we had found a slice of paradise that we wanted our family to live in. The climate, the relaxed vibe, and the positivity from the people we met on the coast were amazing. We wanted outdoor living for our two daughters – we love summer, barbeques, and the beach. In 2009 we relocated from Wellington to the Sunshine Coast.
I’m doing the job that I dreamed of doing when I grew up. Some kids wanted to be firemen or astronauts when they grew up. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been passionate about health, exercise, and the way bodies move. My mission is, and always has been, to inspire healthy lifestyle changes in others. My childhood was all about sport. After playing as much sport at school as I could fit in I completed a post-graduate MPhEd (dist) at Otago University. I became a lecturer for Otago Polytechnic Occupational Therapy Department, then a senior lecturer in Exercise Rehabilitation and Resistance Training at Wellington Institute of Technology.
While teaching in higher education, I kept following my passion for sports training and became one of a select few high-level NZ Accredited Physical Conditioning providers working with high-performance athletes. This allowed me to work with many world-class athletes.
Some career highlights so far are:
- Head trainer for the New Zealand Black Sox for two successful World Series campaigns
- Head trainer and regional trainer for NZ Women’s and Men’s Hockey for several Commonwealth and Olympic Games
- Head trainer for the NZ Titleist Men and Women’s Golf Academy for several Espirito Santo and Eisenhower Trophy Championship teams.
- Trainer for numerous Commonwealth and Olympic athletes in athletics, basketball, to swimming.
- Regularly speaking at FitEx, Filex, Asia Fitness Conference, and other international events inspiring positive change in the health and fitness industry
- Health coaching pop bands on international concert tours around the globe
- Co-directing Kaizen Exercise Physiologists with Hamish McMichael to develop a world-class team of exercise physiologists
Over the years I have competed at an international level in soccer, volleyball, and kayaking. I’m also an ex-title holder in Olympic-style wrestling and have coached and trained with NZ and Australia’s top MMA fighters. To balance out my life I am also a tai chi and chi kung practitioner and practice the lifestyle that I recommend for my clients.
I always continued my work and study in exercise rehabilitation and gained my CHEK III and FMA L2 qualifications. I am equally passionate about working in wellness and rehabilitation. Over the last 30 years, I’ve worked with many clients who have had strokes, head injuries, MS, joint replacements, chronic fatigue, and chronic pain. I particularly enjoy working with long-term musculoskeletal injuries, and injured athletes returning to sport.