Interview Series - Wybo Veldman
“However in the final at Munich it was absolute perfection, when we went out of the blocks in the final the boat just took off-it was like a monumental flywheel that seemed to gather speed as the race progressed. People have said to me that must have been the hardest race of your life –but no, it was one of the easiest because it was so good. We seemed to have total control all the way down the course. Our plan was to go at 600 metres out but Simon Dickie held us back until it was 350 metres to go because the boat was going so well. It was just magnificent-the best race I ever had.”
— Wybo Veldman
WYBO VELDMAN
How did you start rowing?
A bit by chance we were living in Barry Avenue at the time and I was dead keen on riding horses and went to hunts ,showjumping and events until I had a bad accident while riding out to Awakeri and spent 3 months in hospital recuperating. The surgeon told me I had to avoid contact sports and so when I used to watch the club rowers going up and down the river off Eivers Road I thought maybe here was a sport I could have a go at. I got a start with the school with Tim Malcolmson as my first coach and found by chance I had got involved in a sport I was reasonably good at and within a year I was rowing for the school in the mornings and in a club crew in the evenings.
What was your first crew and who was in it?
I rowed in a maiden four with Eddie Reddish, Peter Mahy, Brian Walfordand myself in the bow. We had a great row in the final at the NZ Championships at Karapiro and were in the lead until our 3 man caught a crab and we lost the lead and finished second.
Who was your first coach?
Bit hard to say Molesy and Tom were around in that time and I remember Baden Watkins was club captain and also Keith Bowering; they were all there helping us one way or another.
Peter Needham gave me a green tracksuit with the words “Whakatane” printed on the back-none of us at the time had tracksuits so I thought that was pretty neat. Of course we are talking quite a few years back now-ha ha.
Who at that time was your sporting hero?
Peter Snell was a big hero at this time and he came down and ran an exhibition race at Awakeri so he was an athlete I admired for a good number of reasons. He had great dedication to his sport and was always available to talk to other sportspeople and pass on his knowledge and passion for sport. Sadly for reasons we are unaware of he was lost to New Zealand Sport and lived in the USA passing on his expertise. A truly great sportsman.
How did you and Warren come to be in a coxed pair?
When I left school I went farming with Mum and Dad on Norm Reynolds farm and after a year my folks decided to go back into the Barry Avenue home and although Norm offered me a job with his new increased herd, I decided to go back into town and started a mechanics apprenticeship with Des Wood in his garage in George Street.
I ended up down at the rowing club after being away for a year by myself because everyone else was already in a crew. Also there was Warren Cole who had just come back from a year in the UK. Warren was probably looking at me and thinking who is this skinny school kid and I was looking at him thinking he was an overweight very unfit guy just come back from an overseas jaunt probably carousing and drinking etc. Anyway Tommy sent us out in an old phelpspair(coxless) and with Warren in the stroke seat and me in the bow I was pulling him all over the river in a zig zag fashion. At one stage it was so bad we cracked the hull from keel to gunwale with the strain we put on the poor old boat.
We sat on the bank wondering what to do and Tom said why not put Wybo in the stroke seat(still rowing bow side) and Warren in the bow(rowing stroke side) and we will put a coxswain in as well to keep the damn boat straight. We tried this and never looked back. Our first outing was at the Blue Lake regatta and we got to within one length of Peter and Murray Watkinson so we thought this feels good and that was the last time anyone beat us for about 4 years. We remained undefeated in the coxed pair for 4 years.
Who was your coxswain?
Our first coxswain was Stephen Baird and later on Colin McGlashen and also while we were rowing in the four Ken Clarke was our coxswain. All now well known entities in the present day Whakatane.
It was felt given the chance you and warren could have won an Olympic gold medal in the coxless pair oar –do you agree?
Unfortunately whenever Warren and I were selected to row for New Zealand we were always in different crews with Warren in the four and myself in the eight, so we never had the chance to show our speed at the international level. The coxed pair event seemed to be in and out as an Olympic race during those years but it didn’t signify much to us because we were both flat out training in our respective crews.
When Warren and I rowed a coxless pair our boat went as straight as an arrow – I remember because I was the one doing the steering. The only time I had to use the rudder was when we had a corner to go around. When Warren left and Noel Mills stepped into the pair the boat never went quite as well even though we continued on our winning ways. It was because Noel and I had different styles –Noel had a very smooth sculling action whereas I was perhaps a bit more aggressive but having said that we were still unbeaten and won a silver medal at the 1973 European Championships held in Moscow.
Given you have rowed in most boat classes at NZ championship level –what is your favourite event?
Not quite every boat at the NZ Champs, I never rowed in the doubles or the quad. But of all the others the pair with Warren has to be my favourite. Our pair just hummed along and our combination of styles made our races just so satisfying. The feeling of that boat flying along underneath you is always there.
My favourite boat to row in is……
The pair oar-no contest.
The other boat I enjoyed was the singles. When I got to 1976 I had done a lot of racing in crews and decided I would like to have a crack at the Singles title at the N Z Champs. When Fred Stachan asked me if I was available for the NZ eight to go to Montreal, I said no but I would like to be considered for a singles berth as I intended winning the title. I duly won the title and Fred Stachans response was “If Veldman can win the single sculls in his first attempt –that doesn’t say much for the standard of sculling in NZ-does it?” Sounds like Fred, so that was that.
What was your BEST race?
Winning the eight in Munich must be my number one BEST race,it was a huge effort and just so satisfying. I was in the NZ eight from 1967 to 1972 and the crew changed about 3 times in that period. In 1972 the boat just wasn’t going as well as it should and there was a bit of grizzling and the guys were just not happy. Rusty Robertson was training us to a standstill and things were not jelling as they should.
However in the final at Munich it was absolute perfection, when we went out of the blocks in the final the boat just took off-it was like a monumental flywheel that seemed to gather speed as the race progressed. People have said to me that must have been the hardest race of your life –but no, it was one of the easiest because it was so good. We seemed to have total control all the way down the course. Our plan was to go at 600 metres out but Simon Dickie held us back until it was 350 metres to go because the boat was going so well. It was just magnificent-the best race I ever had.
What was your WORST race?
When we came back from Moscow in 1973 I had been in a pair for 12 years. 8 years with Warren and 4 years with Noel Mills. Noel and I had won a silver medal at the Olympics in Moscow and I was running out of steam. All I wanted to do was get into a single and see if I could win a singles title.
However, Noel and I were racing in the pair at the NZ champs in 1975 and found ourselves a length down on Dick Joyce and Collinge after about 350 metres. Try as we did we just couldn’t get past them and I thought ”hells bells I have never lost a title race yet but we may well lose this one”.
Noel was always the quiet one but at the 1500 metre mark he said “are you bloody well going to do something ?”. That is all it took,we shot past them and won by a length in what was my hardest (and worst) race of my career.
Dick Joyce came up afterwards and said he had never had a redcoat stripped off his shoulders so fast as that. Noel was a superb oarsman, solid, loyal, cool calm and collected and usually a man of few words. I learnt however that if Noel had something to say –it was a good idea to sit up and take notice.
Noel Mills was certainly a terrific oarsman-I had the good fortune to have a season with him in a junior pair oar and double sculls. I (Brian) was never much of a sculler but Noel and I won at just about every regatta that season in both classes. He was a great club man -rowing during the season and playing in our rowing club indoor basketball team thru the winter.
Noel was my yardstick on those gruelling runs up the gorge that everyone remembers. If I could keep up with Noel- I would be OK. I could never catch John Alexander or Grant McCauley and Tom was pretty slick. Noel was always in about 3 or 4 so I thought if I could keep him in sight I was having a good day. I had to keep in front of Dave Molesworth and Chick Hammond going downhill because Chick went like a madman downhill passing everybody. We used to meet by the soccer club in the domain and nobody waited for latecomers. Warren Cole was not the greatest runner so he got there early and took a head start. At the top of the gorge we would stop and wait for Warren and then take off just before he caught up. Cruel eh? Then down the hill to the Wairere stream and up the steep hill to the trig station –then back the same way. Boy was that a tough circuit.
NZ selectors now have a policy of promoting both mens and womens eight crews to train and race with World Champs and Olympic games on the radar. What brought that change of thinking about?
It is recognising that even though New Zealand rowing is very strong in the small boat classes in both lightweight and open divisions it means that when crews for example like Bond and Murray settle into their winning ways- other very good oarsmen and women can be lost to the sport.
There are a good number of rowers coming up through the ranks from Maadi Cup on who may well find a pathway in their career by trialling for a place in an eight. The present mens eight , twice under 23 gold medallists are a good example and we have yet to see what they can achieve in the future.
Who would you most like to row in a boat with?
This would have to be Warren Cole –it was like we were linked in the boat –there was nothing separating us. The boat ran straight as a arrow and Warren had the heart of a lion.
So that probably means that my big regret is that Warren and I never had the chance to represent New Zealand in a pair because if Noel and I could win a silver at Moscow-sure as hell Warren and I were that much faster and could have won as a pair as well.
Ce la Vie.
If you didn’t row what other sport would you have chosen?
Looking back I think it would be cycling. I loved cycling as a youngster and still do. When I was in Whakatane I used to do a lot of miles with Kevin McComb. We did a lot of training- 4,000kms in fact as a build up for a big round Taupo race which I got down to about 4.55. I was always a bit on the big size because of the rowing but had I not rowed I may have been a tall skinny build-ideal for cycling.
What job did you do after retiring from rowing?
I set up my own concrete cutting business in Whakatane and at the time not much was known about the concrete cutting as there were only about 3 guys in the whole of the country doing it. My initial job was working with Robert Stone Ltd when they were building the number 3 machine at the Whakatane Board Mills. I bought half the business territory from Rangiuru to Rotorua and all of the Eastern Bay which included Tasman ,Caxton, The Board Mills and Fonterra and ran it for 19 years.
That lead me on to work down Ohakune way with a new mill built by Winstone Samsung and for 18 months or so did a week down there and a week back up at at Tasman and Caxton.
About this time my old mate Monty McGougan went berserk signwriting my work truck. He did such a good job every time I came to town I would get more phone calls with customers having read my mobile sign. About that time Alex Harvey industries were building Turoa skifield and they were also staying at the hotel so I got to know them and they said when you are not busy at the mill concrete cutting come on up to the skifield and work for us. This area has been very kind to me.
Where do you live now?
I live here in Ohakune, we had a farm of around 250 acres and we sold the farm and retained 10 acres to live on. We got an offer for the 10 acres and 2 small houses with a 12 month settlement date and my partner Janlee moved to a lovely old villa in Taihape built by the Bell Tea family.
I bought a new house on a small section and a big boat and made the move to Taupo. 2 ½ years later I had run out of projects in Taupo so I moved back to the Ohakune farm because the buyer of our 10 acres had reneged on the deal and we got the small acreage back. I found I was having more fun back on the farm so I live there now and have spent the last few years doing major renovations on the main house. Time now to sit back and enjoy it.
When we go on a shopping trip I pick up Janlee in Taihape and we head thru to Wanganui and meet up with a bunch of old friends and have a good old catchup.
Tell us a bit about your family?
My wife Helen suffered from multiple sclerosis for a number of years and eventually needed to go into care when we were unable to provide the level of help and medication required. She passed away about 10 years ago.
We have 2 boys, my oldest Shaun is 47 this yearand lives with his partner in Sandringham(Auckland) and is in IT management . My other son Jason(43) works as an electrical contractor for the Ports of Auckland and has a 11 year old daughter and an 8 year old son. I enjoy going up to visit them and spending time with my grandchildren.
With my partner Janlee in Taihape ,my newly renovated farmhouse on 10 acres ,my boat in Taupo, my mates in Wanganui and my kids in Auckland life is good –long may it last.
