The Year in Review ⁰

by Kirra • Uncategorized

In magazine land, nothing demands a hefty dose of perspective like the November/December issue. The nostalgia of another year gone was impossible to ignore as we wrapped up this issue so we invited a few special Gold Coasters to share their reflections in Year in Review.

Photography: Jess McDonald from aleeceyoung.com. Makeup: Brie Stevenson from aleeceyoung.com. Words: Aimee Ley.

Chloe Maxwell

The highlight: Release of her first book ‘Living with Max’.

The process of writing was quite cathartic for me. It was confronting as I had to relive a lot of memories that weren’t that great.  When you go through life and have things thrown at you, you don’t necessarily have a lot of time to process and give the situation perspective. It was cool to look at those situations and realise that this happened because of this and now I have a different perspective on why that happened. At the time you just go through it and survive.

Writing this book was like giving birth and now I am not sure if I want anyone to hold the baby. I have been very transparent about a lot of things and sharing the book was something that I had to prepare myself for. My intention was to help people and the only way that I could do this was by being honest and as truthful as I could. If that could help people then that was the way that I had to be.

Next year I wouldn’t mind writing another book and also continuing to raise the profile of our charity, 4ASD Kids.

You can catch Chloe on Celebrity Come Dine With Me airing on The Lifestyle Channel. Show your support for 4ASD Kids  by getting involved in the upcoming 4ASD Kids Weekend in December at Salt, Kingscliff.

Simon Gloftis

The highlight: Opening The Fish House at Burleigh Heads.

I’m half Greek, half Polish and the Greek side of my heritage is the inspiration behind Hellenika and The Fish House. What I love about Greek food is the seafood. It is my first love and if someone took that away from me I wouldn’t know what to eat.  I have always wanted to showcase seafood more at Hellenika, although we do sell a lot of fish but people don’t go there for the whole baked snapper, they go there for the lamb. When you eat seafood, you feel healthy. Nice, clean, fresh flavours. The Fish House will only serve fresh fish flown up daily from Melbourne.

I don’t like modern, I don’t like new and I don’t like crisp lines. I think people need to feel comfortable and warm in a restaurant and know straight away that the staff will take care of them. That is the feeling I have fostered at Hellenika and now The Fish House. The view [at The Fish House] is just a bonus.

Before The Fish House was created, I spent a couple of months driving from Italy, to the South of France and into Spain and The Fish House will be loosely based on the food found in that region.

I do what I like and hopefully there are enough people who enjoy the same thing as me. I am proud to be a part of the growing restaurant scene on the Gold Coast and I believe together we are working in the right direction.

The Fish House will be open to the public early November.

Brittany Broben

The highlight: won a silver medal in the 10 metre platform dive event at the 2012 London Olympics.

When I got to the finals at the Olympics I was extremely nervous. You work for this one competition your whole life and then when it is actually happening, it’s like ‘this is it’. It is crazy to think about standing on the podium receiving a silver medal for Australia. I remember closing my eyes and telling myself to remember it because I knew it would be over so fast.

With the sport comes the fear and I don’t think there would be a diver in the world that doesn’t have a dive they are scared of. You just get use to it [the fear] and hope for the best that you don’t hurt yourself.

I have been training, knowing that I could possibly compete at the 2012 London Olympics for the past two years. Training entails six days a week, morning and afternoon sessions with school in the middle. My parents have been driving me to Brisbane to train since I was 11.

I’m not one of those people who want to dive until they are 30 but I will see how I go. I would love to make the next Olympics but I always said to myself that if I do well at the 2012 London Olympics I would just stop. You want to go out on a high.

Brittany also took home a bronze medal in the 1metre Springboard and platform event at the Junior World Championships in October.

Swimsuit by White Sands.

The Hancocks

Courtney Hancock

The highlight: Starting her swimwear range, KOZII COURTZ

This year I’ve been working on getting ready for the Coolangatta Gold, launching my new website and also my new swimwear range KOZII COURTZ. The Coolangatta Gold is the toughest iron woman event on our calendar for the year. I’ve given the last five months of my life training for this event.

You’ve got to make sure you do the training. You can’t go underdone otherwise it will not only get you mentally but physically. You’ll get caught out in this race. You are racing for three and a half hours so you need to focus, concentrate, keep yourself relaxed and not get too much ahead of yourself. For me, I do yoga once a week, I take my dog for a walk or go for a surf. I always make sure I do something in the week prior for myself to clear my mind.

In the last half hour of the Coolangatta Gold you get this sick feeling. You feel like you need to throw up, it’s the lactic acid starts flowing through your body. That’s when the mind games start. You start saying to yourself ‘do I really want this?’ and you feel like you are carrying bricks. That last half hour you just have to stay focused.

Bonnie Hancock

The highlight: Having a podium finish in Iron Women series at Coolum.

It was my first time on the podium in a professional event. At that stage I had a few not so good results and I started questioning whether I wanted to do the sport. I came out and got a second place and it turned my whole mind frame around. From then, I had no doubts and I knew I wanted to keep going. There’s nothing that can compare to that feeling of standing up on the podium.

Courtney and I are training five sometimes six hours a day, six days a week so it is pretty intense. There’s a saying ‘you should never, ever let anyone out train you’ and I think that’s so important in our sport.

We are pretty competitive but when it comes to racing, Courtney and I are definitely there for each other. We room together when we travel and we train beside each other. At the moment when Courtney doesn’t have a good race, I’m upset about that as much as she is. I think we’re really lucky we’ve got each other.

Courtney came second and Bonnie third in the 2012 Coolangatta Gold.

Swimsuits by White Sands.