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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk SEDB.

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Speaker 2: Well, great to welcome to a man who's been competing

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Speaker 2: as a professional match racer fleet racer since graduating from

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Speaker 2: Boston College twenty eleven. Have I got that right? Seven

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Speaker 2: time world champion, one of the best match racers in

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Speaker 2: recent memory. United States Sale GP team driver Taylor Canfield.

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Speaker 3: Nice to see you, mate, Yeah, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 3: It's great to be here now.

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Speaker 2: Of course, you're appointed driver of the US team midway

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Speaker 2: through season four. WHI chatted in Christchinch a year ago

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Speaker 2: or thereabouts. How are you feeling ahead of event too?

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Speaker 2: In your first full season as driver?

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Speaker 3: So excited?

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Speaker 4: You know, I just have the opportunity to drive one

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Speaker 4: of these incredible machines, is you know it's a dream

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Speaker 4: come true?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: And you know, to be able to travel around the

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Speaker 4: world to you know, locations like this, in this racetrack,

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Speaker 4: in front of this amazing city, you can't beat it.

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Speaker 2: How challenging was it dropping into the team midway through

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Speaker 2: season four?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean there's no words to really explain it.

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Speaker 4: To to hop into a new new class and uh

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Speaker 4: and competing against the best boats and the you know,

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Speaker 4: the best sailors in the world and the fastest boats

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Speaker 4: in the world.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's full on. Uh, I think that's the

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Speaker 3: best word to say.

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Speaker 4: And but yeah, you know we're making do and uh,

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Speaker 4: things are definitely coming along and uh, you know, the

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Speaker 4: progress we've made as a team is awesome so far.

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Speaker 3: But you know, I know there's a lot more to

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Speaker 3: come as well.

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Speaker 2: You want to talk about the progress and the good

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Speaker 2: start to to this season, but what were the big

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Speaker 2: lessons I guess you took personally out of season four

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Speaker 2: or you'll part in season four.

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Speaker 4: For me, probably, uh, you know, just trying to be

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Speaker 4: as consistent and concise as I can with my communication.

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Speaker 4: You know, it's so everything is happening so quickly in

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Speaker 4: in this racing, in this format. Uh, you just need

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Speaker 4: everyone on board to be on the same page and

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Speaker 4: and that usually creates an environment for things to go well.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 4: So it's uh, you know, I say it a lot

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Speaker 4: that we're racing ourselves out there.

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Speaker 3: Again, the boats are so complex.

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Speaker 4: Every maneuver requires so much concentration and just pure finesse

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Speaker 4: with everyone on board that yeah, we need everyone super

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Speaker 4: tuned in and ready to go, and if if you

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Speaker 4: have good communication, then everyone knows what's coming and usually

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Speaker 4: things go well.

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Speaker 2: I love it you we use the word for nice.

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Speaker 2: I think that's the first time I've heard that word

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Speaker 2: used in relation to the fifties. I want to talk

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Speaker 2: about the New t Falls in a moment, but I

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Speaker 2: understand there was quite a bit of off season training

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Speaker 2: for the for the USA team, is it right?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, super fortunate. We had a great training camp in Bermuda.

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Speaker 3: I mean, what what is fine? I'll take that for sure.

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Speaker 4: And then some great training leading up to Dubai. You know,

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Speaker 4: the first event of twenty twenty five season. We spent

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Speaker 4: Thanksgiving over there, which is a bit controversial, but it was.

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Speaker 3: It was fun.

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Speaker 4: You know, we had our good, solid group and their

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Speaker 4: culture is incredible in our team, so that was that

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Speaker 4: was nice to have, you know, what felt like family

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Speaker 4: surrounding us for that.

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Speaker 2: Well, it obviously worked third in Dubai. How happy were

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Speaker 2: you with it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? You know, static to be on the podium.

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Speaker 4: Uh, it's it's this is just ruthless sailing, you know,

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Speaker 4: it's We're gonna have our ups and downs, but a

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Speaker 4: great way to start the season. And you know, to

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Speaker 4: win win the first race of the twenty twenty five season. Uh,

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Speaker 4: that's that's something cool too. I hope that we've wrapped

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Speaker 4: everyone up for the season to come.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, it must have been a buzzy because first, the seventh, seventh, sixth,

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Speaker 2: second to qualify third for the final. So what makes

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Speaker 2: the difference between a first and a second or a

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Speaker 2: sixth and a seventh.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, let's let's forget about the middle races.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: It's yeah, it's hard to bring it up to. No,

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Speaker 3: it's all good.

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Speaker 4: It's uh again, it's a game of inches. It's again,

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Speaker 4: it requires so much, I guess, just teamwork and uh,

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Speaker 4: you know, it doesn't take much for things to go

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Speaker 4: you know, completely bad.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, it's just about uh, execution.

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Speaker 4: And and everyone doing their jobs on board and and

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Speaker 4: and making sure that again everyone's ready for that that

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Speaker 4: next thing. So the more foresight we can all like

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Speaker 4: we can have as a team on board, the better

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Speaker 4: it's gonna go.

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Speaker 2: How much, uh is it or have different?

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Speaker 4: Is it?

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Speaker 2: Sorry? With the new high speed t foils, what what

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Speaker 2: adjustments have you hit to Mike?

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Speaker 3: Uh, there's definitely high speeds.

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Speaker 4: We can confirm that but yeah, you know, it's not

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Speaker 4: too much has changed. Uh, some of the jobs on

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Speaker 4: boards have changed. The flight controller's job has gotten more complex.

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Speaker 4: You know, before we just had the rake of the

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Speaker 4: foils fore and aft, and now we have the rake

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Speaker 4: of the foils in and out as well. So you know,

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Speaker 4: we've added this three dimensional uh kind of take to

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Speaker 4: the new hydrofoils and.

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Speaker 3: It really affects the balance of the boat.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, yeah, you know, the how much helmload we're

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Speaker 4: getting For me personally, it's been a big change.

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Speaker 3: So just getting used to that and trying to figure

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Speaker 3: out new ways to be you know, innovative to you know,

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Speaker 3: just get the most out of these boats.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, pretty cool. I mean they're fast, they accelerate

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Speaker 4: really quickly. You know, I think we're gonn see more

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Speaker 4: g forces. We can really throw the boats around. There's

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Speaker 4: there's a lot of grip we like to call it,

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Speaker 4: where the boat feels really attached to the water.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, it's uh, it's a work in progress for everyone.

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Speaker 4: It seems like, you know, watching some of the teams

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Speaker 4: and and and ourselves go around the racetrack yesterday, there's

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Speaker 4: it could be some real v moments. So everyone hold

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Speaker 4: on and yeah and enjoy the show.

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Speaker 2: So you're kind of learning as you go in some

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Speaker 2: ways with with the new FORLS.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, it's uh, it's a new game and we're

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Speaker 4: all adjusting and figuring it out quickly.

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Speaker 3: And you know, this.

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Speaker 4: Shared data source for for Sale GP just makes it

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Speaker 4: that much the learning process that much quicker. But there's

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Speaker 4: a lot of ideas out there right now, and you

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Speaker 4: can see it in the data that people are trying

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Speaker 4: different things on crazy radical ends of the spectrums, and

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Speaker 4: you know, not not always. You come back in after

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Speaker 4: a day's sailing and you go through all the data

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Speaker 4: and you're like, well, that didn't work, so you got

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Speaker 4: to go back to the drawing board and try something new.

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Speaker 4: But you don't always have to try the things, which

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Speaker 4: is nice because other teams are doing that for you

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Speaker 4: as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that they can make your mistakes for you

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Speaker 2: and say, well we'll rule that out, we won't do that. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you've had quite a bit of experience in the M

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Speaker 2: thirty two's who them describes as a kind of a

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Speaker 2: slow down version of a New fifty. So has your

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Speaker 2: experience in the M thirty two has helped in your

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Speaker 2: in racing any fifty.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, and I think a lot of uh, you know,

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Speaker 4: I guess some of our starting starting success out of

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Speaker 4: the racetrack has come from the M thirty two class

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Speaker 4: and that routine that we've set up in something I've

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Speaker 4: sworn by for for many years. But yeah, you know,

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Speaker 4: it's it's been a progression for me from you know,

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Speaker 4: the slow Monohl match racing to the you know, the

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Speaker 4: apparent win M thirty two sailing non foiling to now this,

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Speaker 4: you know is uh, it's been. It's been really cool

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Speaker 4: and it's taken a lot of getting used to it

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Speaker 4: for sure, you know, and have seventy knots of parent

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Speaker 4: win on the on the face, you know, trying to

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Speaker 4: communicate with your teammates is pretty full on.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. I said, you had Liam Lawson in your right

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Speaker 2: in your team base. Was that yesterday? How do you reckon?

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Speaker 2: You go with a driver swapsk you reckon? You get

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Speaker 2: behind a Formula one car and he could drive this

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Speaker 2: thing out of you?

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Speaker 3: Oh man, did you discuss? I would definitely give it

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Speaker 3: a go. How cool would that be?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 3: Liam, you know what a great guy.

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Speaker 4: Uh, super pumped for him to have the seat uh

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Speaker 4: in the Red Bull car this season, and uh yeah,

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Speaker 4: we'll be following him. You know when when you meet

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Speaker 4: someone and you get that extra special bond with them

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Speaker 4: and meeting them in person and they seeing their personality.

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Speaker 3: So that'll be really cool.

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Speaker 4: I'll be rerooting for him this season and uh yeah,

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Speaker 4: hopefully we can get them out later for a run

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Speaker 4: on one of these on these boats and seeity things.

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Speaker 2: And what doesn't surprise me, you jump in the rice

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Speaker 2: car because you struck me as a bit of an

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Speaker 2: adrenaline junkie, if you will. Instagram is to be believed.

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Speaker 2: Bungee jumping off the sky tower this week.

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Speaker 3: Yeah you know.

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Speaker 4: It landed in uh in Auckland, I think nine thirty

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Speaker 4: am and we're on.

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Speaker 3: The top of the sky tower at eleven o'clock, so

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Speaker 3: straight into it. I love it. I love the extremes.

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Speaker 4: And I used to jump off you know, these rocks

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Speaker 4: and cliffs as a little kid down in the Virgin Islands.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, I for some.

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Speaker 4: Reason, I don't know, it doesn't doesn't trigger my brain

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Speaker 4: to to have the fear when I'm up high like that.

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Speaker 4: Very lucky in that in that sense, I guess. But

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Speaker 4: I was ready to go. It's cool.

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Speaker 2: Outstanding probably helps you out here as well. So, hey,

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Speaker 2: you're feeling a few hours out from from the start off,

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Speaker 2: so gp Auckland.

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Speaker 4: Uh just pumped. I mean we were stailing out there yesterday.

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Speaker 4: I was looking back at the Grand Standard.

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Speaker 3: This is so cool.

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Speaker 4: The fact that you know, this, this sport here in

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Speaker 4: New Zealand is just, you know, such an incredible thing. Uh,

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Speaker 4: It's part of their culture and you know, I'm I'm

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Speaker 4: pumped to see how everyone's you know, gonna gonna be

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Speaker 4: here rooting us on. And you know we've already acquired

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Speaker 4: a few Kiwi fans if they've come through the base

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Speaker 4: and we've we've turned them from the Kiwi team.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 4: So that's uh, that's cool to see that people are

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Speaker 4: here even in New Zealand rooining for us. And uh,

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Speaker 4: the race track's gonna be incredible. It'll be tight, eleven boats,

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Speaker 4: it's going to be full on out there.

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Speaker 2: Well we just count white. Hey, I'm Tyler. I'm sure

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Speaker 2: you lose a lot more fans across the weekend. It's

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Speaker 2: great I get the chance to catch up with you again.

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Speaker 2: All the best here in Auckland and for the rest

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Speaker 2: of season five of sal GP.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks so much, and yeah, be sure to tune

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Speaker 4: in and we'll put on a good show.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekends Sport with Jason Fine, Listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk sed B weekends from midday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio