Icebreaker - Pure Merino

The following excerpt is from one of our sponsored athletes Jeremy Cronin. Jeremy is an outdoor personal trainer and swimming coach who in his spare time does it all! Jeremy has been wearing some of our Icebreaker gear and loves it.  Read more about what he’s up to and why is a converted Icebreaker fan.

I am an adventurer, it is just what I do, always have… always will.

From the day mum found me on the roof looking at the hills in the distance when I was 3, to running the Speight’s Coast to Coast when I was 23… The outdoors are what motivate me, excite me, they take me to new highs and teaches me how to live the life I want to live.

I guess I use the outdoors as a metaphor for my life. Rain, hail, shine or blustering winds and I am out there. What’s the difference? It’s all beautiful to me! Weather is weather; to me it is how you look at it. I believe the power of your mind will determine your thoughts about getting out there on a hot, sunny, summers day. That same power will get you out of bed early in the morning of a torrential, wet, stormy day to go and run through the hills in high grounds.

All in all for me it is my addiction, there is always something to do, rocks to run, rivers to cross and hills to climb. That is me in a nut shell really. Alongside all of my adventures it makes a difference to have “The Best Gear”. Gear that can keep up with this pressure and push through this environment, gear that will regulate my temperature and keep me going when others are at home sipping their hot chocolate and star gazing in to the warm fire.

I have found it, ICEBREAKER! Say no more! It is the best! Go and get some! Get in it! Try it! Whatever you do… Hard core ultra distance explorer, casual runner, trout fisherman, or if you just want to look like the cool adventurers type at your kid’s soccer game on a Saturday morning. Whichever it is, you will reap the benefits of being warmer and more temperature consistent than anything else. I believe you all need to go and fit yourself out in the most comfortable, warm, durable, breathable, most technically advanced gear you can buy.

Here is why…. I have tried every classic dry fit gear, it clings to my skin with a horrible static feeling, stays cold when wet, too hot in the heat, it doesn’t breathe when you want it to and doesn’t change to keep you warm when it needs to. I would need a dry fit layer for hot days and a thermal layer for cold days. Try and find a fantastic thermal that can keep up with the weather patterns of today, hot one moment frozen the next, imagine having the two in one.  Finally I have found it! It’s been around for a while and you might have already had the pleasure of wearing it, but it is new on my back… Icebreaker.

Icebreaker product is made for athletes, adventurers, casual strollers… Anyone really. It breathes when I am hot, the merino wool is not itchy, it moulds perfectly to my body without crazy stitched seams all over it, it stretches when I reach or bend, but most importantly it keeps me warm in the cold. I need to know if the weather turns on me that I am wearing clothing that will change with the weather patterns.

Icebreaker has shocked me, it is everything in one! I was running in the bush the other day with a GT Performance top, shorts and socks on – my temperature was perfect and my body breathing in fresh air.  And even when the weather made a turn, rain poured down and the wind grew strong, it was like this clothing turned on a switch. I was drenched head to toe and with an hour left in my training route I stayed warm without having to layer up and when I stopped I could feel the heat holding in the wool all over me. Amazed and excited, I am a converted Icebreaker fan now and swear by it! You will too.

- Jeremy Cronin, Athlete

During my time at Snowgum (an Icebreaker dealer in Australia) I’ve succumbed to an addiction so many people share. I can’t stop buying Icebreaker.

As an elite athlete the equipment you use becomes as habitual as the training routines you follow. This usually means that when I buy something to train with I use it until it truly dies. Thankfully I’ve managed to save quite a bit of money by using the seemingly invincible Icebreaker shirts, socks and jocks. Except now I am spending more money than ever before because my Icebreaker clothing is being “borrowed” by the people I train with.

It usually happens when I get to an event and it is pouring with rain and my “friends” haven’t brought proper clothing, or when there is a minimum requirement for safety gear and it hasn’t been met.

“Callum would you mind if I borrowed that shirt again? I forgot my warm gear”.

“Oh yeah cheers for lending that top Callum I’ll give it back after I wash it”…

“Lucky you had that jumper spare Callum. They wouldn’t let me run without it”.

These are just a few of the quotes I can remember from occasions when I have permanently lent my Icebreaker gear. The kind of thing I compensate for now by bringing along extra clothing wherever I go.

So now I have very little Icebreaker and a severely depleted bank account from constantly trying to replace gear that “must of gotten lost in the wash”. I’m going to have to give up endurance sports or win the lottery soon just to satisfy my addiction and the one my running mates now share.

My name is Mitch Gourley, and I’m stoked to say I’m Icebreaker’s newest athlete! Given my relative anonymity, I’ll take a few moments to introduce myself in this first blog.

At 18, I am the youngest member of the Australian Paralympic ski team and hence carry the obligatory list of nicknames that goes with this mantle. After enduring almost four years with an array of mostly food and height-related nicknames in multiple languages, I seem to be stuck with the moniker “Spinach”, along with its German counterpart, “Spinat”.

Beyond the incredibly serious business of nicknames lies the actual ski racing, both on the national team and in terms of my own preparations for the 2010 Winter Paralympics, to be held in Vancouver.

Following an interesting year – which included my first national championship, a full season on the world cup circuit and the world championships – I entered this Australian winter with high hopes.

In reality, my 2010 preparations began months ago, in the Victorian Institute of Sport gym, about three weeks after returning to Australia from the northern hemisphere winter. Following a disappointing world championships on a somewhat biased hill in Korea (I’ve seen steeper staircases!), I was on a quest to add some bulk to my scrawny 52kg frame.

Thanks to a fresh approach, some much-needed consistency and the eating program from hell, I managed to achieve more success in Australia than in Korea. I gained around 7kg and discovered that even eating, as appealing as it often may seem, can become a chore when done routinely 6-8 times a day.

Following some physical testing at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra and unprecedented amounts of study in the lead-up to my dreaded mid-year exams, the snow began to fall in the mountains. It was with great anticipation that I embarked on my first trip to the Australian Paralympic Committee head offices in Sydney for a day of uniform fittings and team processing as a member of the shadow Paralympic team. It was pleasant to finally meet some of those responsible for the amazing funding and support I have received over the past few years.

From the palatial surrounds of our airport hotel, we departed in the small hours of the next morning to begin our on snow training for 2009 at Mt Hutt in New Zealand.

The happening town of Methven put on a show with two weeks of almost flawless weather and cold, hard snow – perfect for us ski racers. We were even treated to the rare privilege of having a pleasant bunch of Kiwis to train with, the national development team, as it were, headed up by former Aussie coach Mike Gould.

After enduring a month of the Kiwis and two weeks of us Aussies, I’m sure Methven was glad to get rid of us…only to find we’d all be back in September!

Returning home, I was greeted with an empty house as my mother had shot-through to follow the Tour de France for four weeks! As you do on your 50^th birthday! However I was even more horrified to find that she’d taken off with some of my Icebreaker!

Following this devastating revelation I continued my studies for two whole days before departing for a slalom block at Falls Creek.  After returning from a week of good slalom – a rarity for me – I was greeted with my mid-year results for attendance and my only exam, chemistry. After setting a new record low for attendance, 53%, I was pleasantly surprised by an unexpected A for chemistry.

That will have to do me for now, as my flight has just been called. I’m off to Canberra for some more training at Thredbo and Perisher. After that I’ll be competing in the nationals, where I’ll endeavor to defend my GS title against three of the best skiers in the world – my teammates.

-  Mitch Gourley, Paralympian and Icebreaker athlete