Hello everyone

We had a few great weeks back orienteering in wonderful Woodhill Forest with large numbers of new and regular orienteers relishing the challenges of intricate sand dune terrain and spaghetti track systems thrown at them by course setters.  Geoff and I went tramping in the wilds of Stewart Island for 9 days only to emerge from the bush to discover Auckland was going back into level 2 lockdown again, forcing the clubs to postpone events.

We are very disappointed to have had to postpone a number of events, including Slater Road on 16 August.  At this stage a limit of only 10 people for gatherings still applies to the Auckland region, so the 3 Auckland clubs are not yet able to reschedule the postponed events.  Please keep checking the club website for updates, including a new date for the NWOC club champs.

Note that AOC is continuing its MapRun F events using the MapRun phone app.

You will have noticed that events now require pre-entry (usually on EnterO) – please do enter before the deadlines as this helps with event planning, as well as providing Covid19 contact tracing.

Kia kaha

Lisa Mead
NWOC Acting club president and newsletter editor

1. Events
2. Training days
3. Course setting training – back to the classroom
4. Junior Camp
5. News
6. NZOC 2021 champs by NWOC
7. Club Champs

Events
 August Sun 16  NWOC AOS5 Slater Road (South Head) forest/farm event.  POSTPONED
              Sun 23  CMOC  AOS6 – Waiuku Forest North.  POSTPONED
September  02 AOC Night streets event MapRunF  - see AOC website: https://orienteeringauckland.org.nz/
              Sun 06 AOC AOS7 Woodhill Forest (Mushroom Road) POSTPONED
                           This was to be the NWOC club champs – further details on new date in due course

              Tue 08 CMOC – Auckland Secondary Schools Rogaine- Totara Park.    POSTPONED.
              Wed 9   AOC Night streets event – MapRunF  
              Sun 13  Whangarei Orienteering – Houtu Woolshed
              Wed 16 AOC Night streets event- MapRun F rogaine
              Sun 20  NWOC AOS8 Urban middle distance (Albany) – to be confirmed/ check website
             Wed 23 AOC Night streets event MapRun F
              26/27/28 Sep North Island Secondary Schools Champs (CMOC) - Public event on Sunday 27th - enter by 11 September:https://entero.co.nz/evento.php?eventName=nisspub-2020
              Details: http://cmoc.co.nz/niss-2020/

October 8-10 NZ Secondary Schools Champs (Hawkes Bay) Details below:
                http://www.hborienteering.com/club/index.php?page=nzssc2020
              Sun 18 NWOC AOS9 Riverhead Forest
              23-26  Labour Weekend –The  National Champs have been re-scheduled! Manawatu – entry details
              to come.
              Thu 29 AOC Summernav

Nov       Sun 01   NWOC Rogaine Riverhead Forest 90 minutes fun event for teams or individuals
              Wed 04  AOC Summernav
              Sat 07    CMOC Auckland Champs- Sprint & Middle
              Sun 08   CMOC  Auckland Champs -Long
              Wed 11  AOC Summernav
              Sun 15    AOC Relays
              Tue 17   AOC Summernav
              Wed 25 AOC Summernav
              Sun 29   NWOC Rogaine – venue to be confirmed.

AOS = Auckland Orienteering Series – events have 9 courses of varying lengths and difficulty.
AKSS = Auckland Secondary Schools  AOC= Auckland O Club, CMOC = Counties Manukau O Club

Woodhill Forest – orienteering training            
As mentioned previously, we’re pleased to announce we’ve reached an agreement with the Woodhill forest owners for improved access to the forest for training.

Many thanks to Gene Beveridge who coached a small group of yellow/orange level orienteers on 8 August – I know some of our new club members really benefitted from Gene’s wealth of experience.

The balance of the 2020 training day schedule is:
Saturday 29 August 2020, Upper Temu Road  POSTPONED
Sunday 13 September 2020 Muriwai Gate
Sunday 11 October 2020 Venue to be confirmed.

Contact Gene Beveridge on 0210512432 or at gene.beveridge@gmail.com if you are interested.

NWOC Training – course planning with Renee

Coming soon – a classroom-based interactive training session focussing on Course Setting, led by Renee Beveridge. Highly recommended for all those who have put their hand up to set courses this year, or who hope to do so in the future.

Whether setting a small club event or the Nationals Champs, this interactive NWOC Course Setting Clinic is for YOU

Having the right skills to win a race is not the same as being able to set up to 15 challenging, exciting, and fair courses for all grades at a local, national, or international competition.

Now is the time to learn the do’s and the do not’s and the mistakes and the successes of course setting.

Hopefully this clinic will help you not only become a better Orienteer, but feel more confident putting up your hand to set a future competition.

We had to postpone this event due Covid Level 3 lockdown.

On-line training: In May, Gene Beveridge and Tom Reynolds held 3 online coaching sessions aimed at orienteers moving from intermediate (orange in NZ) to advanced (red in NZ) navigation. If you missed these sessions or want to revisit them, Gene has posted the recordings on his webpage:
https://genebeveridge.nz/videos/

How to take bearings with a compass: Orienteering Australia recently published an article by Erica Diment on how to take bearings to aid navigation.  This will be of use to newcomers and those still getting to grips with using a compass in conjunction with the map in the forest.

“Take the time to learn how to use your compass so that it becomes second nature. There are various techniques that orienteers use to take a bearing with their compass. The choice partly depends on whether you use a baseplate or thumb compass. Put into dot points I would summarise the technique that I (and many others) use for a thumb compass in the following way:

• Put the compass on your map with the edge on the line where you want to go
• Hold the compass there and turn yourself (holidng your map in front of you) until the north needle of the compass is in line with the north lines on the map (make sure you have North, not South)
• Follow the line of the side of your compass (or the direction arrow, which should be the same)
• Check your direction by checking that north needle is still aligned with the north lines on the map and that the direction of your compass is still pointing where you want it to be.

In the photo here you can see that the edge of the thumb compass is on the line of travel from the start to control 1 and I have rotated myself so that the north needle is parallel to the north lines on the map. (facing back toward me)

Now all I need to do is walk in the direction of the line and I will be on my correct bearing.

Once you have this technique in your head it is quick and easy to use. It has the added benefit of making it very easy to “thumb” the map using the point at the top of the direction arrow on your compass as you move along.
This technique is described clearly in a training sheet found on the Orienteering Australia website that you might find helpful. http://orienteering.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/o_map_training_p02_compass.pdf
Be careful to keep your compass flat when you are using it, and to hold it out in front of you. Also be aware that metal objects (including metal in rocks) can affect the compass accuracy.

How can I keep that bearing accurate?

It’s much easier to keep a bearing accurate if you have good vision into the distance. If you have this you can pick a distant point in the correct direction and keep on heading towards that for the distance that you need to go.
If you do not have a good view it is useful to take shorter bearings to objects that you can see ahead of you and then re-check the bearing , using a new object to aim for.
It seems a bit crazy, but I still find it useful to physically draw a line from my compass in the air in front of me pointing in the direction that I want to go. It seems to help me to keep my accuracy.
If you have obstacles in your way it can be helpful to dodge to the left the first time and then to the right the next time.
Some orienteers find that they tend to veer one way or the other consistently. If you are one of these , then you need to be constantly conscious of it and compensate for this tendency.
Keep your bearings as short as you can. The longer you need to travel on the one bearing the more chance of error there is.

Use other basic skills as well

When I was first learning to orienteer a wise man told me “always use more than one of the three basic skills”. This is as good advice now as it was back nearly 20 years ago. The three basic skills are distance, direction and map to ground. In this case we are using direction, but we really want to be using map to ground and/or distance as well. Distance isn’t much help – we will get to the river anyway (unless we are very off course!). Map to ground isn’t much help either. Even with a bearing which is quite wrong we are likely to cross the two creeks close to the start, and then there is nothing useful until the track (which goes along the whole way and has no distinct direction changes or recognisable points). Usually there is more than this that you can use.

What other techniques might help?
So you then need to bring out the armoury and use some of your more advanced skills.
In this case, aiming off will be a useful technique. You can use aiming off any time you are heading towards a linear feature (river, road, fence). What you do is aim deliberately to either left or right, so that when you reach your feature you will know which way to turn to find the control. Although it means you take a little longer because you have to cover a little more distance, you can also save yourself a lot of time.”

The full article can be found here.

Junior and Under 23 Camps
The two training camps are a highlight of the orienteering year and will be hosted by Nelson Orienteering Club this year.  Registrations are now open for the junior camp (Year 9-13) and the Under 23 Camps, to be held in Nelson in December. Please read the camp information carefully before completing the registration form.

 See all the details here:
Sun 6 to Fri 11 December – U23 Camp
Sun 13 to Fri 18 December – Junior Camp

In the News
Waikato Orienteering and Orienteering Bay of Plenty clubs held rogaines in July, both events attracting a good number of NWOC club members. Well done to Rob Garden and Marquita who were 1^st mixed pair/ 3^rd overall in the 6 hour mountain bike rogaine, and to Nick Harris, who teamed up with Lizzie Ingham (Wellington O Club) to win in the 3 hour foot rogaine.

National Champs 2021

NWOC is excited to be hosting the National Orienteering Championships over Easter weekend 2-5 April 2021. We are gearing up for a compact, intimate event with limited travel distances between the various race venues. We also hope to have a scenic camping option. A team spearheaded by Annemarie Hogenbirk has started work on the event logistics, we have a great team of course setters and controllers, one confirmed coordinator for the sprint day and we are in the process of seeking funding for mapping a new corner of Woodhill Forest. Over the coming months we will be looking for lots of volunteers – right now we would love to hear from anyone with graphics or design skills (please email nzoc2021@gmail.com ).

The sprint will take place on the North Shore, while the Long (new map), Middle (new map) and Relays will be in the Kaipara/ Woodhill region. Several areas are now under embargo until Easter 2021. Please see the website for details: https://www.nwoc.org.nz/nzoc2021/

North West Orienteering Club champs 2020 – date to be advised.

Welcome to new members
We are very pleased to welcome the following new members:  Catherine Bell and James Borlase; father and son Bryce and Oliver Day; and Siobhan and James Murphy, whose grandfather Bob Murphy was a long time NWOC member.

Stay safe and I hope to see you in the forest soon!