Brad Walker taking active rest in Hawaii

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Two track and field Olympians are using their visit to Maui for Active Rest
Not quite on vacation, but not taking a business trip, Valley Isle stay lets Walker, Hazle recover from injuries

October 7, 2010 - By ROBERT COLLIAS, Staff Writer

WAILEA - Brad Walker and Mike Hazle don't get a lot of time off.

As Olympic athletes - Walker was the pole vault world outdoor champion in 2007 and world indoor champion in 2006; Hazle is a four-time U.S. runner-up in the javelin - they work out at a world-class level nearly all year.

So, a Maui adventure can mix vacation with the "active rest" they need to keep their bodies in offseason shape to be ready for the intense nine-to-10-month seasons their sport has evolved into with indoor and outdoor slates.

The Nike-funded athletes are roommates in Chula Vista, Calif., where they live near the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Both are friends with Maui's Bubba McLean, a world-class pole vaulter in his own right and the biggest link to Walker and Hazle being on the Valley Isle.

They arrived about two weeks ago and will stay through this month, after injuries to each also helped set up the trip.

"We both had surgeries over this last season - I had a back surgery and Mike had a shoulder surgery - and it was about March or so," said Walker, who also has silver medals from the indoor and outdoor world championships. "It was maybe a month and a half after my surgery and I was sitting on the couch and I saw some Hawaiian waves and said, 'Yeah, I am going to go there because I can't do anything right now. I am going to go jump in the water and (use it to) help heal.' "

After a 10-day housesitting assignment in Hawaii Kai, Oahu, last year during which they experienced paddleboarding and snorkeling, Walker and Hazle decided they had to come to Maui.

While they are not stepping inside a stadium while on the Valley Isle, they will take advantage of all the area has to offer to stay in condition.

Hazle had an injection of artificial cartilage shortly before arriving on Sept. 25, in an attempt to avoid a third arthroscopic surgery on his knee.

"We are going to try that out, hang out in Maui for six weeks, let things heal up and when I get back to San Diego, if it is still not healed up, then we can try the scope then and see what happens," he said. "We wanted to do the less invasive option and see if that works."

Part of that plan is working out by having fun in the ocean.

"We have spent a whole lot of time snorkeling," Hazle said. "And tried to do some bodysurfing with our buddy Bubba, a little bit of kayaking. We tried to drop some fishing lines off the back of the kayaks - that didn't work very well. Just basically everything. Brad has done a lot of research on the benefits of the ocean water, so I am just kind of along for the ride, trying to soak up as much positive energy as I can."

Walker, who graduated from Washington in 2003 with a business degree, says being in the Pacific Ocean is indeed beneficial.

"It is hard to quantify it, it is hard to say, 'This is directly what you are going to get out of it,' " he said. "But I know the ocean, it is just a sea of negative ions, which are really good for the body. I know that every mineral on earth, trace mineral, elements, everything is in the ocean water. I think the skin sucks that stuff in. We are trying to get as much fish as we can here and just eat locally.

"It is just an unpolluted, beautiful place. Just to get out of the big city life and all of the cars running around creating smog in Southern California - just to be out here in the elements, it is great for both the body and the mind."

Walker and Hazle are also mixing in yoga classes three times a week while on Maui.

Walker and McClean have known each other since competing in college - McLean, who went to California, holds Hawaii's high school state record in the pole vault, at 15 feet, 3 inches; he also jumped an all-time state best 15-9 while at St. Anthony.

"We competed against each other, a lot of Pac-10s, a lot of national championships, stuff like that," Walker said. "Bubba was working out in Jonesboro, Arkansas, I was in California, but then he came and started working out with the same coach I was with in 2008. He came down to the training center last year. I have known Bubba for a while and always wanted to come visit his place and see where he lives."

Walker and Hazle had similar disappointments at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing - Walker no-heighted in qualifying and Hazle was 12th in his qualifying group with a mark 31 feet less than the personal-record 269-8 he set the same year.

It was a shocking blow for Walker, who finished the 2005 and 2007 seasons ranked No. 1 in the world by Track & Field News magazine, and was No. 2 in 2006 and No. 4 in 2008.

Clearly, London in 2012 is circled in red on his calendar. He holds the U.S. record of 19-9 3/4 - the mark, set in June 2008, was the best in the world that year, two months before he went to Beijing.

"I went in there as the gold-medal favorite and I came out with no hardware, so for me I would like to go redeem that Olympic experience for myself," Walker said. "You learn quite a bit from it, understood what went on. There were some things out of my control and there were some things in my control and it just kind of went the way it did. For me, outside of the Olympics, I am 4-for-4 in (medaling in) major championships. I feel like I compete well under a lot of pressure. After analyzing what happened in '08, I feel like I will be ready for 2012 and plan on going and getting my hardware."

Walker said he waited two hours between his last warmup and first official jump in Beijing, and a broken standard later caused a 45-minute delay.

''Things break, stuff happens - we filed a protest before the event was completed because of the chaos that was going on - but I let that chaos affect me. I wouldn't have changed anything. I have gone back, I know exactly what went on. I took my jumps and my second jump the bar barely trickled off. My third jump, it was too good of a jump and my pole was too small and I blew through it, so it was just a set of circumstances that was tough to deal with.

"Going into 2012, you just know that anything can happen and pretty much everything will. You just have to deal with it. I know that if I'm healthy, I can beat and jump with anybody in the world. I have proved that being world champion and stuff like that, so now I just need to do it on that day. It is easier said than done. The Olympic experience - there's a lot of different things that make up for one day, but the plan is to go get it."

Olympic disappointment also bit Hazle after a 90-minute rain delay stopped his qualifying effort.

"Everybody has to compete in the exact same conditions and it seemed like those who didn't let those circumstances affect them were the guys who were coming out on top," he said. "I changed a bunch of things I shouldn't have changed. I had 10 or 11 competitions coming into the Olympics where I met the qualifying standard to get into the final. I just let things get out of control - changing marks, changing javelins, changing what I use for my grip. All in expectations that it is going to make myself better given the circumstances - if it is raining or there is a delay. In actuality, I should have done what I did all year long. It was a great learning experience. I didn't want to let all that learning experience go to waste and not capitalize on it in 2012."

Hazle, who has a bachelor's degree in sports science and business and a master's in sports management, both from Texas State, said the Maui trip could become an annual event for the roommates.

"Somebody once told me, 'Show me your friends and I will show you your future,' " he said. "This is just absolute fun because when we do start training it is sprinting, jumping, lifting, gymnastics, throwing, just wear and tear, pounding, compression, rotation on the body pretty much six days a week, two times a day. This is just more active rest for us."