Kirk Bryde Article

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http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/issues05 ... 05sp1.html

Pioneer of his time

By Ken Henry - Times

At 14, Kirk Bryde learned how to pole vault by reading a book. The year was 1963. As you can imagine, the sport wasn't exactly mainstream, and coaches were few and far between.

But Bryde found a way.

His subsequent training regimen consisted of climbing up and down an old fire escape rope that hung off the side of the balcony of his parents' home. When a commercial would come on TV he'd run to the rope, climb down it and then race back up again.

Soon Bryde's upper body began to bulge, and Abbotsford Senior Secondary School coach Gerry Swan asked the youngster if he'd been hitting the weights.

"Never touch the weights," Swan said Bryde told him, without saying another word.

Swan found out about the rope-climbing story a few weeks later through Bryde's mother.

It was this type of self-motivation, Swan recalls, that set Bryde apart from other athletes.

Bryde's talent didn't hurt either. He played all sports as a youngster, but took a particular liking to track and field.

He soon began to excel at the sport, and was clearing heights other high school students in the Fraser Valley only dreamed of. One of the reasons was his willingness to take risks. Bryde was the first vaulter in the Fraser Valley to use a fibreglass vaulting pole, but often the poles would break and he'd end up in a heap on the ground. Either that or he would overshoot the landing pad on the way down and smack himself on the track.

"His willingness to take so many chances probably cost him his vaulting career," said Swan.

At the time it didn't seem like such a big deal.

In 1968 Bryde set the B.C. high school record with a vault of 4.34 metres. It was the 10th best vault in all of Canada that year.

With the help of Swan, Bryde secured a scholarship at the University of Washington, where he studied business and graduated with his degree in 1972.

In his first two years at Washington Bryde was injured the majority of the time, as he hurt both his ankles in separate accidents. Each time he had to wear a cast for eight weeks. Undeterred, he kept at it and was finally rewarded in 1971 when he had a breakthrough jump of 5.28 metres. It was the best jump by any Canadian that year.

Bryde built on that momentum and in 1972 cleared 5.34 metres - a Canadian record that stood for 16 years. He also qualified for the 1972 Olympics in Munich, but his ankle injuries had finally caught up to him and he wasn't able to perform up to his regular standards.

In 1973 he had surgery to repair the damage.

He never vaulted again, but did coach for two years.

"I just loved sports and to me there was no other way of life," said Bryde on Sunday from his Kelowna home, recalling his younger years. "Sports was my life. That was my idea of fun, I guess."

"People always ask why I didn't give up," he added. "It's just not in my nature."

And as for that book Bryde learned to vault with, well, pick up a copy of the 1972 edition and you'll see a section devoted to a young man from Abbotsford named Kirk Bryde.