Hi. I am a new member to this forum. My name is John Lowe, some of you probably know the name from somewhere in the distant past. I live in Dundas, a nice suburb of Sydney, not far from a lot of places to play badminton. I started playing badminton when I was at university (about 1979 or so) and found that I was good at it. I started stringing badminton racquets in 1982. I was president of the University of New South Wales Badminton Club for many years until mid 1980's. I was also involved with the Sydney Badminton Association and New South Wales Badminton Association in the committees (Secretary, Vice-Pres, Treasurer etc). I achieved State Umpire status also around that time. Soon after, I got married, and sort of drifted away from badminton for about 20 years and have now come back to play in the past few years. I ruptured my Achilles tendon competing in the Sydney World Masters Games in October 2009 - that brought a halt to almost everything for about 6 months. Anyway, a long story - but back to playing, and now have started stringing racquets again. Work-wise, I am an Electrical Engineer but have worked most of my career in the computing industry, and recently retrenched at the beginning of last year from HP. Currently doing some after hours project management work to keep out of trouble, which gives me a lot of time to think about what I want to do. I am considering getting my badminton coaching certificate. I also do some machining as a hobby and have an interest in Astronomy and Cycling. So that's it in a nutshell - and apologies for the long post. Job opportunities are welcomed. -John
Welcoming johnlowe88 to BadmintonCentral !!! . Hi John, Welcome to BadmintonCentral !!! Don't know if you remember me (Chris Hoh)? I was there at the University of New South Wales Badminton Club; with John (White), Judy (Chen), Carolyn/Dennis/Jenny (Toh), Kitty/Peter (King), etc...... Dennis and Jenny, and I have moved to Melbourne (more than 20 years ago). Hope that one day we can get together for a reunion. .
Hi Chris, Long time no hear. Yes, I remember you, and how is Jenny? I have been reading a few of your posts, just catching up with what is going on in the badminton scene. Everyone here is stringing racquets at 25-30 lbs, make me feel old with my 16 lb Carbonex 8's. I got some new racquets so am trying them out and hopefully catch up. Yes, let's get together sometime. I have been busy finding out where people have gone to, which was why I did this post here. It must be working. See you soon, -John
Hope to catch up with you soon . Jenny and Dennis are fine. Carolyn always come over to Melbourne (representing Badminton Australia) whenever we have a big event here, like the Commonwealth Games, our annual Australian Open, etc, ... Hope to catch up with you soon. Regarding everyone here stringing rackets at 25-30 lbs making you feel old with your 16 lb Carbonex 8's; Don't worry. It's how we play, not about with what rackets and/or strings/tensions we use. .
Welceom.. ..to BCDF, johnlowe88 (John)!..Thanks for sharing a bit of your life history to the many hundreds if not thousands of baddy fans from all over the world.. Visit us often!
Hi John I was reading your thread about adaptions to your klip stringing machine racquet supports. I have recently bought such a machine with same problem. I was wondering did you make any supports and what type? I am not very handy at making things and was wondering if your would mind making me some supports, i would obviously pay you for this. Cheers Michael Richardson, mick206@bigpond.com. I currently live on Gold Coast
Michael, Hi - I sent you a PM with my contact details. Yes, I did make some supports and have a new design that I am working on and hope to have a concept prototype soon. -John
An update from Sydney, Australia. Hi. I did actually attend a badminton coaching course. I have also attended a coaching course for the Active After Schools Communities, run by the Australian Sports Commission. I am currently providing doubles coaching for a local club and am coaching the NSW Under 13 Team 2 in preparation for the 2012 Under 13 Interstate Series & Regional Teams Challenge at Altona, Victoria - January 13-14, 2012. I am also busy with some ideas for improving my telescopes and mountings after viewing and taking photographs of the recent Lunar Eclipse on Saturday night/Sunday morning. -John