Taupō Triple Threat OCR
No rope? No problem! We find out how team Taupō Triple Threat conquer the Slip Wall and become New Zealand's Obstacle Course Racing powerhouse.
By Ellë Bolland
Have you heard of a slip wall?
It’s exactly what it sounds like. Picture those Saturday nights flicking through the channels until you land on Ninja Warrior. Competitors are hurling themselves over climb walls, sprinting across spinning logs, and conquering monkey bars. Then comes the slip wall—where participants grab a rope, scale up, and flip themselves over the top. Sounds doable, right? But what if there was no rope? This is where you need more than strength; you need a team. Cue three incredible women who’ve taken on New Zealand’s ultimate obstacle course challenge together, proving that teamwork, resilience, and pure grit can get you over any wall—even an 8ft one.
Just watch this video. This bunch of nimble assassins is Taupō Triple Threat / @taupotriplethreatocr; Laura, Xanthe, Louisa and Tarryn (who stepped in for the World Championships while Xanthe was injured).In the video, Louisa positions herself as the mast, Laura climbs onto her shoulders, while Tarryn then scales the wall to climb onto Laura’s hands and she pushes her to the top. Tarryn grips with every ounce of strength while Laura then uses her body to also climb to the top, leaving Louisa the only option of running towards the wall and finding a new way of getting to the top. Watch to the end to figure out just how!
It’s alarmingly clear that team-work is the thing which gets them over the obstacle. If Louisa didn’t place herself at the bottom of the wall, Laura wouldn’t have got the height for Tarryn to get to the top. Without Laura and Tarryn working together to form a human flagpole, Louisa wouldn’t have the chance to reach the top at all. It’s collaboration in its finest form, and there’s something we can all learn from the way these women tackle what seemed like an impossible task.
We meet the women epitomising what it means to be in true collaboration.
Elle: “First and foremost, can you tell us how you all met? Were you friends before joining the OCR community?”
Laura: “It all started back in 2021 when Lou and I crossed paths at Empower Fitness in Taupō, and since then we’ve been training together and tearing up the obstacle course racing (OCR) scene. We then met Xanthe in 2023 through a 12-week challenge at our gym. The training we did at Empower Fitness set us up perfectly for the Ultimate Athlete OCR in New Zealand, and that’s where Xanthe decided to join us for the first time on a race weekend. Fast forward to February of this year and the three of us headed to Australia to compete in Spartan Bright – a huge milestone for us. Not long after, we received news that we were selected to represent New Zealand at the FISO World Championships in Costa Rica!
As a trio of women from Taupō, we decided to create Taupō Triple Threat OCR to help fund our racing dreams. Xanthe, our 24-year-old ‘young gun,’ brings the fire, while Lou and I, both mums in our forties, bring the experience – people are always asking Xanthe why she hangs out with the ‘oldies!’ It’s all about our shared love for pushing our limits and taking on the toughest OCR challenges out there.
Elle: “You only came together as a team in 2023! Had you been competing in OCR races beforehand? Do you train individually or always together?”
Xanthe: “Laura and Lou have been competing individually in OCR since 2021. I played hockey and was involved in athletics when I was younger. We train both together and individually around six days a week, usually consisting of interval training along the lakefront, rig work in Laura’s back yard and our weekly Taupō Triple Threat training with our coach, Greg, who we met through Empower”.
Elle: “How did you learn that you were really strong as a team? Do each of you play a particular role within the team?”
Louisa: “While we usually race individually, training together for the same events makes us really push ourselves and better prepare us for these events. It’s all about raising the bar, and our coach knows exactly how to make that happen with sessions designed to challenge us. One time he made us commando crawl up a hill in Taupō while the other person was planking – bleugh! We’ve now affectionately named this hill as “death hill”, as a little part of our soul was left behind doing it for the first time (as well as all the skin on our elbows!). That was just before we headed to Bright for our first Trifecta. Needless to say, Bright was made particularly memorable by taking even more of the skin from our elbows!
Elle: “So you mentioned that Xanthe was injured for the World Champs in Mammoth, how did you deal with this?”
Laura: “Team races are always the highlight of the weekend – but with everything that happens over those intense couple of days, anything can change. When Xanthe was unexpectedly unable to race, we were lucky enough to have a fellow Kiwi, who was also competing at Mammoth, step in and join our team. We discussed our plan for the race, put it into action and when it came to the slip wall (featured in the video) we managed to nail it! We had some pretty epic support from another friend from the UK on the sidelines, which definitely gave us that extra boost when we needed it most”.
Elle: “Which obstacle do each of you find the most challenging?
Laura: “For me, the hoist is always my biggest challenge. You have to grab a rope attached to a pulley, anchor yourself to the ground and start pulling to raise a heavy sandbag 24 feet in the air and carefully lower it back down again. It really demands full body strength as much as the stamina to lower the weight slowly, when you are already sucking wind and your muscles are screaming!”.
milestone
Xanthe: “I’m finding low rigs pretty challenging right now. It’s the transition between the obstacles that I need to really practise. The challenge for us is always finding the place to train these types of things – it’s not everywhere you’ll find a low rig with different holds and configurations to get through!”.
Louisa: “I find anything where I need to hang from one arm really challenging, and typically there’s a lot of hanging in OCR events! It’s something I’ve continually tried to work on”.
Elle: “If one of you struggles with an obstacle but the other two don’t, how do you approach this?”
Laura: “There’s always a lot of discussion about how we can do things better, especially when one of us nails something the others might struggle with. If someone’s stronger at a particular obstacle, we share our tips and strategies. It’s all about learning from each other and fine-tuning our approach to get better as a team.”
Xanthe: “When we do obstacle practice, which could be anywhere like the gym, Laura’s backyard rig, or even a local playground (believe it or not!), we will film ourselves, break down the footage and figure out where we can level up. It’s all about refining the small details”.
Louisa: “Obstacle practice is something that demands a little bit of work every day, whether that’s doing bar hangs, swinging on monkey bars in Laura’s backyard, or heading to our Ninja Gym in Taupō at The Landing. Every session adds up and it’s all refining that technique little by little.”
Elle: “There’s a Ninja Gym?!”
Louisa: “Oh yeah! It’s quite similar to what you see on Ninja Warrior. It all started when we asked the boss for a warped wall so we could practise for Ultimate Athlete, and he ended up building a full Ninja Course!!”.
Elle: “Do you juggle training with full-time work? Do you get to use your collaborative skills in your day job?”
Laura: “Xan works full-time at a local café, which means she’s often juggling shifts and fitting in her training in the afternoons or evenings. As for Louisa and myself, we’re both busy mums of two. I work from home for a residential construction company in Auckland, which gives me a ton of flexibility. Louisa, on the other hand, is the General Manager at Dropzone (where the Ninja Gym is!). It’s an indoor bounce, bowl, and play entertainment centre. Training schedules can be a bit of a puzzle, but Louisa and I usually get our sessions in the morning after the school drop-off, and we’ll try to sync up with Xan in the afternoons when we can. Weekends are our time to hit the trails for a long run together, soaking up the scenes and catching up while we’re at it”.
Elle: “What’s something we wouldn’t know about your sport?”
Laura: “OCR is honestly one of the most inclusive sports out there. A lot of people might think it’s only for elite athletes or military types, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The beauty of OCR is that it welcomes people of all fitness levels – it’s about having fun, pushing yourself, and working as a team. Obviously, it can be competitive, but the real focus is on the camaraderie you build along the way”.
Louisa: “A lot of races allow for competitors to retry obstacles or where a retry isn’t possible, you might get burpee penalties or a penalty loop carrying something heavy like a log or sandbag! It takes the pressure off and makes it less intimidating for anyone wanting to give it a go. It’s all about making the experience enjoyable, no matter your level.”
Xanthe: “It’s a sport on the rise, and with the exciting announcement that it will be part of the Modern Pentathlon at the LA 2028 Olympics, it’s only going to get bigger. The New Zealand team is already gearing up for that, and we’re all excited to see where it goes!”.
Elle: “OCR is coming to the 2028 Olympics?! What’s your dream course?”
Laura: “For LA 2028, the OCR component of the Modern Pentathlon will be a 100m sprint course, adding a whole new level of intensity to the event. It’ll be alongside the traditional pentathlon events: laser shooting, running, swimming, and fencing – all skills we would need to sharpen in the years ahead!”.
Louisa: “I think for us, it’s not so much that there is a dream location to race, it’s the fact that we get to travel the world competing in OCR events in incredible locations. Just this year we’ve raced in Australia, Costa Rica, Mammoth Lakes in California, and Fiji. And of course, we’ve also competed in some of the top endorsed events back home in New Zealand. It’s not just the courses that make these races so unforgettable – it’s the places we get to see and the amazing people we meet from all walks of life”.
Xanthe: “This year we’ve dedicated a lot of time to organising fun events for our community to help fundraise and get us to Costa Rica. The support we’ve received from our hometown in Taupō has been amazing – it’s thanks to their generosity and enthusiasm that we’re able to take on our next big challenge. It’s heartwarming to see how much our community believes in us and is willing to help us get one step closer to our goals!”.
Elle: “What are 3 things you would share with someone tackling their first OCR race?”
Laura: “Train for obstacles – focus on functional strength and practise specific obstacles like wall climbs and crawls. Incorporate grip strength exercises – think bar hangs, as they are crucial for many challenges you will face!
Xanthe: “You have to build endurance – while the obstacles are key, never forget that OCR also involves a significant amount of running. Do your cardio so you can comfortably handle the distance, and ideally aim for slightly more than your race distance. If there’s elevation on the course, then do that uphill and downhill work!”.
focussed
Louisa: “Less of a training focussed tip but more around mindset; mindset matters just as much as training. Embrace the day with a positive attitude and focus on having fun. Arrive early to avoid stress, warm up properly, and mentally prepare for the challenge. And remember, stay hydrated in the days leading up to the event too!”.
There’s something we can all learn from Taupō Triple Threat and their approach as a team; success isn’t always about individual strength; it’s about respecting everyone’s skills and working together toward a shared goal. Each obstacle faced, from the slip wall to the final leg of the race, becomes a shared challenge where collaboration – not competition, is the key to overcoming the toughest moments.
Taupō Triple Threat are the true embodiment of effective collaboration, where forethought, respect, and intentionality are practised in mind of the greater goal. In obstacle course racing, as in life, true success comes when we come together, recognise each other’s strengths and support one another in pursuit of a common goal. For these women, and many others in OCR, collaboration isn’t just a strategy – it’s in the heart of the sport.
Find out more www.taupoocr.com
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