Who is AROC?

AROC Sport was established in early 2003 by Tom Landon-Smith and Alina McMaster. Their inspiration originated from participation in the international series of Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge events organised by Mark Burnett between 1995 and 2002. Tom and Alina have extensive experience in outdoor sports. They were members of the Australian Cross-Country Ski Team between 1985 and 1994 and were the 2003 Australian 24 hour rogaining champions which was the first time a mixed team had won the championships. Between 1997 and 2006 they competed in numerous adventure races both locally and internationally. Starting out in adventure racing, Tom and Alina placed highly in Eco-Challenge events- 4th Australia 1997 as Team Red Hot (Alina, Tom, Novak Thompson and Tim Smallwood), 7th Argentina 1999 as Team Fosters Australia (Alina, Tom, Tom Crebbin and Keith Tuffley), 3rd Fiji 2002 as Team Air Pacific (Alina, Matt Dalziel, Novak Thompson and John Jacoby). They also came 3rd in the 2001 New Zealand Southern Traverse event as Team Wombat (Alina, Tom, Nigel Aylott and Tom Crebbin).

Alina and Tom

Tom and Alina formed Team AROC in early 2003 and competed in Australia mostly with the combination of Matt Dalziel, Nigel Aylott or Tom Crebbin but also sometimes with Kris Clauson, Karl Strode-Penny, Adam Hunter, Rebecca Rusch, Andrew Crawley or Rosi King. They won the XPD twice, Geoquest three times, Cairns Eco-Adventure (The Quoll) three times, TEVA Championships twice, Hells Bells twice, Arrow 24 Hour Race and many Maximum Adventure Races.

Internationally, Team AROC raced as Tom, Alina, Matt Dalziel and Nigel Aylott. They came 2nd in The 2003 Subaru Primal Quest in California against the top teams in the world and shared in $250,000 of prize money, and then won the Chicago Wild Onion Urban 24 hour Adventure Race 7 days later. In 2004, they returned to The Subaru Primal Quest in Washington State. However during an orienteering leg in a treacherous mountain area, Nigel was killed by a dislodged boulder as AROC were leading on the third day of the race. Their support crew, DJ Brooks, wrote an article on the incident 5 years later after he and Nigel’s brother, Mike, visited the area to place a plaque in memory of Nigel.

AROC-PQ-finish-web

Our Aim

The aim of AROC Sport is to share the exhilaration, camaraderie, fitness, sense of achievement and ultimate sense of freedom and calm that challenging outdoor adventures can provide. We love what we do organising spectacular, interesting and challenging events in magnificent places and understand that the more we can get people active in nature, the more people will appreciate and hopefully protect our pristine natural environments for the long term.

Our Business

AROC Sport is an outdoor event management business which specialises in: