Bond (25) gained his third red coat at the New Zealand championships when he stroked the Southern RPC to a win in the men's premier eights.
It completed a 12-month period when he was unbeaten in major regattas on the domestic and international scene.
The Southern RPC crew of Bond, James Lassche, Ben Wooding, Carl Meyer, John Storey, Jade Uru, Todd Petherick, Matthew Trott and cox Michael Dessoulavy (Otago University) won in a time of 5min 39.33sec from Central RPC 5min 41.48sec and Waikato RPC 5min 44.10sec.
It was Bond's 14th red coat and the win meant a lot to him because it was the event he had most doubts about before the championships started.
"But my attitude changed after we had a few rows together before the regatta," Bond told the Otago Daily Times.
"After the heat we started to get belief in ourselves."
The Southern crew shot out of the start and caught the more fancied Central RPC napping.
They had a length lead at 1000m.
"We didn't want to give Central a sniff," Bond said.
"If they got in front, we knew they would be hard to pull back."
The third 500m was critical as Central and Waikato put in big efforts in an attempt to close the gap and the three crews were even with 500m to go.
"They had to make the big push then," Bond said.
"We just had to hold our composure."
With 200m left the Southern eight let fly and had a 2.15sec advantage at the finish.
It was a good national regatta for Otago rowers, who won 18 medals - seven gold, eight silver and three bronze.
Last year, at Lake Karapiro, Otago won just seven medals - four gold, two silver and one bronze.
