RAAB Paddles

I'm now the distributor for RAAB paddles in New Zealand. RAAB is a Czech brand and is used by many international stars, Peter Kauzer, Jana Dukatova, Elena Kaliska and many more. There paddles come in all shapes and sizes to suit your paddling style.

The paddles are feather light, but remain strong due to there new technology and high flexibility. If your interested in seeing the paddles specifications you can find them on www.raab-paddles.com. If you have any questions or queries feel free to email me and ask callumgibb@hotmail.com.

Australian Open

 I arrived in Sydney, Australia on the 6th of February along with my brother Ben and the Whiteheads. Was just as expected, 30 - 40 degrees, which might sound nice, but trust me it's not. 

We picked up our Ford Falcon hatchback which quickly recieved a nickname 'The Bogan'. Arriving in Penrith, we went for an afternoon session learning the course. Training from there in was pretty similar each day. 830 or 730 am trainings and an afternoon session every second day. 

Lukasz Polyaczk arrived on the 9th and stayed with us from there on. The week before the oz open, we laid off the training and relaxed, going to the blue mountains and doing what there is to do in penrith, paddle and go to the mall... The race came around. 1st runs I went down the course offline battling to get back on line alot of the time doing a 102 + 6.

 Next run I focused on not going fast and just staying online. I knew this wasn't going to be an amazing time, but was a  learning curve. I did a 102 + 0 and was effortless compared to my first run. It shows what I need to work on over the winter to prepare fully for Europe and America this year. 

 I finished 50th Senior Men and 2nd Junior. Which just goes to show how hard the senior category is, something to look forward to next year!

Selections all over

Mangahou put on some pretty decent weather for the last selection races, with no rain which is unusual for the gorge. The race was really well organized and was a Oceania Championships, ICF ranking race and NZ selection race.The 3rd and 4th selection races for me had some ups and downs! In order to make the senior team I had to step my racing up a notch. The first day I went down the course with a really good plan for my run. Instead I was thinking about my pace instead of my lines I ended up going straight past the 2nd gate.. Not really what I had planned..

2nd runs I decided to throw it down. The top of my run 1-13 went really well preparing for all the staggers and doing some pretty decent upstreams. Towards the bottom things started to get average finishing in 11th place overall against the international field with paddlers from Canada all over Europe and Australia, I was pretty pleased. I ended up 3rd in the NZ seniors. That night I went home pretty pleased with my placing. Then I calculated the points and realized I had to win the seniors to make the team... I kind of wish I didn't realize this since it was all that was on my mind. I turned up to the race feeling the pressure, it showed in my first run. I went down the course off line in most of the moves, muscling my way back on line, crabbing down the course. I finished in 12th position which is a pretty good placing, but with the run I just had I knew I could of done a lot better. Second runs was the last run and chance to make the senior team. I wasn't feeling the pressure which isn't what I like, I wasn't focused on the race my mind was all over the place.. I touched the first up made errors but finished it off coming 3rd again as the other senior blew out as well but worse.

I was still 1st Junior team member for the 3rd year in a row, 4th year in the team. I finished 2nd in the junior category behind Czech star Jiri Prskavec. I also took out the Junior Oceania Champion for the second year in a row so showing a solid start to year! Bring on Australia..

The best three in each category are in the Senior Team and the top six for Juniors as it is only a Pre-World Championships for 2011 held in Wassau, America.

New Zealand Senior Team

K1 Men

Aaron Osborne

Johann Roozenburg

Mike Dawson

Myself 4th boat

K1 Women

Luuka Jones

Louise Jull

Nikki Whitehead

C1 Men

Brent Bastin

Shaun Higgins

Ben Gibb

New Zealand Junior Team

K1 Men

Callum Gibb

Carl Whitehead

Finn Butcher

Robert Hervey

Cole O’connor Stratton

Laurence Brown