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

selections, race 1, rain, race 2 cancelled

This weekend the first two selection races took place on the Tarawera River, Kawerau. Course was designed by Bryden Nicholas and Vavrenic Hradileck from the Czech Republic, was a pretty tricky course with some tight staggers. Day 1 went pretty good for me, I went into the race with a clear head knowing exactly what I was going to do. I went down the course, paddling everything smoothly not cutting my lines and playing it safe in the difficult moves. I got off the river feeling it was a pretty solid run, then saw the results saying I was winning not only junior men but open men! Was a great surprise. Second runs I wasn't as focused only finding out my run time not so long before hopping on. I hit a rock whilst doing a tight stagger arriving late on the last gate in the sequence, then came in tight into the upstream, hitting it, then went a low into upstream 13, and making a mess of the bottom stagger. I was pretty disapointed with this run because of the number of small mistakes. Johann, Mike and Aaron the senior K1 Men had better second runs to push me down to fourth place, with Aaron Osborne taking out a win in the first selection race for K1 men.

Results:
136 K1M Callum Gibb U18 R1 92.83 0 92.83 R2 95.87 2 97.87 Best 92.83
140 K1M Mike Dawson Senior R193.45 2 95.45 R2 92.49 0 92.49 Best 92.49137 K1M Johann Roozenburg Senior R1 91.93 2 93.93 R2 91.3 0 91.3 Best 91.3138 K1M Aaron Osborne Senior R1 95.54 2 97.54 R2 91.2 0 91.2 Best 91.2
134 K1M Lukasz Polaczyk (POLAND) R1 89.64 2 91.64 R2 89.44 0 89.44 Best 89.44143 K1M Pierre Bourliaud (FRANCE) R1 89.56 0 89.56 R2 87.54 0 87.54 Best 87.54144 K1M Vavra Hradlek (C.REPUBLIC) R1 87.12 0 87.12 R2 86.19 2 88.19 B 87.12
90 C1M Shaun Travers U23 R1 134.54 4 138.54 R2 106.93 0 106.93 Best 106.9391 C1M Ben Gibb U23 R1 107.74 4 111.74 R2 104.78 2 106.78 Best 106.7892 C1M Shaun Higgins U23 R1 106.47 4 110.47 R2 105.65 0 105.65 Best 105.6593 C1M Brent Bastin U23 R1 103.65 2 105.65 R2 110.28 8 118.28 Best 105.65
94 C1M Denis Gargaud (FRANCE) R1 112.61 56 168.61 R2 95.3 2 97.3 Best 97.3

157 K1W Ella Nicholas U23 R1 119.01 4 123.01 R2 129.01 0 129.01 Best 123.01
154 K1W Katrina Van Wijk (CANADA) R1 118.28 4 122.28 R2 121.92 2 123.92 Best 122.28155 K1W Nikki Whitehead U23 R1 117.73 0 117.73 R2 115.84 2 117.84 Best 117.73158 K1W Louise Jull U23 R1 111.51 0 111.51 R2 112.25 2 114.25 Best 111.51159 K1W Luuka Jones U23 R1 102.24 6 108.24 R2 105.36 0 105.36 Best 105.36

Today, Sunday the 23rd racing was cancelled due to rain all last night and all today flooding the river, which was still rising from it's inital flow of 20 Cumecs, to 40 Cumecs, meaning the flow will be changing all day, and judging would be very difficult in these conditions. With only two races left I'll have to pull something out of the bag!

Results can be found here www.slalomnz.org.nz

Video of my first run..

Video of my second run..

Aaron Osborne's winning run..

Summer racing and training

We've been having a few races lately, the Bill Ross Memorial Race and one at the Kaituna River. For me I didn't race to my ability but nothing too bad. Just silly mistakes through out. Hopefully get them sorted by selections! Around that it's just been training, starting to get a bit of speed into into it as I get ready for selections. This year they're in the same places as usual, Kawerau and Shannon. The race in shannon is also the NZ Open and Oceania Championships, an ICF world ranking race so there's going to be a bit of international competition coming over I hear. After selections i'll be off to Penrith to the Australia Open for 10 days training before hand, with my brother and the whiteheads. The Australian Open is always a popular turn out so will be heaps of competition, juniors and seniors.