More and more rain...

Yesterday, we once again went up the Mungakarangaranga gorge (Laurence Andre and I) to do some runs down, with a walk back on the Abyss (rapid shown in the photos). Photos were taken by Laurence Brown.

NZ Summer

Training has become that little bit more exciting as NZ hits Summer time and the races begin! Training camps have been happening all around the country with one at Tekapo in the South Island being help this week. Last week I attended a NZ Under 23 training camp at Palmerston North with Natalie Siegrest, Martin Hammer and Aaron Osborne coaching. The camp went well and was based on performance, testing our racing skills after our physical block of training, leading up to New Zealand Team Selections. My paddling is going well at the moment, with new techniques coming into play and feeling physically prepared.

This weekend (Sunday) the annual Bill Ross Memorial race takes place on the Slalom section of the Wairoa River. This should be a good test for the up and coming races in January. There's been a fair amount of rain around the Bay of Plenty with the rivers rising meaning it's time to drag the creek boat out of the garage and head up the Kaimai's. Laurence Brown and myself went up the Mangakarangaranga Gorge for a quiet morning paddle. Here's a short video of my run down the Abyss...



This week there is another training camp over at Kawerau on the Tarawera River where I'll coach some of the up and coming junior athletes such as Patrick Washer who I've been coaching, better watch out for him! This course will host the race 1 and 2 for the selections so will be good to do some coaching and get some training done on the course getting a good understanding of the river again.

Life at Okere has been going ok, doing one paper over summer to get a qualification for my years study and then heading to uni in Wellington 2012.

Photo credit goes to Martin Hammer (Czech Republic)

Why so long, what I've been doing, where to now?..

Sorry for my long delay in posts! Summarizing the rest of Europe, I finished off the Teen Cups in 8th place from around 60 athletes. Things didn't go as well as I'd hoped in my racing, due to changes, but it is all part of the experience, and I enjoyed the trip. After the races I kicked back a bit and recovered my body and mind, heading to Edinburgh, Scotland for 10 days to visit all my family, first time I've been back to my birth place in 14 years! Another trip soon is necessary I think. Then heading off to watch the World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia, where the NZ team qualified two spots for the Olympics Games in London (Mike Dawson and Luuka Jones), which is awesome to see.

Over the last month after returning home I've had a break from paddling deciding what I want to do with my future. I've made the decision to study Architecture at Victoria University, which will be a challenge to continue training, but it's more than possible, and I'm looking forward to the new environment. Training sites in the area can be found at Mangahou, where the NZ Selections are held, 90km's from Wellington. There's also a training site close at Lower Hutt, and a nice flat water river mouth which should work out just dandy.

A: Where I'll be living 

B: The training site in Lower Hutt

I'm now getting back into training, with Ian Mercer preparing my program for the next NZ summer season. Selections and National Championships will be my goals for the year, where I hope to train up over summer and achieve some solid placings. It's now time for study, finishing my course at Waiariki with exams ending mid November, then it's yet another holiday, for 4 months! Boy, it's a hard life..

Over the last month I've been doing some creeking on the Lower Gorges of Kaituna and on the Manga with a bit of rain. Here's a video produced by Flow Addicts, edited and filmed by myself. To check out our other edits (videos) simply CLICK HERE

Liptovsky Mikula, preparing for Teen Cup 2

The 2nd teen cup is quickly approaching. Training on the course is going good, just as many athletes here as the previous race in Bratislava. The course consists of alot of rocks which are used for upstreams (conventional or s's) and two chutes, then rows of holes down the bottom. At first I wasn't enjoying the course but now It's sick, heaps of different features on the course and small deceptive stretches on water the whole way down the course.

The weather here has been really good, 25 - 35 degrees each day, which is very different too what we had last week. Racing on Saturday is from 9am - 8pm, so not sure when my race is on. Results can be found here http://avs.ktklm.sk/ (I'm in the category K1 Under 18 Men)

Teen Cup no. 1

Over the past weekend the first of the four Teen Cup races commenced at Bratislava, a famous course for it's three metre drop at the bottom and hosting World Cups, European Championships and the World Championships later this year in September.

The course for qualifications was quite basic and simple from the river bank, but proved to be more difficult than expected for myself. Things were going good on first runs, online and smoothly through the top section until loosing an edge around gates 7 and 8, going low into up 8. Things weren't so smooth from there on in, with my lines being off and silly mistakes left me in 12th place after 1st runs.

I went over my run and had a plan with open lines, ensuring I would have a solid run to qualify for the semi-finals. Everything went good, open lines and the boat was running. At the upstream 12, I got grated along the wall loosing sometime, I kept online, but once again, I caught an edge on my booth further down the course, completely stopping, thinking I had to push hard and nail the next couple of upstreams proved costly, with a simple mistake causing a re-circ (paddle back for a gate) loosing 6 - 7 seconds. I pushed hard to the finish line, to have a slower time. It was a nervous wait but I was into the semi-finals in 18th place...

Sunday was a new day, a clean slate. The course designed by Marcel Potocny (Slovakian Team Member) was a really awesome course, with moves using numerous features down the course. I was looking forward to racing on the course for semi's and hopefully finals. A rough start to my run, getting offline again, followed by a solid middle section, was looking solid. An error, due to ducking a downstream gate costed a low entry to the 3rd upstream, pushing it to the finish and staying composed I wasn't pleased with my run at all. Surprisingly, alot of paddlers blew out and made even larger mistakes, leaving me in 5th place, going into the final (top 10) chasing Carl Whitehead of NZ, in 4th place.

I was feeling the pressure for the final, but was also stoked to have made it. I reviewed my race and had a solid plan of attack, I set off down the course, to get a touch on the first gate..not the biggest confidence booster for the rest of the run but managed to stay composed. No major errors, but 3 small issues, caused for numerous seconds lost in the upstream and 3 touches overall meant no podium for myself. I placed 5th overall, not too disappointing but just goes to show the consequences of penalties!

However, team mate and training partner, Carl Whitehead of NZ stayed reasonably clean and composed to finish in 3rd place behind Slovenian and Czech Republic athletes. An awesome result.

We're now in Liptovsky Mikulas for the 2nd Teen Cup race this weekend, a gypsy area some people have found out the hard way already..

Will keep you updates on racing and results, Ciao for now

Augsburg and now in Bratislava for Teen Cup.

Training here in Bratislava is starting to get busier and busier with Juniors from all over Europe, America and Oceania have come to race for the Teen Cup which will take place this Sat and Sunday. The weather here has been pretty poor, with days of 12 and 14 degrees, not what I came here for though, the paddling has been awesome! Spent a week in Augsburg recovering and enjoying the course. We picked up Carl Whitehead from Munich (Munchen) who has just got to Europe after a month in America and Canada.

Sorry for the lack of updates but haven't had much internet here at the moment. Alot of seniors at the course at the moment, preparing for the World Championships in September.

Will keep you posted on results from the race.

Salzburg, Innsbruck holiday with out kayaking!

After a 5 day camp in Bratislava on the technical course at Cunovo, Ben heads off to London to compete at the test event for the OG, and Mum and I head off to Austria for a holiday and a few days off paddling. Salzburg, the home of Mozart and the Sound of Music, is packed with tourist (like myself). It's a pretty awesome place to go to, in the mountains with a river running through the middle of town, 1000's of shops and many homeless people.. After our day in Salzburg we drove to Innsbruck, the host City for the 2012 Winter Olympics. We visited the venue that hosted some of the event's at an earlier winter olympics, can't believe people do that, think I'll stick with Slalom.. The rain has arrived here in Europe, with an expected 17 degrees tomorrow with rain should make for very little sight seeing tomorrow and more shops. Mid day we're off to Augsburg to paddle on the Eiskanal, the host for the Slalom at the 1972 Munchen Olympics.