Costa Brava!!

This past week has yet again been nice and hot, about 38degrees most days!!So I have been heading to the beach or biking to the local outdoor swimming pool most days! On Tuesday night I went out to a typical Catalonian Celebration dinner. We had the traditional Catalonian dish of Rice and peas and mini prawns and olive oil and also a zuccini omelet followed by melon for dessert. Was delicious!!!They also played some typical Catalonian music which was cool.

On Thursday night I went into the town and saw a outdoor concert that was pretty cool. It stays light until really late here so things such as this are really common and its still so warm!!

On Saturday some of the locals took me out to the local hotspot up the river. It was really nice and was a sweet place to hang out. They then took me to Costa Brava which is up the coast towards France. We stayed the night in a place called EmporiaBrava which was amazing!!It was quite a tourist town with an amazing beach and really nice town. The town had canals running through it and had houses lined along the canals, it looked very luxurious!!Although the beach was a bit too packed with people. On the Sunday we drove along the coast and stopped off at a wee beach cove that was really nice and much more deserted!You could jump off the rocks and the water was so nice and clear. It was like something in a magazine!!

We also stopped off at a skate park as the guys I was with needed their adrenalin fix, I am not so talented on a skate board yet...but I am sure with time ill be dominating it:)

Barcelona

This week has been very chilled out and relaxing for me. I have spent a lot of days swimming in the pool and wandering the streets of Sant Celoni. On Wednesday we checked out the markets which are pretty cool and we also went to the river. Yesterday we went to the local beach which had a bit of a shore dump but was really nice, I think I will be spending a bit more time there for sure!

Today it was 38 degrees as I headed into Barcelona!!! Barcelona is a very cool city! I went and checked out Guell Parc and the works of the famous archetecture Gaudi. It was amazing!!!I was blown away by the totally awesome structures and archetecture. The park overlooks all of Barcelona also which gave a pretty sweet view! The park was quite big with many paths and I managed to only get lost once!I happened to run into some Auzzies who were not suprisingly just as lost as myself!!pretty funny. I spent my whole weeks earnings!!Not off to a good start in my savings...was worth it though!

Tommorrow I am heading to La Seu to go for a kayak. It should be good. I have checked out the local sporting facilities and next week I will get into some cross training.

Heres some pics of the house, local beach and Barcelona!

Sant Celoni, Spain

Some pics of Ona, Oriol and Marcel and the beach in Barcelona

I have now moved in with the Amado family in a small coastal town called Sant Celoni that is inbetween Barcelona and Girona. It is really nice here and the family is really cool.

I am still getting used to the fact that they eat dinner at like 9 or 10 o clock at night here and that they have Siesta time between 1pm and 5pm!!!Today it reached a high of 42 degrees which I pretty much just fell asleep in!!The sun really tires you out...well along with the energetic children that seem to have 5x more energy then me!!

I am looking after Ona and Oriol who are about 6 and 8 andlook a 3year old called Marcel. They are all very cute and sure do keep me busy. My spanish is still pretty poor but I have started watching movies in spanish that have english subtitles.

Pre Worlds cont...

Click on images to enlarge

Sorry it has taken me so long to update the race but it has been busy times. I will take off from where I left off…
My 2nd run felt better but turned out to be the same time as my first with 2 less touches. So I stayed to finish in 23rd, just missing the top 20 cut. They still decided to test for me drugs however!! I didn’t feel my runs were bad at all. They were solid and my lines were sweet I was just lacking power and strength to pull.
The Auzzys did really well with Kate Lawrence making the finals as well as Anthony Brown and Warwick Draper and the Australian C2 of Lachie and Mark!!
The girls were taken out by Dukatova, C2 was Skanter and Skantar, C1 was Tony Estaunguay and Fabien Lafevre for K1M. It was a great race to watch!!

So I have now come to the end of my kayaking tour. It has been such an awesome adventure and I have been to many places, paddled many rivers and met many awesome people. I would like to say a huge thanks to all the support I have had and to all the people that helped me out along the way. It hasn’t always been easy having no coach but so many people have helped us out and this has meant things have run very smoothly.

After the race and celebrations I caught a ride into Barcelona with two Americans and a Canadian. We hit up the beach which was really nice and we chilled in town before I headed out to Sant Celoni( A town about 30mins from Barcelona).

I am now living in Sant Celoni with a family. This week I will not be kayaking, I will be busy getting to know this new home. I hope in a few weeks to get back into some training scheme however. I have enjoyed the paddling greatly and would like to keep going for sure.

Pre World Championships

Yesterday the Pre World Championships for Canoe Slalom kicked off here in La Seu D Urgell with what they called an evolution test. This was a course set with ten downstreams on the slalom course, no upstreams. If you got a touch you didn't get any penalties and if you missed a gate you were disqualified. I am unsure of final results. It was something quite different to the usual slalom. Last night we then had the opening ceremony of the event. All the countries marched through the town centre to the town hall where we heard some speeches and watched some local dancers perform. Afterwards we all went to the local ice cream stalls in the centre of town and hung out. 

Today we have the Canoe Slalom Qualifications. I am feeling better today then I have been during the week but still not 100%. My first run was okay. I had two silly touches and lost my line through one of the drops but otherwise it was okay. I felt very tired towards the end but I think this is just because I have not been very well for the last two weeks and my energy levels are low.  They weighed my boat at the end and it was 10.2KG!!!!Not Good!!! It is feeling so hard to turn now and I am ready to chuck it!!However I think I will need it for my 2nd run. 

I think you can check results on: www.123result.com

I am currently sitting in 23rd after 1st runs and top 20 go through to the Semi-finals tommorrow. There are only 28 K1W so it is quite a small field but it is full of many of the Worlds best. There is no one on the start list that wasn't making Semis at any of the World Cups. 

There are 4 C1W (A very entertaining class). 25 C1M, 48 K1M and 14 C2M. 

I will put pics up later. I should go and prepare for 2nd runs now though as they will be soon. Thanx heaps to the Canadian and Americans for helping video me and walk the course with me. 

Spain Cont...

So yesterday 7 of the Czechs and myself got into some cars and drove out to Andorra! We drove into the hills and went for a nice walk up the mountain. In the winter it is covered in snow so there were chairlifts. Unfortuantely the chairlifts were not working when we were there but the walk was nice anyway. When we reached a lake in ne of the mountain valleys we stopped for a nice summer picnic under the very hot sun!

I have so far had a really good week here in Spain with lots of people helping take care of me as I am the only Kiwi. At night the town is alive with people sitting round the main centre eating ice creams and drinking beers. Its a great atmosphere. Today I am resting up and preparing for the coming race this weekend.

When I was in Augsberg I started to feel ill with a tummy bug and unfortunately it never went away!!I am still not feeling the greatest and my health and training are suffering. I think I am low in some nutrients and am considering going to the doctors to find out whats up as it has gone on for far too long!!

My boat is also very worse for wear now!!I am having to empty it after every run as it is leaking so badly!!!

Better cruize...heres some pics of Augsberg and Andorra and Spain

Spain

Wow!!!Where do I start??? I love this place!

La Seu is just amazing! I will try put some pics up later. I am so glad I came as I am having such a sweet time! This morning I got up early and tried to get in to the supermarket...was closed till like 9am though...But I lukily found the most amazing fruit market!!!Soooo Good! And they sell live snails!!crazy! Bakerys also line the streets which I have been endulging in!!

Today is another beautiful day and I am going with some people from the Czech Republic to Andorra. We are going to the country side to check it out!!Sounds pretty there!!

Paddling is also going really well!!I am enjoying the course. I was considering entering C1W as there is only 3 chicks!!But I havnt practiced and can see it going very wrong as this course is quite technical.

The classes are looking smaller then usual for this weekends comp but they are full of very strong competition!

Better cruize.

Ciao Ciao

Augsberg to La Seu

Hola,

The amount of preperation that goes into a race is huge!!After walking the course several times and studying the water around each gate for about 5mins it all comes down to about 120seconds on the water. 

My Semi-finals run went quite well for me. I didn't have the best start to the race as I caught a bit too much of the first hole which spun me slightly but after that everything went pretty smoothly. It was clean which was good and I felt online and had a good feel for the water. I ended up in 36th which for me is my best International Race thus far. 

James Dawson the other Kiwi to make a Semi final for C1M also had a good race. He ended up in a creditable 26th place. 

After the race I managed to find a ride to La Seu D' Urgel with two of the Japanese... Aki and Szuzi along with Pablo from Chile. We drove for 15 hours through the night until we reached La Seu. Coming into Spain was cool as you could see a big change in the buildings architecture and the landscape became a lot more mountainous as we headed around the Spanish Pyreeness. Pablo from Chile very kindly helped me get sorted with accomodation here in La Seu. I am staying right in the centre of the town and only 5mins walk from the Slalom course!! A lot of countries are also staying at the same place. 

La Seu D' Urgell is a very cool little town with a beautiful town centre square. I have checked out the course and it is looking really fun with lots of sweet features the whole way down the course!!I can't wait to paddle:) 

It looks like it is going to be a good weekend!!

Ciao

I have just been checking out stuff.co.nz it a great website for keeping us travelling Kiwis up to date with New Zealands news.
I found a pretty cool article on Luuka: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4608032a26500.html
Also if you are keen to check out some footage of the canoe slalom course in China go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH0_QuDdKGw&feature=related
Theres heaps more on You tube too. It is pretty big!!Looks like super fun!
The course im heading to Next week in Spain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33uNgMCrbZY

And finally the Website for this weekends results and Startlists:
http://www.kanu-schwaben-augsburg.de/
If there are any live results or Video Feed it will be found on this website.

Sweet thats all for now

World Cup No.3- Augsberg

Today we had the Qualifications for the Augsberg World Cup. In the morning was Mike Dawson for K1M and Bryden and Andrew for C2. The C2 were looking fast and online but had one or two small mistakes and a few too many touches so missed the tight cut for the C2 Semi-finals. Mike incurred two 50Second penalties so was put out of contention for the K1M Semi-finals.
In the Afternoon James Dawson layed down two very solid runs to place 28th, top 30 made it through in C1M for the Semi-finals so he will be racing on Sunday.
I was first off in the girls and put down a okay run. I only had one touch but had 1 spin and was a bit slower then I could have been but all up it wasnt bad. My second run I tried to up my speed. I stayed online but touched 3 gates and had 2spins. It was enough to put me into 34th position, safely in the top 40. I will be racing also on Sunday in the Semi-finals.
Luuka unfortunately incurred a 50Second penalty which put her out of the top 40.
Tommorrow we will go and watch the K1M and C2 Semis and finals. I am now trying to sort a flight or ride to La Seu D Urgell for the Pre World Championships which will be held next weekend! I am the only New Zealander going to the race.
Today is James Birthday, Kathrin made him a cake and we are going out to dinner soon...
Ciao

Germany and World Cup no.3

We are now back in Germany staying with Kathrin again!!
The weather has been amazingly good to us and we have been making the most of it by having lots of swims in the EisKanal. Unfortunately I have had a bit of a tummy bug the last few days so I didnt train yesterday. Lukily today I am feeling much better, just in time for tommorrows racing!!
Yesterday the Kiwi Team(Luuka, James, Bryden, Andrew and myself) went for a drive out to a place called Dachau. We visited a concentration camp from back in the 1930s-1940s World War 2. What we saw was pretty crazy. It was like one massive prison and the stories we read and photos we saw blew our minds. I cannot even imagine being in there back then. It was pretty sad to say the least...

Tommorrow all classes will have the Qualification for World Cup No.3. The cut off for K1M and K1W is top 40. C1M is top 30 and C2 is top 20.
The Semis and finals for K1M and C2 are on Saturday and the Semis and Finals for K1W and C1M are on Sunday.