Last days in Spain

We continued our flatwater training this week and then on Friday we managed to borrow some playboats!This meant we could have a play on the whitewater:). It was fun. Today the car is suppossed to be ready so we should be driving back to Augsburg tonight...hopefully!

Nightmare...

Okay so it has now been nearly 3weeks since we came to Spain for the training camp. The training camp was really great. The rest after the training camp was good. And the 5days of training after that were good too. Now however...I just want to get out of here! Don't get me wrong...I love Spain and Seu is awesome. But to paddle on the Whitewater here it costs 200Euro per session, so you need to find a few people to paddle with. Because we thought the car would be ready on Sunday we went to where it had broken down with our kayaks. So on Sunday night after hitching back here we have no kayaks. We have been doing lots of gym and flatwater which has been okay, but ideally it would be good to get back on the whitewater. So today we are going to make some decisions about what to do..if the car isnt fixed by tommorrow we will be out of here. Either with the Spanish who are driving to Augsburg tommorrow, or I will fly somewhere to meet the other Kiwis.
Adioss

Update: Back to Seu

This morning we had what we thought was our last training on the slalom course here in La Seu for a while. Fortunately for us we had (G)Guillermo, the Spanish Olympic K1 coaching us, it was probably my best session all week! So after the session Luuka and I caught a ride with the Dutch back to Luuka's broken down car in Illes Sur Tet. Unfortunately however the car(That was supposed to be fixed by now) is not! The mechanic said it will not be ready until Weds night or Thurs morning!!!We were both absolutely gutted, as we were really looking forward to getting back to Augsburg. So we were stuck once again in Illes Sur Tet(Middle of nowhere in France). It was time to start hitching once again. We were really lucky and managed to get picked up pretty much straight away. After three rides and 2hours of driving we made it back to La Seu. We decided we were best to come back here to La Seu for training as it has all the facilities for training and is the site of the Worlds so not a bad place to be! We are here until Weds evening(Or Thurs Morning, depending on car). Then we will finally cruise to Augsburg.

Last days in Spain

This week has been pretty chilled out. We have been making the most of our time on the whitewater here in La Seu. Tommorrow we are cruising to Illes Sur Tet to collect the car and then head back to Augsburg in Germany. It will be great to get back and chill at the Eiscanal, along with some solid training too of course!

Back to training

Yesterday we went on a mission to Illes Sur Tet(where Luuka's car broke down). We somehow managed to translate with the French Mechanic, and the car is going to get fixed. The last four days of rest and Andorra times were sweet!!!But today we are stoaked to be back in Seu and training again. We have decided to come back here to La Seu and will do another 5day training camp, it will be good to get more time on the course. We will cruise back to Augsberg on Monday after our morning session. Better go, adioss

Andorra

Today we hopefully find out from the mechanic what the story is with Luuka’s car. For now, we have taken to rest in the tax free capitol of the world...Andorra!!!Everything here is very cheap and there are shops for Africa! So for Luuka and I this is a great way to rest and recover. We are hoping to get back into training on Friday. Today we are on a shopping mission, tomorrow we are hiking into the depths of the Pyreenees mountains. Then we were going to hire a scooter and make our way across Andorra and Spain and through the French Pyrenees back to the (hopefully by then fixed) car!But couldnt get scooters so have settled for a car to take us there. We are stoked to be feeling fresh again and back in high spirits. I think that our situation with the car has forced us to take a few days off without our kayaks which is needed, it is not easy leaving your kayak behind and I probably wouldn’t have been able to take days off otherwise. It has only been 2days and already I feel like I want to go paddling again!!!Just slightly addicted!

Jana's photos

My friend Jana takes awesome photos and I found some of my travels, click to enlarge...

Some pics

Spain

It is another beautiful day here in La Seu and we are chilling out at the course watching the Spanish Champs!Unfortunately we were unable to enter. We went wandering through town today and saw some wicked markets and delicous looking bakerys. We had Paela for lunch(typical Spanish meal, was great). We are leaving La Seu tommorrow to go and explore for 5days. We are heading towards beaches, mountains and maybe cities...will jump on a bus and see where we end up!:)

Training in La Sea

This week training here in La Seu has been awesome!!!I feel like I know the course here so much better now and I am really glad I came. We have been training with the Italians and the Portugese and our sessions have been pretty much empty. Its been super sweet!Yesterday Luuka did some busking!Awesome. Today we find out about the car and whether it can be fixed soon or not.
Adioss

Pictures

World Cup 3- Spain

World Cup number 3 for 2009 in Augsberg, Germany came and went pretty quickly. We spent the week in Augsberg chilling with Kathrin at her place and it rained most days. On the Friday we had qualification for the World Cup race. I was feeling good for the race and quite liked the course. Jindruch Benus from Czech kindly walked the course with me before my 1st run. Unfortunately I missed 1 gate at the top of the course which pretty much meant game over for my 1st run. My 2nd run started a lot better but I once again missed a gate just coming down the Zoomfloom, I went back for it but lost so much time in the process. So for me this race was very unsuccessful. I was feeling pretty gutted but have managed to get over it and I will try and learn from my mistakes. My parents were there which was awesome to have their support. On the Saturday I took part in the Boater X that they held, it was really fun and lightened my spirit a lot! I made it through to the final and finished in 4th which was cool, even though I didn’t perform in the final.
In reflection of the World Cups I feel that although I didn’t perform as well as I could have my paddling reflected a huge improvement from last year. I now have a lot to work on for the World Champs in September so am looking forward to getting in lots of practice.
Last night Luuka and I left Augsberg in Luuka and Aaron and Stephs car and headed for La Seu in Spain(Venue of World Champs). We are here for this week doing some training as there is free water on the course. Unfortunately when we were about 2hrs from La Seu the car broke down!!!It is fully wrecked and will not go. So we went in to a nearby bakery and all the locals helped us get sorted. Being 6pm by the time the car had been checked and diagnosed with its death all the car rental shops were closed and there were no more buses to La Seu. We came to the conclusion we were going to have to ditch the car and take only necessary items(Kayak, paddle, paddling gear, passport, Laptop) and hitch our way to La Seu. We were just about to start hitching when a big Van pulled up with an Andorra number plate. Fortunately these very kind people had room for Luuka and myself and our kayaks!!!!They were soo nice and gave us a ride all the way to La Seu! Along the way we drove over the Pyreenees, through French and Spanish countryside, and I got given a great history lesson. We were feeling so fortunate to have been so lucky to catch a ride here and with such nice people. We are so glad to finally be in Spain and able to train!
Off to set some courses now...

Race= Bad

Will report more later...off to party!

World Cup No.3- GERMANY!

This weekend we have the 3rd World Cup here in Augsberg, Germany. We are staying with our good friend and her family here in Augsberg, Kathrin(Although she is pretty much kiwi!)It is awesome! They have once again been taking good care of Mike, Luuka and myself.
For online results and info about the race check out: www.123result.com/
www.kanu-schwaben-augsburg.de

Boys and C2 are in the morning and K1W and C1M are in the afternoon. It should be a good race. We are heading down to the course for demos and opening ceremony soon.
Al ist gut!

World Cup Bratislava- 32nd Finish

Qualification for World Cup number 2 in Bratislava did not go quite as well as I had hoped. My first run was solid and clean but I lacked strength and power on the blade. My 2nd run was faster with more drive but had 2touches. So I missed the top 20 cut for semis and finished up in 32nd.
Luuka finished in 30th. Mike and Aaron had really nice runs but with the highly contested Mens class finished in 22nd and 28th.
We have now journeyed to Augsberg in Germany and are staying with our favorite German family (The Bickels)!!!It is as always awesome to catch up with Kathrin and hang out in her sweet place. We are going paddling today on the course here in Augsberg and maybe a bikeride! World Cup number 3 will be here in Augsberg this weekend!

Bratislava World Cup 2!

This weekend we have the 2nd World Cup here in Bratislava..
Check out live results and info at.. http://www.canoebratislava.com/2009/en