Life after Worlds

It was great to chill in Augsburg and catch up on sleep with our friend Kathrin!!!But now we have moved into a sweet apartment in the centre of a small Austrian Village called Otztal. It is in amongst some beautiful scenery and has some awesome as rivers and nature to explore. The boys (Ciaran and Mike) have been running the big stuff! I joined them today on some of the rapids, was fun. The apartment we have here looks out onto some wicked mountains and is in walking distance from the slalom course here and the bigger rapids. Our apartment also has a sauna which is really sweet.
This weekend it is the Addidas Sickline Extreme Kayaking champs. It is going to be great to watch for sure! Check out www.mikekayak.blogspot.com or ciarans website: http://ciaranheurteau.com/ for pics..

France-Swiss-Ger-CZE

Staying in Bourg with Ciaran was really relaxing and good!I was finally feeling really well rested. We went paddling on Bourg and for a drive up to 1950m, a Ski Resort. It was so good to have fresh French crossaints and home made bread! Then we cruised to Switzerland and stayed a night with Nathalie, one of the Swiss coaches. She lives in the town where Rolex watches originated and we were treated to some amazing Swiss chocolate. Next day we drove into Austria and paddled at Oetz where the Sickline race will be held in two weeks, then on to the KanuMesse in Nurnburg. A Kayaking Tradeshow full of loads of sweet stuff. Then on to Praha where we met up with Vavra and went for dinner in Zbuzany!!!Now we are chilling here in Prague with Vavra.
Thursday we head back to Oetz, we have a really cool apartment there, it even has a sauna!!!We will be going though Augsburg on the way and maybe stop in at Munich to celebrate Octoberfest for a day!

Worlds to Bourg

On Sunday Luuka and I raced the Semi-final for the demo C1W event. For me this was a disaster. I rolled the whole way down the course and missed quite a few gates. In future I will get an earlier nights sleep I think!I ended up in a disappointing 20th place. However I am keen to train up in C1 this summer when I get back to New Zealand. The 2009 World Champiomships are now over. The K1M results were Kauzer from Slovenia in 1st, Nevau from France in 2nd, and Crespo from Spain in 3rd. K1W Jasmin Shornberg(Ger) 1st, Spanish chick Maialen in 2nd, and Lizzy Neave(GBR) in 3rd. C1M= 1st- Estangaut(Fra), 2nd was Martikan(SVK), and 3rd was Jan Benzien(Ger). Hochshorners dominated the C2 class.
After an epic after party we all parted ways. Mike and I headed to Milan to drop off the rental car and then caught a train across Italy and into the high French Alps to Bourg St. Mourice where we now rest with our friend Cieran. It is so good to rest here in Bourg with Cieran and his family. We are being treated to amazing French Cusine and getting plenty of rest. We will rest here for a few days before heading on another journey.
and check out Mikes and Luukas blogs for more pics and stuff... www.mikekayak.blogspot.com and luukayaker.blogspot.com
Sweet

World Champs Seu 09 cont..

Yesterday was a long day down at the Canoe slalom course, Parc Del Segre. Brent was off first out of the Kiwi’s in C1M. He put down a pretty solid run of 108secs+2. His 2nd run was not soo smooth. He ended up in 52nd. The K1M were next and this was a very tight field. The fastest run was 84Seconds put down by Peter Kauzer. The fastest Kiwi was Mike with 91sec, but he took a touch on the last gate. Aaron did 92secsands placing in 45th. Johann did a time of 93secs but unfortunately picked up a fifty. Mikes run time was remarkable considering he has been really ill with the flu all week and had pretty much no energy for the race!!C1W were up next and Luuka and I both had some entertaining 1st runs. 2nd runs went a lot better. We both moved up, me into 8th place and Luuka into 14th to qualify in the top 20 for the C1W. Its great fun doing this class and you improve so much every time you go down. I am really looking forward to the Semis on Sunday! Today our K1M have teams race.

World Championships 2009!!!

After a sweet opening ceremony in which we were entertained by the talented La Seu locals we cruised to the course for demos. The course is pretty good, with nothing we haven’t really tried in training. Qualification for the K1W and C2 was today. I was feeling pretty nervous before my 1st run, this showed as I touched the 1st gate and had a few mishaps on my way down. I finished with a pretty slow run of 120seconds! But I felt a lot more relaxed before my 2nd and managed to pick up my pace putting down a clean 111seconds. Unfortunately Luuka picked up a 50second penalty on both of her runs, she was having really good runs before the 50’s too!!The fasted girl was a Spanish chick who put down a time of 96seconds!!Awesome to watch. I finished up in 42nd, my 1st World Championships. Today it is the C1M, K1M and C1W!! So all Kiwi's are racing today, as me and Luuka will be racing in the Womens C1!:).Looking forward to watching some tight racing in the Mens C1 and Mens K1!Gooooo NEW ZEALAND!For live results check out: www.canoeicf.com or www.123result.com There is Video online as well, but im not totally sure on the website, will update it later.

La Seu

Living back in the Catalonian area of Spain is great. I really love the chilled out atmosphere and way of living. This week there has been a Spanish Fiesta going on. There are markets all through the streets, typical Catalan dancing and performances. There has also been lots going on at night in the town. The other night there was a fire/water festivity. Basically the local Catalan people chasing everyone down the streets with massive sparklers and fireworks!!!It was awesome!!!Really fun!!!
It was so good staying with Montse and her family this last week too. They fed Mike and I well with typical Catalan dishes and our stay there was very relaxing. Now we have moved into some apartments with the whole New Zealand team. It is a great atmosphere in the valley of some nice hills by the river.
Nation training has begun here on the course and so has the one week countdown to the 2009 White Water Canoe Slalom World Championships here in La Seu, Spain!
Adioss
Will put pics up soon as...