NZ Selections 3 & 4 & NZ OPEN

NZ Selection Races 3 and 4: Mangahao
Selection Race 3: My preparation leading up to these races was not what I would call the best! I havn’t had a day of rest in over 10days and I spent Mon-Fri going on kayak missions, in the gym and playing out in the sun! And I have about 15 competitors staying at my house here in Otaki so its been pretty busy. All was good however. And I managed to pull together some okay runs. My 2nd run was 3secs faster than my first, with a 109. I touched 1 gate in each run. My 2nd run was better in most places but I had a spin out in gate 6 which cost me a few seconds, unfortunate because most other parts of my run were good! Luuka’s fastest run was a 107 plus 2. Kate did a 101+2. Roz did a 106sec clean.
My C1 first run wasn’t bad, but I got given a 50sec penalty. My 2nd run was 10sec slower and not in percentage.
So after Ranking Race 3, Luuka and I are confirmed as on the NZ Senior Canoe Slalom Team! I have a lot to take out of the races. I am pretty happy considering I didn’t really taper off much for these races and am feeling good for the up and coming season.
Selection Race 4: So today we had the final races for our NZ Team selection. I was feeling pretty good and confident before my runs. My 1st run went okay, but I was low in the last upstream and lost a bit of time in a spin. My time was 109+2. My 2nd run was better in some places but the places I did really well in my 1st run I screwed up. So my run time remained a 101, and I had 4sec worth of penalty’s. Kate Lawrence from Australia dominated the womens class with a 99+2. Then came Roz L, followed by Jane Nicolas, Jess Groenvald from Canada, Luuka, and then myself in 6th. K1M was Will Forsythe(Auz), Rapheal (Fra), Vavra(CZE), Huw Sweatnam(GBR), Mike Dawson(NZ) and then John Hastings in 6th. For NZ Team its Mike, Aaron and Johann. For C1- Mike, Brent and Shaun Travers.
C2- Ben and Brayden are 1st boat, then Bryden and Andrew.
C1M- Nico(France) was 1st, Edern(Fra) was 2nd.
For more results: www.slalomnz.org.nz
Now I am going to stay in Otaki doing studying and training for the next 2weeks.
Some interesting things to take out of races for me are: Out of the 8 race runs I had 5touches, all of which were this weekend. Out of the 4days of racing, in 3 of the days my 2nd runs were better.
Its sounding like I made the team for C1 too!
I have lots to take out of the races. I felt my performance had improved a lot since last year. I was really clean at the start and this was great, I need to stay clean however! I felt my runs had a lot of good stuff in them but I need to work on holding it together for the whole run! My 2nd runs were mainly better, I think this was because I was more energized and generally paddled more reactivly. It will be good to have a day of rest tommorrow! Its been too long!

Selection

I have now come to rest at my parents place in Otaki in preperation for the racing this weekend. It is an ICF ranking race this weekend and there will be some hot competition. Competeing countries include: Australia, NZ, Ireland, Czech Republic, Canada, Slovenia, France and Great Britain.
The last three races I have done to kick off the 2010 season I have been clean in. So thats 6 clean racing runs!

New Zealand Selection Races: 1 and 2
For New Zealand’s first two selection races we all cruised down to the Tarawera River slalom course, situated in the town of Kawerau.
Selection No. 1: For race one I felt reasonably relaxed, we had to wait around at the course for ages but eventually had our runs. Both my K1 runs were clean. My first run was unreactive and lacking energy. My second run was a lot more powerful but I lost a bit of time in one of the Ups and at the end of the tight stagger. 1st run= 102 clean. 2nd run= 99 clean. This placed me as 2nd Kiwi, after Luuka who put down a 97 clean. Roz and Kate Lawrence put down some solid runs with fast times of 94sec for Roz and 92sec for Kate. Mike Dawson was the top placed NZ K1M with a time of 83sec. Will was first overall with a 82sec run. C2 was taken out by Brayden and Ben. Mike also won the C1M. Roz ripped up the C1W with a speedy time of 111sec. I did a 131sec in my 2nd run.
Selection No. 2: For race number 2 I was feeling a lot more relaxed. First run I did a 100sec clean. 2nd run I did a 99sec clean. Luuka took out the NZ women with a 96sec, clean run, placing me in 2nd. Kate Lawrence from Australia had the fastest women’s time with 92sec. The fastest K1 Man was Will with 82sec, fastest Kiwi was Aaron with 85sec. C1 Men was taken out by Mike with 97sec. Not sure about C2. My C1 was a bit of a disaster as I had to run straight from the end of my K1 run to do my C1, but all good, there is always next wkd.
Just did a run down Kaituna, awesome and Gnarly Gorges. Heading to Mangahau tonight.

Australia

After a good wkd in Raglan I took off to the land of flys and heat..Australia!!I had a really successful week of training there in both K1 and C1! It was soo good to be back on the course in Penrith again. I stayed with Roz L, Will, Robbie and Edern along with some other Kiwi boys, was good times.
We had a small race on the Friday night which was really fun. Unfortunately I totally screwed up my C1 runs. I had 2 clean K1 run times, I ended up in 6th. I did a 124 and a 122sec. Fastest chick was 108sec. So I was a bit off the pace.
Now I am back in Raglan catching up with Heath and chilling. Heading to Rotorua tommorrow and then over to Kawerau, NZL Selection Races this weekend!

Training, Awesome and Gnarly Gorges, Raglan and im off to Australia

2010 so far has been great. To be honest my training over the New Year period was not super. I felt quite ill for the first few days but seem to have come right. I have started joining the Okere crew doing 630am sprints in creek boats down the Kaituna gorge. It is a great way to start the day. There has been heaps of rain in the Manawatu with both the Otaki and Mangahau Rivers nice and high!
I have been going mountain biking and then to Kawerau to train on the Tarawera River. The sun has been out every day so it has been hard to stay inside studying! However I am off to Auz next week so need to get lots of work done before I go. The other day I rafted the Kaituna with some of the local boys, was pretty crazy, we managed to flip the raft a few times! Yesterday I paddled the whole Kaituna river incl. Awesome, Gnarly and Smokey Gorges! It took about 4hours but was soooo awesome!!! Really fun and beautiful and pretty full on.Then I was back to training. Now I am in Raglan staying with my sister heather, getting some Rehab in with massages, lots of rest and pizza:). Tommorrow morning I will fly to Sydney to train for the week. I will participating in the Ladies C1 training camp too! Sweet, off to check the surf..
adioss

2010!

2009 was an awesome year. Full of fun and crazy adventures. Highlights were New Years on East Coast, Europe and Africa!
I saw in 2010 at a concert in the Coromandel, Coro Gold!!It was pretty epic. Heres some pics from the concert and just general boating round the Kaituna.