So far my trip has been awesome! I used my charm at check in and managed to get my plastic Creek Boat, paddles and bag of gears on with no extra charges! Go Air New Zealand! I then endured a 12hour flight that took me all the way through to LA. Nikki Kelly was on my flight and she has been great to travel with. Her beautiful 5month old boy Jax is with us too and he is the best travelling Baby in the world! Super content and everybody loves him as he is super cute. I think travelling with a baby is pretty key, you get pushed to the front of the line everywhere and treated really well. From LA to Denver I sat next to an interesting American that filled me in on some little American facts. The flight was mega scenic overlooking the rocky mountains!
Towards the end of our journey we were all pretty bugged and poor lil Jax was starting to let out a few tears, I don’t blame him! It was a long journey. We eventually made it to Vail, and Nikki has once again hooked me up by letting me stay in her hotel room with her! It’s super nice and overlooks the river! Vail is an epic Ski town and I am amping! America is loaded with take away joints and massive cars!! I am still getting used to driving on the right side of the road!
The next day Nikki, Jax and I cruised into the depths of Colorado to visit some of Nikki’s mates. They were really nice and accommodating. We went for a kayak down a section of the Colorado river which was really sweet, very chilled and calm but nice to get the arms rotating! The next day we cruised back to Vail and I made a mission to the airport accompanied by Jacobus to pick up Mike, Johann and Martina. On the way back to Vail we stopped in at Scott Shipleys house and stayed the night. He and his wife were very kind and made us feel really welcome. We all awoke at about 6am as we were all still jet lagged and were treated to bacon and eggs! The Shipleys have a home made slalom course in there back yard which was very cool!
Steep Creek- Homestake! So the time came to rock out and test the waters of the Homestake Creek. Dropping 470feet down a steep gorge the Homestake creek has rocks (as Sam Sutton describes them) that want to rip your face off. To be honest before my first runs I was feeling really nervous. Honza Lasko from the Czech Republic came to my rescue and guided me down the run. At the end, I was buzzing! The drops are steep and there is a range of features the whole way down to keep you pulling hard on the paddle. After a few more days of training I was starting to feel really comfortable on the course, I struggled a bit with the bottom drop but 80% of the time had it dialled. You can definitely feel the altertude, especially when you walk your boat up the hill!
Race day came and it was great to have a whole lot of Kiwi supporters!! About 20 of us ( along with a few Canadians and Americans) rented out a house in the heart of Vail! It is a sweet as condo with a spa and table tennis table! I was feeling really good and had my race plan sorted. I did a practice run to break the nerves and was feeling pumped! I was the second to last chick to race and as soon as my boat was lunged down the start ramp and into the water I fell into the zone. I put in strong strokes and stayed online, was feeling really good. As I came up to the middle section of the course I picked up my pace to speed up the flat pool before entering into the last steep section of the course. Probably not a good thing, but I could here the commentator saying I had one of the fastest times and was looking like I might give Tanya Faux a run for her money. As I came down the second to last drop I seemed to loose concentration...I don’t really know what happened as it all happened so fast but I missed the left line and hit a rock which spun my sideways down the ‘Leap of Faith’ final drop on the course. The ‘Leap of Faith’ is kind of like ‘Trout Pool’ on the Kaituna, you do not want to get stuck in there as it is a sticky hole! Unfortunately for me, I did! This one mistake cost me the race. After many attempts at rolling I just wasn’t coming out so pulled tag. I was soo gutted. I was well on track for a podium finish and totally messed it up! It is pretty hard when you are going for gold and putting everything on the line! It took me a long day to get over and I am still going over and over that last drop in my head. I finished in 14th. Tanya Faux took the win in the end with Martina Wegman in 2nd and Nikki Kelly in 3rd. Props to Leela Samuals who took 6th and Rachel who placed 7th in the womens, they kept NZ up in the ranks! In the Men it was awesome to see some Kiwi domination with Sam Sutton in 1st ahead of Andrew Holcome(USA) and Tao Berhman in 3rd. Fellow Kiwi’s also did well in the final, Mike Dawson finished up in 7th and Johann Rossenburg in 6th! That night we all went out for a bit of a celebration, I didn’t drink much as I have more racing coming up soon but had a few beers and an awesome night!!! It was great partying with all my Kiwi mates and we found an awesome bar in town that had $1 beers and wicked live music!!!It was just as I would imagine a American Bar to be like!
On the Friday it was great to relax having the race over with! Mike, Johan, Jarrod, Ben and I went for a run down Gowmans Gorge- Just below the Homestake race creek. It was a really awesome run that took us through a scenic route showing us a old mining area. Some wicked rapids, especially the last! Felt soo good to be out on the white water and challenging myself to read and run. Saturday came and with it the Long boat 15min race down a grade two section of the Gore Creek. I managed to borrow a dudes boat, it was not the best with no footpegs and was quite heavy but was better than nothing. I went out hard and finished hard but ended up in a gutting 4th place behind Tanya Faux (Auz), Adriene and Nikki Kelly who placed 3rd once again. I don't know why I ended up being so slow...just wasn't on it. It was great to see the Kiwi’s dominate once again with Mike Dawson in 1st just above of Sam Sutton!! And then Tao Berhman from US in 3rd. I got over it and continued on to make the most of the free coffee and gears that were on offer in town. I checked out the freestyle and chilled with all my Kiwi mates. Vail is such an awesome place. The town is a typical Ski location for winter and has nice looking condo’s everywhere. I have had such an awesome week here and am so glad I came. Thanks so much to everyone that has supported me and given me great advice!! Especially Nikki Kelly, she is such a legend and has been really great support for me. Also to Bliss-stick Kayaks for setting me up with my totally awesome Pink Mystic Kayak, its really sweet!
The pics are from the Homestake course! Anyway I better boost. Although my results have not been great I have learnt a lot and had an amazing time being here, I can’t wait to come back and dominate next year!
