The Verdict: Kayakers Nightmare

Today I saw a physio. The news was ne dobro. Basically no kayaking for about a month. Shoulder muscles are torn and the damage is not good.
Change of direction is in order. Super gutted for now.

Pictures from last weekend

Another week in lovely Ljubljana continues! My time here seems to be getting better and better! I went into town with Slovak and Auzzy friends last night and cooked for them tonight, the meal was followed by an amazing dessert put on by the AUS Flat of fruit dipped in chocolate.
Yesterday I went Mountain biking! It was European style Mountain Biking though...which meant biking up a Massive hill for a couple of hours...and then enjoying the sweet view and ride down, really picturesque but hardwork!
Unfortunately today it rained! This meant that the ground got slippery! I wasn't paying attention and hit the curb on my pink bike and went flying! I landed on my shoulder which is now quite sore. Lukily a man saw me and came to my rescue! He helped me up and drove me home. I am not sure how bad it is yet, I will go and see someone tommorrow, fingers crossed its minor!

Tacen BoaterX and paddle board!

Today we had the BoaterX race as the last event that was part of the Tacen Extreme Race being held here over the weekend. It was a really fun event and I took out the Womens class! Local Slovenian paddler Eva came in 2nd and Ros Lawrence from Australia took 3rd! It was really fun and Sandiline once again sponsored the event with some really wicked gears! I won a totally mint Full length dry top that will come in handy when I go riverrunning back in NZL!!!
Roz and I also had a go on a paddle board, we took them down the top drop and it was awesome!!! Heres some pics, incl. a pic of my bike and my sweet room in my new whare! This arvo Roz and I tackled a hill that is nearby the course, at the top there is an awesome view that overlooks the city and surrounding area!Really cool!

Life in Ljubljana

I have been living here in the quiet suburb of Ljubljana called Crnrce for a week now. The Kiwi house is dreamy. We had a summer BBQ mid-week with the Italians and Australians and have been having home-made pizza and pancakes on other nights of the week! The weather has been a rather hot 30+ degrees for the most of the week, been great for my tan:)I am now set up with a totally sick pink Bike that my friend Luka ever so kindly gave me. I bike pretty much everywhere, its an easy 25min to the course or town. I have settled into a solid training block and study routine. Me and the Auzzy chicks are keen to go to a Slovenian language class that they have in town for free, getting to know the language should be fun! Ljubljana is a preemo city with a wicked atmosphere and beautiful city centre and surrounding natural environment.
On the weekend there was a freestyle comp on in Tacen. They also had a Big Air Comp on the Saturday night. Me and Roz my Auzzy mate hit it up and placed 2nd and 3rd out of the chicks! Tommorrow we will have the BoaterX! Should be awesome!

Ljubljana

After an epic 12hours of driving we finally made it to Ljubljana on Sunday night. The Kiwi house is absolutely Preeeemo! Its huge and has a cool BBQ area and about 4 floors! My room is massive, seriously big! And I am loving the space. Today I went for a paddle and it was sooo good to be back in my slalom boat, although I felt like I was learning all over again, not the best of sessions! Tacen is Big White Water and pushy! I am super stoked I have plenty of time to get used to it. Today I went to town with Matic and his friend and they were so kind to show me around. Matic gave me his bike to use! They took me to an awesome Turkish restaurant, was super cheap too! Its really hot here at the moment but I am sooo stoked to settle down!

4th Place Overall for New Zealand Woman at Rafting Worlds!

Day 3- Final day of racing! 5laps of Downriver including running up some steps! We went out hard and gave it heaps but unfortunately it was not enough. We battled it out with 8 other boats in our heat and ended up in 4th, placing 5th overall for the downriver. This put us into 4th place in the Womans overall!!Pretty choice. But a little hard as we were so close to a podium position. There are so many what ifs and I am finding it hard as I did a few things(like fall out of the boat in time trial) that pushed us back. But that is racing and to be honest 4th is awesome considering our backround of training. The Japanese won, Slovaks were 2nd and the British were in 3rd. All the teams deserved their spots, they train hard and were impressive to watch.
The Kiwi boys did awesome today, claiming 3rd in the Downriver! They ended up in 9th overall, pretty awesome result.
Tommorrow morning I am heading to Ljubliana in Slovenia to live for the next two months or so. I will be living in a house with Mike, Johann, Brent, Thomas and Les Dawson.

2nd in Slalom at World Rafting Championships!

After Day 1 the New Zealand Woman were in 6th place. Today we had the slalom. We had two runs and it was the best of two that mattered. Our first run was going well until we missed gates 8 and 9! It was a bit gutting. But we made a new plan for run 2 and went out hard! We had a pretty sweet run with only a few minor errors. We finished the run and were in 1st and it stayed like that all the way through until the Slovak Chicks came down. They just bet us, placing us in 2nd place!!! We were so stoked with the 2nd place! 2nd in Slalom Rafting World Championships! This places us in 2nd overall at the moment too. So tomorrow we will be going all out to keep ourselves in the running for the top 3 overall! We are here to be the best!

Rafting Worlds Race Day!

The racing for the Rafting World Championships has begun! For us it was not the best start. Our top section was not ideal and we were bouncing off bollards more than we had hoped to. We even took the slow line round some of the bollards. Then when it came to the main drop my feet came loose and I fell out of the raft. It was horrible, I felt horrible and like I had completely let the team down. We ended up placing in 8th place with a time of 1.35seconds. Not bad all things considered. The top team was GB with a time of 119sec. There were 16 teams in the womens. Now we are waiting to find out the seeding for the Head to Head race that is tonight. The Mens racing was great to watch and Team NZ did well. They were in 11th last I saw out of about 30 teams.

HEAD to HEAD!: We made it through to the Quarter Finals and then were kicked out by Slovakia (the overall winners).
Tommorrow its the Slalom!Lets go NZ!

Netherlands- Opening Ceremony Rafting Worlds- BEACH!

Today after training Luuka and I tripped out to Den Haag and caught a tram to the Beach. It was really nice to get out and see some more of the country. I am enjoying it here in the Netherlands, its cool. When we got back we had the opening ceremony for the rafting worlds! It was pretty fun. They had us out on rafts for some photos and Luuka pushed me out of the raft!ahaha good times. To check out more of the rafting Worlds: http://www.wrc2010.nl/

DUTCH WATER DREAMS

Teva Rafting World Champioships Training!
New Zealand Womens Team
Thanks heaps to all the support from:
Earth Sea Sky
Bliss-Stick
Teva
Kokatat

Holland

It finally came time to leave Augsburg and begin the journey north to the Netherlands. We stopped off at Bernd’s parents place for a night and were treated to good home-made German cuisine and a swim in Lake Mimi! The next day we drove 8hours until we reached the flat lands of clogs and orange! We busted straight in to Amsterdam and were just in time for the Fifa World Cup Football Final of Spain v Holland. Luuka and I geared up with some orange T’s and went to join the masses of crowds that were scattered across the city. It was an awesome atmosphere and we were feeling pretty lucky to be amongst it, could not have picked a much better time to be in Holland. The next day we journeyed on to Zoetermeer, the home of the artificial White Water course- Dutch Water Dreams!
Dutch Water Dreams is an awesome White Water Park and complex! There are about 30 countries here incl. Hungary, Auz, Brazil, Latvia, Spain, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, USA and many more. The atmosphere around the competition is lively and all of the teams are accommodated for and very well looked after. We have been put up in a really nice Hotel 5mins drive from the course and all of our meals and transport is provided. The course is fast flowing with a lot of drops but makes for exciting times! Racing starts on Thursday with the opening ceremony on the Wednesday night.

New Zealand Womens Raft Team- Here we come!

Peta, Johann, Brent, Izzy, Luuka and I have spent the last few days chilling together staying here in the centre of Augsburg town. Luuka and I have been out rafting with Buba and Alana and our hardcore German coach, the legend Bernd Sommers! It has been good to negotiate down the White Water from another perspective. Last night we came into the square and watched Germany get taken down in the Football by Spain! Lucky we are outa here on Saturday and will be heading to the Netherlands for the final!!
Super amped for the Rafting Worlds that are on the Dutch Water Dreams White Water Course in the Netherlands next week!Woohoo!
Also check out CanoeSlalomNews for a cool article on the BoaterX we did here in Augsburg: http://www.canoeslalomnews.com/2010/07/2nd-xboater-cross-at-world-cup-in-augsburg/

World Cups Finale

Also check out www.luukayaker.blogspot.com for more





The 2010 World Cup Circuit is now all over. It has been a busy 3weeks and I have felt nearly every emotion possible, from really happy to totally gutted!
It has all gone really quickly. Luuka was having a good Semi- final run until she missed the last upstream. For full results go to 123result.com
It ened with the Germans placing top 3 in K1Men!!! Women was dominated by Jennifer Bondgart and 3rd went to Lizzy Neave from GBR! C2 Men was taken out by a German pair. C1Men was taken out by once again a German, Nico Bettige. C1W was dominated by a Chinese chick who cleared the field with a good 10sec lead!
After all of the finals there was a BoaterX in plastic kayaks. I was a bit lucky and managed to dominate both my heats to take the overall Chick win!Was totally stoked to get some sweet prizes from Sandiline and Teva.
Now I am resting here in Augsburg with my sister Izzy and Luuka. We have met up with the rest of the NZL Womans raft team including Buba and Alana.We will train here on the Eiscanal until Saturday when we head to the Netherlands for the Rafting World Championships!!! We have received some awesome gears from Earth Sea Sky, Teva and Bliss Stick has sponsored us a boat to sell!
I have put some of the pics from the gears Waiariki have geared us up with it, they look awesome!
Its really awesome to have my sister Izzy here:). She is touring Europe at the moment!
Check out this really sweet Video my friends Ciaran and Mike made from Augsburg: http://www.canoeslalomnews.com/2010/07/short-trailer-about-world-cup-in-augsburg/



The ICF has also just put out the World Series Rankings. For C1W I am in 10th in the World!
Check out Canoeslalomnews.com for more: http://www.canoeslalomnews.com/2010/07/overall-2010-icf-world-cup-series-ranking/

WC3 Racing

Friday was Qualifications and I was not racing until the afternoon.
First Run was going pretty well for me up until the last upstream when I was catching up to the girl in front of me, this put me off a bit and meant spun out in the last stagger. I finished with a time of 128+2 and this put me in 23rd position after 1st runs. My 2nd run was a bit faster with a time of 126 but I had 5touches! I also came down on the girl infront of me!!! It was quite frustrating but I got a rerun. My rerun(3rd run of the day) was about 20mins later and I was feeling really good and positive going into it. I put down a solid clean run but it was slow. I think I just did not have the energy and was low in one or two spots. I put down a 131 clean. I ended up in 40th position, I was 22sec down on the winner.

Luuka had a ripper 2nd run with saw her through to the Semis in 14th place!!!!Woooohooo! Bring on the Semis!