2011 New Zealand Canoe Slalom National Championships!

On the weekend we had the New Zealand Canoe Slalom National Championships. On the Saturday was the Pre-Nationals. The course for this event was quite short and straightforward. I was feeling really good and relaxed on the Saturday, I rocked up checked out the course and then busted out two clean runs of 84sec. Luuka Jones brought her form and put down an 81+2 in her first run to take the win, placing me in 2nd and Nikki W in 3rd.
On the Sunday it was Nationals Day, and for me I was not feeling as good going into the race. I blew out completely in my first run going low in all the upstreams and with a brutally slow time of 105sec clean. My second run I tried to step up my tac-tiks and bust it out, well I was high in the upstream gates I lost speed in my weak strokes and had a costly error when trying to cut my line near the bottom of the course. This resulted in a 103sec clean run, which fortunately was enough to secure me a silver medal, but not enough to satisfy myself. Luuka claimed a comfortable win with 6seconds up.
Mike Dawson won the Mens race both days and Ben Gibb won the C1Mens both days also For more results checkout: www.slalomnz.org.nz

North Island Womens Champion!

Yesterday we had the North Island Championships here on the Kaituna river. The weather was great and there was a lot of young talent competing. Nikki Whitehead and myself were the demo runners for the event and I was feeling very relaxed going into the event. My first run was solid and clean but not as fast as I would have liked, I did a 93sec clean. My 2nd run was a 93sec plus 52seconds worth of penalties. Fortunately my 1st run was enough to secure me the win. Calum Gibb was the fastest man on the day with a 79second clean run.

Training

Since I have been back from the South Island I have been back into my next phase of training. I am currently in Otaki at my parents place getting ahead on some University work and training at NZ's best slalom course, Mangahau. Its been a very productive week with the river flowing everyday and lots of sun! I even managed to paddle to Kapiti Island! Along with finishing off two big assignments. I am heading back to Okere Falls on Tuesday where I will commence training and study.

Here is a video made by Mike of our trip to the South...

Twelve Productions - South Island Heli-Kayaking. from Twelve Productions on Vimeo.