Czech Republic- Slovenja

To sum up the 2011 visit to the Czech Republic:

Great dinner last night in Praha with Jana:)

Crazy drivers

Awesome week staying in Zbuzany in the Hradileks Mansion!

Communal showers

Traffic Jams

Awesome Training

Friendly people

Sparkling water

Big lessons:

Don’t leave car keys in Tesco (The local supermarket)!

Check the water before you splash your face for dead rats!

Don’t follow learner drivers they will stall

And if your ham looks green it is probably not okay.

Next stop- Ljubljana Slovenia!

Rest Day Mission

Our 2011 International Campaign has got off to a great start here in Prague of the Czech Republic. Training is going really well and our new boats are feeling great on the water. Today it was our rest day and with the advice of our good friend Vavra Hradilek who is currently dominating at the European Champs in Spain (check results at www.123result.com) we were advised to take a back country bike ride out the back of Zbuzany. So we Luuka and I took off on some bikes and a map- courtesy of Jana Hradilek. About 1hour later we arrived in Karlstejn, the home of an absolutely epic castle that was designed by Charles the 4^th- A great emperor of the Czech Republic and designer of the famous Charles Bridge and Charles University. After a nice lunch we began the 2hour uphill journey home- which can be compared as the Czech equivalent of the ‘Tour D France’! Yes, it was a bit harder than we had anticipated for our rest day, but none the less a good day out. We are looking forward to sitting around the fire tonight here in Zbuzany and enjoying a bbq and jam on the guitar. We will be back on the white water in Troja tomorrow.

Europe 2011- International Campaign begins

Dobreden! We are now staying in the small village and the home of one of the Czech Republic’s greatest Canoe Slalom athletes Vavra Hradilek- Zbuzany! This morning we rose with the sun at 630am, managed to negotiate our way through the cobbled streets of Prague, and fitted out our brand new racing kayaks. Summer time is definitely dominating the European weather forecast and it was preemo paddling today in the summer heat. Our new boats rock and it was so good to be back paddling on the course here in Troja. It is great to be back here in the Czech Republic, it is an awesome country and I love the way of life here...
Tesco- best cheap supermarket in the world- Plunger $11.50NZ!Milk $2.
Czech language- every second word is Dobry
People- Everyone is super helpful, about 4Czech dudes helped me fit out my kayak
Driving- Negotiating is easy, just look for signs to Centrum and the Zoo and remember taking a different route every time ensures you get the full tourist experience!
Zbuzany- Rad village on the outskirts of Prague
Big Thanks to my friend Martin Hammer and the boys at the Prague boathouse today for helping me drill holes in my kayak and get it sorted! Also to the Hradilek family, its always so nice staying here and they are very accomodating, it feels like home!You guys rock!
Ciao

Seuol- South Korea!

I managed to get my Mystik Creekboat and all my gears onto Korean Air and after an 11hour flight finally arrived in Seuol, South Korea! Korean Air then escorted Luuka Jones and myself to our 5star hotel in the Seuol city centre! The dinner was a cultural experience to say the least and we were then off to see a bit of the cities nightlife. We were early to rise the next morning and in search of a good coffee that was to be followed by a buffet breakfast with pancakes and the works! Feeling rested it was then time to check in for our final destination- Prague.

Upper Ngamu- Kaimais Creeking!

When the New Zealand weather report issues warnings of heavy rainfall there are not too many people that are super stoked on it, but there are kayakers. This week New Zealand was flooded with grey clouds all across the country. Fortunately this meant there was plenty of water to flood the creeks of the Kaimai mountain range that lies just out of Tauranga. On Friday Gregg Thomas and I cruised over to check the flows and after meeting up with Ben B, Tillzy, Jared M and Dave J we began our hunt for some white-water action. We ended up jumping onto the Upper Ngamuwahine. It turned out to have a long shuttle and a bit of a walk in that added to the mellow lead in section, but this was all in anticipation of a sick run with some very sweet drops! ‘Over the Handle Bars’ was the first and the lead into it was primo with a massive rock slide. The speed was wicked. Next up were a few mellow drops followed by the ‘Double Drop’. I checked it out and could see a sweet line. Unfortunately I did not have such a sweet line however, which sent me plunging over and upside down going into the second drop- not such a good place to be in. I came out of my boat but was lucky and had no injuries! The rest of the run was really sweet, lots of good moves and slides.

A very rad day- big ups to the dudes that I paddled with, all legends and stylee as F**K!

Pics from top-
-View at top of Handle Bars
-Me on 'Handle Bars'
-View looking back up valley
- Ben Brown stying the shit out of 'Double Drop'
- Me on 'Double Drop' about to get my ass kicked!




Photo credit: Gregg Thomas

Europe!

As the title suggests it is nearly time for me to board Korean Air's 737 and head to Europe. I will be accompanied on the brutal 24hour flight by my partner in crime, Luuka Jone's. I am pumped to go and feeling fired up to get back onto the European continent. We will touchdown in Prague on the 6th of June and from there we will be heading to Slovenja to prepare for the first World Cup in Tacen.
This year I will be travelling mainly with Luuka up until the Prague World Cup. Then my sister Heather will be coming over to help coach me and prepare me in my build up to the World Champs in Bratislava. Waiariki will also be providing some wicked support with the input of Antz our super good physio and my current trainer Sam Thompson! Totally stoked to have these guys on board as they are really awesome and will be great to have at the Worlds!For my European Race Schedule check out my calander tab at the top of this page.
Check out this wicked video my friend Mike Dawson made of my Czech friend Vavra. It is filmed at the 2011 World Championship course in Bratislava, a very awesome course with a lot of rad features including big drops, waves and meaty holes:)

V.H The Machine in B.A from Twelve Productions on Vimeo.

Adioss NZ

Mangahau- Top NZ Training site

Mangahoe Whitewater Center Full Run from Kiwi Creations on Vimeo.

Check it out!

Mangahau Training Camp

With only 20days till I depart New Zealand to begin my 2011 Europe Campaign time is flying! I have had about 2weeks out of my kayak due to my eye infection that developed after the scratch I had on my cornea a few months ago got infected- it has cleared up really well now and I have my full vision back again!:)

So Waiariki Training Camp at Mangahau was on! I was amped and ready to come back to the best Canoe Slalom site in New Zealand for some quality training with 5other athletes and Jane and Sam as support.

My first few sessions back on the white-water were pretty rusty but I soon got back into my groove and am slowly getting good feeling back on the water.

The camp was going really well with lots of nutrition, race prep and video review underway off the water and some preemo sessions on the water! This was until Luuka, Mike and my boats were stolen from the course in Shannon. After the initial shock set in we began our hunt to find the thieves and get our kayaks back! We were determined to not let this unfortunate circumstance set us back.

After a full on day of investigation with the local police we retired our search and hit up Otaki beach for a wicked sunset paddle in the surf. It was a great way to end a stressful day and for me, just what I needed, I was in my element!


Lukily for us someone found our kayaks and saw the onenews report so gave us a call and we were reunited with our kayaks! So stoked!

So training was back on and we were back firing on the Mangahau training site!