Nationals and more...

I have been doing a bit of slalom lately. We had the North Island Champs where I was the 1st overall woman. I have been coaching some novices from Tauranga boys and the Tauranga Girls slalom team. We travelled down to Murchison for the Secondary Schools Nationals on the Maruia River and each girl came away with at least one medal! We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather each day and I even managed to get some river runs in down the Mataki and Buller Rivers with some Tauranga paddlers and Bruce Webber and his Kawerau crew. I really enjoyed coaching and seeing the younger athletes improving.

The New Zealand Open Nationals were a lot of fun over easter on the O'Sullivans section of the Buller River. The first day of racing went well and i was sitting in first place overall out of the women. The second day went alright and i ended up 2nd overall and 1st under 23. I was happy with my racing.

Prizegiving was fun I got the Under 23 Womens trophy and the New Zealand Womens Ranking trophy. This trophy is out of 8 races and the 5 best count towards overall points. It was great training and racing on some different beautiful rivers in the South Island. Thanks to the organisers who did a fantastic job!

Since I have been back I have just been using my new kayak on the Kaituna and Wairoa rivers. I'm loving having a bigger boat and feel I'm paddling a lot better. I just need to get a new lifejacket and helmet now. I'm looking forward to training over the winter and hopefully we get some rain so i can go paddling in the Kaimais :-)

I have also been doing a bit of kayak instructing for Te Puke and Hillcrest High School Outdoor Education programmes which has been heaps of fun. I have been working with some other awesome instructors and have enjoyed camping at the Mohaka and Aniwhenua Rivers.

Whitewater Series 2012

The last couple of weekends have been heaps of fun. The first race of the whitewater series was a time trial down the Kaituna river. Everyone had two runs down the river and the times were combined, it started at the dam and finished at the take out above Trout Pool falls. The day before the race my friend Andy let me borrow his boat as it is bigger and more faster than my boat so i gave it a test run the night before and it was alot faster. The race went well i had good lines and felt fast. I came 3rd in open women overall on the first day.

The next day was the Wairoa extreme race and the 2nd race in the series. The Wairoa river on the Kaimias is one of my favourite rivers and i really enjoyed this race. It started off with a time trial which was about 6 minutes long. It started with a seal launch into the river below McLaren falls and then sprint down some pretty big rapids, i hadn't paddled the river since it had changed from the floods so it was pretty exciting. I was third in the time trials which seeded us for the head to head race down the rollercoaster rapid. I had a quick look at the rapid  and then the race started. My first race was agianst Laura and was pretty close. Laura was a pretty fiesty competitor and started trying to spin my boat out from the beginning. I got in front of her but took a different line down the bottom of the rapid. I touched the banner first at the end but later found out that you weren't allowed to go down the chute i went down. However the fastest loser which was me got put through to semi's.

The semi's was another close race with Louise, but i managed to stay in front and take it out! I was stoked :-) the next round was the finals we had to climb up the rocks to get to the start line luckily i had a lot of awesome people helping me. I was up against Toni, a good friend and an awesome paddler. She managed to cut me off at the start of the race and i didn't manage to catch up to her. So i ended up in second place which i am still super happy about. I am now going to start looking for a bigger and faster boat for next year :-)

Last weekend we had the Andy Duff race which is a mass start race with heaps of paddlers battling it out, it was alot of fun and i had a good race. There is a final race in the series in Queenstown but i have a slalom race the same weekend which i am racing and coaching at so unfortunatley i can't go. But next year i will do the series and can't wait. For now i'm off doing some school kayak instructing, slalom coaching and back to uni for my last year!  

                                         Christmas at the Kaituna- swimming down the river

                                                                   Simon's paddle

                                                  Me and Louise battling it in semi-finals

                                                                        Beer booty

                                                         Me and Toni in the finals

                                    Me in the Wairoa Time trial, below are the results for the race

Thanks to everyone who made the races happen it takes a lot of organisation and support, the races wouldn't happen with out awesome people like Louise Urwin, Brendan Bayly and the Suttons.

Summer Fun

Since I got back from Europe I have been finishing off my Uni papers. I have just finished a summer school paper which was really good. I have done a 6 week placement for teaching at Te Puke High School which I really enjoyed. Went down south for christmas and working when I can. We just had selection races in the last two weekends of January in Kawerau and Mangahau. I came 4th women in New Zealand.

I have been spending more time in my creek boat which i have been loving! We did a mass memorial paddle for Simon's 21st then a beer booty at the end. I did the christmas at Kaituna race which is a time trial sprint down the river, freestyle in the powerhouse and bottom hole and then a mass swim on inflatable pool toys down the river. I was going to swim the river until i got offered to share a inflatable seat. It was awesome! just as we were getting ready to swim the waterfall our toy popped so we shared a tiny one person raft with this other guy, the raft got ripped out of our hands so we all got a bit of down time in the waterfall. 

                                              Me, my brother, dad and cousins rafting

The river has been at open gates for longer than it has been normal since i got back but its been fun. We did a mass start race from the lake under the dam ( you had to go upside down to fit under) then sprint down the river. That was a sweet race the most nervous i have been before a race, i didnt have the best lines but stil loved it. This weekend is the whitewater series at the kaituna and Wairoa and next weekend is the Andy Duff race which i am looking forward to. I have been doing some coaching for Tauranga Girls slalom team and now some more with Tauranga boys at Waimarino which is great. I am heading down to Nationals in April with the girls. Watch this space for my results in the upcoming races.

World Champs

I have been a bit slack in updating but here it is. The World Champs in Bratislava was the most amazing experience for me. My first race didn't go as planned, i think i was a bit overwhelmed by it all. I was sitting at the start line after a 15minute delay from the wind with 100 things going through my mind. Finally the wind died down and i could race, the first half of my run was going really well no penalties and good lines. However about half way down i hit a gate then got off line, and got caught in a hole this slowed me down a lot and meant i had to paddle up for 3 gates giving me a slow time, a lot of other people had also got penalties.

Fortunately for me the first day of racing was cancelled as the wind was blowing the gates around making it really hard to race. Two days later the forcast had settled a bit. I was racing in the afternoon. My first run went really well however i was too focused on where i had screwed up the last time that i paddled straight passed a gate...whoops.I got to the bottom of the course wondering why the score board said i had a penalty i hadn't realised i missed a gate.

So i was pretty fired up for my next race i was feeling good and had a clear head. I had a fantastic run no penalties and good lines i got to the bottom and felt happy with my race. There were a few places i could've made up some time but the perfect race is hard to achieve. The competition was very hard and the nature of the course made it difficult to make semi-finals. There were 71 women racing and i came 52nd. I was the 2nd New Zealander. Overall i am happy with how my first world champs went. It has opened my eyes to what it takes to be at the top. I have met some awesome people and seen some amazing places.

I really enjoyed racing in Cunovo our teams run was fun, unfortunatley we got tangled up and incurred a penalty but i got the gates at the bottom better than i did in my individual race. The atmosphere at the race was incredible. Slovakia has really good paddlers so the whole city was there to watch with thier hooters and the whether was really hot. The athletes got free red bull and a lounge to hang out in which was good. The finals were really exciting with a tough course making it close competition. Congratulations to Luuka, Mike and Ella from New Zealand making the Olympic spots!

                                             Not very photogenic....

                                          Walking the course with our coaches before training

                                          A cool montage of the New Zealand Team Paul made.

                                            more fantastic facials
      

                                           In the start pool before my race 

                                            Talking about the course with my coach Jergus

                                           Opening ceremony was really cool got to see some
                                                                  hip hop dancing

For the following 5 days after the racing had finished we spent some time sight seeing. We spent a night in Salzburg and 3 nights in Munich which was alot of fun. The plane ride home was long and Shaun one of the boys i was travelling with had food poisoning for the first leg of the trip, but we got home eventually. Now I'm straight back into uni with lots of assignments due.

Budapest

We had a rest day on Wednesday so decided to go to Budapest on Tuesday after our training. We booked some last minute accommodation on whatif.com and stayed in the Carat motel Tuesday night. The traffic was pretty bad getting into Hungary but eventually we found our accommodation, checked in and walked down to the Danube waterfront as we were pretty Hungry. Budapest is an amazing city and looks spectacular at night time with all the buildings lit up. We decided to have dinner on one of the boats it was a bit flasher than expected and we got a few funny looks rocking up in our jandals. It was a delicious meal and a fantastic view.

The following day we had a sweet buffet breakfast and then went on a bike tour for 3.5hrs around Budapest. Our hungarian tour guide Kinga was very knowlegable and told us a lot of the history, there are two halves to the city Buda and Pest seperated by the river. We biked all over, we saw a massive lake that is an ice skating rink in the winter, lots of statues, old buildings and thermal baths then we biked accross the bridge and up castle hill. Bike tours are an awesome way to see a city faster than walking.

We are now down to one session a day as there are so many nations training and with only 4 days til i race. I am feeling pretty good and loving my new boat and paddle. The course is challenging but i am really enjoying it, the drop at the bottom is still a bit interesting but I'm loving it. I am now staying at an apartment closer to the Danube in Bratislava. This week hasn't been as hot only about 30 degrees so thats been better for training. Here are some pictures from our time in Budapest.

                                                        Photos taken by Aaron Osbourne

                                                              Photos by Ben Gibb