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.