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.
