Race time

Sue beat me to it so you know where to find coverage hopefully.
I set the course and put it up with a Canadian and American. Demo runs looked amazing if I do say so myself. The course is pretty straightforward apart from a run through a sticky hole at 3 and a hard down in left eddy on big drop.
Racing starts around 10am.
We just had a reception with dignatories like the mayor and past Olympic gold medalist Joe Jacobi (C2).
Today has been stinking hot but some rain has been forecast to cool things a little over the racing.
Half the team did a final session this morning and looked great whilst the others took time to recover and nurse minor niggles (Carl's back is sore and Foxy's shoulder whilst it looks like Anna will be sitting this one out.)

Live coverage Wausau Open

Today there is live coverage HERE
click and enjoy watching, Matt has done a great job I understand.

Photos

Main drop in the middle of the course


Top hole, very sticky, has claimed many tails this week!

Top 1/3rd

Geoffs Blog...

Our team trip has been fantastic so far. We’ve visited the great Horse Shoe Falls in Niagara, Ottawa River and participated in the Canadian Summer Series. My personal highlights include the Minden course that featured steep gradient and strong eddies. Also the night in Niagara was excellent with the display of fireworks was cherry on top. Then the next day we travelled past the great lakes Ontario, Huron, and Michigan. It’s pretty cool to see the biggest lakes in the world. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Geoff.

(From Andy...)

Today we had just one session on the course. We did split 1/4 runs down the course and everyone had good runs. Matt and Geoff have their paddles back and they look great. Sadly Anna's shoulder is pretty bad so she looks in doubt for racing this weekend. Thanks Pete Eckhart who is one of the Aussie coaches and physio and gave her a good check up this afternoon.

I went for a run this morning and stopped right next to a deer 3 metres away who just happily sat and eyeballed me for about 3 minutes while squirrels hopped past!

Michelle Kvanli from USA K1W team has been helping coach our group this week and she has been fantastic, thanks Michelle.

Blog contribution from Marcus

Our trip so far has been absolutely amazing. Kayaking on the Ottawa River and visiting Niagara Falls were big highlights. The night at Niagara Falls was one that I will never forget, having dinner right beside one of the seven wonders of the world was amazing, and finishing off the night with a great display of fire works was the icing on the cake. The races so far have also been great as they have been run smoothly thanks to all the helpful volunteers. The venues have been great for warming us up to big races at Wausau.

(From Andy...we found a guy who has repaired paddles like new and he's on a mission to fix ours. Anna subluxed her shoulder this afternoon in the sticky hole late in the course. We're waiting till the morning to see how bad it is. Tonight we had a visit from Corrie who worked as a doctor in Alex, she bought more food (she had left tons for us on our arrival already) and stayed for the evening catching up with everyone).

Wausau Training

We are nice and settled and everyone is catching up on some sleep now.
The course here is really good and the team all had 2 good sessions yesterday.
Unfortunately we had 2 cracked tails (Finn and Anna) but minor and 2 snapped paddles (Matthew and Geoff) so we're about to crack open the repair kit.

The weather has been really hot but we have aircon in the rooms and big screen tv's so the kids can mellow out between sessions.
We just had an early flatwater sprint session on the lake which most came through well. Those sessions always show who has trained hard ;-)
Full and split runs today at 1.30 so I'll try to get some photos of the course.

more photos

Loaded....Roadtrip!!!! Love 'em. No point having a Porsche in this traffic mate

No Andy, you're not cool enough to pull off the gangster look.

Sth islanders minus Foxy.....must have been at desert bar?

Cole has already been to desert bar and couldn't carry any more!! Laurence in awe...he finished them!

Team @ Niagara making international friends.......we could have a write in comp.....where are they from????? Vancouver!!!!

American Niagara Falls

Team next to Candian Horeshoe falls

Everyone who raced Minden/Gull.

1st Carl, 2nd Cole.....RESULT!!!!!!

photos

Tightrope fail!


Carl and Foxy on Minden podium

Foxy, bottom drop

Laurence 2nd drop

Laurence top drop

Stunning lake above course

Arrival in Wausau

Hi everyone,
Finally after being sent away by the grumpy freight man 3 times, the kayaks arrived at 9am. Dale and I completed our 28 hour round trip back to Minden. The road trip was hysterically funny and frustrating at times but if you ever have 8 hours and a bottle of whiskey I'll fill you in!!!!!

When we arrived in Minden at the Gull river the boater cross was just finishing. Cole finished 2nd. (I'm writing this at 5am and don't have results with me).

That night all the paddlers had 45 minutes on the river with very happy faces back in their own boats finally. We went back the next morning for another session before the race started at midday. The course at Minden is very big and has a huge fast chute for the first 5 gates then a big drop at the end. Photos will follow. At the end of that day the course moved downstream. The next morning we returned for another race before the series prizegiving in which several of our team won teva shoes for their overall placing.

At 2 pm we drove to Niagara Falls. Sadly due to traffic we missed our jet boat ride on the massive rapids. However all the team loved Niagara followed by all you can eat tea/desert and fireworks over the falls at night all floodlit.

11pm to bed and 530 to rise after a sleepless night on the van floor (hostel was about 300 degrees and van has aircon!!) we started the massive drive to Wausau. It took 17 hours including stops but we made it. I didn’t know my body could stand to drive that long but cruise control worked hard for 14 hours. Wendy was an absolute legend also singlehandedly managing the drive and the kids managed to get some well earned if uncomfortable rest.

Dale and I spent the entire day in radio communication telling jokes, singing songs and generally keeping our spirits high....sorry kids if it kept you awake but it certainly passed a very long day well.

We arrived at 10pm to luxury accommodation at bargain prices at Rib Mountain Inn. Checked in and to bed…..smart enough not to give kids the internet password ;-)

Off to the course at 9 for our first session and 8 days in one place.

I’ll send photos and results later today.

Feelfree to leave a comment so we know people are reading. Cheers, Andy.

we're alive

Hi everyone,
We are alive.
We have the boats from a few days ago and raced in Minden.
Then visited Niagara falls and are now in the middle of a 14 hour drive to Wausau.
When we get there we will have internet and I'll do a proper update.