boats almost....

Here are some highlights from the paddlers today…

Laurence’s highlight is spending quality time with me as his coach (yeah, he’s still using my boat and being nice!!)

Anna loved her 2^nd run down the Ottawa river and surfing again at ‘waikiki waves’.

Kelly got surfed in the biggest hole on the first rapid and loved it. The hole was 2 metres high and she looked like a pin but was actually in pretty good control and worked to the end and out like a pro!

Finn is loving the fantastic spread of food here at MKC

Marcus enjoyed yesterdays race (and loved beating Finn!!). He was one of the of the few who managed gates 11-12 forward and had a fun race. The big surf waves at Ottawa were fun and helped him step up a level.

Matthew had a great day on the Ottawa surfing ‘Waikiki’ wave and loved seeing the amazing landscapes on our trip so far. He’s also enjoyed learning new skills on the river here at MKC

Robert was in his element paddling on the Ottawa. He came 2^nd in the freestyle comp and was throwing some amazing tricks on the big waves as we all watched in awe.

Geoff loved the weather on the Ottawa river so much, he went skins all day to add to his sunburn from the day before. Several pints of 'aftersun lotion' later he is turning brown not red!

Sorry about the lack of contact, no internet near here. We have been at Madawaska Canoe centre just outside Barry’s Bay in Ontario. This is a lodge on the river banks right by the slalom course. It is owned by Claudia and Dirk Van Wijk (their daughter Katrina has been paddling in NZ over the past couple of years) who have a rich history in their family of slalom and down river paddling.

Once again the Canadian and Australian paddlers were incredibly generous in lending their kayaks to our team for another great race.

We started with down river sprints at 830 am in really cold conditions which continued through the whole race. Standouts were Carl Whitehead and Anna Higgins who won their classes.

This was followed by the slalom at 10am. The course here is natural, wide and has a few holes. Just like the last slalom, things got technical at gate 11 but our team seemed to have it sorted. The top paddler here from Canada got 50’s both runs pushing the limits.

Carl Whitehead won a huge trophy (see photos) for winning the entire race. Kelly got 3^rd junior C1.

Marcus did a great little speech at prizegiving and presented the organisers with a book about NZ.

Dale and I are now in Syracuse collecting the boats…..let’s hope I didn’t jinx that…then we’re off to Minden for 4 days training and racing. Then we’re off to Niagara falls where we have been offered a jet boat ride in a monster submarine style jet boat courtesy of Joe Kowalski at Wilderness tours.

Here’s our team travel tip, NEVER follow a GPS in Canada or trust anyone when they say “it’s close” or “about an hour away!”. We have been lost more times than we care to remember and the worst was when we arrived at the start of 61km of gravel road……no we didn’t continue!!!!

On the way here to MKC we travelled in to bad weather. I said “wow this looks like perfect twister weather”, we then stopped for gas and were told twisters, hail and 90km/h winds were ahead! We ventured in to black skies with circling clouds and all eyes were on the sky. Apart from heavy rain we escaped but whilst getting directions were met with stories of trees down and hail as big as jaffas.

Wendy here ….. just a quick update on the location of all our boats and gear …. Its taken all week to organise but they are now on a truck from LA arriving in Syracruse sometime later today (this is Thursday) . We have been offered the use of a big mini van thing from here at Madawaska Kanu Centre, we have taken the seats out and Dale and Andy are driving from here back down into the USA and are hoping to meet up with the truck at the freight facility in the early evening – they have some $$$$ to convince the driver to let them unload the kayaks tonight into the back of the van and they will drive back through the night to meet up with us in Minden tomorrow morning a big drive of around 14 hours all up – huge relief to have a positive plan now in place – its been very stressful for everyone – kids were very stoic about using gear which had been loaned to us and boat sharing at the races was a tricky experience. We are very thankful for the support of the Australian team, the managers of the various venues and facilities we have been at. What goes round comes round and we have some hospitality to dish out in new Zealand in the future when these guys come to visit us.