Cole found a C1 to borrow so he could race teams with Ben and Shaun. They looked pretty professional up to gate 9 and all nailed the main drop, Cole even pulled off the money move forwards. Then Ben caught an edge in 10 and got a 50. Cole liked the idea so threw in a role just after 17 too. They couldn't persuade Shaun to join in the party but they all blame him for their issues due to the blinding brightness of his new paddle shirt ;-)
On the way home, we hit all 3 traffic lights in a row on green, something we have been trying for 2 weeks. So all in all, a pretty successful finish to the day......
Special mention to Kellie Bailey who sat and judged the same first 5 gates for 5 days. Pretty boring spot, but a great job, well done.
Party time tonight followed by an early morning drive to Chicago to the fun park. shopping then flights home.
It's been a pleasure to be on this trip. Dale has been a managing legend, running errands, shopping and attending meetings and making sure everyone is early for everything.
The athletes have all tried their best and have learnt new things for their future trips and races.
Thanks Wausau, you have been so welcoming to us again. We leave many friends behind tomorrow morning. Many we will see at future races or on holiday in New Zealand we hope soon.
Next year will see the junior and U23 team racing World Champs in Liptovsky Mikulas in Slovakia. Get out there training hard. One of you won't be doing so many full runs but I hope the rest go hard and have a great future in the sport.
If you are keen to coach or manage the team, get involved now. Good luck for the future everyone.
Goodbye.
Andy.
P.S. Thanks for all the fish.
CSNZ Junior & U23 Teams
Monday, July 16, 2012
Saturday.
Here are some articles in the local paper about racing. Sorry, can't work out how to rotate them all.
Most of the team went and watched the finals and got to see some spectacular racing with new champions, including the first ever U23 world champions being crowned. In the afternoon Cole, Finn and Geoff raced the U18 teams event. Despite some good looking training there were a few mistakes made. They finished 8th with Slovenia taking out the title.
After racing we went in to town and walked around the chalk fest (photos below). Then that night we went to Rib Fest. The boys did their very best to peer pressure Jess in to temporarily shelving her vegetarian status but she stood strong. Many ribs were eaten (and a pizza) and then we watched the balloon glow but everyone was a bit too tired to hang around waiting for the fireworks at 10pm.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
NZ World Champions!!!!
Now I have everyone's attention.
DO MORE FULL RUNS AND COMPETITIONS.
NZ has great paddlers and athletes but the one thing that lets us down time and time again is our ability to compete to our full potential.
In order to be a World champion we need to train harder than the current world champions and I believe some of our guys are very very close to that level. However, our athletes do very few fulls runs and are left trailing even further behind in terms of races to compete in at home.
Athletes, work together to make full runs sessions happen. Set courses together, time yourselves and each other and help each other improve. A target of 1000 full runs this year would be a great start. 500 would be an absolute minimum to bring yourselves up to a great racers level. Prepare as many of them like a race run as possible. How will you fit it in? Hey, I don't care if you ditch every other form of training for the year if you come back and you've done 1000+ full runs.
Parents, go and time the sessions and video the paddling for athletes to review.
Everyone, organize more races. 10 weekends a year would be a start, 15 even better.
If everyone works together on this goal in a big positive push, then I absolutely guarantee we'll be reading less and less blog posts that say "if it wasn't for the mistakes......"
I'm writing this now because it's fresh in my mind, I have the attention of lots of interested parties reading this blog and I truly believe after watching and experiencing these World Champs that they have the potential to reach the top.
DO MORE FULL RUNS AND COMPETITIONS.
NZ has great paddlers and athletes but the one thing that lets us down time and time again is our ability to compete to our full potential.
In order to be a World champion we need to train harder than the current world champions and I believe some of our guys are very very close to that level. However, our athletes do very few fulls runs and are left trailing even further behind in terms of races to compete in at home.
Athletes, work together to make full runs sessions happen. Set courses together, time yourselves and each other and help each other improve. A target of 1000 full runs this year would be a great start. 500 would be an absolute minimum to bring yourselves up to a great racers level. Prepare as many of them like a race run as possible. How will you fit it in? Hey, I don't care if you ditch every other form of training for the year if you come back and you've done 1000+ full runs.
Parents, go and time the sessions and video the paddling for athletes to review.
Everyone, organize more races. 10 weekends a year would be a start, 15 even better.
If everyone works together on this goal in a big positive push, then I absolutely guarantee we'll be reading less and less blog posts that say "if it wasn't for the mistakes......"
I'm writing this now because it's fresh in my mind, I have the attention of lots of interested parties reading this blog and I truly believe after watching and experiencing these World Champs that they have the potential to reach the top.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Semi final results
Shaun finished 24th with a little mistake at gate 4, bit low at 9 but the rest was ok.
Finn finished 21st. He had a pretty good run with a few small mistakes but overall went pretty well. Good luck next year when he'll be flying in his final junior year.
Cole had a 98% great run. Sadly he jumped in to gate 12 too tight, hit the gate and got stuck for a bit. Also down at gate 18 he didn't manage to turn in time and lost a bit more time in the eddy. He only missed the finals by 1.5 seconds and finished 15th so proved he has the goods but just couldn't quite get the perfect run today.
Finally Jess came down late in the afternoon. She also had a pretty good run but lost lots of time on the 2 hole moves and had to paddle back for both gates 10 and 22. Jess finished 28th and is looking forward to working on her hole skills when the Hawea park gets built ASAP ;-)
We went and sampled the local 'frozen custard' on the way home. It's like ice cream but way smoother. Very nice, thanks for that pointer Dooglas.
OK, so we have teams racing each afternoon and some finals to watch. Catch you all soon.
Finn finished 21st. He had a pretty good run with a few small mistakes but overall went pretty well. Good luck next year when he'll be flying in his final junior year.
Cole had a 98% great run. Sadly he jumped in to gate 12 too tight, hit the gate and got stuck for a bit. Also down at gate 18 he didn't manage to turn in time and lost a bit more time in the eddy. He only missed the finals by 1.5 seconds and finished 15th so proved he has the goods but just couldn't quite get the perfect run today.
Finally Jess came down late in the afternoon. She also had a pretty good run but lost lots of time on the 2 hole moves and had to paddle back for both gates 10 and 22. Jess finished 28th and is looking forward to working on her hole skills when the Hawea park gets built ASAP ;-)
We went and sampled the local 'frozen custard' on the way home. It's like ice cream but way smoother. Very nice, thanks for that pointer Dooglas.
OK, so we have teams racing each afternoon and some finals to watch. Catch you all soon.
Big day at the river coming up. Semi Finals Day
So, we're about to head in to semi finals day at the U18/U23 World champs.
We have 4 paddlers in the semis. Unfortunately lightning struck twice and we had 2 bubble boys just missing the cut by less than a second and only one position.
After a late night with demo runs and managers reception we'll head down to the course. Each paddler walks the course with me giving advice as they tell me their race plan for every stroke pretty much. They plan their lines in to the gates, how hard they will pull on the strokes and what angle the boat will be at. Add in how much they will lean forward or backwards, repeat this process over 23 gates as well as how they will get through the various holes and waves and it's a very detailed process. It probably takes about 20 minutes to walk the course once, maybe a little more. They then relax for a bit, head up for warm ups, final gear check as they head for the pre start area. Race hard for 2 minutes....then re-assess the post run, watch the team videos that Dale takes and our spare bank paddlers, watch the video from the live feed and if they still have time watch the video from the best paddlers. Then back up to the start for another run.
Today they only get one run in an attempt to make the finals on the weekend. (They will all , except Jess be racing in the 3 man teams event anyway)
So, good luck Shaun, Finn, Cole and Jess....make us proud guys.
We have 4 paddlers in the semis. Unfortunately lightning struck twice and we had 2 bubble boys just missing the cut by less than a second and only one position.
After a late night with demo runs and managers reception we'll head down to the course. Each paddler walks the course with me giving advice as they tell me their race plan for every stroke pretty much. They plan their lines in to the gates, how hard they will pull on the strokes and what angle the boat will be at. Add in how much they will lean forward or backwards, repeat this process over 23 gates as well as how they will get through the various holes and waves and it's a very detailed process. It probably takes about 20 minutes to walk the course once, maybe a little more. They then relax for a bit, head up for warm ups, final gear check as they head for the pre start area. Race hard for 2 minutes....then re-assess the post run, watch the team videos that Dale takes and our spare bank paddlers, watch the video from the live feed and if they still have time watch the video from the best paddlers. Then back up to the start for another run.
Today they only get one run in an attempt to make the finals on the weekend. (They will all , except Jess be racing in the 3 man teams event anyway)
So, good luck Shaun, Finn, Cole and Jess....make us proud guys.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Sorry folks, I just realised Shaun went to bed without writing his part in the blog. He had 3 touches on first runs but went faster and hit less on 2nd runs and finished up around 28th. Sorry I don't have more info and need to get to sleep. I'll make sure we fill you in better tomorrow, today was a very long day at the river.
Enjoyed watching the C1 boys and jess race today. Running down and cheering them on felt cool to be part of the NZ team. Semi's tomorrow another pretty average course but its the same for everyone I guess. Feeling nervous but I'm ready for the clean run I'm going to have. Hope the others run down with me supporting love it when I get cheers to go faster. - Cole O'Connor-stratton.
For some reason I didn't feel to nervous before my first run, must have been the excitement of the race. Its kind of cool when I think of all the training I have been doing for this one race and its finally here. My first run wasn't to good, I touched 5 gates so had 10 seconds added onto my time which I was quite dissapointed with. But I was still amped for my second run and so didn't spend to long worrying about the first.My second run was ay better then my first and was clean! It felt pretty good afterwards going for 5 touches to 0. Made it through to the semis in 28th place which I am stoked with because that was my goal for this years race as I'm still a baby and have next year to look forward to and improve on. It was really cool to see the more experienced girls paddle after me, especially the top 2 Karolina Galuskova and Jess Fox. Getting a bit nervous for tomorrow but pretty excited! - Jess Bailey
Ben had an average day today. First runs had a couple of touches and he got stuck in the nottom hole for a while. 2nd runs were looking better and at the end of all the paddlers he was in 30th just scraping in to semis.....or so we thought. A few minutes later we found out the Czech guy one second behind him got a penalty taken off because he hadn't hit gate 21. So, he was promoted and knocked Ben to 31st. A cruel blow after what happened last month with missing out on an Olympic spot. However, Ben has now bounced back and will be back at the river with us in the morning cheering on our 4 semi finalists. They will all have their work cut out to make the top 10 finalists but we hope to see some good runs in the hope of breaking in to the top 20's.
Tonight we watched the demo runs after dinner at a great mine themed restaurant. A local couple bought us a round of drinks after seeing our well dressed team enjoying their time in Wausau. The semis course has some difficult little moves in it and will make for some interesting racing. After dropping the team at home I joined Dale at the team leaders evening reception at the local art museum. A lovely gathering with great company and a classical music band.
Catch ya tomorrow.
For some reason I didn't feel to nervous before my first run, must have been the excitement of the race. Its kind of cool when I think of all the training I have been doing for this one race and its finally here. My first run wasn't to good, I touched 5 gates so had 10 seconds added onto my time which I was quite dissapointed with. But I was still amped for my second run and so didn't spend to long worrying about the first.My second run was ay better then my first and was clean! It felt pretty good afterwards going for 5 touches to 0. Made it through to the semis in 28th place which I am stoked with because that was my goal for this years race as I'm still a baby and have next year to look forward to and improve on. It was really cool to see the more experienced girls paddle after me, especially the top 2 Karolina Galuskova and Jess Fox. Getting a bit nervous for tomorrow but pretty excited! - Jess Bailey
Ben had an average day today. First runs had a couple of touches and he got stuck in the nottom hole for a while. 2nd runs were looking better and at the end of all the paddlers he was in 30th just scraping in to semis.....or so we thought. A few minutes later we found out the Czech guy one second behind him got a penalty taken off because he hadn't hit gate 21. So, he was promoted and knocked Ben to 31st. A cruel blow after what happened last month with missing out on an Olympic spot. However, Ben has now bounced back and will be back at the river with us in the morning cheering on our 4 semi finalists. They will all have their work cut out to make the top 10 finalists but we hope to see some good runs in the hope of breaking in to the top 20's.
Tonight we watched the demo runs after dinner at a great mine themed restaurant. A local couple bought us a round of drinks after seeing our well dressed team enjoying their time in Wausau. The semis course has some difficult little moves in it and will make for some interesting racing. After dropping the team at home I joined Dale at the team leaders evening reception at the local art museum. A lovely gathering with great company and a classical music band.
Catch ya tomorrow.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
In to the future....
Today was the first day of the future. From now on we will have a junior world champs every year instead of the old unfair system of every 2nd year which meant some people never got to race at the top of their game. Also this event is the first ever under 23 world championships which fills a big gap in our sport.
Here are some comments from the paddlers below, followed by some photos.
So,
First day of racing is over. For the three junior boys this was our first taste of a junior world competition. It was an amazing experience, starting with the opening ceremony last night. The city of Wausau put on a grand welcoming for the athletes. And got us pumped for the racing. Today, personally I just wanted to get started! Our class started at 3pm which left a large amount of the day to learn the course and get our lines down. I am stoked to be in the semis in 27th place. Ready for a shot at making the finals. I need to improve a bit to have a chance. But hey, its canoe slalom. Anything can happen! My goal is to do my best, have a clean run and do all of the moves to the best of my ability. If I do that, I'll be happy.
Thanks for your support! Finn Butcher
Hey The whole competition so far even the opening ceremony last night has been pretty cool as this is my first junior worlds, my biggest race by far!!! Had heats today had two kind of average runs. Didn't make any big mistakes or anything but a few places in each run where I could of made up a couple of seconds. But in both my runs I has two touches , just small ones which was super annoying. I wanted to see what my chances were like of making the final and see where I placed amongst all the other boys who I had no idea how most of them paddled. I ended up placing 24th but if i was clean I would be very close to making the to 10. So now Semis friday HAVE to be clean and solid. Tomorrow going down to cheer on and support the c1 u23 and jess for their heats. Chur - Cole O'Connor-Stratton.
Geoff's race didn't quite go as he would have liked today. On first runs he got a 50 on the last but one gate and on 2nd runs he had 2 spin outs which unfortunately left him sitting in 41st place just 0.12 seconds out of the semi finals. I have to say though, it's pretty impressive that Geoff even made it to the startline. He has been having shoulder problems since January and has been in lots of pain during training. Good on you Geoff for working through it all and making it to you first World Champs, may there be many more.
It was good to watch the younger boys and give them some support for their runs. All of them racing well for their first World Championships. Most of My day was spent trying to stay cool from the heat and relax for tomorrows racing, also good to have a sleep in than our 6-7am wake ups. The C1s are off around 11:30am US time and Jess is off at 3pm US. feels weird racing in a age group race once again after finishing off juniors two years ago but good to get on the start line once again for the season. Ben Gibb
Kellie Bailey judging at gates 1 to 4.
Geoff in the pre start area.
Jess checks out the top of the course
Here are some comments from the paddlers below, followed by some photos.
So,
First day of racing is over. For the three junior boys this was our first taste of a junior world competition. It was an amazing experience, starting with the opening ceremony last night. The city of Wausau put on a grand welcoming for the athletes. And got us pumped for the racing. Today, personally I just wanted to get started! Our class started at 3pm which left a large amount of the day to learn the course and get our lines down. I am stoked to be in the semis in 27th place. Ready for a shot at making the finals. I need to improve a bit to have a chance. But hey, its canoe slalom. Anything can happen! My goal is to do my best, have a clean run and do all of the moves to the best of my ability. If I do that, I'll be happy.
Thanks for your support! Finn Butcher
Hey The whole competition so far even the opening ceremony last night has been pretty cool as this is my first junior worlds, my biggest race by far!!! Had heats today had two kind of average runs. Didn't make any big mistakes or anything but a few places in each run where I could of made up a couple of seconds. But in both my runs I has two touches , just small ones which was super annoying. I wanted to see what my chances were like of making the final and see where I placed amongst all the other boys who I had no idea how most of them paddled. I ended up placing 24th but if i was clean I would be very close to making the to 10. So now Semis friday HAVE to be clean and solid. Tomorrow going down to cheer on and support the c1 u23 and jess for their heats. Chur - Cole O'Connor-Stratton.
Geoff's race didn't quite go as he would have liked today. On first runs he got a 50 on the last but one gate and on 2nd runs he had 2 spin outs which unfortunately left him sitting in 41st place just 0.12 seconds out of the semi finals. I have to say though, it's pretty impressive that Geoff even made it to the startline. He has been having shoulder problems since January and has been in lots of pain during training. Good on you Geoff for working through it all and making it to you first World Champs, may there be many more.
It was good to watch the younger boys and give them some support for their runs. All of them racing well for their first World Championships. Most of My day was spent trying to stay cool from the heat and relax for tomorrows racing, also good to have a sleep in than our 6-7am wake ups. The C1s are off around 11:30am US time and Jess is off at 3pm US. feels weird racing in a age group race once again after finishing off juniors two years ago but good to get on the start line once again for the season. Ben Gibb
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Opening ceremony.
The course is set. When we arrived they had been put back 30 minutes as only 13 of the 23 gates were up. Team NZ coach and Canada and a couple of others helped string 10 gates in 30 minutes while all the big nations watched on. Thanks fellas always a pleasure doing anyone elses work ;-)
The course looks pretty simple with one slightly hard move at gate 21 but it looks like the speedy guys will do well in the qualification round. All week we have trained on single pole gates so were slightly surprised to find 23 double pole gates on the course but it's the same for everyone. Demo runs were pretty simple. Thanks to the American and Canadian coaches for jumping in C2's etc to make up the numbers and show everyone they can still put together some moves.
Demo runs about to start above
The course looks pretty simple with one slightly hard move at gate 21 but it looks like the speedy guys will do well in the qualification round. All week we have trained on single pole gates so were slightly surprised to find 23 double pole gates on the course but it's the same for everyone. Demo runs were pretty simple. Thanks to the American and Canadian coaches for jumping in C2's etc to make up the numbers and show everyone they can still put together some moves.
OK, so here are some photos from opening day. I can't seem to get them in the right order sorry.
How do you like this amazing wooden kayak, beauty eh. Geoff had a chance to dive in to the drivers seat of this classic American school bus. 
Native American dancers
South African singing group above.
Below our flag bearer takes our flag on stage while Lamar Sims and Kent Ford introduce the teams.
Dale congratulating Shaun Higgins on his selection to be team flag bearer
At the course this morning
This morning we had 2 30 minute sessions on the course. Shroter today because this afternoon they set up the race course. Above the French coaches working hard playing fruit ninja on their smartphones????
Below we have half of the GB coaching crew so only 6 of them are coaching on this section of the river ;-)
Here's another team GB staff member. We watched the movie Taladega nights last week so loved the phrase "If you're not first you're last". We have now also discussed me wearing a cap with the phrase "Shake and Bake". If you don't know what I'm talking about and want a laugh at a really dumb movie....go to the DVD store!!
Below is a shot of a Swiss team member entering the diagonal hole at the top of the course. It's easy to get in to, not so easy to get out of. Aussie Daniel Watkins is pictured below with a display of what you can easily end up with. This has had 2 days to improve, day 1 looked horrendous, like a golf ball!
See ya soon.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
One day to go before the World Champs start
So, yesterday Jess had a sore elbow and shoulder. Today it had obviously healed up fine because she came back from the mall (conveniently located 100metres from the course) carrying these enormous earrings and stunning high heals ;-) Will she wear them in the athlete parade????????
Tonight we kindly allowed Dale to attend the team leaders meeting while the rest of us accepted the kind invitation from the Thompson family to a BBQ and swim/hang out by their river. What a stunning spot to spend the evening. Great food and fantastic company. Thanks so much guys.
While we were chatting someone spotted seomthing in the water moving. It turned out to be a beaver and we watched it snap off a twig and drag it 100m down the river and off to his home. You may be able to make him/her out below....the twig near the bank right in the middle. Crappy photo I know, but very cool to watch!!!!!
This sign made it pretty hard to miss their house. Except when we arrived it read "Welcome Team Australia"....we nearly drove past without stopping!!! Then we were told what was on the other side of the sign ;-)
After we swam Geoff left his togs on the car to dry. As we drove off we saw something fly off the roof so he ran back up the road....to pick up some skid marks off the road!!! Togs, togs, undies, undies, undies!!!!!! 
OK, big day tomorrow with an early start, 2 sessions , course demo runs and athlete parade/opening ceremony. Laters......
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