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.

 

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

Demo runs about to start above