Birthdays,water parks and leggo

flat water training is a good time to test out the new C2 crew of Tommy and Patrick

Very early start today - up at 5.30 for breakfast snack and away to the course by 6am for quarters beginning at 7am. Cold and a bit rainy but the sun came out eventually although not much heat in it all day. The water level had come up a fraction over night which was pleasing and new teams are arriving at the course all the time - kids catching up on mates from previous years and the recent Youth Olympics. The British team were pretty flash with a covered in specially designed and signwritten trailer and the union jack plastered all over their spray decks and life jackets. Must still have some Olympic money left ..... Back to the accommodation to be greeted by Barbara, Martins girlfriend, with a fabulous cake for his birthday. It was a paddler in a kayak with New Zealand on one side and a love heart and a 'B' on the other - the paddler looked just like martin with big puffed out cheeks and big strong shoulders .... kids all sang the happy birthday song and Barbara and Martin cut the cake up for us all to share - wonderful layers of chocolate, vanilla and nuts. The blue icing was particularly sweet and blue tongue making.

Barbara and Martin cutting up the cake

Martin taking the first slice

believe it or not this is Haylee

We headed off to the Water park after the flat water training and unloaded the kids to have some fun for a couple of  hours. Dale stayed outside in the foyer to stand guard ( they wanted to charge 18 euro for not swimming) and read his book on the Periodic Table ( The disappearing Spoon) while Wendy put the tea together back at the Penzione. Everybody arrived back to the gate and spotted a huge billboard, written in Slovakian , advertising a formula one racing car display. They took off up a huge flight of steps and up to the top of the hill to take a look, only to reappear a few minutes later to tell us that although it was life sized it was actually made of LEGGO.
Quiet evening watching movies and playing cards.
Not leaving for training until 9.45 tomorrow so a bit of a sleep in.

Matthew and Tommy let loose on the water slide

Formula one racing team - Finn, Malcolm and driver Anna

The water photos for this blog were taken using Pavels gopro.

What a team!

Huge thanks to Dale and Wendy for keeping us up to date with the team. We know that family and friends from all around the globe hit their computers in the morning (or evening if on that side of the world) eagerly looking for the next update.  Over 2000 views since you left NZ!  All this while supporting the team trainings, cooking amazing meals from two frying pans, washing for 21 and more!

We send all our best wishes to the team of athletes, coaches and support as you build towards the racing next week.

rainy day

Woken very early this morning to thunder and the beginning of rain on the roof, Dale rushed outside to rescue the washing from the line - 6am in the morning - then the rain started in earnest and the temperature dropped considerably. Later breakfast today and off to the course at 9.15 to watch the Polish paddlers and learn the course for full runs. Dales videoing was a bit shakey today with one hand holding the umbrella and standing on the bridge in the wind and pouring rain. His zoom finger went numb and the resulting quality was a bit compromised.  One more sick kid at home today with Wendy but the rest worked hard on full runs and the first team run practices - bit tricky without the sick kid ..... so a bit of mix and match went on to the sound of huge thunder storms and a bit of lightening in the mountains - caused the coaches to think about pulling the pin but it didn't get any worse or any closer. We only have one whitewater practice a day now so we need to make the most of each one. Later on today Aaron did some flatwater sessions with some of the U23 paddlers.

rainy training day

 Stopped at Tesco on the way home for fresh bread and to fuel up the vans and some much needed window cleaning ...

Deahna

Marcus

 Very lazy afternoon spent doing video review in groups and some computer work which for some was school work and others catching up on family and friends and others spending time watching old kayaking runs on Penrith. Jess had a visit from the physio and we said good bye to Ella who has gone to join the ICF training camp for developing nations. Dinner this evening was bacon risotto and the kids have to find a space to eat outside away from the communal lounge room of this lodge because the owner has other guests who pay for dinner and isn't keen on us eating alongside them.

little kitchen and trusty fry pans

Haylee picking peas (out of her risotto)

Dining space - driveway of the lodge - Deahna, Haylee, Luke, Robin and Dan

we love 'walk backs' ...

First training today with the full team although Jess is not paddling till tomorrow to give her poor old arms a decent rest. Training was thirds this morning and this afternoon everyone's favourite training session 'walk backs' which involves working on a certain section of the course, getting out, walking back up, talking to the coach, getting back in and doing it all over again to finally achieve perfection .....
More teams arrived today and the course is pretty busy by the afternoon sessions. Today we trained alongside Japanese, Canadian, Americans, British, Irish, Ukrainian, Polish, Kazakhstan, and Brazilians.

walking the course first thing - whole team U18 and U23

watching the earlier session paddlers before us on the big drop and hole

Malcolm and the hole

talking with the coach during walk backs

boys gathering breath for the big roll they don't realise is about to happen .....

see .... the water actually is BIG - Robin

Deahna down the chute

Anna

Dales photo of a submarine

Ben 

Pavel and his captive audience (not New Zealand girls ......)

Shaun

Quick stop off at the shops for some snack food top ups and then home to chill, watch movies, play UNO, and practice rugby moves in the bedrooms ..... we are getting the food quantities sorted now that we are one big group, the washing is pretty constant with clothes for 21 people every day and the stupid washing machine at this place takes 2 hours for one load .... keeping the healthy snacks up to energy zapped paddlers is a bit of a challenge. Ben saw a snake today go in under the house - Wendy asked if he was sure it wasn't a lizard and he said it was but it had no legs -

boys in the bedroom - not an ideal place to play rugby .... go outside .....

All Blacks training

Rest Day U23

After a good few days worth of training the U23 team was about ready for a rest and a break from the course. Shaun, Ella, Anna and myself set out and headed over the mountains to visit Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Following the camp we headed into Krakow centre for some dinner and a look around.  A much happier atmosphere and a good way to end they day before heading home. Ill let the pictures do the talking.

an introduction to the course at Liptovsky ..

Early start today, away from our accommodation by 7.20 and headed to the course to begin training on the water at 8 am. First view of the course is certainly impressive with a beautiful new building housing the new boathouse, storage facilities, meeting rooms and offices, backed by a huge grandstand with a great view of the whole course .... only problem is it still isn't finished and has looked like this for almost the past 2 years although today we did spot cleaners inside the building wiping down windowsills and installing new furniture so here's hoping its up and going by this time next week. They have worked hard on bringing the course environment up to scratch with newly painted seats, lovely tidy storage rooms and the old boathouse has had a wee bit of a spruce up and maybe even a lick of paint. The grass is cut right down to the waters edge and we were pleased to see that O.H.S Slovakia have been on the job and had them replace the bridge which crosses the centre of the course with new metalwork and railings and the other two upstream have also been repaired. Just as well because today we heard a rumour that there were over 500 boats entered. 

new building and grandstand, kids first look at the course

Tommy heading from the warm up pool down the course through the forest of  poles

Most of the kids were back training today after the Krakow water woes and with the weather super hot  the toughest job was coaching as quite a lot of the course has no shade except in the new grandstand where it was cool for the whole day. Martin and Pavel are doing a fabulous job with the kids and their morning session was a joy with pretty much no other teams on the water.

Martin coaching during the afternoon session of quarters

sickies ..... sitting in the shade in the grandstand, talking on skype with Lisa  Dangen in New Zealand

getting organised outside the old boatshed

Home for some rest time and then lunch and back for the afternoon session at 2pm. Much busier on the course this time and the kids were pleased to meet up with old mates from USA and Canada . Everyone training hard with a highlight of a hand roll by the C2 boys after Dan lost his paddle in the rocks in the big eddy - it was a bit hard for some of the lads to concentrate this afternoon with the far side bank littered with sun bathers of varying ages and sizes and states of undress .... Patricks observation was that it seemed to him that elderly people in Slovakia had no modesty when it came to exposing their bodies and that perhaps they should. One van load of kids investigated the shopping mall after training today with the girls finding some bargains and the boys deciding that chips and chocolate were more to their taste. Boys out with the rugby ball playing on the road this evening - there is no grassy area nearby for them to toss the ball around and the number of times it disappeared over a fence or sailed close to the side of a 600 year old building doesnt bear thinking about. Another early start tomorrow with the same training times posted, this will be the last unofficial training day and from Thursday onwards we will only be allocated one whitewater session per day.

rest day....Liptovsky Jan

Very lazy catch up day today - perfect weather and those kids who were off colour yesterday slept the morning away and we all generally took it easy with walks in the local streets, visits to the local shop for icecream, a visit to the cold mineral pool down the road, some card and scrabble playing, and a bit of homework .... that is except the management and coaches who attacked the mountain of washing - in fact such a big mountain that they were turned away from the first laundry .... restocked the pantry and organised lunches and dinner and snacks, fixed boats, padded out boats and glued foam and paddles .....No more sickies, just some worn out bodies so the rest has been very beneficial. Tomorrow we have our first training at 8am and another at 2pm so its an early start. The U23 group are having a rest day and some of them are heading up into Poland to do some site seeing.

What follows is a selection of photos from the racing yesterday in Krakow courtesy of Adam Pavlowski, a polish team photographer.