The team hotel Fero Express is a quick 5 minute drive from the Kolna World Championships course located on the banks of the Wisla river 8 kilometres upstream of Kraków. Thank you to the slalom committee member(s) who organised the booking a long time ago. Currently the Canadians and the Aussies are also established at the hotel, which we share with elderly German bus tourists.
All teams are allocated hour long training sessions daily on the course and we are on with Japan and Kazakstan. On Tuesday each country had two timeslots, which doubled the number of paddlers on the course. It was glorious chaos with the large Russian squad sharing our slots, descending the course in formation and annexing the eddies on their way through. A very busy time for Aaron and Martin, with the management team shuttling and catering. The smaller sessions on Wednesday and Thursday were more manageable with no international incidents.
Otis provided freestyle entertainment when surfing out of an eddy to turn back the way he came, he
somehow dug his stern into the bottom of the course up against a concrete base plate. The downstream water pushed his boat vertically up in the air & out of the water, over backwards down onto bollards which he clipped with his ribs, but fortunately no damage to boat or person. All other team members were in control of their water craft during these sessions.
The only slight negative experienced by the crew is the quality of the water, making our effluent affected home rivers pristine in comparison.
The team is in good heart with only a couple of minor health niggles. Josh has his 17th birthday today!
All teams are allocated hour long training sessions daily on the course and we are on with Japan and Kazakstan. On Tuesday each country had two timeslots, which doubled the number of paddlers on the course. It was glorious chaos with the large Russian squad sharing our slots, descending the course in formation and annexing the eddies on their way through. A very busy time for Aaron and Martin, with the management team shuttling and catering. The smaller sessions on Wednesday and Thursday were more manageable with no international incidents.
Otis provided freestyle entertainment when surfing out of an eddy to turn back the way he came, he
somehow dug his stern into the bottom of the course up against a concrete base plate. The downstream water pushed his boat vertically up in the air & out of the water, over backwards down onto bollards which he clipped with his ribs, but fortunately no damage to boat or person. All other team members were in control of their water craft during these sessions.
The only slight negative experienced by the crew is the quality of the water, making our effluent affected home rivers pristine in comparison.
The team is in good heart with only a couple of minor health niggles. Josh has his 17th birthday today!
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