photos

Local crowd


Racing

Upstanding for the USA national anthem before racing starts.

Pre race kiwi camp, mid course

Sam Murray (Ex Alex /NZ jnr team) Wendy Dale and a body or 2 (Kel+Anna?)

Worst kayak key hiding attempt ever!!!!!

Race reception Friday night.

Had a great day with lots of visitors today. Early in the day a guy came up and said "Thanks so much for brewing Speights"!! I missed when all the kids turned up and were buzzing around the kiwis asking how they become kayakers. I also met Mrs Owen who has housed many kiwis and Aussie in Wausau over the years...I had heard many great stories in the past.

Matthew's post

First day of racing at Wausau today, everyone did their best and all the New Zealanders made it through to the semi finals tomorrow. Michal smolem took out the junior category today with an incredible lead of ten seconds. The amazing performance from top athletes has been great to watch. We are all exited for more racing and feel well prepared thanks to our coaching from Andy and Michelle we have had of the last few days in the scorching heat. The course will prove to be a challenge for us but it will be great fun. This trip has been a great experience for us all and we have enjoyed traveling around Canada and America. Especially to Niagara falls. The fireworks display next to the waterfall was something we will never forget.

Matthew Arnott

Racing time

Wow, what a day. I am so proud of everyone today, I have never seen most of them race so well.
Results are on the Wausau website,
http://www.wausauwhitewater.org/Documents/2011%20Documents/Wausau%20Open/Saturdayendofdayresults.pdf
Highlights were Geoff's first run, Laurence's first run and Finn's 2nd. Cole had 2 great runs and Foxy's first run was solid and clean like his namesake. Carl had an ok first run (neither me or him were satisfied but his solid training put him 2nd anyway) but risked too much later on.
The team had prepared well yesterday so when the water didn't come on for 1/2 and hour we didn't sweat it like the others. Then everyone went for solid first runs in case the predicted storms arrived. The storms didn't but wind did so some 50's and slow times came on 2nd runs as people tried to guess where the pole was going.
Everyone made it to semis and have now walked the course at least twice after demos and are set for the morning.

Race time

Sue beat me to it so you know where to find coverage hopefully.
I set the course and put it up with a Canadian and American. Demo runs looked amazing if I do say so myself. The course is pretty straightforward apart from a run through a sticky hole at 3 and a hard down in left eddy on big drop.
Racing starts around 10am.
We just had a reception with dignatories like the mayor and past Olympic gold medalist Joe Jacobi (C2).
Today has been stinking hot but some rain has been forecast to cool things a little over the racing.
Half the team did a final session this morning and looked great whilst the others took time to recover and nurse minor niggles (Carl's back is sore and Foxy's shoulder whilst it looks like Anna will be sitting this one out.)

Live coverage Wausau Open

Today there is live coverage HERE
click and enjoy watching, Matt has done a great job I understand.

Photos

Main drop in the middle of the course


Top hole, very sticky, has claimed many tails this week!

Top 1/3rd

Geoffs Blog...

Our team trip has been fantastic so far. We’ve visited the great Horse Shoe Falls in Niagara, Ottawa River and participated in the Canadian Summer Series. My personal highlights include the Minden course that featured steep gradient and strong eddies. Also the night in Niagara was excellent with the display of fireworks was cherry on top. Then the next day we travelled past the great lakes Ontario, Huron, and Michigan. It’s pretty cool to see the biggest lakes in the world. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Geoff.

(From Andy...)

Today we had just one session on the course. We did split 1/4 runs down the course and everyone had good runs. Matt and Geoff have their paddles back and they look great. Sadly Anna's shoulder is pretty bad so she looks in doubt for racing this weekend. Thanks Pete Eckhart who is one of the Aussie coaches and physio and gave her a good check up this afternoon.

I went for a run this morning and stopped right next to a deer 3 metres away who just happily sat and eyeballed me for about 3 minutes while squirrels hopped past!

Michelle Kvanli from USA K1W team has been helping coach our group this week and she has been fantastic, thanks Michelle.

Blog contribution from Marcus

Our trip so far has been absolutely amazing. Kayaking on the Ottawa River and visiting Niagara Falls were big highlights. The night at Niagara Falls was one that I will never forget, having dinner right beside one of the seven wonders of the world was amazing, and finishing off the night with a great display of fire works was the icing on the cake. The races so far have also been great as they have been run smoothly thanks to all the helpful volunteers. The venues have been great for warming us up to big races at Wausau.

(From Andy...we found a guy who has repaired paddles like new and he's on a mission to fix ours. Anna subluxed her shoulder this afternoon in the sticky hole late in the course. We're waiting till the morning to see how bad it is. Tonight we had a visit from Corrie who worked as a doctor in Alex, she bought more food (she had left tons for us on our arrival already) and stayed for the evening catching up with everyone).

Wausau Training

We are nice and settled and everyone is catching up on some sleep now.
The course here is really good and the team all had 2 good sessions yesterday.
Unfortunately we had 2 cracked tails (Finn and Anna) but minor and 2 snapped paddles (Matthew and Geoff) so we're about to crack open the repair kit.

The weather has been really hot but we have aircon in the rooms and big screen tv's so the kids can mellow out between sessions.
We just had an early flatwater sprint session on the lake which most came through well. Those sessions always show who has trained hard ;-)
Full and split runs today at 1.30 so I'll try to get some photos of the course.

more photos

Loaded....Roadtrip!!!! Love 'em. No point having a Porsche in this traffic mate

No Andy, you're not cool enough to pull off the gangster look.

Sth islanders minus Foxy.....must have been at desert bar?

Cole has already been to desert bar and couldn't carry any more!! Laurence in awe...he finished them!

Team @ Niagara making international friends.......we could have a write in comp.....where are they from????? Vancouver!!!!

American Niagara Falls

Team next to Candian Horeshoe falls

Everyone who raced Minden/Gull.

1st Carl, 2nd Cole.....RESULT!!!!!!

photos

Tightrope fail!


Carl and Foxy on Minden podium

Foxy, bottom drop

Laurence 2nd drop

Laurence top drop

Stunning lake above course