CRANKING UP FOR KRAKOW

The U23/Junior Team have been training everyday rotating their time slot from 4pm to 8am to 6pm to 3pm.  We have one more 1/2  hour training slot tomorrow at 8:30am then the course will be set and the competition begins.

TUESDAY Patrick Washer, James Thwaites and Callum Gilbert start off the racing at 12:15pm (10:15pm on Tuesday night) in the U23 C1 category.  Second runs start at 1:20pm (11:20pm NZ Tuesday night).






TUESDAY the Juniors - Josh Bell, Callum Aitken and Otis Rayner - have their first runs at 2:30pm (12:30am Wednesday morning NZ time) and have their second runs at 4:43pm (2:43am Wednesday morning NZ time).






WEDNESDAY begins the competition for K1 Mens and C1 Womens.  Callum Gilbert, Finn Butcher and Theo Pepper will be racing at 9:15am (7:15pm Wednesday night)  followed by Kelly Travers and Kaydi O’Conner-Stratton.  Second runs at 11:45am (9:45pm Wednesday night).












WEDNESDAY Zac Mutton and Callum Aitken have their first runs at 2:30pm (12:30am Thursday morning NZ time) and second runs at 5pm (3am on Thursday morning NZ time).






THURSDAY Anna Higgins, Courtney Williams, and Kaydi-O’Conner-Stratton will be racing K1 Womens starting their first runs at 9:15am (7:15pm Thursday evening NZ time) and their second runs at 11am (9pm NZ time).







THURSDAY Kensa Randle will be racing in the Junior K1 Womens at 1:25pm (11:26pm on Thursday NZ time) and her second run will be at 3:25pm (1:25am Friday NZ time).



All racing will be live streamed through Canoe Planet on youtube.  Go onto canoeicf.com and look for a link to take you to the days racing.  We will try to provide a link once it is up and going.

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE WEILICZKA SALT MINE AND DOWNTOWN KRAKOW

With the team training slot allocated at 4pm, we had a sight seeing excursion to the Unesco World Heritage site of the Weiliczka Salt Mine. on the outskirts of Krakow.  Production started in the 13th century and the mine produced table salt continuously until 2007.  

The mine is 327 metres deep and has numerous chambers at every level.  It has approximately 300 kilometres of tunnels.  There are many statues and four chapels carved out of the rock salt as well as underground lakes of brine.  

The miners used a variety of different methods to bring the 800 kilogram salt cylinders to the surface which included the Hungarian-type horse treadmill and Saxon treadmills.  The salt is naturally grey in various shades and only becomes white when ground.  

We also spent an afternoon in Krakow's old town & market square including a visit below the Cloth Hall which dominates the largest medieval market area in Europe.  In 2005 a major archeological excavation took place in the town square uncovering layers of history dating back to the 12th century.  The area was reinstated but retaining part of the excavation with the exposed layers of historical human habitation seen in the underground museum.

Due to being on the road for a good week or more for the team members, we had to come back into town another day to do laundry.  Kelly joined this trip to replace her 4 month old Apple cell phone that stopped working and Theo came along to have a second visit with the dentist.  A tooth that he had previously had work on in New Zealand became sore and infected.  With the help of Agnieszka Grudzinska, the former CSNZ chairman who is Polish and here as an ICF international judge, found a dentist to relieve Theo's pain.  In fact, Theo was quite impressed with his treatment and only had to pay for his two visits around $75 NZD (draining, drilling, antibiotics, and re-filling).  Theo has had an unsettling first week with having to borrow boats from the British team and the Polaczyk's but after today is sorted and happy with a Galasport that just about fits him brought in from Prague which he will use for the racing.  From the picture, you can see Theo, our gentle giant, is back on form and in his element.

A quick visit to Wawel Royal Castle including a viewing of Leonardo di Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine" painting being a national Polish treasure.  No pictures were allowed but one was taken thru a crack in the door...only to be photo bombed by Kelly.

Gordon found a natural history museum which featured the worlds only complete Wooly Rhinoceros that was recovered from a Ukrainian swamp in 1929 along with mammoth remains from 30,000 years ago.

KOLNA TRAINING

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!

4 COUNTRIES IN 1 DAY

Yet another early start, quick van pack, trailer pickup from the Augsburg slalom site, then off to Munich airport to collect Theo Pepper who joined the Under 23 team.  Unfortunately Theo was not allowed to bring his boat from NZ because of a new Thai airlines procedures which ... just so happened to change between the few days he bought his ticket and the 1st of July.  Then on to the German autobahn system! We drove around Munich then headed east along the foothills of the mountains forming the Germany/Austrian border, past Salzburg and pretty countrysides towards Vienna.  A beautiful day, good music (if you like teen pop), fast roads, lots of rest, heading to Poland via Czech Republic.  European drivers are great on the motorways, all working together enabling traffic to move quickly and we only saw one cop and two McDonald's in 10 hours of driving  thru 4 countries. We arrived in Krakow at 8 pm and met up with the rest of the team.

ECA CUP RACE 4 & 5 - AUGSBURG

The format for the ECA races is one qualification race for each class with the top 2/3rds progressing to the final, with a cap of 30 finalists for the men's under 16 & 18, and a cap of 20 for all other classes.  The kiwi team had 5 juniors competing with 3 members of the under 23 team as forerunners. The forerunners had a run before the qualifications and a second run before the finals.






On the first day of racing Kensa qualified for the final finishing in 9th place and Zac qualified finishing in 15th place.



That evening in Augsburg a few hardy team members forsook their rugby heritage and watched Germany defeat Italy at the quarter final of the European Soccer Cup.  The rest of the team learned of the result of the match by from the hour long car horn honking fest after Germany's winning kick.

Racing on Sunday was on a more difficult course which seemed to suit the NZ crew.  Kensa,  Zac and  Josh all made their finals.   Zac had the fastest under 16 flat time in his qualification run, but had 14 seconds of penalties.  Kensa had a great finish of 4th place in the Women's Under 18 K1 and Zac was 3rd in the Men's Under 16 K1, while Josh improved his placing by one.



We stayed at the course for the prize giving to support New Zealand's first podium placing of the tour.  Zac was to receive a bronze medal (or so we thought).  It was a very nice ceremony and we cheered politely for the Aussies & Americans receiving their gold medals  - the only non Europeans to medal.  But after a long wait we discovered the medal winners were from the combined results of the two races over the weekend - not the individual races.  So that was a wee bit disappointing.   All was forgotten over a classic Bayern dinner in the Ratz Keller situated in the basement of the 500 year old town hall, built by the rich Fuggers of old Augsburg.

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE FUGGERS

We were up and off again for another early start to the "Eiskanal".  The Augsburg course was the first artificial slalom course in the world constructed for the 1972 Olympic Games.  For Gordon it was quite special to be here again seeing Otis paddling on the course because he was here to compete as a member of the New Zealand Team in 1979.  The team only had one training session per day on the slalom course due to the large number of competitors racing.  



Augsburg is a popular and central location for slalom kayaking attracting teams from all over Europe as well as further afield with Aussies, Americans and our Kiwi teams. The field was limited to 200 competitors. The course is in a beautiful setting with well established trees for shade, green grass incorporating terraced seating, other canals for grade 2 kayaking, and paved roads used by cyclists, walkers, skateboarders and inline skaters.  



The team was joined by Claudia Paterson for 24 hours on her way from France back to New Zealand after suffering a dislocated shoulder on the slalom course at Bourg St Maurice a few days earlier.  Unfortunately the injury forced Claudia to withdraw from the Junior World Championship tour.




After an early dinner at the hotel a select group of history & cultural affectionados set off through the old town to view landmarks associated with the Fuggers of Augsburg - a trading family from the 14th & 15th century who put Augsburg on the map and who endowed the city with numerous buildings, churches and monuments.  A pleasant stroll through winding alleys and streets looking at the medieval townscape was enjoyed by the Fugger appreciators.  The tour also took in an old part of town with canals of fast moving water taken from the Izar river and used to power flour mills and textile machinery.  A heavy rainstorm and subsequent rainbow display added to the impressions of a memorable outing. 



Another early start on Friday for the team for their second session on the course, which saw some good improvements from the rustier team members as they continued their European acclimatisation and coming to grips with the uniqueness of the Augsburg course.  



Mary and Gordon left the group for most of the day delivering Claudia to Munich airport for her trip home.  

The group had some more sightseeing in Augsburg old town and then returned to the Eiskanal for demonstration runs.

2016 TEAM GATHERS

The 2016 Junior & Under 23 World's tour finally began to happen with Josh, Martin, Otis, Mary and Gordon’s arrival into Prague and transfer to the Lodnica kayak club boathouse at Troja on the banks of the Vltava river and meeting up with Courtney, Callum Aitken, Zac and Kaydi who were already established in the Czech Republic. What an amazing place to be deposited from a wintery, grey landscape to a lush, green Kayaking paradise.  



Some of the team had a late afternoon training run on the Troja course before the crew headed down town to "Lokal" restaurant for a familiarisation session of local cuisine in the company of old and new friends Czech friends.  An early night for most of the team but Martin and the remaining team members trammed further across town to visit the newly opened Kayak Beach Bar established by slalom icon Vavra Hradilek.

The training got underway the following day with hour long sessions on the Troja course in the morning and at midday with Martin coaching. The team shared the course with other kayakers practising slalom and rafters from the Phys Ed  department of nearby Charles University.  It was a good opportunity for Otis and Josh to get the feel for their first European slalom course, joining the other kiwis who were well acquainted with the whitewater conditions.




Then an afternoon in town taking in the splendour of some of Prague's old historical precinct concentrating on Charles bridge and Prague castle with winding medieval streets, glorious church sculpture in Saint Mikulas, the ordered utopian architecture of the government buildings and the soaring Baroque ornateness of St Vitus cathedral in the castle precinct. We only had limited exploring time so barely scratched the surface of this lovely city.
The team had been invited to a boathouse barbeque with the local kayak club members, many of whom had spent time in New Zealand and many of whom were Martin’s old kayaking buddies. Callum Aitken was celebrating his 17th birthday and enjoyed a birthday cake and candles "kiwi style" and then partook in the local Czech birthday tradition with a full aerial immersion into the Vltava in front of the clubhouse.



We had an early 6am start, quick brekky, trailer pack and departure towards Germany via the Galasport factory at Susice to pick up Josh’s new C1 and fit it out. Some of the other paddlers took the opportunity to check their boat weights and make some minor adjustments and repairs.




We got back on the road and picked up James Thwaite at Munich Airport, a rental car, and rolled into the second oldest city in Germany, Augsburg, at 7pm.  The course was busy with many paddlers in both slalom and plastic boats enjoying the 1972 purpose made slalom course for the Olympics. The paddlers were happy to see such a beautiful setting and challenging whitewater course.

We ended our huge day at an Augsburg local around the corner from our hostel.  Cuisine of the evening was 1/2 pork knuckle, 1/4 duck, wiener schnitzel, and spaztle (ingredients unknown). 

2015 Junior & U23 Teams in Brazil for World Champs

Great news the white water is flowing and we have now had two sessions. You would have to laugh as once they got the pumps fixed, (rumour has it some damage caused by an alligator in the pump, but who knows) someone lost the key to open the gate to let water flow down the white water course so all sessions started 30 minutes late yesterday.

We took the opportunity to visit the Brazilian side of the Falls and luckily we had free entry from the organisers as an apology for lack of white water. perfect timing as we had planned to go that day anyway.

We have also been to the Bird Park and both sightseeing expeditions a big hit-  knocking off a few sights while we have rental cars and early in training so not getting too tired close to racing.

We have had brilliant sunny days- late 20's early 30's so very hot but air con in rooms so ok once we get back to hotel.

Its been very humid but heavens have just opened so perhaps that will relieve the mugginess a bit. We have four small Ford cars, a bit like the movie 'The Italian Job' when we leave our gated parking lot and head out. It takes about 20 minutes to the course, 4 drivers ( Sue, Aaron. Martin & Malcolm)  Everyone gets in the same car, same seats- I was laughing with my car lot as its a bit of a practice for the rest home .... same seats everyday!

We are on a roll now with meals and getting organised

Breakfast is a buffet, ideal as there is lots of choice even if some strange cakes and jellies in shot glasses. Lovely fruit though!

Lunch we self cater and with the chilli bin, 2 plates, three forks and one knife I purchased  ( almost 100% fail on bringing the mess kit as per packing list)  a good bakery two doors along and 500m to supermarket it seems to be working Ok, There are three tables in a communal area which we commandeer at lunch - we leave a bit of a mess on the floor but the hotel seem Ok with it and refuse to give me  a broom to clean it up. Today I have got onto google translate and then took a note to the breakfast cooks to ask if we could have 17 boiled eggs (ovos) for lunch . With lots of hand gestures and me flapping my arms like a chook , I think they got the message although no eggs have appeared yet. 

Kids have fridges in rooms so can have extra food for in between snacks.

Dinner so far has been mostly at this Brazilian BBQ place next door- costs around $13 NZ for all you can eat plus a bottle of water. The boys are mostly into speed eating and have timed they can be in an out in 20 minutes-  the meat is continuous from a rotisserie BBQ arrangement and there is plenty and its really good. They have  a dessert buffet and the finale is the BBQ pineapple which is rotisseried whole and coated in a sugary cinnamon mix and they bring it around and carve off slices.

Some of us are taking a more leisurely pace ( than the 20 minutes)  and having an adult drink-  caiparinha  - lots fresh limes-  Yum.

Dave & Marg McCulloch have joined us a couple of times and they head off now for a week then will be back for the business end.

We were invited out to the Brazilian team's compound. It was Pepe's birthday (one of their team ) I say a compound as they all live together with a gym and pool and even a cook. Ettore their coach ( from Italy)  cooked the BBQ (Churrascaria ), all meat and buns and it was a bit chaotic as lots of young kayayers. Very vibrant and we got a glimpse of how they party when people started to dance, then drums and ukes came out. We got everyone home early but Im sure if the racing had been over it may have been more of a struggle.  Great to see teams mixing up though and it seems that our Churrascaria restaurant next door is popular with all the teams so at night its been just about full with kayakers.

Not sure that many are handwashing but I sussed a laundry place outside of the hotel for 8 Real per kg, so just under $4 so the troops went en masse yesterday with their named plastic bags of washing. Haven't got it back yet and there was some concern about whites and coloureds- be interesting to see if all works out.

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