A few pictures

ordinary old day

Cool again this morning with team leaving for the course in team track suits as opposed to tee shirts and shorts. In fact Martin said he was freezing standing on the bank and wants a team hoodie for next time!! He said the wind whistled down the neck of his track suit jacket - Pavel just smiled, as he does. Another big adventure to the supermarket - only took 5 staff to help find 'curry powder' today and the key word was
'India' in the end - its become almost another version of 'the amazing race' for the staff in the supermarket , they recognise us now and you can see them either run for cover or start to giggle ... then the charades and mimes begin ... Pavel has written us a cheat sheet of key meat words in Czech which is a bit helpful because its almost slovakian .... we show it around and combined with the mimes and noises we manage to get something to buy, not sure half the time what it actually is, pretty sure tonights minced meat wasn't beef - (don't tell your kids). The Australians are back from their few days training in Krakow, the Germans and Chinese and Russians have arrived and also 30 paddlers from Czech Republic. Martin and Pavel have gone out tonight to have tea with them. The British have a military operation going (not Dads Army either) and are always very flash in their turn out, paddling gear - all matching - spray skirts and life jackets matching and their team casual uniform all matching and impeccable - however we have Matthew, with his KIWI boat.

Kiwis in action

Dads Army - Captain Mannering and Wilson - Just joking, we are very impressed and these guys were so nice to pose for us

padding out and keading up Deahnas new boat

now its wet and second hand .....

flat water training - sprints, looking down the dry, right side course in the distance

one on one sprints, Tommy v Marcus

Deahna's new boat arrived and she spent time under the shelter of the new building padding it out and adding Kead-it to the ends to protect it from the Liptovsky stones. Flat water training this afternoon at the top of the course, split into two groups doing short sprints, gates and 360 turns.

 Accreditation has opened, all the teams tents are up and the first provisional start lists have been posted on the notice board. There are 63 boats in K1W U18:, 84 in K1M U18: 67 in C1M U18: 29 in C2 U18: 53 in K1W U23: 86 in K1M U23: 58 in C1M : 

Its now getting hard to get a car park near the old boat house especially in our big vans and we are wondering where they are going to put all the race car parking now that they have filled the car park with the teams Marquee.

Very hungry and cold kids arrived in from paddling at 6pm tonight - rain was threatening again so its a big rush to get a space to hang their gear under the veranda of the building. Big tea followed by a bit of a sauna for some of the boys. Hope this sends them to sleep early ...

steamy sauna - foggy camera - Marcus, Dan, Patrick

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.