Well after 3 months away we have finally returned home to good old New Zealand! We had a pretty long journey home leaving Paris at 6am on Sunday morning and finally got home today, Tuesday 5pm. I would like to say thanks to all of those people that gave Steph and I rides and helped us out in various places. We had such a wicked time and our trip was topped off with a week in Paris.

Paris, ha we had a funny conversation with Heli about joking about how much walking was involved in Paris. I thought he overexaggerating. I was wrong, there was a massive amount of walking, which I must say was definitely worth it! Paris is the best city I have been to to walk around. Every day we saw something new and enjoyed the time to chill out and look through the sights. My favourite place would have to be the Eiffel Tower, even though I found out Im not that keen on heights. Again Ill write some more when I get some free time…..

New Photo Galleries, Pairs and Seu.

Well I do apologise about the lack of updates recently. Some could think its because of our race or maybe a lack of internet. True story is my computer has finally stopped working.. Anyway I will write a big post when I get home of all my adventures. Currently we are in Paris for a week before coming back to NZ. Thanks to the French guys for helping us out with a ride and a place to stay.

Worlds results: 45th, Teams not sure actually but not flash..Ill write about it when im home.

Well I have been rather slack with updating this, not due to lack of time, just lack of internet. We have moved out to the apartments which are really sweet and only 5mins away from course. Trainings has also been going well with some good sessions before nations training…

We also went to the local fire festival. It was a rather crazy experience. Im pretty sure they have no regulations for fire or anything here. We were warned by the Aussies to wear old clothes and something to cover your face. We were a little under dressed compared to most people, but we ended up being ok… First of all we were gathered around a stage where some lady cooked young kids who turned into devil like things who ran around with a spinning and over sized sparkler. Then the crowd was pushed through town where they had set up fire works all over the show. Pretty much ended up in the same place as it started, funny thing is a tree caught fire, we thought it was part of the show. Turns out we were wrong.

Johan has been playing around with his camera and these are some pics that he has taken.

Made it here!  Johan had better luck with our directions and got us here in good time to have dinner and sort out our accommodation. We are at the farm house, where the Australian Team is. Its a pretty cool old style farm house just a stones throw across the river.

Training has been going really well and Im really enjoying paddling here, although Bourg was rather fun!!

Here are a few pictures Steph and Johan took, playing around with his camera.

After the Slovenian Open we decided to stay in Ljubljana for another night and then make our way south towards Spain. We were in no hurry opting for a more tourist type trip. Photos Here

Johan was chief navigator choosing google maps as guide. Funny, that it took us on the looong way round. Over two huge mountains and under a hand full of ski fields. However this scenic route was really really nice, with absolutely  awesome views, will put more photos on soon.

We also stopped by Lago di Garda, in Italy. Its a huge lake (similar to lake Taupo). We found a nice spot to eat our lunch and admire the view… That was until some dodgy Italian man dressed in tight speedo like attire came up wanting some euros for us to sit there. So we decided it was time to go for a dip and walked a 50m  down the beach and went for a few cannon balls.

After our killer mountain drive we ended up in Bourg-Saint-Maurice eager to sleep. We tried to find Ciaran but couldn’t get hold of him. So tired we crashed out in some raft base for the night, waking up surrounded by mountains and a sweeet river.

Today caught up with with Ciaran Heurteaus and went for a paddle on the course. It is one of the funest courses I have been on. Big white water with some sweet waves, eddys and holes to play in! Our journey south to Seu continues first thing tomorrow….

Racing kicked off today with the K1 ladies, C1 and C2 in the morning and the big boys K1 mens racing in the afternoon. Everything was set for a good race, course was not so tricky but lots of places to loose time if you weren’t on line. My first run like last week was solid with ok lines but just not paddling hard. Second run I came out of the blocks hard, hit lots of gates and blew out.  I ended up in 34th, Johan 44, Mike 22, Louise 33, Luuka 17th and Brent 45th. Kauzer demolished the feild 3 sec in front of everyone. Video Here

Full Results and live timing Here.

Event website for the Slovenian Open 2009.

Yesterday was another hot day here in Ljubljana. We are certainly stoked we have air conditioning. We however did venture outside for a couple of training sessions which were rather full of paddlers….

Last night there was the flatwater duel slalom in the middle of town. No Kiwis entered as we had our training session at the time of qualification.  Peter K took home the cash in the mens and Corenna beat Roz in the woman’s.

Event website for the Slovenian Open 2009.

We drove down Monday to Ljubljana, home of Slovenian canoeing. Some of the team had a quick paddle and then we went to town for a family pizza! This morning we did a session of walk backs as there was heaps of people in our session. The river is heaps of fun to paddle on as it has a large drop at the top of the course into a hole at the bottom. Followed by a good section of waves, holes with good eddys.

Last week was the Slovak Open. The sun was out along with a large field of competitors. The race was once again pretty cool with a good course design of a few challenging moves utilizing the whitewater. My first run didnt go to well with a run full of touches and dropping low in the last upstream. Second run I was good until I got suck in a hole then a dodgy head duck to get a 50. However there were a few good things to come out of the race and I have a few things to work and focus on for this week.

Last week we went for a tiki tour around town and saw the Bratislava Castle. Its getting restored at them moment so couldnt go inside or anything, but raises the question of when does restoration become renovation?

Photos from Bratislava and Ljubljana

Yesterday was a bad day of racing for me. Lots of touches and runs full of mistakes. More soon… Results Here

The German Open was held under lights in the weekend, Im told it was a good race and good times were had. We decided to stay in Prague for a good week of training, and a good week it was. Between sessions we filled our time with trips to town to check out the sights and a bit of window shopping. On Friday we went to town with our flatmate and had a nice night chilling by the river close to the dancing building (a building that looks like two people are dancing).

Check out this article from Ceske Budujovice

We are here now in Bratislava for the Slovak Open. Tommow Johan arrives from NZ and we will meet up with the girls from Seu. Hopefully they will arrive in the blue escort or we will be looking for some rides…