Here are a few Photos of the crouds at Pau, More under photos and Video

Mean while we are still in Bratislavia not sure what is going on with World Cup 2.

We hit the road straight after Luuka had finished her semi final run. Im glad we did as it was a long enough day as it was. First we kicked off a 5hr or so drive to stop in a little town before Nice for some Dinner.  This was our final stop in 25hrs of travel. We were only stopped by the cops once for a fine for having the wrong papers or something, but it worked out sweet with only a little fine. We boosted straight to Bratislava to find out our World Cup #2 might be canceled! Its a bit of a not sure whats going on over here, there has been heaps of rain in Czech and the river Danube (think that right spelling) is cranking. So word on the street is that they are going to have a meeting tomorrow night to make the call. Im sure it will go ahead but will let you know.

My pics and video are ready to be uploaded but as I have had little sleep ill do it tomorrow when I have more free time..

More Photos Here…

It was a awesome day here, the sun was baking and like normal I turn red rather than brown. Fluid intake was high, like the the amount of spectators. They have really done a awesome job at organising such a wicked event! There was 2 massive TV screens, and a hand full of smaller screens scattered through the event. Good food, good athletes, good river = good times.

However,  a rather disappointing day for the mens kayak. After a good weeks build up and paddling really well both mike and I missed the Semis cut off. Mike 46th me a very disappointing 53rd. I was rather nervous in my first run and had a shocker breaking out above upstream 7 and dropping low in a few eddys. The rest of the run was ok but small errors make big mistakes here. My second run was just kaka.  Luuka had a good day qualifying for the semis and will get to race tomorrow.  Louise and the juniors also had a bad day finishing outside the cut.

All results can be found here.

With 10secs between 1st and 50th  and only 3secs separating the top 20, the new rule changes have definitely made it hard to make the cut (combined runs to best run counts). They have also gone from top 40 to top 20 making the mens rather competitive.  There was a little bit of a trend going on with the 15 out of the top 20 runs coming in the second runs (with 1 not doing second run). They have set a harder and more technical course for the finals.. I wish they would set courses like these for heats too as it might spread the field. First I have to get the gates though..lol

Not to worry we only have to drive all across Europe for 20hrs to the next World Cup.

We have heaps of video and photos that ill put up tomorrow while we wait for Luuka. So check it out tomorrow.

Yes its that time of the year when everyone is get rather tense and the ‘race face appears’ However the kiwis have been doing what we do best-”chilling out”. Yesterday the juniors opted for the Biarritz when it was nice and sunny while the seniors went into Pau for a tiki tour. We saw some big churches, chateaus and had some coffee in a cool courtyard.

The seniors have also been busy wineing and dinning minus the wine, over that last few nights. We were invited to the juniors place 2 nights ago. They also have a kick ass place with a mean view of the Pau-Pyrenees.  (First Photo).

Our hosts where we are staying also invited us out/down stairs for dinner. It was a huge feast, a full on 4/5 course meal. We ate exotic fish and cheese-not chups but cheese, cheese wrapped in bacon in little toasties, more fish, more cheese and topped it of with a raspberry in mascaponi cheese desert. Mint!

Photos of our Dinner and our Accommodation

We have had boat control today and tomorrow we will have our last practice session on the river before the world cup kicks off on Saturday morning. The C1 ladies are off first, which should be rather challenging for those that take part.

Check out the Pau World Cup Site.

Here is a little bit about Pau,
The city of Pau and its metropolitan area have a great culture of sport, and have already proved their ability to organize top-level events: the Tour de France, The Davis Cup, the Handball World Cup, the Pau Formula Racing Grand Prix and famous horse races.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of the local clubs, the French Federation has been using Pau facilities as its National Canoeing Elite Poles for 15 years. A great deal of athletes have been training on site, and the outcome is stunning: 2 Olympic titles, 3 Olympics medals and 6 world-champion titles.

Today I chilled out at the course for a while. Thought it was a good time to take a few pictures.  There are a heap more photos too. I have got a flicker account and its linked with my website for easy updates so stay tuned for more pictures.

Everything is starting to come together here. They have brought in ready lawn and there a heaps of people running around cleaning stuff, putting banners up and generally helping set up for a mint race. The french are ledgends here, I was paddling down the bottom for a cruise and Fabian L was paddling past when a mob of school kids spotted him. It was like one child spotted him then the whole mob of excited 5yr olds were yelling and waving at him…

I have been catching a few rides in the bus/mikes van to the course. Its always an adventure with that car and mike driving… Ran a few lazy red lights to go with mikes little bump into a tree and fence yesterday.. Video will follow soon..

More photos under photos, found above and also a bit of video added for your enjoyment…..

Yesterday we travelled from La Seu DUrgell to Pau, France. It was a pretty cruisy trip as we stopped in Andora (home to duty free shopping) for ages. The girls did their hard core shopping for a few hours, they tell me they have only scratched the surface and want to go back.  So after packing up the car we hit the road over the mountains into France. It was a pretty cool drive as we descended through the clouds and saw a bit of the mountain ranges. We spent a while looking for a place to eat, stopping in a dodgy as town. It was pretty funny when we walked into one restaurant, it was like one of those moments when the music stops and everyone just stares at you, even the waiters!

Now we are in Pau and will be checking out the new course here early this morning to try sort out if we can train or not as world cup training doesnt start till monday.  Most of the teams that were at the Seu training camp have opted to stay at a Seu paying for extra water. We have found some sick accomidation here in Pau! will put some photos on later today.