Well here he is the mad man him self! Cameron.. Cam has been chilling out in Chile making mountain bike tracks and seeing the sights! From what I have seen its pretty nice where he is staying.. Right on the edge of a lake, with surrounding mountains and no earthquake damage! Pretty choice. Ryan has just finished his work in Jamaica where he was also making mountain bike tracks. He is now on his way home, not sure for how long-he might be off making more tracks like his younger bro.. Im keen to catch up and hear about his adventures next week.

For me I have been in Palmerston North getting some testing done. Its been great times not looking forward to when the holidays finish…

If anyone wants some G Power products let me know asap as I will be ordering some in the next couple of days…. So get in quick…

Also I made the NZ senior team again. Will F was again on form showing he is the man to beat at Oceania Champs later this month. I Raced 21 gates well over each run over both days… Now I just need to do 22 gates well and ill be ok…

Anyway its been a wicked two weeks hanging out with will, I have learnt a bit of stuff to work on and had two more weeks of training. Im back in Rotorua for the next week before flying back to Australia for a few weeks training.

Well after a looong day at the river we are off for a feed in Palmy. Racing was ok for me, first run I had a good solid top till gate 21 then got stuck in stopper and then found out I had a 50?.. however raw time was ok without these mistakes. Second run was crap as I was offline and fighting with the water the whole way. Will F from Australia showed his dominating form winning todays racing. Sweet off for some Kai.

Day Two of NZ selections is over and we are at the half way point with two races to go… Racing for me on Sunday was ok again.. Nothing great but loosing time in a couple of places. All good though. Will F (Australia) was in good form again winning the race in front of Ciaran Heurteau from Ireland, followed by myself.  There has been some super tight racing in other classes, the junior team selections is going to go down to the last race.

After racing on Sunday Will and I decided to pop into the Red Woods in Rotorua for a bit of a mountain bike. It was a wicked way to end the day. We thrashed out a good hour and then drove to Napier arriving late last night. Tomorrow morning we will depart for Palmerston North where we will train it up for the next week in preparation for the 2010 NZ Open!

Results can be found at slalomnz.org.nz

Well today started off pretty early driving across from Rotorua to sunny Kawerau…. well sort of sunny. It was a great day with a good turn out of NZ and International paddlers.  The venue is looking as good as ever and the designers set a pretty good course. It was pretty easy with no ‘big move’ just places where you can loose time. Racing for me went average.. I had 2 pretty ok runs with a few key places where I lost time and a touch, but on a whole it was ok. Will F from Australia took out todays race..

From Wednesday I was over in Kawerau training on the Tawawera River.. It was pretty cool as we were coaching a big group of young kayakers. There were quite a few new paddlers to slalom and even ones that haven’t even paddled before. It was great to see the improvement throughout the camp and it showed on the last day with everyone minting a few ups and downs in our race…. The food, weather, training, company and time was awesome! There will be another camp in Kawerau leading into the first selection race in January. Im not sure on the dates but if you are keen email me and ill pass on some details..

Straight after the camp I drove straight to Napier for Stephs sisters wedding! It was held at Church Road Winery and a really cool wedding. Im looking forward to seeing the photos! I also brought down Marcel and Monica and we spent the day cruising around our local sights… Palmy tomorrow for the Mangahao booked flow.. then back for xmas then to aus. busy times…

Today NZ had our first slalom race of the year, the Bill Ross Memorial. It was a pretty nice day with a good turn out of young and old paddlers. It was a bit of a mission with setting up the course with snapping and dropping wires, but thanks to those people that set it up (Ian, Ben/Brayden) and the Gibbs/Higgins/anyone else I missed out for the running race. While we were waiting for them to set it up, I got talking to Craig T, who said they are using some of the same gates used from the 1978 Nationals, the same poles he painted in his shed!! so thanks for making quality gates Craig!!!

Highlight of the day was watching people, get a bit of a surf going in the notorious ‘bogg rock’ lol. Although that wasnt the hardest move on the course…. I spent a good amount of time at the bottom trying to paddle up a wave to get an upstream in the middle of the river.. Not the best when you have tired arms… Not sure who won the race as I straight after my run..

In other news, Shea and the NZ Mens hockey team are through to the final with a win over Argentina. Shea slotted himself a goal and we won 3-2. They will be playing in the final for a place in the Champions Trophy and one of only 6 teams to go.