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.

Well on Tuesday Will Forsythe and I  down here to Palmerston North when the New Zealand Open will be held. When we arrived it was a cracking day and the weather has been mint since. The river has also had a few changes to it since I was last here in December.  I think they may have had a few floods and trees fall over so the digger has been in and dropped a few rocks in some good places creating a couple of new eddys… They have also fixed up the bottom hole and you can now do double ups so all good. There is a good turn out of international paddlers that are here. Looks like its going to be a good race and hopefully the weather will hold out till we leave….

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..

Check out a few Pictures and comments when they come from Ryan on his mountain bike track building tour!

Ah yes on the road again! Well yesterday kicked off with a nice ride to the airport followed by loading 23 boats onto the plane. Only thing slowing us down was the 3hour delay on our flight. Not to worry as we wouldnt like that to keep us down we got $15 bucks to spend on food.. After a nice flight home and a 2hr drive I made it home 2am…. Today Will arrives from Australia and tomorrow we will start training here in Rotorua before our first race this weekend. Whist I have been in Penrith and also Elidon I have been playing around with photoshop a bit and made a couple of photos…. They are my first ones so they should be getting more creative and cooler soon. If you have and ideas be sure to comment and ill try piece something together.  Once I learn how to use the programme that is…

I would like to say a big thanks to those people that made the trip to Australia a great success. I dont think we have had such a smooth trip like that before and all the top results shows canoe slalom nz has a bright future. I have uploaded a few pics from the trip check them out here, Australia Photos.

Im also going to order some new G POWER paddles in the next couple of weeks so if you are keen let me know asap.

Well over the past four days I haven’t really been up to anything that exciting… I have been helping out coaching a few of the junior team that travelled up here to train for the week. Sadly the juniors have suffered a few injuries thought the time here. It has been pretty warm here topping out around 45degrees the other day! Last night was properly the most exciting thing that has happened since we have been here. Rain and dinner at Monties Pizza Place. Its mint. Thanks for the company guys!

So for the past 2 weeks i have been part of the NZ Development Team as one of 3 coaches, 2 managers and 19 very fast Junior athletes! I have defiantly enjoyed my time with the team and they should be proud of their achievements. So, First off was the Australian Secondary Schools, the team cleaned up heaps of medals here. Not sure about the total amount but first day was 25ish second day 20+ so it was great. The weather took a turn for the worse before the race so it was really low levels. After a rest day the next event was the final in the Southern Cup. i was able to race this event and went pretty average in it. However I did end up winning the overall title of Open Mens Southern Cup Champion.  Finally the water decided to rise, along with the temperature!  The course for the Australian Open Nationals was a pretty challenging course and the team stepped up and won a truck load more medals. I also raced. Again it wasn’t pretty, I ended up 2nd in the Open Mens class behind William Forsythe from Australia. Our team management entered the teams race and came off pretty well! We were 3rd in the Open Mens. It was pretty cool as my team mates, Roy (manager/master paddler) and Andrew (coach/c2 paddler).

Today we packed up and headed to Sydney in search of real white water, stopping off in Bondi for a dip and some went for a bit of a shop. I couldn’t believe how many people were there! Its mad! So now Im stuck here in Penrith for a week of training, more coaching and good times!

More Photos coming soon!

Eildon is hot, paddling is going good. NZ Development Team won 25 medals on the first day and have been ripping it up since we got here.. Everyone is paddling really well for themselves and they are a great bunch of kids.. We dont have any internet so ill write up something soon and post it for you all! Happy New Year

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…