Anchorman Mike

Lift off

2011-11-06T22:44:00.001-08:00

This weekend saw the official start of Simon's Challenge. I had Jeffrey Smith come down from Durban to put his body to the test on the 3 disciplines, he managed a cracker of a run to ensure the top spot in the hall of fame. Today was also saw my return to my sprint boat, it was awesome to be in a well set up K1 again. We have a squad trial which takes place on the 4th of December. I will be racing over a distance of 100m and 250m. I am really looking forward to the trial and hope the competition will be as tough as it has been over the past few seasons. I know that there are a few guys that are opting out as it falls over the same weekend as the 50 miler which is one of the biggest pre-Dusi races on the calendar, this will definitely take some of the big names out of the line up.

Moving on...

2011-10-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this blog it is likely you are a friend and know me on a personal level, at the same time you probably know that Ruby and I narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Summer Olympics next year. I have taken quite a bit of time out mentally over the past two or so months. I have been keeping rather busy making sure not too much time is spent harping on disappointment. I have spent a lot of time on and in the water as well as in the mountains around Cape Town. De-training myself so to speak, it doesn't seem healthy to go from 4 hours of training a day to zero. I am also currently looking to find a career path for myself, a nerve wracking but exciting process at the same time. I don't feel that this is the end of paddling by any means, it is the sport I love and continue to appreciate every angle of it.

Above is my new K1 training venue, it is amazing!

2011-08-18T03:01:00.000-07:00

Two days till I start racing. The World Champs opened last night with an impressive opening ceremony and South Africa had three boats racing in this morning's session and all three have made it through to the semi finals. We have our heat draw for Saturday morning. We are going to be up against some good boats which is always good, it allows you to gauge yourself before the semi 90min later and clear out a few cob webs. The boats to look out for in our heat are Latvia, Canada, Japan and China. This years Worlds has 2000 athletes all attempting to qualify for London next year only 176 will get the nod. There a lot of pressure out here.

Szeged2011

2011-08-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

It has finally arrived, the 2011 World Championships. Yesterday afternoon we took the relaxed 2 hour drive from Szolnok to Szeged. We spent the evening at the course, with the help of Nelo we made some small adjustments to our boats. We left the course at 18h30 and it was still 32.5 degrees, the weather looks set to stay the same all week. I am really excited to be racing here in Hungary again, Szeged is definitely the best kayaking venue in the world.

Over the weekend Ruby and I did some race simulation time-trials racing a heat and semi on the one day and then a final on the next. It went really well, we managed to post our 2 fastest times, which is always a good boost going into racing. Racing starts tomorrow but Shaun and I line up for the first time on Saturday.

It's all happening

2011-08-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

It's a little over 11 days to the opening of the 2011 World Championships. This is going to be the biggest canoeing event ever hosted. There are 94 nations entered this year, and the event is also the qualifying event for the 2012 Olympics. The pressure is definitely on. If the last Hungarian world championships are anything to go by this year is going to be insane. The size and the sound of the crowd for the finals is so intense that it is not possible to hear yourself breath or the sound of your paddles through the water. With 3D clips advertising the racing in all the cinema's, TV advertising and billboards of Hungarian paddlers all over the country; this year is well on its way to having an even bigger crowd.

Training here in the familiar Szolnok (Hungary) is going really well. Both Shaun and I managed to avoid getting sick back home and coming over to Europe a month before racing has proved to be worth while. I must say that being in the same hotel for the last two weeks has been rather painful but if we manage to achieve the desired result and qualify for the London games next year it will all be worth it. Watch two of our training videos here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMq2mATMcbk&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTpLhKUcfdY&feature

We have a new boat for these championships, its a Nelo Vanquish Quatro. The perfection of these boats surprises me every time I open one. With tailors cutting and laying the carbon it is not surprising that there is not a single blemish on the outer layer. Hopefully our speed will continue to improve as we get closer and closer to racing. There's a lot riding on this one.

World Cup tour Schedule

2011-05-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

World Cup 2 Racice

Shaun and I will be racing our 1st international race of the season on Saturday 21 May we are only going to race the K2 200m this year. The competition will take place in the small town of Racice about 40km outside of Prague. For race times and results check out http://www.racice2011.com/

World Cup 3 Duisburg

Our next race is 1 week later in South Western Germany. We chose a short focused May tour this year in order to keep our training rhythm going leading up to the Olympic qualifiers in August. for results and race time check out http://www.kanuduisburg.de

Open Season (Nationals)

2011-05-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

My calendar this month is full of racing and it is about time. Training has been great but I have been longing to put myself to the test. My 1st week of May started out with our National selection which went according to plan and Shaun and I walked a way with a comfortable win. Our time of 34.65s was less than desirable but the side/head wind was not ideal either. In the 6 months of pre-season training you never your envision your 1st major race of the season to be anything less than perfect but I always feel you learn so much more from the ones that don't go so well, and that was definitely the case after our trial.

SA champs took place over the weekend and my regatta kicked of with the K2 500m which went really well and gave a great indication of our current form. We raced to a time of 1:29.6. I was really happy with the the boat went managing to build the stroke rate all the way to the end pulling away from the field from start to finish. My next final was the K1 200m. I had a really good start and found myself well clear of the field by half way, but this was not enough to hold off a charging Nick Stubbs who managed to close a boat length and pip me on the line with a well timed lunge. If I was out there to be better than person it would be Nick, which made my race that much more exciting. 30min later was the K2 200m where Shaun and I wanted to prove to ourselves that even when slightly fatigued we are able to post consistently fast times and we did just that clocking a 32.7. It was awesome to do a descent time at the end of a tiring regatta, I am looking forward to testing our combination against the best in the world in a weeks time.

2011-03-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

Just another week.

2011-02-23T00:18:00.000-08:00

I had a really good recovery week last week and started my Monday off with a good himms test result (by my standard) of 54 it had been sitting at a low 40 for the 2 weeks prior. The rest has definitely paid off, Ruby and I managed to clock our highest speeds of the year this morning. I'm really ampted to keep building from here and get some good results at the world cups in 12 weeks time.

We have to re-adjust our racing K2 for this year, fortunately the boat is already at the Nelo factory in Portugal. Nelo, helpful as always have offered to make any necessary changes and have the boat ready for our international season. Not only are we going to be doing the structural changes but Shaun is coming up with a new paint job for it.

Got to go to the U2 concert on Friday night. It was an amazing experience, so many people squeezed into such a huge stadium. During the build up there was so much excitement in the crowd, we were all so expectant and they did not disappoint. It was way more hectic than I could ever have imagined. They have taken multimedia to an entirely new level completely and their music sounded way better than on my albums. Crazy stuff.

On Sunday Hayley, myself and the Goose climbed Lion's head for some sundowners and watch the moon rise. Was really cool and I was very impressed with my dog up the cliffs and ladders.

Summer

2011-02-15T00:53:00.000-08:00

Since getting back from Tanzania I have just had my head down training flat out. Even though I have been really tired lately I feel that I am improving daily. Our last few K2 sessions have started to feel amazing, it's always a great feeling when a crew boat clicks. It's as if the water density just halves and suddenly there just doesn't seem to be nearly as much resistance as before.

Why I've given up Sandboarding until the Olympics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4IOKFVyHyw

This weekend I took a bit of a breather from the crazy training routine and went to Betty's bay with a whole lot of friends. It was awesome. Did some sand boarding, surfing and ended off the weekend rocking out to Zebra and Giraffe in Kirstenbosch gardens. I'm now into my first 'easy' week of the year and am really looking forward to feeling fresh on Monday!

The Dusi Canoe marathon starts on Thursday morning and after speaking to the unstottable Ant Stott this morning it sounds like everyone else is going to be in for an extremely tough race. By the sounds of it the man is flying!

Africa, what a place!

2011-01-18T00:19:00.000-08:00

I took a week off regular training to do some amazing altitude work in the heart of Africa. It was amazing experience. Travelling by plane and a scrap of a taxi we arrived in Moshi, Tanzania the base from which we would climb Africa's icon, Kilimanjaro!

I found the whole experience very similar to that of a race, the only change was that the goal now was only to finish. Waking up in the morning and seeing the mountain clear for the first time was exactly the same feeling as arriving at the sprint course at the star of the regatta. I have seen thousands of pictures of Kilimanjaro but none actually give you any indication of its size, it is

MASSIVE! and probably the most beautiful bit of creation I have seen. I knew climbing it was going to be a real challenge for me, from all the statistics I saw before departing it was clear that young fit males suffer the most from altitude sickness. I did my best in preparation, taking full advantage of the AltiTrainer at sports science, but all this seemed in vain when I hit the slopes.

By an altitude of 4600m I was really feeling it! I had the worst migraine ever but fortunately I had another 3 days at a similar height in order to acclimatise. This helped a lot...

The night (00:10) we set out to summit I was feeling great, I was just cruising up the frozen slope but once I reached a height of 5000m I started feeling it again. By the time I reached Stella point @ 5745m I didn't feel as though I was going to make the last 400 meters of walking (50min at that altitude). But I did and I even managed to hold back the uncontrollable vomiting for long enough to show my teeth to the camera to prove I got there.

Back in training now with Shaun and mentally feeling as strong as an Ox, hoping the mindset carries through for the next two seasons!

My new toy.

2010-12-15T02:49:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Nelo kayaks and SASCOC I have an awesome new boat. Really happy to be paddling a big boat again. This year I was fortunate enough to train and race in one of Ronald Rauhe's training boats but unfortunately a large Vanquish III isn't quite big enough for me. At the moment it's only clocking a max speed of 21.9 km/h or 2:44 min/km but I'm sure after tweaking the engine tuning and position a bit we'll see some better results.

Surfing in Cape Town

2010-12-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we finished a two day testing Camp which CSA held down here in Cape Town. Matt and Nick's flight back to Durban was delayed by a couple of hours so we decided to take the opportunity for a surf. We were greeted by an awesome little wave. While I was still getting into my suit and waxing my board, feeling rather jealous of Nick already paddling into a wave, the shark alarm went off.

Matt, Tom Schilperoort and I watched Stubbs burn it into shore between sets and then watched as the fin of the shark cruised up and down the backline!

Below is a photo of a relieved Stubbs with the Shark warning flag. We later learned from the shark spotter that the man eating great white had been between Stubbs and beach at a stage.

Results

2010-11-28T07:03:00.000-08:00

The 200m was raced in awesome flat windless conditions. Coming in first was Stu Waterworth ahead of Greg Louw followed by Nick Stubbs. I kind of missed the racing while sitting here in Cape Town but fortunately the swell was good enough to keep me from being to envious. In the 1000m Len Jenkins cane in ahead of Nick Stubbs. Matt Bouman chose to focus all his efforts on the K2 1000m with Grant vd Walt which paid off with the 2 of them winning comfortably. It will be interesting to see who the selectors choose for the pre season squad .

National Trial

2010-11-26T07:28:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the the national squad trial. Fortunately I don't have to take part because I made a final at the World champs in August. Racing looks a though it's going to be tough as everyone battles it out for funding over the next few months.

First up is the 200m, above are the guys to watch out for. No one is sure what anyone else's level is at but I know these guys will be going fast! Watch Stu he's been focusing on the 200 for a while as well as Melck and Greg Louw. The dark horse in this race is definitely Dawie Gerber, this guy has so much raw speed it will be interesting to see if he's managed to put some good injury free training. Nick Stubbs the 1000m natural is always good over every distance and has beaten these guys on the last to occasions but will specialising from the others begin to pay off.

In the afternoon the 1000m takes place, my thought are that it'll be raced out between three big guys in SA paddling. Matt Bouman, the surfski champion, who back in the day was doing the same sort of times as his opponents have been posting. Len Jenkins, king of the fish and current marathon world champs medalist whose no stranger to the 1000m distance. Then there's the thoroughbred, 100+kg race horse, Nick Stubbs who is definitely favourite going into this race after a successful international season. Who will it be only time will tell!

I'm Lovin It!

2010-11-23T01:32:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few thing I'm enjoying at the moment.

1) My dog Goose, who wouldn't love a dog this handsome. His pointing and hunting skills have really taken off of late.

2) Kevin from the Movie UP, what a hero!

3) Shark Spotters. If I have to be honest surfing isn't nearly as fun if no one is watching you pull moves. These guys are out there watching me every day and the added bonus is they keep a look out for Jonnies as well.

4) Block'd, my EA phone game which keeps me entertained every train trip into Sports Science.

5) My 5mm wetsuit, makes the crystal clear and cold Atlantic side feel like a tropical island paradise.

6) Not the best post training recovery snack but at the moment its a favourite.

7) I'm loving the thought of climbing the highest mountain in Africa in 6 weeks time.

8) Friday night is Burger night, and I have never had a better one than Hayley's Bacon and blue cheese served with sweet potato fries. To top it all off it's an eat as much as you like special.

9) Windguru! Need I say more. Who doesn't want to know the weather for every hour of the day and for 7 days in advance? They have been spot on for Cape Town over the last few weeks.

Elgin

2010-11-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

My wife and I have had 1000m K1 Ace, Nic Stubbs, staying with us for the past week. It's always great to have guests, gives you an excuse to drive crazy miles between training sessions and do stuff that you keen to do but never get around to doing it. We spent two days in the mountains around Elgin which is just short of an hour from where I live. The first day we went for an awesome cycle along the single tracks on Oakville estates. The second we were joined by Dusi legend Ant Stott and his Spanish girlfriend Julietta for a kloofing expedition down one of the rivers. It was a really amazing 8km gorge which took us around 5hrs to conquer.

City Bowl

2010-11-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

We are currently looking at making some small changes to our boat for the 2011 season. We spent yesterday trying some of these out. The most consistent and wind still piece of water happens to be in the middle of the city, the two pics are of the location. It's really beautiful. The small changes still seem totally inconclusive, but we'll keep testing.

Man on a Mission

2010-11-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

Coach has asked me not to publish a post on him but I'm going to do it any way, so just for the record and to keep him happy nothing I say in this post comes from him, they are only my presumptions.

This guy has it tough, as far as coaches go he's young and a lot of people 'out of the know' see this as a negative. He deals with more criticism than most coaches. Both Shaun and I were good athletes before gaining Marcus as our coach and as we continued to perform there are some saying 'give anyone a world class athlete and they'll look good as a coach.' Well Coach is on a mission to show the sceptics he's got what it takes.

Since our return from world champs he has been on his program which he created for Shaun and I and now has his eye on winning the K1 200m at the November squad trial. This will hopefully prove to us all that its his program and methods of coaching and not necessarily the athletes who are getting the results.

Watch out for him at the trial, he's currently weighing in at 92kg matching me pound for pound in the gym and stroke for stroke on the water and on top of all that he has just purchased a pre millennium Lettman kayak. He's looking mean, he's looking fast and he is unbeaten in the 200m Cape sprint series...Nov 27!

Walking a mile in someone else's shoes...

2010-11-01T03:17:00.000-07:00

Or "Paddling 200m in someone else's seat!" Shaun asked me yesterday if I thought he'd make a good anchor, this got me thinking about how much each of us has specialised in our roles. When I first climbed into a K2 10 years ago I jumped in the back because I was the bigger guy, the same applies to Ruby who has never sat in the back. Shaun and I have been in the same boat for a while now and if I think about it I have no idea what he needs to do upfront to make the boat go fast. Even tho we are in the same boat and competing in the same race our thoughts and focuses are on completely different areas. Ruby definitely has what is required of a good anchor but I think it takes a fair amount of experience and practice to put it all together and the same goes for the stroke. In future I'll be paying a lot more attention to what he does as a stroke, I'm sure it will help our boat a lot. In answering his question I pointed out that Anchorman Mike sounds way better than Anchorman Shaun. I did a bit of photoshop for the pic above...

Rest week

2010-10-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

I'm back Cape Town and back in the training routine although it is seeming more like a holiday with this being our first recovery week of the year. It's crazy to think that we have already completed 6 weeks of training this season. Hayley has decided to take up a bit of stand up paddle boarding, being a Kayaker I made a few changes to the type of paddle that's usually used. The pic above is of goose and Hail enjoying there morning session. Three parties this week, The Biggsies wedding in Ixopo which was really awesome, Hayleys Birthday on Tuesday which was awesome and got the Peninsula Canoe Club annual prize giving this evening which also promises to be awesome.

Back in Durban

2010-10-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

I am in the warmest city in the country for the week and it has lived up to its reputation. After spending a week on my farm in Hazyview where I was training in an awesome location and spending some quality time with friends and family I am now in Durbs for Shaun Biggs's wedding. Its been really cool to be back in Durbs with all the familiar faces, I have been staying with Ant Stott for the past few days. The one pic is the veiw from his new spot, it's so awesome to be 15m away from your training location. I think he is going to pull out an amazing Dusi this year with all the steep hills around his spot and the water being so close. His only risk is over training.

I have now moved in with Jeff Smith, a past SA sprinter, and his wife for the next few days and then I'll be heading to the Karkloof valley to check out Nick Stubbs's training set up. Above is a Pic of me and my mate Vaughne having a chilled out surf in Muizenberg just before I left.

Hermanus

2010-09-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

Went and spent the weekend in Hermarnus this past weekend at Graeme Solomon's house, he and Ant Stott were busy with their final but of preparation for world marathon champs which takes place in 2 weeks time some where in Spain. The seasoned crew is looking good and seem really focused so it seems they in for a good one. The above pic is all of us cruising to lunch in Stanford. The lagoon is a great training venue and hopefully I will get to spend a bit of time training there myself this season.

Surf's up

2010-09-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

Don't ask me why its taken so long but I went for my first surf in Cape Town since moving down earlier today. Went to Noordhoek and must say that the water on the west coast is really not as bad as I had made it out to be in my head. At 12 degrees I just chucked on both my Durban suits and was able to handle at least 40 minutes. I am loving a hot Cape Town, and when the sun is shining I'm beginning to miss training just a little...

Home for the Holidays

2010-09-01T02:10:00.000-07:00

I am back in Cape town enjoying a bit of a Spring break, although it seems as if we still in the thick of winter. I am off for the next 4 weeks. I plan to try and keep myself away from to much strenuous exercise over this period and think I have found a great way to do that, downhill single track cycling. I did it for the first time this weekend, heading down from the top of Tokai forest weaving in and out of trees, boulders and cliffs. It was a huge amount of fun and with the forest just around the corner from my house I'll be playing there quite a bit. As for my last day of racing at the World Champs, I'll let this clip do the talking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXMHoquqsfc

Smiles and Tears

2010-08-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Just finished my 200m K2 semi final, we finished 3rd in a time of 32.816s which was just not fast enough to qualify for the final. We had a really good race first out the blocks and leading for the first 100m then we just seemed to slow up a fraction compared to our competition and came in just behind France and Latvia. It is really disappointing to miss the final but we gained a heap of knowledge and experience. Looking to London 2012 we look certain to qualify our boat as far qualification standards are concerned but at this point in time we chasing medals and that's wheere the disappointment comes in. At this present moment we are less than 0.8 seconds off a gold medal.

That's enough of the depressing stuff, tomorrow we race the K2 500m final. I will be giving it everything as it may be the last time that I get to race it internationally. Next year as well as the Olympic year we will be focused purely on the Olympic distance of 200m. Hopefully we can make it a good one.

Poznan, The 2010 World Championships

2010-08-16T02:34:00.000-07:00

This morning saw my first paddle here in Poznan. It's a real relief to be back on the water. After a few kilometres my boat was feeling rather sweet and my body seemed to be responding nicely once the minor aches and pains had been ironed out. Excitement is really building here most the countries arrived last night and this morning, you can sense how keen everyone is to line up against the toughest competition from around the globe.

Shaun and I jump in o the K2 this afternoon and if there are any cob webs left after this morning they'll be blasted out in our first start. Our K2 is going really well and we have been doing some great split times over the 200m distance. If we can keep it together and repeat what we've been doing in training we should be in for a good result. I'm really looking forward to it.

5 Days Calls For Desperate Measures

2010-08-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

What a time to get sick for the first time in the season. I managed to make it through a Cape winter without a sniffle and then went down in the severe heat of Hungary, crazy. It just makes me realise how fragile I am and no matter how seriously I take your health, in the end it's not in my hands. But I will bring the best I have to the table...

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

1 Corinthians 9:22-27

World Champs starts in 4 days, I am getting really excited , can't wait.

Training Location

2010-08-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

We are training on a perfect stretch of water here in Szolnok. Its a giant horse shoe lake off the Tisza river. Spent the evening after training taking some cool pics with Nic Stubbs on the water, nothing beats summer. Been doing video analysis for the past few hours really feeling confident going into these worlds.

Future Goose

2010-08-09T02:30:00.001-07:00

This morning was our first K1 and K2 paddle here, felt really good. It makes such a difference paddling on warm deep water, the boat really feels like its flying. Its great to be paddling our custom boat again, this time all the alterations have been polished away and its looking great.

Being in Hungary there are naturally a lot of Viszla's around. This morning I reckon i got to see Goose(my dog back home) all grown up. The 2 pics are of him now and when he grows up.

Made It!

2010-08-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

I am in Hungary for a week training camp before I head to Poznan for the world champs. Shaun and I are both in the clear and feeling strong and healthy after our flight and ready for the mornings training session.

This afternoon I got to see the proposed Olympic qualifying criteria for 2012, basically top 6 at next years worlds guarantees you a spot at the games there after there are 2 spots for the next best European boats and 3 spots for the best 3 finishing boats outside the top 6 from the America's, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Exciting times...

It sounds pretty confusing but basically making the final means going to the Olympics.

Out in the Cold!

2010-08-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

World Champs is in exactly 15 days! Shaun and I have opted to stay in Cape Town until Saturday sticking with the routine thats been working so well this year. Fortunately the weather has been great this winter, the wind and rain have on the most past been rather scarce. We are going really well at the moment, reaching record speeds, stroke rates and gym strength all at the right time, which is always an extra mental boost going into racing. Above is a pic of another glassy day in the Mother City, Shauns the guy who only need 1 stroke to get going and I'm the other guy. So far it has been a really great decision to leave late to Europe, we've really been able to focus on the job at hand. I am looking forward to some good racing...

Indoor Training

2010-07-04T10:35:00.001-07:00

On Friday morning I did a time trial after doing some alternative training for the past few weeks. Things are looking good for Shaun and I, we both managed to beat our previous PB's on the ergo by more than half a second. Time trials are slightly different now days, it seems that a time is not all that counts any more but its more how much oxygen was used in the process, how many strokes were required to cover the distance, how each stroke was carried is also analysed with a view of 256 frames per second.

European champs was raced this weekend, the racing looked really tough. Can't wait till Worlds every time we line up, heats, semi's, finals, they all gonna be the most competitive 200m races ever.

New Eastern European Training Partner

2010-06-29T04:01:00.000-07:00

I have just finished my first training block since Szeged in my build up to the World champs. It has gone really well and I have really been enjoying the first bit of Cape Winter. The wind has dropped off a lot and we have spent most of our training sessions enjoying cool windless conditions.

Hayley and I got ourselves a dog 2 weeks ago, I named him Goose after the worlds most famous wingman. He's a Viszla/Hungarian Pointer. Not unlike Hungarian paddlers he thrives on a massive work load and loves the water. Can't wait till he's big enough to join me on all my cross training sessions.

Getting Up Again

2010-06-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

Semi final-4th (Black Boat)

B-final 1st

What a World Cup, K2 500m 7^th place, K2 200m 10^th place. Not quite the results I was hoping for! But taking a quote from one of my favourite movies;” Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up again.”

After my 200m semi final I was really disappointed, we ended fourth and missed out on our final by 0.07 seconds. What was really disappointing was the fact that we raced the 190m really well but had never really allowed ourselves a chance because of our poor start. In hind sight we have learnt a huge amount more from not qualifying for that final than if we had and I am in a strange way grateful it happened now and can move forward and focus on the world champs knowing it is going to run smoothly.

On the whole our regatta went really well. We finished 7th in a really tough 500m final and are really happy with our fitness, speed and endurance. I the 200m we lined up 3 times and crossed the line 1st twice and 4th once. Above are our last two photo finishes the disappointing semi and our B-final victory.

I am really positive going into world champs at the end of the year, racing looks as though its going to be really tough but we are right up there. I look forward to improving over this next 10 week cycle.

World Cup II

2010-05-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

The second World cup starts tomorrow morning. I will be racing twice tomorrow evening at 17h00 and 18h30 which will be the 500m heat and semi and then twice on Saturday morning 09h45 and 11h30 which is the 200m heat and semi. The two finals are on Sunday the 500m at 10h50 and the 200m is at 16h21. I'm sure you'll be able to see the results as they come out at

http://www.kajakkenusport.hu/worldcup2010/en/content/47

Competition looks to be really tough this weekend in both of our 2 races. I'm really looking forward to having another shot at racing the French. 3 weeks ago they proved that they are currently the fastest crew in the world. After this weekends race Shaun and I would have raced all the top 200m crews in the world and will know exactly where we stand and what we need to do going to world champs in August.

Final Preparations in Szeged

2010-05-21T00:48:00.000-07:00

Training has gone well here in Szeged over the past week and I am busy starting to taper slightly as we begin to bring our bodies to a peak. Our last 12 week cycle has gone really well and I am feeling solid going into the last week. There has been a massive change this year with my approach to training; for the first time ever I will be brining myself to an all round system peak and not just be peaking my neurological system by resting out for the last week. All other systems are a GO!

This years professional approach is definitely paying off, going into France we were 3 weeks off our peak and managed to pull off a 4th. With everything still going according to plan I am confident that we will improve on this result.

We will be working hard to keep this professionalism going, innovating where we can to continue improving at the rate we are in order to achieve our best result possible come London 2012.

We have been training on the race course for the last week, it has been amazing to stay on the waters edge. This has totally eliminated concerns of the cold and wet weather. Above is a pic of Ruby and I doing a start this morning.

Portugal

2010-05-17T04:16:00.000-07:00

Hayley, Marcus, Ruby and I had a really good week of training in Portugal. The hotel and training venue were top class. The dams location was really cool for me, it felt just like training back home in Hazyview with the all the forests and mirror like water.
The main reason for going to Portugal was to get some technical support from our boat manufacturer, Nelo. When you work with these guys you can see why they the best at what they do. They are constantly innovating and tacking the sport to a new level. We managed to come up with a few solutions to our problems and hopefully this will shave off a bit more time and get us onto the podium. Below is a pic of a factory worker cuttining our boats nose off, at this point in time the boat had just come out of the mold and was looking like the most beautiful boat I'd seen. A few hours later Shaun ripped his cockpit off, by the end of the day it was looking pretty old. We get the full custom version next week.

After the hard week of training Hayley, Shaun and I took a 60km drive to the highest mountains in Portugal and decided to see what it felt like to swim in a frozen lake...It was no surprise to find that it felt crazy cold. I cant fathom how Lewis managers 1km swims in conditions far colder than this check out his site he just finished his swim below everest this morning. www.lewispugh.com

Finals

2010-05-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

Our final day of racing was really good, we started with a great 200m heat which we managed to win by a fair margin, and then did it again in the semi beating the Denmark crew by 0.012s. Sunday afternoon were our 2 finals first up was our 500m, we had a really great start but once settled into our rhythm we just seemed to loose touch with the field slowly but surely and had to settle for 8th. I was really happy to be in the 500m final, I really don't feel I am well conditioned for the longer stuff.

The last race of the regatta was our 200m, we had an awesome race, we got out of the blocks really well and were level with the Danish at the front of the race for the 1st 30m meters. The French and Spanish then began to edge ahead at this point in time its pretty obvious that these 2 boats have the highest top speed. We ended 4th 0.016s behind the Dane's 0.234 behind the Spanish and 0.396 behind the French.

Day1

2010-05-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

What a great day, our two races went really well, we won our K2 heat in 1:32 holding aoff a really strong German crew and then managed to secure our A-final spot with a 2nd in the semi with a time of 1:29.2 which is our new fastest time. Tomorrow is our heat, semi and final for the 200 as well as our 500m final. Well done to Bridgitte for her awesome silver in the 1000m and her 5th in the 500m.

Vichy, France

2010-05-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

I am on the eve of racing and fortunately the weather has improved a huge amount. We are now siting in positive double digit temperatures. The snow, sleet and rain has left the course flowing at about 2km/h but it seems no-one is complaining with all the broken world records. Tomorrow is my K2 500m heat and semi, it is going to be a massive test of my endurance which i fear may be lacking slightly with the training focus being placed on the shorter stuff, but i shall give it everything and hopefully will get my first A-Final of the season. All the race stuff is on the official website http://www.vichycanoe2011.com/en/ will fill you in tomorrow.

Eurotrip 2010

2010-04-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

What an awesome time I have ahead. I am one week away from the start of the world cup series; the first International race of my season! To add to the excitement I will have my gorgeous wife touring with me. We start out in Vichy, France next weekend and then head off to Porto, Portugal for a mini training camp at Nelo's facilities and then its off to Szeged, Hungary for the second world cup. International racing is so intense, I can really feel the excitement building inside and almost find myself having to keep the emotions suppressed in the weeks leading up to the event. Its going to be extremely interesting to see how everyone has adapted to the new 200m Olympic distance, I think there are going to be some big guys coming out of the woodwork.
Cape town has had some incredible weather over the past two weeks. I have spent a lot of time exploring the great outdoors. Its was great to have Ant Stott come visit we did some cool stuff away from the water, the most exhilarating was definitely caving. We spent one of our free afternoons crawling through some seriously dark and scary places. It is something of a mind control exercise, its not so easy to remain calm when you slightly stuck in a washing machine size chamber, unable to move your arms and 200m into a mountain. Its moments like those that make you realize just how small we are and how awe inspiring the God of creation is.

Racing Results

2010-04-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

The weekends racing was really good. I got my first K1 SA title and my 6th K2 200m title in a row. These results meant I could lay claim to my first triple crown, something of a race within a race which started a few years back. Basically in order to win the triple crown you have to win a Gold in the K1, K2 and K4 200 meter event.

The K1 200 came down to a 2 horse race in the final between Shaun and I, we both ended 1.1sec ahead of 3rd place which is roughly 6meters on the water. I just managed to pip Shaun, 5 hundredths of a second, a really close race as you can see in the pic below. Its so awesome to be so close to you team mate and training partner. You want to beat the guy cause of your competitiveness but at the same its great to climb into the K2 knowing on every other day he's probably better than you.

Shaun and my focus for the Olympics is in the K2 200m, and we had a great race in both our 200m and 500m we managed to race PB's over both distances. Just for perspective our time of 32.09 over the 200m would be regarded as the 7th fastest of all ever if we had raced it on an official course in an international regatta. This is an awesome confidence booster for both of us going into the world cups in three weeks.

Well done to my coach. Captain Awesome with only 3 athletes he managed to get:

200m : K1 Gold, Silver, Bronze K2 Gold

500m : K1 Gold, Silver, Bronze K2 Gold

1000m: K1 Gold, Bronze K2 Silver

And thanks for the awesome pics Matt Bouman, the fastest up and coming extreme sports photographer, who has the best solution I've heard for photography-"Throw money at the problem!"

The Grand Nationals

2010-04-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

The SA national sprint championships start today! The racing serves as the national trial as well which means I'll be focusing purely on my Olympic distance, the 200m. Looking at the draws last night these SA's look to be the most competitive ever. There are 5 heats for the mens K1 200m which means that if you want to make the final you have to end 1st or 2nd in your semi to qualify, serious pressure stuff. My preparation has gone really well and managed to clock a PB on the course yesterday of 35.67 sec which meant a new top speed of 22.3km/h and an average 20.17 km/h. Its really awesome to be able to get all this data straight after my race, it makes a massive difference to know exactly where improvements can be made. I'm really looking forward to both my K1 and K2 events. Shaun and I have made a whole lot of changes in our K2 this year and it seems to be going super fast. Sitting out for the 1000m today has really made me hungry to race tomorrow and hopefully I'll get those results I'm looking for.

The 1000m K1 was raced 5min ago, it seemed to be a really really tough one. 1st went to the on form Nick Stubbs, Len Jenkins came in second and 3rd was my K2 partner Shaun Rubenstein. This is the first time in like 6 years that Shaun has been beaten over the 1000m and I know he wouldn't have gone done easy. So well done to Stubbs.

If you gonna be checking out results from the weekend, follow Coach Melck/Captain Awesome's winning tally he's got three athlete's Shaun, Nick Stubbs and myself and he's hoping to win all the K1 events with a 1st and 2nd in the 200 and a full podium in the 500 as well as the k2 200m and 500m and he also has the outside chance of getting the k2 1000m with the 2 Big Nicks racing.

Riding Giants

2010-03-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

A while back I was fortunate enough to go surfing with sporting legend Big Matt Bouman, I wasn't aware of it at the time but someone was taking pics from another ski and was emailed this picture of me the other day. It was definitely one of the funnest days of my life, you probably wouldn't believe it but this was one of the smaller ones.

Training Day

2010-03-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Cape Town! Wow! This has been a seriously busy stage in my life and my road to London. Even though things have seemed somewhat out of control I have still been able to train extremely hard and have seen some awesome and exciting improvements in my results over the 1^st 2 months of this year.

I don’t think I would ever be able to fill you in on everything that has happened since my last post so I have decided to give you an update of my Monday training schedule:

6 am – Wake up to the Blackberry Standard alarm tone. (I only keep this irritating tone because it reminds me of racing with Shaun. During race weeks I hear this tone going off continuously with reminders)

7 am – Off to SSISA on my new favorite means of transport, the push scooter

7:15 am – Weekly Anthrops check up, basically just the best way for coach to check how good my weekend was with a fat scale…

7:30 am – 15 min running heart rate recovery test

8 am – Catch the train to Marina da Gama, the 20 minute trip has been set aside for discussing the weeks training plans and objectives but is usually spent giving Marcus a hard time.

8:30 am – Business time, for the rest of the month Shaun and I have two classy training partners from Germany, Ronnie being an Olympic champion, 13 time world champion as well as a medalist at the past 3 Olympic Games.

11am – Back to SSISA

11:30am – Throw some weights around, role on Physio balls, jump on boxes and punch bags, I know it sounds terrible but someone has to do it.

1pm – Go home for lunch and a recovery lie down

3pm – Back to the water, it’s time to race Olympic champions again!

6pm – Home for supper, a shower and bed.

It’s really not as bad as it seems, in total we probably only spend 5 hrs training the rest is just spent talking about it J but Tuesday is much easier its only like 4.5hrs.

Road Trip

2010-01-06T22:44:00.000-08:00

I have been on the road for the past few weeks. Hayley and I did an awesome tour of the country, a full circle never driving the same road twice. So I had the opportunity train in some of the most picturesque venues in the country. The dam in the pic above is high in the mountains of the Cedarberg, definitely one of my favorite spots! Its always cool to be able to drink the water you are paddling on.

Things are going really fast with with the whole move to Cape Town, but at the same time a lot of exciting things have happened. I have been put on to SASCOC's Operation Excellence program, physio Julia has been accepted for her masters in sports science under Prof. Tim Noakes (she will be doing the research on Shaun and me) and I have begun my first 10 week training cycle under Dr. Ross and Prof. Tim.

Return to the Blue Lagoon

2009-12-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

While in Durban I am training on a piece of water known as Blue Lagoon. It is where the Umgeni River meets the Indian Ocean, awesome place. Over the past two weeks Durban has experienced a huge amount of rain and the lagoon is now the furtherest thing from blue. The high water has just made me realize how badly we are treating our water systems, by the time KZN's source of drinking water reaches the ocean its literally an open sewer. I have my suspicions that factories along the banks of the river take advantage of the high water and release there waste directly into the river because they know it's almost impossible to pin point where it comes from. On Friday I had to skip a session due to the fact that I did not want to wade through the slimey/oily gelatinous mass that had been deposited all along the banks of the river as well as paddle through oil, litter and hyacinth that is thriving on the CO2 rich polluted water. I checked out the E coli levels in the river last week before the river even filled and they were sitting at 2300 colonies per 100ml almost 20 times higher than safe. (Water is considered safe to swim in at a max of 130 colonies per 100ml.) I am affected by water systems everyday and this has made me very aware of the problems surrounding our most precious resource, we need to do something.

Soccer Fever!

2009-12-01T02:33:00.000-08:00

With 2010 just round the corner SA's gone soccer mad. I was fortunate enough to watch the Durban World Cup stadium opener with my wife on Sunday. The game was a bit disappointing with Ama Zulu losing 1-0 but the stadium is really awesome and if the vibe at the game is anything to go by the world cup is going to be mind blowing especially when the let the other 50 000 fans in. I vote keep the vuvuzela!

Christmas has come early

2009-11-26T00:02:00.001-08:00

Shaun and my new NELO K2 has just arrived in the country from Portugal. This the only view I've had of it but it looks really cool, I'm going to have to wait another month before i get to paddle it. Hopefully I'll be fast enough by then!

I learnt a really cool fact from our Physio Julia this morning. You know the feeling of being completely broken after running/cycling/paddling for a good number of hours and you still have an hour to go to the finish? At this point you usually pull out a GU or something similar and are provided with renewed energy immediately? I just found out how it is that you get this energy even though there's no chance that anything has even been absorbed. It's all in the taste, that flavor of high concentration of glucose in you mouth causes your brain to tell your muscles they can work as hard as they want cause it knows that its only a matter of time before energy reserves are replenished (In simple terms). Its all about creating favorable conditions! There are so many tricks but unfortunately I'll only be able to share them after the Olympics.

Cape Town

2009-11-18T04:48:00.000-08:00

I have just finished my 1st training camp of the season. 2 weeks in Cape Town. I spent the time paddling on Marina Da Gama, swimming and doing gym at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. I even managed to fit in a cross country skiing session. The training venues look really good and the team of professionals we'll be working with next year are world class, I really believe we are giving ourselves the best possible training opportunity for the next few years. Our team is made up of:

Shaun and I (Athletes)

Marcus (coach)

Julia(manager/physio)

Ross Tucker (Strategist/Sports Science)

Tim Noakes (mastermind)

Dr. Jeroen Swart (Exercise Physiologist)

Dr. Clinton Gähwiler (Psychologist)

Shelly Meltze (Nutritionist)

Johann Pretorius (Strength & Conditioning)

It was definitely the busiest training camp i have been on but the venue we stayed at just seemed to help ease the stress, our rooms were literally 5m from the waters edge. It is awesome to be back in Durban with my wife, catching up with friends...

New Blades

2009-10-11T05:03:00.000-07:00

Back in training and have to say that it's rather awesome! I’ve just finished my first week of specialized 200m training; it is great to be back on the water and I’m loving the fact that this seasons base training phase does not include much swimming. I woke this morning to the exciting news that CSA has increased my residential allowance by 100% this is a definite training motivator and I am very grateful for the support. I have finally decided on my paddle for the next 3 years and thanks to my wife it’s definitely the coolest looking on earth right now, ‘put your orders in fast to avoid the Christmas rush!’

Out and About

2009-08-31T01:15:00.000-07:00

Just been relaxing catching up on work and enjoying all the free time that comes with not having to train 5 hrs a day. I still can't seem to keep myself out of a boat though. Took physio Julia's kayak for a bit of a spin yesterday, lots of fun, have to say I was pretty impressed by the way Julia handled being worked by the four foot surf.

There's No Place Like Home!

2009-08-25T03:15:00.000-07:00

It is great to be back home with my wife. I have the added bonus of being off rigid training for the next month or so. Hayley and I spent the weekend up in Underberg, (sharp contrast from the green of Canada) it was awesome. My next few weeks will be spent sorting out all the admin and planning for next season. Shaun and I are looking at moving down to Cape Town to work closely with SSISA (Sports Science Institute of South Africa). It is also rather important for us to spend time in the K2 together, this past season we only managed to spend 7 weeks in the boat together which was not ideal. I am really looking forward to this next seasons specific 200m training. A whole lot is going to change in our sport and we are going to have to do a whole lot to change with it.

World Champs Final Day

2009-08-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

6^th fastest boat in the world! We have exactly three years left till our London 2012 race and it is awesome to know that we are on the right track. Looking forward we are only 3 places away from a potential medal. It’s so exciting to race at the top level of any sport. How often does one get to line up against 4 Olympic champions (Beijing ’08), 7 World Champions, and 2 World Champs silver medalists all trying their utmost to beat you, and all of this in front of a massive crowd?

World Champs Day 3

2009-08-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

How awesome, my first world champs A-Final. We had a really good afteroon getting a second in our heat and then third in the quickist semi of the day. Amazingly blessed to be racing for a medal tomorrow and will take the oppotunity with both hands.

We are 3 years away from London 2012 and tomorrow determines how many places we need to make up in order to be on that big podium. To top off all this excitement I'll soon be on my way home to my gorgeous wife!

World Champs Day 2

2009-08-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

Day 2 was the ex-Olympic 500m K2 semi. We had a really solid race but just seemed to loose our power in the last 100m which is where it is won or lost in the 500m causing us to slip from 2nd to 5th. I'll leave the analysis for next week for now I'll be focusing on the Olympic discipline, the K2 200m! I have to race the heats and semi's this afternoon and am feeling confident of an A-final for Sunday. Good times...

World Champs Day 1

2009-08-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

For starters the question on all the athletes minds has been answered. The London 2012 Olympic Games will be raced over 200m and 1000m. This is a huge change for all of us, we now are forced into making a definite choice as to what type of athlete we are training to be. No athlete will be able to compete at such a high level in both distances. From here going forward, including this world champs i have to look at the 200m K2 as the big one, what a total change in mindset. At this present moment in time our 200m is good and am relatively excited by the prospect of building to the London games as a 200m specialist. Ruby has an extremely tough descion to make.

We had a solid heat this afternoon and are feeling confident for tomorrows semi final. We ended fourth in a really close (2nd to 6th were all in 1 sec of each other) and tough heat. I only race one race tomorrow afternoon and then things begin to heat up with 7 races in the last 2 days. Hectic!

It's World Champs Week!

2009-08-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

Four sessions left to get me to the greatest and most important peak of my life so far. Last week was another week of good solid work. I was taking strain by Saturday's session but am really happy with how it went. Marcus and Julia are doing a great job in the final stages, Marcus breaks me and Julia puts me back together. As the time goes by here I am really beginning to miss my wife back home and i know she'd love to be here in Canada with me. We had the day off and took the opportunity to explore Nova Scotia it was truly impressive the scenery is amazing. (Click on my slide show to view some pics) We have received our lane draws for our races, I'm really looking forward to the years racing pinnacle, I'm sure it will be a great one.

What a day!

2009-08-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

What another great day of training here in halifax. Three great sessions, really forward to getting back into the K2 with shaun in the morning we going to be doing some time trials, ending off with a current favourite of mine, the 200m. It should be awesome, i'm over all aches and niggles caused by travel and super keen to start going fast.

3 days in...

2009-08-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

What a trip, (Durban-Joburg-Frankfurt-Toronto-Halifax) but we all made it ok, just a couple of cases of lost baggage and lower back pain. Its really amazing to be here in Canada its as beautiful in real life as it is on T.V and the weather has been great! Training has been good, I'm slowly beginning to shake those time zone changes and feeling like my usual self. We are staying in a university res (all the students are on summer break) with all the other countries, its a really cool atmosphere.

Departing Nova Scotia, Canada!

2009-07-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

For the past three weeks we have been training as a team down at Nagle dam. What a great camp, we were really well looked after. It was really awesome to have a high performance camp with all the necessary extras (on site gym, physios, sports psycologists, scientists and a great piece of water) all in the heart of Africa.
Before we fly out to Canada this afternoon we have our first pres conference as athletes, something quite exciting and a great step towards professionalism. I will be racing the K2 500m and 200m with Ruby as well as the 4 x 200m K1 relay. (Raced the same way as swimming, the starting blocks hold each boat in place and drop down as the previous guy finishes)

3 out of 3 and some bonus silverware

2009-06-18T03:08:00.000-07:00

My final two days of racing were packed, 3 races per day.

Race 1 - K4 1000m Semi finalThe morning started off with an extremely strong head wind we needed to finish within the top 3 to make the final. We came 3rd becoming the 1st K4 to make the 1000m final. Well done to Len, Nic and Greg.

Race 2 - K2 200m Semi finalThe strong head wind continued to blow and even though shaun and i are a lighter crew we were confident of placing in the top 3 and progressing to the final. We had a near perfect race and won by a comfortable margin. 1 Final left to make.

Race 3 - K4 1000m Final AWe had a great start and were going really well until the 250m mark, we seamed to loose the timing and never regained it. We finished 9th just behind the Serbians (LONDON! LONDON! LONDON! LONDON!...a story for another day.)

Race 4 - K2 500m Semi FinalShaun and i were neck and neck with Hungary's top crew and Canada's Dober and Willows, we ended 3rd and the 3 of us moved on to the final.

Race 5 - K2 200m Final AGreat start even better finish! We got out of the blocks well and were lying about 5th we held a great stroke rate all the way through (145 spm) and crossed the line 2nd 0.06sec behind Hungary. Extremely exciting stuff and extemely blessed to get my 1st international medal on sprintings greatest stage (Szeged).

Race 6 - K2 500m Final AWhat a race, we took it out hard initially putting us in the lead at the 250m mark. With 150m to go we were still neck and neck with the Hungarians and in with a great chance for a medal, unfortunately for us there were two great kicks from Norway and Germany we were forced to settle for 4th place.

I was extremely happy with our results. With three years to go till the London games I see huge potential in Shaun and my K2 combination our first race was two months ago. With the right preperation we stand a great chance of bringing home a medal. Just to put our competition into perspective, the 1st two boats both had Olympic gold medalists and the third a current World Champion.

Hunting the triple crown!

2009-06-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

After a great day one i'm within grasp of the triple crown, every race has gone really well and i'm on track to making all three A-finals. We race the K4 1000m semi final in the morning and hopefully the final in the afternoon. Shaun and I race the K2 200m semi at mid-day.

The K2 races today were great; it was awesome to race on the international circuit again and to be one of the faster crews was even more awesome! We finished both heats in second place and managed to clock the 3rd fastest time in the 200m. I'm really looking forward to another two days of racing and seeing my wife in another 4 days of waiting.

Racing Times

2009-06-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

Friday 10:18 K4 1000m (need to finish top 7)
Friday 11:55 K2 200m (need to end top 7 straight final if we win)
Friday 16:18 K2 500m (needto finish top 6)

2009-06-02T05:51:00.000-07:00

We leave to szeged in the morning, its been a good week of training at a great venue here in Budapest. The club we've been staying at is situated on Csepel island on the danube. Below is a pic of Nic and Len in front of our house, our rooms are on the top floor with the gym down below.

Below: Adam and our team over looking Budapest

Szeged World Cup

2009-06-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend i'll be racing the K2 500m and 200m as well as the K4 1000m. The link below is to the results and racing schedule for the weekend. (Friday, Saterday and Sunday)
www.kajakkenusport.hu/worldcup2009/en/content/26

Another day on the Danube!

2009-06-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Spent the evening with Ruby doing some race practice in the K2. I think the cold weather has finally come to an end. Its really great to paddle behind shaun, all i do is try my best to mimic his every move on each stroke. The boat is feeling really fast, we manged to clock a 1:29 for our 500m. Still having to work quite a bit on our power transfere timing. Our PAP (Paformance analysis program) came up with some interesting results, my seat is still rotating 3 degrees less than shaun on the right stroke and i'm applying pressure to the foot plate 0.1 sec after Shaun we should iron these issues out by race day. Till then we will have to settle for just looking good. I'm really beginning to miss my amazing wife 7 more nights!

Munty; Mutt and Wynand!

2009-06-01T06:01:00.000-07:00

It was Nic B's (Munty) birthday on our day off so we spent the day in Budapest. What an occasion! 4 days to race day and my partners are dropping like flies. We planned to kick the morning of with a K4 session at dawn which turned out to be a nightmare. Greg/Wynand woke up with Marcus's dreaded illness, forcing the rest of us to settle for a K1 session. Mutt/Nic S was the next to go down with a back spasm 4k's into the session. Both have been assesed and should be ready for racing on friday but only leaving us 1 more session together.

Budapest-Csepel Canoe Club

2009-05-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

The Team

I've been here in hungary for 2 days and have 6 left till race day. I have been been jumping between crew boats, I'll be racing the K2 500 and 200 and the K4 1000 next weekend and both boats are feeling really good. I have 4 awesome partners and everyone is in a great mood. It's a real priviledge to paddle with guys like rubi (2nd from left my k2 partner) , stubbs (the big guy at the back), munty (the bear grills look-a-like) and Cradock2 (blonde far left).