NOC training

Australia 2010

The month of February was a warm one for Alberta paddlers. 6 athletes and I ventured down under for three and a half weeks for a warm water/weather training camp. Tons of whitewater and a couple of races felt good after two months of skiing. Penrith Whitewater Stadium is still the place for internationals to go to train in the winter months. The set up is just too easy to train, to pass up.

Days off are always full. A trip the blue mountains revealed Kagaroos, a giant lizard, kookaburas, and big spiders. Swimming at Jelly Bean pool helped to cool us off on a 40 degree day.

As exciting as Penrith is, the beach is the major draw for days off. Those talented enough surfed while the fairer athletes, just soaked up the rays on the beach. Sunscreen is recomended while surfing (Paul, Ben). We also did a full lap of Sydney seeing the madatory Opera house, circular quay, downtown and Darling harbour. One of the highlights of the walking day was trying to watch Olympic results in a random computer store downtown. We watched as Jennifer Heil's sivler medal results slowly loaded up. Not as exciting as CBC coverage, but then the cricket match that was on tv was surely more important?

We were all sad when the camp came to an end and we returned to Calgary. Fortunately the weather in March can be borderline and we should be able to paddle some, before heading to North Carolina for the lone North American ICF ranking race.