Chilliwack Training Camp

Well I guess it didn't help that Jess and Connor didn't go to the Rich Weiss Cup, but they won it in the hearts of the voters. Paul, Chris, and Matt were 2nd, 3rd and 5th, while Graham won the Junior men's with AJ and Levi 3rd and 4th. Haley and Marissa were 3rd and fourth over all while Marrisa was 2nd in Junior. The Purcells looked impressive in C2.

Chilliwack was great...if you like rain, cold and good water. Two training camps went on simultaneously and everyone had great training. The Alberta athletes on the National and Development Teams worked with Michal Staniszewski, Canada's Head Coach, while the rest of the HP athletes worked with me, Mike.

The National group worked hard and their results show good improvement over the winter. It was excellent to have Michal's expertise around. It was a nice break for me to have smaller groups and focus on some technique with my 5.


Our one afternoon off I treked up Elk Mt with Seo. Tons of snow and trail finding made for a fun hike and great views.

Sundre Pool Slalom & Polo

Great Weekend!

59 people competed in Slalom and Polo competitions on Saturday and Sunday in Sundre. At least half were under 18 and both events ran smoothly. A huge thanks to Keegan and the Sundre Club for organizing the event. Thanks to Cottonwood, AWA, ASCK & individuals for boats, gates and support during the clinics and competitions. Well done Connor and Hayden for your team's win in the polo! Next time...

Chelsey gets help from Christy with a Slalom deck.

Keegan and Scott getting ready to race

Jessica on her way to victory!

Dan and Hayden duel in C1

K1 boys neck in neck

The big boys playing polo

Connor learning how to ref from Jesse

JJ working on some stroke tech on the PaddleOne

Morning clinics in full swing. Watch out for each other!
Slalom Results

Kayak Boys - age under 14 - 1st JJ (Innisfail), 2 Connor Bourgonje (Sundre), 3 Darius Rattan (Innisfail)

Kayak Girls - age under 14 - 1st Chelsey Campkin (Sundre), 2 Katrina Devisser (Sundre), 3 Lissy Methorst (Sundre)

Kayak Mens - 1st Mike Holroyd (Calgary), 2 Connor Curson (Innisfail), Scott Forbes (Edmonton)

Kayak Women - 1st Jessica Groenveld (Innisfail), 2 Kristina O'brien (Edmonton), 3 Marissa Dererer (Calgary)

Canoe Single Men - 1st Thomas Purcell (Innisfail), 2 Daniel Purcell (Innisfail), 3 Hayden Daniels (Calgary)

Canoe Single Women - 1st Jessica Groenveld (Innisfail), 2 Ashley Cunningham (Innisfail), 3 Hannah Gillies (Innisfail)

Canoe Double - 1st Thomas & Daniel Purcell (Innisfail), 2 Mike Holroyd & Connor Curson (Calgary/Innisfail) 3 Keegan Smith & Richard Allen (Sundre/Edmonton)

Sundre Pool Slalom & Polo - March 14/15

We're excited to confirm that Sundre will host a combined Slalom / Kayak Polo pool event MARCH 14-15 THIS YEAR!

The fun will start Saturday morning, with an 8-11 clinic session (choose the polo clinic or the slalom clinic.)

After a break for lunch and rest, we'll spend the afternoon and evening playing 3on3 polo (2-10pm). Teams will be created on site.

Sunday morning we start bright and early (7am) for a slalom show-down that runs until 11am.

(*Times are subject to wiggle depending on participants*)

The community center (1 block from the pool) will be available for lodging (bring a sleeping pad and bag) on both Friday and Saturday night for a fee.

We hope that this event will offer both beginners and experienced paddlers a chance to learn, have fun, and maybe try something new.

Cost for the entire event will be $30-45 (TBA), plus a fee for lodging at the community center if you choose.

You can register and pay on site, but it would help us out a lot if you could email me with your intent to come, so we can figure out approximate numbers and cost. (Sooner is better!)

Once again, please forward this to anyone who may be interested, and we hope to see you there!

Thanks,
Sundre Paddling Club
Keegan Smith
ksmith@mancroft.ca

Mexico - Two weeks in.

We've been here a couple of weeks now, training hard is a variety of weather conditions. The first week was warm with bugs and the last few days were cold (actually cold) and rainy. Now that Paul, Connor and Alex have left the clouds have parted and it is beautiful again. The air is clear and everything is drying out after what seemed like unstoppable rain. So what do we do here?

Get up to the sound of the noisiest birds ever at 6:38am. Try and sleep till 7:30 for breakfast. Wrestle with the Czechs for fruit in the breakfast line, and dig in to an amazing feast of fruit, Juice, eggs, sugar toast and banana wrapped deliciousness.

Time to go paddle. First we have to drive down and crazy little road to the river. 9min in the jeep, 15-20 in the car. The pics don't really do it justice. Then we get to paddle. The course is about a 5min paddle downstream. We have roughly 30 gates and it is possible to do fulls, loops etc. The river level fluctuates little (Except yesterday due to the El Norte that blew in and raised it by 1.5meters!). If you've seen Paul's waterfall video on facebook you'll know how high it got.
After the session we either paddle/walk back to the cars or run a shuttle to the takeout 10min below. Lunch is another delicious smorgasbord at the Palapa. A brief rest and we're back at it again.

The biggest nuisance is the bugs. Liberal application of bug spray does work though. Lina managed a week here without a single bite! Forget to apply and your legs will look like Grahams. Paul has a great solution, his skiing tights!?
To stay strong you must work out! What to do without a gym?
On our days off we've had a few adventures.

Ancient Ruins at Tajin, 1.5hr away.

La Costa Esmeralda, 1hr away.

Connor on the Alsesseca in flood, 30min drive.

While is isn't as easy to train as say, Australia, it certainly is a good option. At about 1/3 of the cost of Aus it isn't to be disregarded. The locals are great, and we haven't felt unsafe anywhere. While a slightly higher vehicle is nice, cars can do the job. The accommodations are perfect and the people here at Aventurec are great. With the Czechs and Americans we were 26 this year, and it wasn't a problem coordinating sessions. There is also the possibility of setting another moving water site if needed. We will leave our gates here at Aventurec. Maybe PanAms should be in Mex in 20??

All Hail the Chinook!

We've paid our dues.

With Temperatures pushing -30 out east, Calgary is experiencing near West Coast temperatures for the last two weeks. We've been able to paddle both at the Kananaskis this week and at the 'Meadows' in Calgary. With temperatures like this who needs to go to Mexico?

Snow Camp

What an epic week! The temperature only thawed above -20 on the last day and we saw the thermometer at -35 Celsius. For 7 days we trekked like explorers around Banff and Canmore. Snowshoeing, Cross Country Skiing, Downhill, Caving and even a Summiting to round out the adventures. A huge thanks to Mike Shaw for the caving and Sue Clark for organizing the Sunshine ski tickets!

Don't be fooled by Matt's bare hands. It was cold on the top of Ha Lin Peak
Marrissa Silhouetted against the Ten Peaks

Ben and Toby lost underground.

Breath freezes on everything.

Aggressive Sheep

Don't let anything but your eyes stick out.

Backside of Castle Mountain

Snowshoeing. Snowboard works better than crazy carpets to get down!

Skating

What an amazing day! Because it hadn't snowed yet all the lakes in the mountains had perfect ice. 3-4 inches of crystal clear ice. We were even able to chase fish around under the ice and some saw a muskrat cruising around underneath.

Cascade mountain

Dogs off leash on the ice, in the National Park is ok right? I mean, they're allowed to swim off leash.

Erie feeling, being able to see the bottom of the lake. Maybe Jesus was walking on a frozen lake?

More boats for sale

Two good boats for smaller people. See information below.

Vajda 350
size s-bow xs-stern
12 months old, used 8 months
$1500

Vajda 350
size s-bow xxs-stern
6 months old, used 3 months
$1900

My new boat just cost me $3300 so this is a pretty good deal. Let me know if you have any questions. I can ship it anywhere.

Sarah Boudens sboudens@hotmail.com

Chinook Arch and 'The Meadows'

You have to love them! No pogies at the end of November, and amazing sun sets. This is what many evenings look like in Calgary. And there is still enough snow if you want to ski, and no ice to be seen on the river. What a month!

For those of you who know Nottingham, this is a different Meadows. Much less scary, and far fewer burnt cars.

EWP Polo Tourney

This weekend there is a polo tournament in Edmonton. Anyone interested should contact Dale O'Brien at dalob@shaw.ca

The details of the Tournament are as follows:

Date: Saturday, November 29 / 2008

Event: EWP Recreational Canoe Polo Clinic and Tournament

Location: Kinsmen Pool Edmonton 9100 Walterdale Hill

Clinic: Playing 1 pm to 3 pm and Referee 2 pm to 3 pm

Pause to organize equal Teams from those present.

Tournament: 3:30 pm to 10 pm

Cost: $30

Equipment Provided although players may feel free to bring their own.

Water to Snow

Oh baby! Tuesday we were training on the water and today we got our first taste of X C skiing. So good! Can't have a better transition than that. After a hot tip from Ronni we found the ski racers secret early season training center, and only blocks from my house. So it has begun, and we are going to be the fittest ducks around. The only downside to the day was that within 2 minutes on skis I broke my pole so I had to hobble around with one pole. Luckily Toby isn't fast enough to make it too hard to keep up:)

Cheers

Team Trials 2009 Ottawa, ON

Check out better pictures of the Pumphouse at: http://www.ottawariverrunners.com/photo_gallery_detail.php?id_gal=7. Good pics by Tim Cutts.

You can use this as part of your preparation for Team Trials in Ottawa May 29,30,31 2009.

Boat for Sale

Design: It's a Nomad, Force 360. Constructed by Double Dutch.
Weight: Built for a small paddler weighing about 50kg to 60kg.
Details: It has custom knee cups. Which, in my opinion, are a huge step up from stock thigh braces.
Appearance: Blue deck and carbon hull. In need of some minor repairs. The hull is stiff, and the boat is still under 9kg!
Price: $600

Contact Anna: williams-ac@hotmail.com

Meadows race series - #3

Well, the pollsters predicted it. Graham Jobe won his first race of the series! In a tight contest Graham punished the competition on his third run to win by over a second. Well done. You know what this means Graham...your handicap just decreased.

Tuesday October 28th will be a big race. Warm weather and lots of athletes itching for that elusive victory.


How to get there:
See google map below. Parking is in gravel lot under Glenmore Tr bridge. Paddle 3min downstream to the canal.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=google&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ll=50.984775,-114.029717&spn=0.006781,0.013561&t=h&z=16

Meadows race series

We have now successfully completed two races in the fall Calgary 'Meadows' race series. So far Toby and Connor each have one win apiece. The handicap will continue to get harder so that everyone has a fair chance at the prize and to push everyone to compete.

Format:

• 60second course, as many tries as you'd like.
• Best run wins.
• Each athlete is assessed a handicap with the goal to give everyone a shot at the win.
• $5 to race. Everyone puts two dollars towards the day's race, two dollars towards gate improvements, and one dollar towards the most improved athlete at the end of the series.
  

So far we have seen 12 athletes compete in these races, with athletes from as far as Medicine Hat, Edmonton and Canmore. Everyone is eligible to race, in any boat. We will do our best to make you a fair handicap. For directions, email: mholroydcoach@gmail.com

See you out soon!