The US Team has left the building....

Well, that was the World Cup 2009.  Yesterday Her Indoors and the Bloater Boater saw off Tom and Jennie at Hobart airport, and today they are winging their way back to the US.  This won't even be close to the last post about the World Cup though, so please keep reading and you will see some fun stuff, including interviews I recorded with top paddlers.  These will take a while to transcribe, but I'll keep them coming over the next few weeks.  We'll be in Tassie for a week or so having a vacation (WC was NOT a vacation for sure).

The last race at Cataract was a short sprint, with a couple of significant drops, a lot of flatwater, about 2000 people watching, live commentary from John Borojevic and stunning weather.  In fact, it was so damn hot I was dripping with sweat onto my glasses during my practice run and couldn't see a thing.  To compensate for this in my two runs I walked up early and sat in the shade underneath the scaffold  erected to allow competitors "easier" (and still very tough) access to the start.

My runs were ok, better than I have paddled to this point, perhaps because I had been very economical about practice runs.  My first run I tried to be smooth but Her Indoors described it as "leisurely" so I upped it for the second run (pretty brutal assessment really).  My lines weren't as good and my sprinting wasn't as smooth on the boily water at the end, but I was 2 seconds faster.  After the first run I was 7/10ths up on John Gallagher, an Irish paddler I was yet to beat in the World Cup, and was also beating Yoda!  Unfortunately Yoda went 8 seconds faster in his 2nd run to whip my butt again, but I held off John and was satisfied to move up a place in the final race.  Maybe it was Borojevic's commentary telling the crowd I financed my trip by stripping on the side that spurred me on? Tom had a reversal of my position, with Tadgh Macintyre just pipping him in the sprint at the end.  Jennie had been tiring throughout the series and had struggled with the top drop the entire time at Cataract.  However, it was the bottom drop that did her in, and she broached for a few seconds before flipping in this drop.

Here's a pic of me and some of the Japanese team - Yoda is the one on my right - as you can see he is not small and green, but I believe he is still well versed in the ways of the Force.

Overall I would say we were pretty happy with the races given our preparation.  I'll be doing an assessment of my own performance in a future post.  It looked like all the right folks won the World Cup rankings, including Jessica Oughton on her 21st birthday.  Hannah Brown won her first World Cup race, and Gerhard Schmid held off Johnnie Schofield (who had the fastest single run of the day) to get his first win.  There were some very happy, and very relieved folks, that night at the end of World Cup party at "Sporties" bar.  However, much like Vegas, what happened at Sporties will stay at Sporties.  I left reasonably early so I can't speak to what happened later anyway.  Note to future US teams - why do we always schedule our flights so we have to leave early the next day after the end of World Cup party?  Seriously?  The Irish (ok, so they are the Irish...) schedule a hangover day and travel the day after - doesn't that make the most sense in the world?  We can learn from this.

On that note I'll move on - Top 10 World Cup moments, my assessment of my own bloater performance and some interviews to come.......

World Cup Final Today

The final race of the World Cup is this morning, and I was the only one whose start time was not published in the paper.  Because I missed races 4 and 5 they weren't giving me a World Cup ranking, so I had to be added to the start list later.  I am off first of the Men's kayak, never a good place to be off.  The course is ok, a lot of flatwater at the end to give the expected crowds of 5000+ something to see.  I don't have a lot of time on the course as it was hot, I am still not fully recovered, and the carry back up the course was pretty brutal.  So 5 runs will have to be enough, along with a warm up run this morning.

Here goes nothing.....

More media

The transcript from a radio interview a bunch of folks did (including me).

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2009/s2728809.htm

I'm famous! (or infamous)

Check out
http://www.theadvocate.com.au/news/local/sport/canoeing/tasmanian-whitewater-too-wild-to-pass-up/1663276.aspx

Apparently the Advocate (NOT the DC Gay rag) is renowned for getting stuff wrong (and they did, almost everything actually), but its nice to be recognized.  Hopefully I can get a copy of the radio interview I did and post that too.

A vague threat to the Americans at home

So far I have zero entries for the competitor/parent competition, so either no-one is reading this blog, or you are just not entering.  Don't make me concoct fictitious entries that I will then label with easily discernable initials and locations (e.g. J.P. from Atlanta).  These Aussies are nice folks and deserve some interest - a lot of the juniors know half of the answers anyway (yep, talking about Spood, Slutter and the rest.....).  So enter already, before I start making stuff up.  You have been warned......

Si, somos Americanos

So there was a "slight" screwup with our accomodation that could have been a disaster, but everything turned out fine in the end.  We originally had a cottge booked at Deloraine for the Meander race (which the Ouse replaced) but when we arrived they had never heard of us.  Stef Vallee of the Canadian team, who we traveled with for a few days, dealt with the folks in Deloraine for us for which we are very grateful.  As it turned out the a cottage was available even on the weekend of the Deloraine Craft fair, so we had a place to stay.  Our accomodation had actually been swtiched to Launceston, the site of the next race, but our place there had been taken by a couple of suspiciously non-English speaking individuals.  Still, most of the US speaks Spanish anyway, right?  And you can't ignore the resemblance between the Bloater boater and Esteban Arakama (http://wapedia.mobi/eu/Esteban_Arakama).

Fortunately it all worked out well for us again, and now we are in a spacious apartment while the thieving Spanish live in two hotel rooms.  Seriously though, I wish I spoke better (any?) Spanish, as Esteban and Xavier are super cool guys - check out their video of the Brady's sprint (but turn the music down!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4TqPyhvoUQ

Recovering, but not recovered

Quick update from my phone (now it finally works). Today is the start of practice for the final World Cup race on Cataract Gorge. We'll be heading to Launceston in an hour or so and the water comes on at noon. I'm hoping to do well, or at least feel good about my runs here, as the only time I've felt good so far was the Lower Upper Mersey race. I know I am not recovered fully as my resting heart rate is still pretty high, and my recovery heart rate during my first paddling session for a few days yesterday was 20bpm above normal. Still, this is the last chance - no pressure!

Will try to write something mildly amusing later when I have my Mac online.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

...And the parents

And now for the parents in this little competition.  I know for a fact a few of them have been waiting with baited breath to find out what I am going to say.  Before I go any further I must reiterate how cool it is to have so many dedicated parents who have helped their offspring go so far in the world of wildwater.  Good on yeh!

So, who shall we start with?  Who else?

  These are Sue and Rosalee, both mothers of competitors.  I’ll be a little careful what I say about Sue – she seems like the hard but fair mum and as my mum was like that I’m afraid I’m a bit intimidated.  I’ll be reporting all guesses at the identity of her offspring directly to her, so be careful!
Rosalee seems to particularly appreciate the sarcastic admiration meted out by this blog. I’m not sure if this is a reflection of slightly masochistic tendencies, or just a welcoming attitude to recognition for years of driving the van around Australia.

Steve, the first father, has been around the World Cup constantly this year, mostly lifting heavy things, offering sarcastic abuse (we get along quite well) or arguing about whose turn it is to provide the beer.  I get the feeling he will be following closely behind his offspring for many years to come….

Judy is a true Aussie character who supports her offspring, doesn’t handhold, but will pony up for an expensive visit to a European Hospital (no questions asked).  A true gem!

Finally Peter, who we, as the US Team, must thank a great deal for ferrying us around at the Mersey when we didn’t have an additional driver.  And as payment we had the pleasure of paddling with his offspring, when we could keep up (not often).  Peter has become an importer of wildwater boats in Australia to feed the family habit.
I’d like to apologize to all the other competitor/parent pairings, including the other parental halves of those mentioned here, for not including them.  In the interest of time I couldn’t get photos of everyone in a timely manner, and too many photos just take WAY too long to upload at the local cafes/bars/stolen residential wireless connections.  At the end of this trip I’m gonna try to compile a full list of folks I have met, who have helped us out etc, and please hassle me to include you in that.
How to enter the competition?  Well, email me your pairings to mhc_antigen@yahoo.com as soon as possible.  I should get the email on my Blackberry now I’m back in civilization (or at least what Vodaphone call civilization) within minutes.  If you are first I’ll email you back and ask you what 2009 World Cup T shirt size you want,  hopefully there are some left.  If not you get an XXL USACK polo shirt (I’m kidding).

Match competitors and parents competition

Ok, Here it is - first one to email me the correct combinations of paddlers and parents gets a Wildwater World Cup T shirt - entries from Australia (or from people at the World Cup) will not be accepted.  I'll split the post into two to save space and time - I'll be posting pics of the competitors first.

Here is Stew Bennett, wearing some sketchy sunglasses and hanging off a parent (possibly his).  Stew is a clean cut young lad who enjoys cuddly toys and hanging out with older women.

This is Rob Mcintyre, an upcoming junior who raced as a forerunner and beat many of the World Cup competitors.  Rob has boyish good looks and was apparently a potential love interest for one of the junior US women's competitors in Switzerland this summer.  He enjoys listening to Dane Cook on shuttle runs and needs to be more old school in his choice of helmet to really be a succesful wildwater paddler.

This is Ben Maynard, a molecular biologist who works on DNA vaccines for salmon in his spare time when not training for wildwater.  According to his “parent” he has had a succession of “wonderful” girlfriends but they have never managed to compete with wildwater for his affections.

 

This is Ben’s brother, Andrew (clue - they have the same parent) who is “an important employee” of Hydro Tasmania.  Andrew likes to flaunt the fact he is paddling at home by racing a 10 year old Savage 2000 down courses that crush all of our new faster (and more breakable) boats.

 

This is Ruby Hodgetts, a junior who is racing the World Cup and holding her own well against much more experienced competition.  As she was in Swtizerland this summer at the Junior Worlds, Ruby is the subject of much male attention by individuals from mainland Europe, particularly Carlo Mercati and Mariano Bifano.  Thank Goodness Francois Beauchard has gone home…

 

Finally, last but not least, This is Matt “Foo” French, who got his first top 10 placing in a World Cup yesterday on the Ouse.  Foo is legendary in World Cup touring circles, and a bevy of red clad beauties from his fan club hung off of his very word yesterday and likely contributed to his successful run.  Foo is rumored to be the product of an alien mating ritual, so its possible that he may not have a parent in the other half of this posting….

The Oozing is over

After 15+ days of training and racing, during which I have missed 3 training days and 2 races through two different illnesses (I'm sure having the first contributed to getting the second) we have a couple of days of with no water.  It was a bit surreal to be around the race yesterday after a few days off, and with no idea what the race course was like.  A glimpse of the Czech C2 pinning horribly within sight of the finish, along with brutal boat damage for a few folks, was enough to convince me that the reports of a very tough course were not exaggerated.  More runs were clearly better, and Matt "Foo" French tuned this into his first top 10 placing in a World Cup with a  fine 8th place - nice job Foo!  Jennie survived, but spent a lot of time flailing (her words, not mine), and Tom came in a solid 6th once again.  I was pretty frustrated at not being able to participate, but I have one last shot at doing ok in the sprint at Cataract in a few days.

In the meantime I hope to amuse you with the paddler/parent competition, and before all the athletes leave I hope to be able to get some interviews that I will run in the blog over the next few months.