Monday, October 29, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Marine Law Enforcement Conference
Steve
Jones and I really enjoyed teaching the at Washington State marine Law
Enforcement Offers annual conference yesterday. The segment we taught went from
11:00 - 3:00 and was held at Boulder Beach on the Spokane River. It's a
beautiful stretch that is very slow moving water backed up behind a dam. We go
there a little early so Steve hopped in a K-1 and a C-1 for me for about a half
hour. The water was flat and calm and reminded be of the Little Danube on
the east side of Csepel Island south of Budapest. It would be a great place for
a canoe/kayak racing team.
The instruction
focused on rescues, with the officers rescuing various types of paddle craft -
canoes, kayaks, SUPs - into their rescue launch. We also demonstrated how we
rescue ourselves and each other - assisted and self rescues.
It was a beautiful day,
sunny and warm.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Joel Guay's great photos at 2012 Olympic Hopes Regatta!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shodanphotoshare/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shodanphotoshare/
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Today we had a wide variety of results and 2 break throughs into the finals. We had a couple boats
out in the heats and a couple in the semis.
In K-1 Women 200 16 years, Alyson Morse went through the semi-final to reach
the final and 5th place. In C-1
Men 200 15 years, Matthew Lam placed 2nd in the heat, and went directly
to the final where he also placed 5th. The C-4 men 200 15 – 17 years of Matthew Lam,
Gavin Ross, Caleb Chuck and Zach Guay had a direct final and placed 6th. These were all really good showings.
Congratulations to the entire team for a tremendous effort
turned in by all the team members – Natalie Griffin, Alyson Morse, Isti Urban,
Garen Doyle, Michael Weyna, Dylan Puckett, Gavin Ross, Caleb Chuck, Matt Lam and Zach
Guay. Where we did not make finals we
did get some PRs. Thanks also to the
staff of Alison Derrick, Kristi Guay and Joel Guay for their wonderful commitment
to the kids and their racing efforts. Thank
you very much to the parents for your caring support and financial commitment to
your kids and their canoe/kayak endeavors.
To all the club coaches who helped with the training and preparation of
your athletes, your time and efforts are greatly appreciated. Thanks to USACK Selection Committee and especially
Mac Hickox for the opportunity to lead and coach this team. It was great to work with all these fine
young people and staff.
Tomorrow we get a very early start and drive to Budapest,
then fly to Frankfurt and Dulles together.
Then we part company and head to our individual homes. I hope we have the opportunity to pursue
athletic greatness in canoe/kayak together in the future.
To wrap up I’d like to describe our final team meeting at
the race course. We talked about how
when we arrived we were intimidated by the huge Hungarian and German Teams on
each side of us, how we were scared out of our lanes during the training days before the
competition – literally deer in the headlights.
And how on our last day that was transformed to a focus of qualifying
for finals and reaching for the podium.
For me, the transformation was remarkable.
We also discussed what we need to do to bridge the
gap between where we are now and reaching the podium – the volume of training, developing
muscle mass, and improving our speed endurance.
I believe that this group of fine young US paddlers is up to the
challenge. Let the good work that leads
to the podium continue in earnest.
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