As I am writing this I can hear the sound of singing coming from the Military Training Camp which is just next door to our apartment. I cannot vouch for their fighting skills but if there was a “sing off” instead of war these guys would definitely win.

The apartment Kate, Christian and I are staying in is about the size of most peoples’ bathrooms and I have to fold my bed up in the morning so that we can fold out the kitchen table. That is ok though as we are spending most of our time either training or in the Boulangerie trying the various French pastries.

Kate, Christian and me at the top of a mountain

Bourg is a great course, it is one of the steepest Slalom venues in the world with very fast water making it really tough to get on line and then to stay on it. I have missed more gates in 3 days here than I have in my whole trip so far.

Physically everything is going well, my shoulder which had been giving me problems seems to have benefited from the rest I gave it.

Being able to paddle freely has also helped my enjoyment of the trip. I have been able to focus on some of the technical areas that I need to improve on if I am to be competitive.

The race is this weekend and should be a good field and a challenging course. The Aussie Under 23 team are also here along with a number of other countries.

Christian on Bourg

I believe that the Saturday qualification will be on the bottom part of the river with the Finals being held on the more challenging top section.

Augsburg Eiskanal

We have travelled 6,000kms in the last month so it is also nice to be out of the car.

My injury problems are starting to clear up, my shoulder has been responding well to the copious amount of exercises that I have been doing for it but I decided not to race in Merano this weekend as I do not want to push it that hard yet. Christian and Kate are going to be racing along with the Under 23 team. The link to the race website is here.

The water levels here in Augsburg have meant that the main channel, the “Eiskanal” had not been running for a while. The whole of Europe is going through a bit of a drought at the moment and so it was a nice change when it started raining two days ago and there was enough water in the river to turn on the Eiskanal. Hopefully this will continue although there is still excellent training here regardless and I am going to be doing a lot of paddling in the next few months (shoulder permitting) and I might even be able to get some of the moves on this course, which I find particularly challenging due to the narrowness of the course and the variability in the water.

We were in Liptovsky for a three day race that doubled as an International Ranking Race and also selection for Slovak, Russian and Polish selection. Understandably, this led to some pretty high quality racing.

Results can be found here

Liptovsky 2011

I was really pleased with parts of my racing but wasn’t able to put it all into a full run. A sure sign that my technique is changing was the number of penalties I got. I think I missed 4 gates and hit 10 in 5 runs and that included one clean run. I have been working hard to become more aggressive with my paddling and these sort of weekends are going to be inevitable but I used to pride my self on my lack of penalties and so the shift in mindset is going to take time.

Bratislava is three hours from Liptovsky and is a city of 500,000 although it seems bigger than that for some reason.

We are in there somewhere!

We are staying in an apartment not far from the Tesco shopping centre in a group of flats that I have to admit always regarded as the “ghetto” when I had been to Bratislava previously, especially as our car was stolen from the Tesco carpark in 2004. It is not the ghetto of course and it teaches me another valuable lesson that the facade is no indication of the person inside. Having said that, we were advised not to leave anything inside the car at night or to leave it too close to the path in case it is vandalised.

On the way to the Police station in 2004 (In the back of the police car)

My shoulder has flared up again. It seems to get worse on the courses with the bigger whitewater, it must be the extra strain. I am going to take some time off the water and wait for it to get better now. It seems like the only way after trying to push through and manage the pain for a few weeks.

We raced Saturday and Sunday in a two part series called the Pyrenees Cup. The course in Seu is quite narrow and very hard going if you are not on the right line and after some really good starts to my runs I felt like I was taking the circuitous route to the finish line. It was physically tough race and a couple of penalties in the Semi-Final put me in 30th place.

This weekend’s race in Pau is the second instalment of the Pyrenees Cup and also acts as the selection for the French Team. Pau is a very different course to Seu. It is a wide and fast river and I am enjoying feeling the speed on the boat.

The Pau course

Lots of spectators at the 2009 World Cup

I have been having a few niggling problems with my shoulder but hopefully they will improve before the race.

This injury plus some tough paddling lessons has made the trip so far a lot harder than I had imagined. Hopefully with some rest my shoulder will start to improve and from there I just need a few lucky breaks and then anything is possible.

I am leaving Penrith in a few days to head to Europe for 7 or so months of paddling, travelling and most of all fun… well definitely the first two and hopefully the third.

I have had an exciting and active year since recovering from shoulder surgery. I have:

• lost 20kgs
• become the Vice-President of our Canoe club
• covered 3000kms in my training
• lifted over 200 tonnes of weights
• worked full time
• become Oceania Champion

Those are the positive things. Life however, as most discover, is not defined by the successful and easy things but by the challenges.

I have rediscovered the hard lesson, that in sport, except for the very few, you do not finish as a ‘winner’.

Over the years the cliché ”it does not matter where you finish as long as you do your best” has been the idea that I have been moving towards but this has been a long journey for someone who was so keen on sport probably because of a deep desire to be the best. The challenge for me is in trying reconciling these two feelings that can, in a bitterly ironic way, make things incredibly hard.

When you win, you can end up thinking about all the technical errors you have made and when you come lower in the standings but paddle well, you have that desire that you had won “at all costs”.

As I launch into my travels, I understand that the challenges before me are substantial and many of those are very close to home!

Unsurprisingly I did not feel fantastic! You forget how physical and specific slalom paddling can be.

I knew I was in for a tough session when I found it hard going walking back up to the top (as the conveyor belt wasn’t working). It was nice to be back out there again and hopefully next time it won’t be quite so hard.

The Canoe Slalom Worlds are on this week and I am looking forward to seeing the Aussies do well.

Still no news on who is going to be running Australia after our election although I was happy to see that David Bradbury scraped home to hold onto Penrith. In the Senate the party I voted for was way out of it but under the strange Australian voting system, my vote then went to the Australian Sex Party which I thought was hilarious.

The other thing that I find unique and refreshing here is the amount of support that is available to you. I can speak to Strength and Conditioning, physiology and recovery specialists in a morning of training.

It is also inspirational to see all the world class athletes training. You pretend not to care but when you see a “big name” you can’t help but stop and stare!

It is times like these when you wish that the Slalom program could be in Canberra and that we could have this all the time but then I suppose it might not be as special to experience it.

I am here for another week before resuming “normal service” up in Penrith. This will mean being able to get back on the Whitewater which is really what all this training is for.

The Slalom Team will be competing at the Slalom Worlds from the 9-12 September and you can follow their progress here. I am sure there will be some great Aussie results.

The Penrith press has been really getting into the swing of things and had this great image in the paper today

I am lucky enough to be heading down to the AIS for a 2 week training camp to focus on regaining my strength. This is going to be a great experience and also I will be able to see my new niece Ivy a lot more (as well as my family). Winner all round.

So far I have spent a day in Bristol and am currently just North of Salisbury. The wedding is this Saturday and a lot of people are making the trip across which is fantastic.

Today we are heading into Bath for a bit of R & R before the final preparations for the wedding (although I have not been particularly helpful)

Bristol

Salisbury Cathederal

Since having surgery on my shoulder last year I have had a large focus on things outside of paddling but now that I am starting to get more mobility and strength back into my shoulder I am starting to enjoy my training a lot more.

I am heading over to th UK for the 2nd time this year in July to attend Ben and Heather’s wedding which I am really looking forward to although it is a bit strange not to be going to any racing. I worked out the other day that this is the first time in 10 years that I have not been on one representative team or another so it is a real change!