With a couple of weeks of solid training under my belt, I’m going into Junior Worlds feeling confident. Today we participated in the opening ceremonies. We marched around the main square in Foix in a parade of nations and afterwards shared cocktails with the mayor of Foix. These opening ceremonies were very unlike last Worlds’ in Roudnice. This year the weather was about 30 degrees warmer...

We just finished up our pre-worlds training camp in Ottawa. While it was good training the week had a couple surprises for us. Congratulations to James and Katie for their new baby girl, Cierra. Understandably, James resigned from coaching the rest of the camp to be with his family. But with the arrival of Marian we started training again the next day. We were able to drive to Valley-Field for some...

This Saturday I participated in my first ever regatta race. I left the Calgary airport with the rest of the juniors on Friday night, sat through the shortest flight of my life and got ready for an early morning. The 6 am wake-up turned out to be not too bad and I found myself reminiscing of the good old swim meet days. We had raced our first event by 9 o’clock. Afton and I were paddling a double....

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the International Certificate awards ceremony. The International Certificate is an award that student in the Calgary Board of Education can do to be recognized for their international work. It has three different requirements: a minimum of one second language, international course work including social studies, and international travel or international volunteering. I...

Another Junior Team Trials has come and gone in the blink of an eye. This year we got to paddle in B.C at the Mamquam River near Squamish. With our home base in Whistler we drove out to the course everyday with Felix, Mike’s brother in law from Germany as our bear magnet. By Wednesday I think our bear count was up to 5 or 6. That morning the water was off in Rutherford so Jessica joined us for a...

It’s May 1st and there is still snow on the ground. We decide not to brave the weather and instead re-enter the dungeon (a.k.a Mike’s garage). We do our lactic and MAP sessions on the erg in our t-shirts and shorts while Mike is bundled up in his down jacket, toque and scarf. We are only a week out of national team trials now and felt it was a little ridiculous to be paddled on an erg instead of...

A threatening line of thunder clouds looms closer and closer to the Meadows on the Bow River in South Calgary. Kids and adults alike are bundled against the elements and some have even chosen to done a Penguin costume. It is the 2nd annual Penguin Race put on by the Waterwerks Kayak Club. Over 50 kids from cub-cadet to senior have shown up to race against the clock for a coveted spot on the event’s...

North Carolina is the place to be in April. I certainly have lucked out this year with training camps. After being forced off the water mid-November due to ugly weather we commenced the bulk of our dryland training. Workouts in the gym, in the dungeon a.k.a Mike’s beautiful garage. Around Christmas we embraced the snow with our annual winter camp in the Bow Valley. I then took a min-break from training...

We spotted our first real Australian wildlife today. It was a half day again so we drove up into the Blue Mountains and went for a little walk down to the Jelly-Bean pool. During our trip we saw a snake slither across the path, tail of some poor lizard sticking out of its greedy little mouth. Once at the pool we saw across to sun bathe on the enormous boulder. That rock was also home to possibly the...

“Everything here will kill you,” says Paul Manning-Hunter as he studies a small spider on the side-walk. I can’t help but think that this may be true. Yesterday morning I was in the bathroom, still a bit groggy after waking up and I see these tiny, wriggling antennae in my peripheral. I turn my head slowly to the right and realize that, eewwww, it’s a cockroach. I grab the dustpan and smack...