Junior Team Trials- Mamquam Edition

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 fulls session. We were sitting up in the start eddy waiting for the go ahead from Mike when he comes booking it up the trail, “Guys, there’s a bear on river right so make sure you paddle up on the other side of the river, okay?” We all just nodded our heads. I was paddling C1 that morning so I waited for Jessica to go and then took a few deep breaths before my full length. I got to the bottom, out of my boat and was walking up before I remembered the bear. I looked across the river and whoah, bear! There was this huge black shadow chilling on a rock. I quickly switched into my K1 kit and ran back up to the top to do another run. More deep breathing and waiting for a signal when Mike runs back up to us. “So…. (classic Mike pause with smile) the bear actually swam across the river and is now at the take out. Marbar, just don another K1 run, don’t go up and change.” I finish my run and am catching my breath in the bottom eddy when I hear shouting and thunderous footsteps on the trail above. The bear is running down the trail, one giant gazelle like leap and it’s gone, disappeared into the greenery of the rainforest woods.

Watching video review that night was as interesting as paddling that day. Every once in a while we’d get a clip where the bear would be perched on the rock, head propped up on giant paws watching us paddle down the river. In between paddling clips we’d also see just bear video, bear lying on rock, bear swimming across the river, bear chowing down on cookies, bear standing against the van. Thank goodness for Felix, our amazing video man.

The water kept rising all week so eddies that had existed on Monday were totally gone by Saturday. We had three different courses, 2 runs on the first course and then one run on the second and one run on the third. We had to make percentage off the top boat at least once and then the top three boats in each category with the average percentage of their three best races made the team. I had a very consistent weekend, making percentage in my kayak everyday. In C1, I felt myself steadily improving with each race run. I missed percentage on the first day by 2 percent and then never got it back again. I finished in 2nd overall in C1 and 2nd overall in kayak. Unfortunately Canada won’t be sending any C1s to France as the boys barely missed the percentage. The Junior Team going to Jr Worlds in France this year is: In kayak: Michael Taylor (ON), Max-Emile Petitclerc (QC), and AJ Cole (AB), in women’s kayak: Jazmyne Denhollander (BC), Marissa Dederer (AB), and Rachael Penman (ON) and in women’s C1: Alexandra Mcgee (ON) , who will be Canada’s first C1W to go to the Junior Worlds. I’m really looking forward to competing at Junior Worlds in France this summer and to spending time training with this great team that Canada is sending to represent itself.

Also congratulations to Alberta’s Hayden Daniels and Levi Severtson who qualified to represent Canada at this year’s Youth Olympics in Signapore this summer, kill it boys!

Big thanks to all the volunteers and judges who made this race possible.
Now we shift our focus to the Senior National Team Trials taking place at Rutherford next weekend.

Full results for the Junior National Team Trials in Mamquam B.C

Aproaching gate 9 with coach watching Photo credit: Joanne Cole

From left to right: Max, AJ, Michael, Marissa, Ali, Rachael, Marian (missing: Jaz)

Here is a video that I put together from training and racing video at Mamquam. Enjoy!