My dad and I drove across the border into British Columbia just in time to watch
the demos for Sunday’s Pre-Nationals race. This was a little race a week before
the actual event. Why Canadian Nationals instead of U.S. Nationals ? It was logistically easier and cheaper for me to drive up to Chilliwack than to fly my boat and myself to
Maryland — the site of U.S. Nationals. I also couldn’t attend both because they were on the same weekend: August 4th and 5th.
At the Pre-Nationals race I was terrified to paddle canoe considering that it
was a course that I hadn’t practiced on and the biggest water that I had raced
C1 prior, was in Golden, CO. But what do you know, I made both C1 runs upright
and took 3rd in kayak. Ok for a blind pre-race.
Throughout the week more people from across Canada arrived, including those that
just flew back from Junior Pre-Worlds. Each province, and the little U.S. group,
had two time slots a day to practice on the course. This didn’t interfere with
having enough training because they were very relaxed about how often you can
practice. The two slots were always enough anyway.
During the week Shonnet, Shelley, and Saskia organized some additional events;
wildwater classic, wildwater sprint, and a boatercross. Thanks ladies and
others who contributed!
Toby Roessingh was coaching me a couple other racers throughout the week. This
was his home course so I was drilled most of the possible moves and learned
every feature by the end of the week.
Canadian Nationals is organized a little differently than in the U.S. Saturday held
the Age-Group Nationals that included Juniors and Masters. (The cadets had a
race on Wednesday.) And the Juniors that qualified by meeting percentage requirements were allowed to race in the Senior Nationals on Sunday. Saturday’s course was pretty straightforward and fast. I flipped and rolled in each of my canoe runs. Oops. At least I made up for it with two solid kayak runs that put me 1st. For Sunday’s course,
however, was completely different. It had three flush gates in where you were
very tight on the poles and speed wasn’t always the main priority. It was very
critical to be online, because there was much less room for error. I
purposefully 50’d one gate which was a tough move that would be on my offside
(I’m a righty.) That way it wouldn’t affect the moves downstream of it. I
stayed upright in canoe but it truly felt like I was just surviving. Fun stuff!
In kayak I had ok consistent runs which placed me 5th.
A team race was also organized and I wish I could have stuck around to see that,
but Dad had to work the next day, understandable. A few of the parents were
trying to help me out by telling my Dad the traffic was going to be horrific and
we shouldn’t leave until the next morning (so I could go to Awards and the
Banquet.) But the effort was in vain and I had to say “Au revoir” to everyone.
The trip was well worth the 14-hour drive from California.
Thank you to Shonnet and Shelley and all the volunteers for organizing the race. The race worked out incredibly smoothly. Thank you Toby for the awesome coaching — I learned a lot! Thanks Alex for C1 tips and fixing my boat!
