Augsburg

Thats it. In our final selection process we failed to secure the American c-2 slot.

Congrats to Ricky and Casey who raced really well. I'll be pullin for them come August.

Germany on foot.

Well here we are in Augsburg, no car, no bike, no internet, just a boat. Just to get the coffee shop where the internet is becomes a half days journey. We will train here for 2 weeks before leaving to Prague for the first World Cup. Later.

NO TV

When NBC covers the Olympics what do you see? Sports? Athletes playing, competing, giving it their all to win? No, what you get is one sob story after another. Now, I really don't like going to Europe because of all the hassle it brings when traveling, but at least they show the actual events and athletes actually playing the game. So if any of you watched the Olympic Trials on MSNBC last weekend you might be wondering why only K1 and K1 women were covered, and why it took and hour to do so considering only about 8 athletes were shown. The fact is I don't know, and probably never will. Apparently people have their own agendas on who they want to promote. Do they know that 2 more boats will be going to Beijing?

Olympic Trials on TV

If you would like to view our Trials, check em out Sunday May 11 at 12noon on MSNBC.

Over!

Trials is the worst. Completely draining physically, and mentally. But in hindsight these trials were awesome to watch. Every class was a fight to the finish, with all of them finishing ridiculously close. Overall winner for C2 was decided by less than a second with Powell-Eichfeld throwin down a really fast 2nd run to nearly overtake us.

And I gotta give props to Jeff Larimer for layin down an incredible C1 run that was competitive with the top kayaks. Yet the overall C1 winner was decided by a difference of 2 tenths of a second.

Now its on to the world cups where the Olympic selection process continues.

Trials Day 2

The US had no problems securing the C2 Olympic spot as 3 US boats finished above the next qualifying country. We had a better day today taking the win. And as I would find out later became Pan American Champions!

Trials Day 1

We had one of the best runs of our life up until the bottom drop. 2ft too far to the left. Just didn't get the bounce we thought we would and had to loop. Its hard because it was such a good run until the last gate. We were left not mad, but just in bit of disbeilf. We finished second to mighty youngsters Powell / Eichfeld.

Touches!

Sometimes one forgets that time is added onto the final score when ya start smackin poles. 8 seconds! That kills your total at the end of day. Lesson learned. Plenty fast and very happy with the performance, just need to miss those poles. 1rst on Saturday, 2nd on Sunday, with the tie breaker (2 boats traded wins sat and sun) going to the winner of the final day, so 2nd overall. Oh well. Still had fun.

Last Warmup

If there are drawbacks to having a awesome man made whitewater course, nestled at the top of that list is being kicked off due to inclement weather. It's basically a gigantic public swimming pool where lifeguards are always on the lookout for lightning. Therefore the Saturday race was canceled. Sunday was greeted with parting clouds and warm temperatures. Not bad for March. Especially after hearing the Quebec kids talk about the 14 ft of snow they have back at home. 14ft? How do you get in your house? Anyway, we had a pretty good race. Gate 9 still plagues us though. Its that crazy up right after the bridge in Charlotte. Single boats can get the bow up and over no problem, but lifting 365 lbs over that hole is a different story. That aside we felt good and fast. Next weekend we'll travel back to the good 'ol NOC for the annual doubleheader, which is the start of the "real" races. We'll post video soon.

The Full Spectrum

What a wild weekend. First of all we have to take the judging with a grain of salt. Many touches and 50's were missed among various athletes with limited judging available. And admittedly, one of our 50's was missed on the first day. But that was the least of our concern considering the overall poor performance we turned in for the first day.

Sunday was much better. Getting back to what we have trained for, the feeling was a helluva lot better. A little slower on second runs due to entering the last up a bit too low, but overall 2 very solid runs to take home and munch on.

VIDEO IS UP in our "VIDEO SHACK."

Saturday Race

Few minor mistakes, but good enough for 1rst.
See the VIDEO SHACK for the vid.

Friday Night Lights

I cant believe how many people have filtered into Charlotte to train on this World Class slalom site. Actually, what I should say is, I cant believe it took so long. But now that they're here it makes for some exciting Jiffy Slaloms. I think about 6 or 7 countries were represented in a race that, in the past might have had 6 racers per class.

Anyway we came in 2nd due to some minor mistakes.

Saturday is a new race (w/ upsteams)

Check out the video in our VIDEO SHACK.

Post Worlds

Back in September we paddled down a muddy ditch located in Brazil. That happened to be our World Championships that we failed to acquire points at. Points pertaining to the selection process for Beijing, defined by USOC.

So, what's happened since then?
Well, bought a new boat, Austin fixed his ear, (no longer randomly falls down) and have officially signed a lease on a place in Charlotte.

Although it seems like we will be the only ones in the world who will not travel to Australia this winter we feel primed and ready to tackle what needs to be done here.

Beijing Test Event

Depending who you ask, and when they ask, we might have had a good race. Very frustrating at the time, because of a few mistakes, but I think there are some good things that we could take from the race. We did not do what we intended, but some things are promising in our technical adventure to figure out what the heck we are doing. The trip itself was great. The Chinese were very gracious and kind to all the athletes, and it made the trip as a whole a wonderful experience. But we were there to race and that is a different story. We are making progress though:).

US National Champions!

Great finish, to a beautiful day, on a cool course, surrounded by awesome people. That pretty much sums it up. Thanks to asci for setting up the amazing house with a view, and putting on a great race. On another note, pray that Scott gets his passport back before the race in China. We just might have to take Aleta's advice and start booking Scott's tickets 3 days in advance of everyone else if this current trend continues.

The World Cups are Over

Augsburg was interesting. Very hard courses, and a competitive field. With that said, I think we represented well. Flying over without competing internationally I considered the idea of being DFL at every race. Thankfully that was not the case. In fact, we were thrown right into the middle, with every race a chance to leap into the finals. Now we need to get home and see Americans, but can't wait to race again.

Augsburg Qualification

Well, it was good. 12th. but most importantly the 2 runs were consistent. It wasn't one of those first run good, but not the second. If I could only describe the nature of the course and how turny it was. I guess the course designers were going after a certain feel this year for the races. Maybe it makes better TV, I don't know. But given that, I feel great in how we're dealing. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better.

Tacen World Cup

I should probably wait to write on our performance, given that today was not much fun. But why not say it the way it is. Poor. Yes, we can pinpoint places where things went wrong, but why did they go wrong. Oh, by the way, we did not qualify for the semifinals. I would say our plan was good, and for the most part it was. But as we climbed out of the river there was a certain move that all the other boats were doing a certain way that we didn't. Was there something the other boats knew that we did not? On the other hand that move was the least of our worries. And the other frustrating thing was that we didn't even change our plan for second runs, except for the one move I mentioned earlier, and we had a top ten run. Why was there such contrast between the two runs with the same plan. That is what we have to figure out.

OK finish to World Cup 1

Close! One touch kept us from finals. Ending up 14th, we had a decent run that was very competitive with the field. Less than 1 second divided 4th place to 10th, which is the cut off for finals. Although we were frustrated not to make finals, we came away with positive ideas to build toward the future.

Prague Qualification

What an up and down day! After first runs we sat securely in 11th posed to qualify for the semis easily. But on second runs we had a small time error crossing a wave, combined with a touch, to bump us all the way down to 20th. It really expresses how cut throat it is on this circuit, having the smallest mistakes can cost you dearly. With a day off tomorrow we will cheer on our teammates and rest up for Sunday's semifinals.

Finally

We have arrived in Prague and are itchin to have our first international race. Lots of good boats will be represented here and will definitely be a gage in how we are paddling.

Follow Your Sport

So apparently people in other sports use www.usolympic.com to follow their favorite sports to see what's new and the goings on. In addition to this the USOC follows stats on the number of hits each sport receives. You would be kidding yourself if you didn't think this goes into consideration when USOC decides to fund each sport. NO WONDER we beg for support. In 10 years of racing this is the first time I have even heard of this. Come to find out, our Team Trials were covered on TV. Yes, you can go right now and view these runs. (CLICK HERE) After a little searching I found a list of the most viewed and visited sports, which are updated every Monday, giving each sport a little competition of their own. Not surprisingly Canoe/Kayak rest at the very bottom.

Please support our sport and visit this site. Maybe, just maybe there is light at the end of this long tunnel.
Canoe/Kayak's page @ USOC.org

Preparation

It's been a interesting recovery for us since Team Trials. Just as Scott is getting his strength back I seem to be getting lots of little tweaks and pains. C-2 is definitely harder on the body than a single boat. Having another humans weight swing around you is taxing once done a thousand times. We go back and forth, Scott feels bad I feel good, I feel my arm ripping off he gets stronger. It's bound to match at some point, right?

2007 Team Trials

Well, we made it.
Cluck's hurt rib and all made it down the course 4 times. Just enough to get on the team.