Plettenberg Bay Training Camp

www.dunepark.co.za

Last week Wednesday a group of us went off to Plett for a weeks training camp. We stayed at The Dunes Hotel in Keurbooms Strand where we were spoilted staying in one of there luxery houses right on the beach. As far as food is concerned we were well taken care of and always went to bed well satisfied and excited for the next days surpise meal.

The group consisted of PW Basson, Fouche Van Tonder, Chrisjan Coetzee, Greg Louw, Ryan Louw, Zoltan and myself. Unfortunatly the first few days the weather didnt go our way with strong winds and rain all day so we moved the paddling sessions to early morning and late afternoon to duck from the wind. It worked out nicely giving ourselves more time to rest during the afternoons. I unfortunatly had a full week off before Plett due to Doctors requests so it took me some time to feel the water again. It was great to have a strong group to train with keeping us all challenging every interval to the end. We had our last session on Thursday morning before we made our way back home for a few days when we then fly to Durban for the trial.

Just finished wrapping my boat up to send it with the transport company to Pietermartizberg. The next few days ill be training in my river boat which will make it quite interesting to try feel the same rythem as my Nelo but all will work out as i have time before i race to get comfortable again.

Clanwilliam Training Camp

Last week 8 of us went to Clanwilliam for a training camp where we stayed at Zarens holiday house on the Bulshoek Dam. The group of guys were myself, Zaren Courtney, Greg Louw, PW Basson, Chrisjan Coetzee, Fouche Van Tonder, Patrick Birkett and Zoli. Bulshoek Dam has to be on of the best training venues in the Western Cape. We had perfect training conditions and no other boats on the water to compete with for flat water. Zoli and I set up a 1000m, 500m and 200m course so everything was set for time trials. We raced heats semis and finals on the thursday and everything went according to plan. Did my PB 1000m time so very chuffed with that. We all back home for now untill next wednesday where we leave for Plettenberg Bay for our last training camp before the trial.

FISH RIVER MARATHON 2010

The Fish River Marathon has to be my best race of the year. With over 1700 paddlers taking part and great sponsors on board this race becomes the highlight of ever paddlers year.

Cradock Weir (5km from the finish of day 2)

This year i took part in my 7th Fish River marathon and chose to race with a good friend of mine Zaren Courtney. He only recently came back from a 2year break from paddling and is slowly getting back into the swing of things. With Zaren only 4months back into paddling and myself having recently returned from World Sprint champs it was going to make an exciting race. We were confident with our speed but lacked the distance, none the less we new we could pull through. Our aim was to finish in the top 10 but that ment we had to have a near perfict race with no swims, esspecially down the famous rapid 'keiths flyover'. I had never made it before and with me in front i had a lot of pressure to get it right this time. Day one couldnt have gone any better finishing in 8th overall. Day 2 we started in elapsed time as we finished the day before. We had one crew who finished with us but another only 30seconds behind. This was going to be a show down as it was the international marathon paddlers from France. We worked had to keep them off but half way into the race they caught us and still looked rather fresh. It wasnt long till they dropped us off there wave and left us paddling home alone. End result put us in 9th place and ment we had achieved what we came for.

3rd on BREEDE River Marathon 2010

Zaren and Myself took part in our 2nd breede together having finished 5th 3years back. Zaren has only been paddle since Feb having taken 2years off to focus on work and surprised me and everyone around us on his actual fitness. We were dropped after sliding weir on day one by almost a minute and realled to the front bunch in by shear determination that the race was not over yet. At the end of the two days we were still intact with the front runners and were hopeing for a sprint finish. Unfortunatly we ran out of water 1km from the finish having missed the correct channel and fell back to eventually cross the line in 3rd place. A disapointing finish but otherwise happy with our result considdering our build up.