Hey hey,

What a weekend! It was a great regatta here in Dartmouth, with nice racing conditions and some very exciting racing. I felt great on the water and came up with really good races in my both my 1000m and 500m. In both races I led from the first stroke and didn't give up the lead once, which was different than my other races of the year. With these wins, I have earned the right to race for Canada at the World Championships later this summer, which are right here in Dartmouth. I can't wait for the opportunity to race at the Worlds in front of a home crowd, and am really excited to be racing 1000m again, which I feel really confident about this year. My hats go off to Tom Hall, Richard Dalton, and all my other competitors who were both extremely tough to beat and stand up guys throughout the selection process. It's this kind of intense competition within Canada that has made us so competitive on the World level.

C2 1000m was a very anticipated race, and it lived up to the hype. Gab and Andrew looked really strong, and halfway through the race it looked like they were going to win convincingly, but Rich and Ben Russell stuck close, and came back on them hard, ending in a boat shoot finish. Morty and Kyle had a great race too, sticking close to the leaders and finishing a strong third. It's great to see these guys back on their game.

C2 500m turned out to be another great race, with Gab and Aruss again taking the W ahead of the same two other crews. They all looked really sharp, and it bodes well for our team at the Worlds later this summer. Congratulations to Gab and Andrew who locked up both C2 entries this weekend in some very hard fought races. They came up big when they needed to and I'm excited to see them rock the house at Worlds.

Congrats go out to everyone else as well, it was an exciting weekend full of great battles. Special mention goes out to all the Juniors racing at their Jr World Trials, they provided some of the most exciting races of the weekend, and I found myself running to the finish line for the Jr C1's despite having to be on the water for my race 5 minutes later.

I'd like to thank Dr Brian Seaman who helped me out with some chiropractic work this weekend, as well as Bernie Irvin, who has become much more than just our massage therapist. He is the most supportive staff member we have, and great to talk to and hang out with during regattas. His massages keep us loose and stretched out and ready to race, and we are really lucky to have him around so much. So hat's off to you Bernie, and thanks again.

Now it's time to take a deep breath, relax, and take in what has happened. I'll take some days off and meet with my coaches to plan out the rest of the summer. It should be a good one! Thanks for reading and keep your paddle in the water.

Hey everybody,

I have been back home in Burlington this week training on the Sixteen Mile Creek. It's been really nice staying at home, and great to see my family, hanging out and having nice dinners together. Training at Burloak has been great too, and while Ottawa is an amazing place to paddle, I get a special feeling when I get back to paddling on the creek where I grew up. It brings back a lot of good memories and so far I have felt really good on the water. There are lots of great training partners here, and it's been nice to get out in smaller groups after the giant battles we had in Ottawa last week. I've been relaxing at home when I'm not down at the club, which has been easy with a comfortable basement and a fridge full of food. I had a nice dinner last night with Vank, his mom and his grandmother in Adam's sweet condo in Toronto. So that's about all I've been up to, eating, training and relaxing. I'll be leaving for Halifax tomorrow morning, and am excited to race this weekend. I've posted some video of training from last week for you to check out. That's all for now, thanks for reading and keep your paddle in the water.

Hello there ladies and gentlemen,

Last week was a great week of training here in Ottawa, with almost the entire National Canoe Team here for a short camp. The women's kayakers also had their camp here, which means more fast people to train with, and friends to have BBQs with. It also means my dad was here for the week, so I could get some coaching from him, which is always nice with a big race coming up. My sister Tessa, and Delaire also came up for the week, to train here while looking for apartments for next year. It was nice to have them around, even if the bathroom became a lot harder to get into all week.


The camp went really well for me, and I think for everyone on our team. It was really fun getting out in a massive C1 group again, with 14 fast guys lining up against each other. It got really competitive out there, especially around the corners, and I was really able to push myself hard. It isn't often we get that big of a group training that hard together, other than sometimes in Florida. It was a great feeling knowing that we were all working together to train hard even though we all have to race each other next weekend. With all the intense workouts we were doing, I made sure to have equally intense rest and recovery this week. I took some extra practices off, knowing that I needed to recover and that an easy paddle or a crappy practice was not what I needed this week. Sometimes you need to go out there and hammer even you are tired or sore or not feeling it, but this close to a big race, rest is just as important as training. The extra rest also meant I could really push myself closer to race intensity when I was on the water. After racing in Europe, I realized that I needed more practice at those really high intensities, and I think I accomplished that this week, without over doing it and getting tired. My best workout came near the end of the week, on Friday morning. We just did a simple workout, some 3, 2 and 1 minute pieces, but it turned into a really hard, solid session. I pushed it from the start and challenged myself each piece, with the help of some very speedy training partners of course. We finished off the camp with a relay race Saturday morning, much to our coach Tamas' delight. There were two C1's and two C2's on each team, and we went back and forth on the course, first for 500m, and then 300m. It was a back and forth race, but I was able to hunt down Klev in C1 in the anchor leg of the first one, and hold of Gab and Aruss in C2 in the second one to give my team the double victory.


Off the water, like I said I've been resting and recovering well. Our physio Paul has been helping a lot with the recovery part, making sure I don't fall apart after hard workouts. His clinic is just down the road, and the river, from our house. It is called Riverside Physiotherapy, and we also live on the river, so I decided to take advantage of that fact. I was stuck without a car or a ride, so I grabbed my boat and paddled to physio. I brought my bike lock and locked my boat on the side of the river, and walked up to his clinic with my paddle, ready to be treated. It was fun to actually use my boat for transportation, rather than just paddling up and down the river for fitness.


We also had a nice BBQ with our whole team, and took out anyone who wanted to out behind Kyle's motorboat. Almost everyone went out for a ski or wakeskate, and the smiles on peoples faces when they got up for the first time was really awesome to see, and put everyone there in a really good mood. There was a lot of hunched over, clinging on for dear life kind of skiing, but there was also lots of laughter and waving to the shore, as well as numerous thumbs up and fist pumps. After a relaxing afternoon in the water, we cooked up our meat and had a great dinner, with shish kebobs, steaks, ribs, shrimp and more. I don't remember anything other than meat being served, but that's what BBQs are all about right?

Yesterday Gab and I went to the Museum of Civilization to check out the Mythical Beasts exhibit. It was really awesome. I was like a little kid I was so excited to go, as I've been pretty obsessed with dragons and the like since I was young. It wasn't a huge exhibit, and there were no live creatures, but it was nonetheless very awesome, and set my imagination racing into the world of myth and legend. While I was checking out dragons at the museum, there were thousands of people on Mooney's Bay checking out Dragon boating, as the Ottawa festival is on this weekend. It's a huge event, and a lot of fun to race in, but I opted out because of our upcoming Trials, despite some heavy recruitment from Scott Seaby, whose crew has won the last 8 years or something like that. I'm pretty sure they'll be ok without me, and I'll probably head over today to cheer them on.


This week I'll be heading back to Burloak for a few days to see my mom, make sure vank doesn't go crazy sitting at home, and rest up for racing before flying to Halifax on Thursday. I'm excited to race again, and looking forward to seeing the improvements that Dartmouth has made for the World Championships later this summer. Thanks for reading and keep your paddle in the water.

Greetings,

Greetings sportsfans!

We have arrived home after a very successful and exciting World Cup tour. The last day of racing went very well for Canada, resulting in 6 medals. Our C4 200 crew added a bronze to that tally with an alright race. We didn't nail the start like we wanted to, so we never quite found the pace we wanted, but there was still a lot of speed in the boat, and I am confident that with the proper training we can be a serious threat at the World Championships. It was nice to get on the podium, and experience the amazing crowd that showed up to watch the races. My C1 didn't go quite as well. I had a great semi, a good hard race that I was in control of the whole way. I was really excited to race the final, and wanted to really attack the race and challenge for a podium spot. During the day the wind really started to blow, which didn't bother me, as I had a good race in the wind in the 1000m. Unfortunately, it also started to blow from the side, which made one side of the course faster than the other. I got the unlucky side of the course, and still was planning to attack the race and go for it despite the conditions. I didn't get a great start, but I recovered alright and tried to go with the leaders. Half way I was within striking distance, but the effort to keep up had taken it's toll, and I didn't have the big finish that I was hoping for. It was frustrating, but I still managed 6th place which I can live with for now. So that gave me a 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th in the C1 Olympic distances for this tour. Right now I feel like I could have grabbed some more medals, but if you told me I was going to get those results when I was in Florida, I would have been pretty happy with them. I really feel like the best is yet to come this year, and that I am not nearly at my potential yet. Most years I've probably been at my best during the World Cups, but this year I feel like I was improving each race, and hope to continue that the rest of the year. I also feel like my 1000 is back where it should be, and am excited to try to qualify it for the World Championships.

It's nice to be home now, although it's been raining non-stop since we got here, and our luggage is still on it's way. It's time to get back to some longer training, and lots more running and weights. Trials #2 is only 3 weeks away though, so I'll still be doing some hard work on the water to stay sharp for those. Alright, that's all for now, thanks for reading and keep your paddle in the water.

Greetings!

Day 2 of the World Cup is complete! It was a very hard day of racing, with tough conditions to deal with, but I'm very satisfied with the way I raced and the way things went. My semi this morning was ok, I went out at a good pace for 500m, and then eased off a bit when I knew I was going to make the final. Usually I don't like to mess around like that, but it was a strong lefts head wind, and I was racing two strong lefts, so I figured I would save my best for the final. It almost turned out to be a big mistake, as I drew lane 9 in the final, which had been a terrible lane all morning because the wind was stronger on that side of the course. Luckily by the time the finals rolled around, it was more or less a straight head wind. It was straight, but more notably it was very STRONG. As you may have noticed if you checked results, doing a 4:30 doesn't usually place you to well at a World Cup, but today was different. I knew going in that it was going to be a long one, and a very big physical and mental challenge. I tried to prepare myself mentally, and I knew that I had to focus on myself and staying strong throughout the race. Any mental or physical lapse could put you back and out of the race completely. To be honest, the wind was making me pretty nervous for quite a while. I'm not sure why, as at National Team Trials earlier this year I felt great in the wind, and was confident in my abilities. It's harder when you are racing at this level I guess. A bit before going out to race, as I was trying to think about how I had to paddle and how my race plan might need to be modified to take into account the wind, I thought about a radio show we listen to on sattelite radio, called the Jason Ellis show. One of the many things he likes to go on about is how people need to "harden the %*$# up", excuse my language. So I looked at the wind, and told myself, ya, this is going to be hard, so I guess the only solution is to "harden the %*$# up". That put me in the right frame of mind for the race, and I went out feeling a lot more confident than I had been. I felt good in my warm up, and was excited by the challenge that the race was going to give me. After a very bad first stroke, I almost panicked, but then thought to myself, this is going to be a LONG race, I think I'll have time to recover, and I very quickly did. I had a good start and was up with the leaders for the first little bit. I was focusing on myself, trying to move the boat smoothly, not sit up too much in the wind, and keep up a pace that would keep me in touch but not kill me. It felt like an eternity getting to the 500, but I knew I was still in good shape if I had a strong finish. With 250 to go I really picked it up, focusing on the guy in front of me and doing everything I could to catch him. As you can see in the picture, I almost did, but not quite. I'm on the bottom of the picture, coming in 4th. I was happy with my result, although 4th can be a bit annoying, as the difference between 3rd and 4th in terms of recognition and praise is a big one. Nevertheless, I think I paddled a good race, and was happy with how I handled the wind. I also know that I can be faster, and that I can definitely beat those guys.
Canada had a good day at the regatta course, with our girls K4 grabbing another silver medal with a very impressive performance. Adam van Koeverden was a close 4th, and is looking like he's going to be ready to rock tomorrow. Gab and Aruss had a bit of a dissapointment in C2, but I am confident they will bounce back tomorrow. I've had many dissapointing 1000's in my life that have led to some great 500 results, that's for sure. We are also racing C4 200 tomorrow, with Mark Klevinas subbing in for Morty, which should be good practice for later this summer. It isn't a deep field, but the crews that are racing are all very fast so it should be a good test. I'm really excited to race 500 tomorrow as well, it should be a fun one.
Congratulations go out to Morty who threw it down at Ontario Team Trials, winning the 1000m over the strongest field we have seen at OTTs in years. It's good to see him winning races, especially on his home course, and bodes well for a succesful summer for C4C.
Ok, well that's all from me for now, it's time to get to bed. Another big day of racing tomorrow, then back home early monday morning. Thanks for reading and keep your paddle in the water.

What's up what's up?