Final Post

All the photographs (190 !) are in the slide show, many thanks to contributions from Alex Ryder, Vesna, Dan, Rob and the crew.

It's all seems to be a distant memory now, but this blog will remind you that this was a great trip and planning has already started for New Caledonia 2010.

Thanks once more to the Ugly Mug, Hilton Garden Inn, NKOA, admin at event, POCA for hosting, IVF for organising and all the paddlers that made it a great event.

Signing off and looking forward.

Shaun

OPERATION - BLING - COMPLETE

Finals day, was hot on the water and hot in the tents ! The dogfish team and J19's got close but not strong enough in the V12, the 1500 metre final was 7th placed, an achievement to be top 8, but the boys were disappointed.

It came down to the 500 metre and i have to tell you that the official DVD coming out of the day better have the start that the boys had in the clips because by all accounts they were smashing the field at 200 metres. The Tahitian top ranked team in lane 1 got a fright i bet at the 250 metre to see the lane 5 (dogfish team) giving large for the finish line. It was a tight finish but the top ranked Tahitians pulled it in the last 20 metres. Dogfish had no idea what the position was. Shaun ran down from the admin area having confirmed that there were 'no infractions' that the official posted placings were correct and the decision final. Dogfish second with a time of 1:50 some 1.7 seconds behind the Tahitians, what a moment.



There was some confusion when shaun put up one hand with two fingers showing shouting "TWO" then to enforce this lifting the other hand up with two fingers shouting "TWO". The more intellectual in the crew thought Shaun was indicating 4th place which was feasible. After some brief shouting exchanges and confirmation that they were 'blinged' the relief and joy exploded on the boat. Operation BLING - Complete.

I've been waiting to post this with pictures, but damn it everyone shot off !

Brett had to shoot through before the medals to catch his plane back to Hawaii then on back to NZ, so Shaun stepped in to take one for the team and collect Brett's medal. So all the pictures of the Silver medal dogfish team will have Shaun and not Brett in, its official Shaun is the 7th member of this crew, much like George Martin was the fifth Beatle. The medal ceremony was teetering on becoming a bit of a joke, but the emotion and pride and buzz was all there provided by the large NZ contingent.

We had a few beers and back slapping in the hotel pool, non man love I have to point out. Then out to Historic Folsom where we had some early causalities (no names).

Sunday was a quite affair of contemplation and a sinking in of what they had achieved, a good buzz was around or was that the snoring ?

The crew split, Brett gone home Saturday night. Brad and Dan took the Vegas option (nothing to report). The remaining fellas went for a quite meal down old town Sacramento; Hoff, Carl, Rob and Shaun. On Monday those four travelled to San Francisco, we dropped Carl and Rob off at the largest swankiest Hilton hotel ! photo's coming we hope and Shaun and Hoff went back to NZ.

So there is one post to wrap it up, this will occur when we have all the photo's in.

It's been emotional, its been education but most of all its been brilliant.

OPERATION : FINAL APPROACH - COMPLETE

Day 4: semi final day. Objective, qualify for finals in best lane possible, oh and don't DQ. Mission is accomplished. The Tahitians are looking strong and quick but the dogfish boys are holding their own.

tomorrow : about 9:30 am (local time so 4:30 am NZ) is the V12 500 m in race 278 lane 4 team name : Aotearoa Mauriora

then about 12:30 pm (local time 7:30 am NZ) is the V6 1500m in race 292 lane 7, in lane 8 are the boys from the V12 ! go hard both crews...

then the last event of the day hopefully about 4:30 pm (local time 11:30 am) the V6 500 metres in race 314 lane 5.

Phewee. check out the results on the official website (live don't you know).

The boys are all off to bed and are very relaxed but positively focused. Business time tomorrow morning and i know you join me in wishing them well. I have passed on the messages and thoughts.

Penultimate update tomorrow followed by a wrap at some point. Love to all in NZ.

cheers

Cultural Evening

Another night of cultural exchange. Video of NZ haka ! awesome... apparently the Canadian line dance fell a bit short of the inspirational stirring, the updated gallery has some pictures of the line dance and some bonus pictures !

updates tomorrow, semi final day for the V6 in 500 m and 1500m. Thanks for the messages keep them coming.

update Wednesday and update Thursday

Alright, its been busy. Up at 6 am, yep if Janey is reading this, up at 6 am. At the venue at 7 am, straight into race setup, 7:40 race starts, lunch on the go, racing finishes. Then there is the Area Co-ordinator meeting for another hour, then back to the hotel, dinner... its 11 PM, need to get to bed before getting up again ! so no updates on the blog.

The results are posted automatically as soon as the race is recorded ! impressive.

The New Zealand managers and committee team are on the game, as are the key positions for race organisation, timing and announcing (go Maggie !)

So dogfish... first up on Tuesday did no bad in the 1500 metres, enough to qualify for the semi on Friday. The boys were very focused, had a good start and we will leave it at that. As area coordinator i was looking forward to my first protest. My first protest was Dogfish who were DQ'd for a lane cross and infringement on Tahiti. Typical isn't it. Anyway, it was upheld, we got the overturn, the boys were through and the little scare about how easy it is to loose it was a timely reminder. In the singles Dan did well but got a start line infraction (jumped it) so got DQ ! Brad faired better and made it through to repechage.

On Wednesday Brad kicked more like himself with a 2:15. sailed through to the semi in first place. The boys got to business with a 500 metre slap and tickle and came in seconds by a very impressive Tahiti team, they are through to the semi on Friday.

Thursday, the boys teamed up with the J19 boys for the V12, got second straight to final only to have two more unsuccessful protests about uniform. I think the boys just wanted to keep me busy ! Brad had his V1 semi and did not make the final with his 2:27. Good effort though Brad, the boys were proud of you.

On Thursday night there was another cultural exchange, see next post.

Slide show a go go

Got the best of the pictures so far in a slide show look right...

Click on it and toggle through at small scale or click on image and look at the photo album on line. Should get more interesting as the others give me their cameras and of course, the paddling starts !

My favourite shot so far, Rob looking relaxed and happy, which we have all been since arriving.

Business time tomorrow, racing starts.

Paddler Parade

From Dan's camera here are some highlights of the hot afternoon in historic Folsom



Followed swiftly by the NZ boys doing NZ proud at the cultural exchange....

last day of training

Hi all, a real light session this morning for the TAH boys. Mostly relaxing and best news of all, well second best, is we all hired bikes. FREEDOM.

So we have ventured out of our little shopping / hotel courtyard and made it to the next little shopping / hotel courtyard where they had totally different shops and restaurants ! We went crazy and went to Tahoe Jacks - a fine steak establishment.

The first and best bit of news is that as I type, Brett has just arrived from Hawaii (on holiday but with a bit of paddle training we hope) and he's been briefed on tomorrows events.

Get up, breakfast, pedal to the event. Paddle 1500 metres at 10:15 am approx, then relax and catchup with everyone. Simple.

We also had a technology breakthrough today so after this post I'm loading up videos and pictures of us all relaxing, the trips here, the paddler parade, the venue, big cars and rob eating for some strange reason. Probably best in a slideshow so check out top right of blog.

It's business time tomorrow, what we came here for, so pass the word, get behind the boys and leave some comments.

Ground hog day and paddler parade

get up, paddle, meetings, be hot, look at large cars, get up paddle, meetings.... you get the picture. Then we have the paddler parade at the hottest part of the day in historic folsom. NZ contingent the largest there, the Tahiatians were missing numbers due to travelling commitments. It was pretty cool, all lined up by country in alphabetical order. had to feel for the smaller countries, they got lots of attention though. I haven't worked out how to get photos from my phone to the laptop yet, shame cos i got loads of goodies.

The TAH boys are looking forward to seeing Brett who is flying in from Hawaii tomorrow (monday) evening and then he's straight in to the 1500 on Tuesday morning. How thrilling !

We have had our first area coord meeting, it went on and on, two languages does not help however. The buzz is building, the heat is climbing and we are getting close to business time, and taking the rubbish out is part of the foreplay !

TAH are doing the 1500 m on Tuesday morning, Dan and Brad are doing W1's in the afternoon and that's it for day 1. results and times will be hot of the press ! so check back. However before we race.. we have one more ground hog day, get up, paddle, travel... look at big cars...

again, thoughts are with family and friends back home. Will try and sort a response thing for you guys to pass on messages to the boys...

signing off..

Damn its hot

Hi all, another training day, the contingent were out in force on the water in the allocated times, it's rather stressful getting all the crews access to boats in the short space of time, but the management committee have a secret weapon (excel !) so we are getting sorted. Saturday was a hot day and its set to be like that for the rest of the week. Excitement is rising as more and more infrastructure is put in place, for instance the computers for timing and results were installed today, posters up, more boats arriving, you get the picture.

Sunday, NZ has an early training 6 am till 8 am, which is good, because we have to mobilise for a 3pm gathering of all the paddlers for the parade in historic Folsom, pictures tomorrow i promise!

Big mentions for the 3 NZ teams in the Alcatraz race, first three over the line ! Well done girls !