New job, no boating
It has been a long time since I have been in my boat- apart from a 1 hour splash at Boulters, I have not been paddling since Worlds (early Sept). This is mainly due to a lack of water in the Thames valley - Hurley has been shut and my one trip to Boulters wasn't inspiring enough to make me want to get back in my boat until it rained enough for Hurley. However, I have also been seeing a physio to try and sort out a long-standing back problem and he has advised against boating until its fixed. The good news is it does feel like it is getting better, the bad news is Hurley is now on 3 gates and it is very tempting to get back in my boat.... I shall try to resist until I have built up strength in the right places.
At the moment I haven't got that much time to go boating anyway as I have just started a new teaching job, which although is just 4 days a week (3 days in a year 1/2 class, and 1 day in a year 4 class) I am super busy with planning/figuring out new routines and I also recently started an evening Post Grad cert course in teaching children with literacy difficulties.
Last weekend I took an organisational/adminstrative off-water role in my second missed selection event since 1999 (the first missed one was a couple of weekends before at Brit Champs)! Which didn't matter as, because I am European Champion, I am pre-selected for the European Championships in June. It was interesting to watch the action from the bank, but bizarrely I still felt nervous when the ladies came on as if I should have been paddling.
The event took place in a new feature on the HPP course: The Tardis, which had been developed especially for the event and was believed to be not too dissimilar to the feature in Lienz. It looked a tricky spot to set up and was super flushy if you didn't land your loops accurately or veered too far to playboaters left. Jen Chrimes had some great rides in the ladies event with some huge loops and back loops and Claire O took 2nd place with loops and some really vertical clean cartwheels.
Jen Chrimes looping
Claire O clean-cartwheeling.
James 'pringle' Bebbington took his 2nd selection win in the men's event pulling off most hole tricks in both directions, though in this competition he was not quite so far ahead of the rest of the field - Jon Best was only a few points behind and they were both closely followed by Joe Bradley in his first season of senior competition.
Thankfully the rains have arrived just in time for the 3rd selection event at Hurley 21st November (I'll once again be putting my spectator booties on). We just need to hope that a) it rains enough to keep it on at least 2 gates and b) it doesn't rain too much to flood it out - it's a fine balance!
Hopefully see you on the water soon :)
Flea
At the moment I haven't got that much time to go boating anyway as I have just started a new teaching job, which although is just 4 days a week (3 days in a year 1/2 class, and 1 day in a year 4 class) I am super busy with planning/figuring out new routines and I also recently started an evening Post Grad cert course in teaching children with literacy difficulties.
Last weekend I took an organisational/adminstrative off-water role in my second missed selection event since 1999 (the first missed one was a couple of weekends before at Brit Champs)! Which didn't matter as, because I am European Champion, I am pre-selected for the European Championships in June. It was interesting to watch the action from the bank, but bizarrely I still felt nervous when the ladies came on as if I should have been paddling.
The event took place in a new feature on the HPP course: The Tardis, which had been developed especially for the event and was believed to be not too dissimilar to the feature in Lienz. It looked a tricky spot to set up and was super flushy if you didn't land your loops accurately or veered too far to playboaters left. Jen Chrimes had some great rides in the ladies event with some huge loops and back loops and Claire O took 2nd place with loops and some really vertical clean cartwheels.
Jen Chrimes looping
Claire O clean-cartwheeling.
James 'pringle' Bebbington took his 2nd selection win in the men's event pulling off most hole tricks in both directions, though in this competition he was not quite so far ahead of the rest of the field - Jon Best was only a few points behind and they were both closely followed by Joe Bradley in his first season of senior competition.
Thankfully the rains have arrived just in time for the 3rd selection event at Hurley 21st November (I'll once again be putting my spectator booties on). We just need to hope that a) it rains enough to keep it on at least 2 gates and b) it doesn't rain too much to flood it out - it's a fine balance!
Hopefully see you on the water soon :)
Flea
posted by flea at 10:34 AM 
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