FRPA and USACK Development Topics assigned by Matt Taylor

Days 5-7 in brief and Tyler qualifies

Chris W — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:12:21 GMT

So .. it is Sunday and we are preparing for Tyler's first International Semi-Final race. With 8 Nations represented here (Nigeria, Germany, GB, Scotland, Sweden, Canada, Ireland and Tyler) it is certainly a decent size crowd. 148 racers hit the start line yesterday with 28 being C1's and Tyler managed to scrape out the Semi-Final Cut and being one of 8 Junior Level C1's here (three of which were british Jr Team and one Jr World Medalist) He is preparing for a go at qualifying for the one of 10 Finals Spot.
It is raining hard and mild temps make it a true English day.

It has been a long past few days winding up to this morning. Long days of training, driving, sight seeing and hangin' with our friends. I must say it is a great , classy group of folks here and look forward to many more days in the future training and racing with them.

Tyler has certainly been committed to figuring out these new techniques we have been working so hard at developing and it is paying off. His 20 meter test has decreased from 9.1 down to 7.9 seconds from a standing start, which has been remarkable. He has learned that it is all about the catch and jump while reaching max hull speed ideally in as little as 5 strokes or thereabouts, certainly by 10 meters. He will certainly be shot with close to 5 hours each day training at a high level whether it be on or off the water reviewing every piece of each day to running drills or visualization work.

What a trip it has been for Tyler, at least what I see of it.

Thank you everyone for the kind, supportive and fun emails that you have sent as it makes Tyler feel well supported as he puts so much aside to reach for his future Olympic Dreams.

Results, photos, video and blog reports in more detail coming at a later time.

Forum: Tyler and Chris Journey to the UK and Beyond

Day Five Nottingham

Tyler Honton — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:13:36 GMT

Today started out around 0900 with stiff backs and for me, my legs. I ate a quick tasty muffin and took a hot shower. I then hung out and watched some T.V. before we headed down to the river to do a half course simulated race work out.

In this work out there were some complex moves like a dive gate on river left coming off of a 6 foot high drop (As a left C1 that meant a Huge cross bow stroke). There were also very difficult in fast water offsets which forced me to think light and change directions of my boat quickly in difficult sections of whitewater. I did 5 repeated runs on this before getting off 2 hours later. This session started with the typical 15-20 minute warm-up that included stroke drills (wiggles, spinning, gliding and pelvis awareness drills ending with 4x 30 meter sprints which help me loosen up and get my balance in check.

I got changed and saw Collin and another the top British Junior C1, Greg Pitts about to get on. So we watched them paddle for about an hour while Chris and Colin worked on some coaching pieces.
I did not think that someone needed a bigger boat than the Loco by Galasport but Collin need to design a boat called the barge, for people weighing over 80 kilos. He is one big boy and not fat.. just tall and lumberjack like. After this we got in the car and went to find some food for a late lunch. With no problems we found a McDonalds.

We sat down in this fine restaurant, ate some lunch and we were on our way back to our course. Not without some sort of confusion. While trying to get out of the McDonalds, Chris tried to get in to a car 2 cars away then after he noticed that wasnt our car he went to the next one over. Once again it was another wrong car. As ye old saying goes, the third time is the charm, Mr Flake, my coach, made it in to our car where I was standing trying to get in, much to Chris's delight... on the wrong side of the car. I am amazed at how we have even made it this far along with the stupidity between our combined 9 brain cells. I am sure Chris would claim 8.5 were his own, but we all know him better than that. Only 6 are his and I am least have two.

My second session was with the retired Head British Olympic coach John Mac. To describe John Mac he is like Santa Clause with his plump stature gray beard and cherry red cheeks. With him I did a ' breakout' broken workout where the focus on getting out of an upstream and up to max speed again before the next gate, which Chris and I have been working on intensely for the last couple weeks. We did 2 full lengths, broken into about 5- 25 second sections. It was around 830 when we got off and we were all cold as the lights over the course were not heating the 39 degree air. So we went to the locker rooms and took a hot shower started to talk to this guy by the name of Jeremy, who was on the 2007 British Junior Team and was a funny guy and a decent training partner.

After about an hour warming up, we were on our way back to Colin's house for dinner (Chris made a pesto tortellini meal) a quick writing session and right to bed while Chris sat cursing at his video camera trying to link it to the web. Good luck to him for the night while I crash. Oh by the way.... looks like we will be going to Kenya in January to race in the African Continental Olympic Qualifier as guests and to train with athletes from all over Africa, including our new friend Johnny here at our house from Nigeria. I can't wait to paddle in Kenya.

Good night once again and thank you for reading.

Forum: Tyler and Chris Journey to the UK and Beyond

Day Four Nottingham

Tyler Hinton — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:52:40 GMT

We planed to wake up around 730 this morning but dew to a faulty alarm error (thank you Chris watch) we started to move at 830. We got in the car around 9ish and headed for our first day of training in Nottingham. When we got to the course I walked to the Whitewater Park and walked down the side to see what the river was like. It looked like a great place to train and I am so glad to have this opportunity to be here.

About 30 minutes later, Chris came back with my golden ticket (daily pass to paddle) and I got on the river ready to paddle. I did a nice flat-water warm-up and then paddled under the walkway into the whitewater channel.

On my first 3 runs down, I was asked by Chris to just use the green water (used to learn how the main fast current flows and how to stay on the fastest 12 inch ribbon of water snaking down the course) and glide with good hip movement and aggression. I found that the water liked to fold on top of you if you are not aggressive, kinda like whipped butter in a mixer. Following the green water runs down the course I was told to actually paddle hard (race pace like) and do quick sprints between pre-determined gates. When I was doing those sprints I felt REALLY good. After that I went back to the top to do some quick technical sprints on three or four gate courses and learn what the water was doing in each section over a series of difficult fast moves making me think and act fast.
I think the best part of that session was my final up stream gate I was doing it was in a part of an eddy that if you put your draw in it just shoots you out really fast.

Once I finished paddling Chris and I went over to the athletes cafeteria and had lunch. This consisted of pasta, fresh bread, lemon water and I will say a tomato and basil soup. In the States tomato basil doesnt have pumpkin like stuff in it. Confused Brits!

After lunch we sat down in a common room and used the Internet and listened in to the GB Crew Team the funniest conversations they were having while shooting a good game of billiards. It went something like this:
Person A: Where did u go to college?
Person B: Ooo, me, I went to Cambridge
Person A: Did u take any classes
Person b: Yea I took general sport studies and well general
Person A: What the hell is general studies
Person b: Well it like general stuff and grade 9 math
Person a: What did you get in the classes
Person b: Well I got a U in general sports and another u in general. But I rowed the piss out of the shell.

Everyone laughed, while Chris may have even blown boogers out of his nose trying to hold in his laugh.

Person A: How do u manage to only get a U in general sports? Did you say that in football you hit the ball with a stick?
Person C: You are a retard

It was one of the funniest and most random things I could have ever heard in my life from a group of elite athletes.
After that whole thing we went back to do our session, this was another technical session but more intense. In this session we perfected everything we worked on before. Near the end of my session I started to talk to the 4th British boat, Charles.

After that we went back to Collins and hung out with the Nigerian team member by the name of Johnny.

We went back to the store to get some more food and then we all sat around and talked about everything ranging from training to why the heck British Police cars are camouflaged in bright green and blue squares. So stealthy.

Well time for bed and thanks again for reading my very brief parts of my day.

Thank you again everyone for supporting me.

Forum: Tyler and Chris Journey to the UK and Beyond

New photos up... video coming soon

chris w — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:48:24 GMT

Tyler Race and Training in Nottingham in the FRPA Photo Gallery

Race and training video coming soon.

Forum: Tyler and Chris Journey to the UK and Beyond

Day Three

Tyler — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 23:25:05 GMT

We woke up at 8 am today to find ourselves in the deep fog of this valley and still tired. Chris and I walked over to see if there had been any changes to the river from yesterdays premier race to only find the only change was to an upstream gate that now is a down.
Once we saw the change and talked to a few other racers we started back to the hotel to find out that we forgot the key inside and we were locked out of the hotel until the 9:00 restaurant opening.
So what to do with 30 minutes? We went back to the river and told the London coach our story and he started to make fun of us, in typical British crude humor.

The hotel bar opened at 9 and we got back in through the main lobby grabbed some money and started for breakfast. We went to the Internet caf because they served a fast good breakfast, which of course included 'chips' or as I know them, french fries. We finished eating around 9 30 and I had to hurry to make my 11:00 start time. My first run was a 126 and CLEAN it was the fastest D1 time of the day. Then I went back to the hotel in full gear and got changed. I went out to lunch and got an Ogi ( pronounced OGGHY.. as in Oggie Oggie Oi Oi Oi for those who watch Rugby) which is a Welsh calzone filled with everything such as bacon, potato and other veggies. They are really good.

After my lunch it was time to get back on the water for my second run. I ended with a 1:23 (top C1 time was 1:17, by the British Junior C1 Champion) on my second run but I had a touch which I thought I did not have but there was no use in protesting since I am racing as a guest. As a final result I ended up as the Second C1 in the race, which included racers from the Premier Division (top 30 ranks in all UK). That is my best finish in a big race.

After the race we got in the Car and drove to Nottingham... well... we tried to. GB has WAY too many roundabouts and driving 90 into a roundabout can be confusing (everyone drives like that here yet still pass us), road signs into the country can also be confusing since some of them show the town name in a place we are trying to go but for bike routes and take us through very narrow bush lined country lanes. It was great to see the local bikers jump up into the corn rows as our car is about 1 foot narrower than the one lane road. Chris did a great job today. I think he must have found his English drivers license in his cereal this morning and managed quite well. Shifting like a mad Formula One racer and drifting around the 100 roundabouts between Llangollen and Nottingham we made it unscathed with no getting lost. Must have been my solid map reading skills!

Once we found the city like we were hunting for Sir Robin Hood himself (yes there is a true Robin Hoods Castle and Robin Hood Museum.... and only a few blocks from our house here) for Collins home, it was a hassle to find the place we were staying in. (Assad you would be proud of Chris' driving abilities... He would have made a great Bombay Taxi Driver) After about an hour or so and knocking on a wrong door in a bad part of town (really bad part of town). We arrived at Collins Radmore's home, (British C1 team member) only to find Ben Hayward (Canada Jr World Medalist) Conner Curson (Team Canada), and a few other big names in the slalom world from the UK and Nigeria.

After we all exchanged names and talked a bit we went on our last adventure of the night, to find a Spar (grocery store) so we could get food to last us the week.
Nearly an hour later we found one in a shady part of the city (Chris educated me quickly on the do's and dont's of inner city life to live another day- Since Chris has spent much of his life in the City and growing up). We ended up getting some muffins, Cheese, ham, noodles and Sunny D and headed back to Collins house........ Not to brag, but we made it back with out calling Collin or showing up at the wrong house.

Off to bed and enjoy a long nights rest before tomorrow's sessions on the famed Nottingham Whitewater Slalom Course.

Thank you again for reading of my adventures. Many more to come.

Forum: Tyler and Chris Journey to the UK and Beyond

Day 2 racing partial report...

Chris W — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:47:38 GMT

Day 2 morning runs are complete. Tyler is the top Cboat in the Division 1 race today, which is their Non National Team Division. Much faster than yesterday and seems to have figured out his stroke much better to find a rythym glide that drives from his hips\knee and not shoulders.
The sun is driving from behind the clouds and turning out to be a fabulous afternoon.

Thomas the Tank Engine keeps sounding his whistle at every departure and arrival with new guests making the slalom race atmosphere fun and light.

Once again, our British and Welsch hosts have been wonderful and continue to accomodate us very well, including a special party for the English and South African Rugby World Cup last night. I ahve been to many American Football Games and watched from many bars those games, but have never seen such a party around the die hard ruggers in Wales. AMAZING!

After run two this afternoon we are off to Nottingham to take part in a C1 camp hosted by two ex-polish athletes now coaches and with members of the British Team. Should be great to be back on difficult and quality whitewater once again in a fun city.

Good Bye til next weekend Wales where we hope to hear lots more cookie packin' beer drinking chatter.

Thank you everyone for your kind emails and support for Tyler on this Journey. Hopefully a more complete report will come this evening.

Chris

Forum: Tyler and Chris Journey to the UK and Beyond

Day one Entry

Tyler HInton — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:08:05 GMT

We left Denver at 6 am for an 11 am flight to DC and then to the United Kingdom, London specifically. When we arrived in the Uk we had trouble finding a place to leave the boat and gear while Chris took the shuttle to the rental car. Once Chris left for the shuttle after leaving me to look after the 100+ pounds of clothes, the boat and the other gear while also rigging the boat a temporary roof rack to slide on once Chris arrived.

Once Chris got back with the rental car we put the boat on the top and got on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car and went off to Llangollen, Wales for a race the next day.

When we were driving Chris would try to shift on the right side of the car when he noticed that the door was there and instead he needed to shift on the left while he was driving on the right side of the car now.

Once we got to Langollen we searched for a place to stay and the river where the first in a series of four races will be held in less than 24 hours from then. After about an hour of looking for a place to sleep we found a nice little inn, less than a 5-minute walk from the course. We then had a late lunch of Fish and Chips and then went to look at the course design for the following days race. When we found the course we realized the water was too low to have a whitewater race, so it was more flat water than anything which had the race course moved a little lower on the river than had originally planned. We then went to the part of the river that was not closed and did a quick mobility session to get loose after the long day of travel.

I went to bed around 6 after an epic day of travel and light training while Chris went out with some British Coaches and other friends.

Today we got up around 8 and went to get breakfast. As we were eating we started talking to the Welsh paddlers (well at least what we could understand from this very hard accent- sounds like a mix of a Scottish/Irish person speaking into a large fan with a mouthful of cookies), which were really nice and welcoming. Quickly afterwards I put on my gear and started to warm up in the cold 40 degree damp air.

I was told that this race would be small, so I expected a race more like at home, but instead the start list included 126 racers and I was amongst the 26 C1s. There were no overtakes and no multiple class entries for racers while I ended up placing in the middle of the class, which included many British, Irish and Scottish Team athletes. Even though it was a small race it was still a nerve-racking experience being in an International level race.

I learned that it was not too bad because the people are all nice and they dont expect anything from you but if you just try your hardest you fit right in and all will be fine. For the caliber of many of the racers, everyone is so open and welcoming to us Americans, even with Chris driving on the wrong side of the road down a narrow alley not realizing it until a car was bolting right at us. No, they did not shoot us a finger or lay on their horn, but rather just wave and smile as Chris jammed the car over to the other side of the alley way narrowly missing a little old man coming out of his front door. As Ashad, a fellow Denver area team member says. Chris drives like a Middle Eastern and I am starting to think, this is not a good quality to show at my drivers test this winter.

After my first run I met and got to know a kid named Adam from the London area, he was my age and as well a C1er around the same ability as I.

I did not realize how big American football is in Europe. Everyone likes New England. But most importantly, This whole area and in England are so crazy now that the English Rugby Team is playing France in the finals of the Rugby World Cup taking place only a couple hours from here.

More later.. I am off to the Bakery for a snack and prepare for tomorrow.

Thank you to all my teachers, coaches and my family for supporting my goals.

********Note from Chris after proof reading the article. In my defense, I am not that bad of a driver but rather confused when driving on the left side of the road while sitting on the right side of the car and shifting with my left arm and not my right. This has to be one of the hardest things to get used to doing as well going to get in the car on the normal side of the car and Tyler sitting at the steering wheel and all we can do is laugh and walk around the other side of the car and try again. Before driving I constantly remind myself before turning, going around a roundabout (every 2 miles) or starting off Drive on the left. No this constant reminding myself to do this so far did not work one time. And I must have looked like a deer in headlights to the poor bloke driving right at me and the fellow leaving his front door, who by the way just smiled and kept walking like it happened everyday. GEEZZZ!

Forum: Tyler and Chris Journey to the UK and Beyond

Rebuilding the Flatwater Course Gates

Mike Hyde — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:22:46 GMT

When can we start rebuilding the flatware gates and schedule some fall races?

Forum: Worldwide Canoe/Kayak Development

Charlotte, Eastern America.

Isaac Schmidt — Thur, 19 Jul 2007 00:58:11 GMT

So here we are in the South. It is wicked Humid, and Hot. I guess that is to be expected as we are closer to the equator, and this is one of the greenest places I have ever been. Now to the Course, it is large. flat out, I think the figure is that it drops something in the area of 30ish feet(talk to Joel McCune with arguements) in the distance of 400 feet for the Comp channel, and the other channels are about 700 to 800 feet long. It literally feels like I am paddling in a Ski resort, there are warm up pools at the top, and the bottom, there are different runs a Green Circle (Wilderness), a Blue Square (Big Water), and a Black Diamond (Competition), ooooh. They aren't too difficult, merely a new pattern. The eddies are fun, and fast, and a few of them are deep providing about 4 areas for fully vertical pivots with out fearing the snapping of a stern. The Competition channel where we spend most of the time (because we are hard core) is a mixture of flowing intricate currents with fast, and slow eddies. The interesting thing about the course is simply how diverse the features are, the top of the Competition Channel is a fast little chute into a wall, and there is a really fun left eddy after a 8 foot tall board, but it is hard to exit that eddy with speed for a ferry to the up right. The next section of the course is a series of triangulated waves that all throw left into the wall, I have flipped here a few times being a righty C1... and then into the first of the two larger drops, this one is fun, it is an 8 foot slide into a huge pool with fairly fast eddies, and weird little hole things in the middle of the pond. the next section is really fun and flowy with fast crisp eddies on both sides, the problem is that they aren't staggered, they are merely one left one right, and just a series of steps. but they are fun regardless. after this comes the "Room Of Death" or something of that nature, it's a sketchy up right that is about as wide as a 2 liter Coke bottle. and surges so sometimes it's there, and sometimes it's not, and all of the current feeds away from it. then it is the Big Drop... OOOOH. it is a 8 foot slide into a large hole, the left eddy is awesome, the right eddy is scary, but it's all good, because you go down, more than likely get flipped by something that came from way out of your periphery, and smalled into the wall. After you get up, there is a huge current differential that is really boily, and doesn't really have any real line that you have to try to break out of, and not get slammed into the other rocks at the end of the eddy... then you get to paddle down the remaining 3 foot droppy-slide thing into the bottom pool. all the while being bombarded by rafts, I got stuck between a ballard, and a raft for about 2 seconds where I was trying to figure out what to do, because I was unable to roll up, and unable to move until they were off of my boat. for the most part, the rafts are like big potatoes floating down the course with no control, and going where-ever they feel like. I hope all is well out West, where the flowers reign free, and the air isn't battling with smog or water molecules, and there are mountains...
cheers
-isaac

Forum: Texas 2007 Team Blog

pool drop, pool drop...

Isaac Schmidt Boom!?! — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 04:35:18 GMT

So this is my first camp with the FRPA group. I live in washington, and haven't paddled for a terribly long time. but love this sport, and met chris this winter via a ski trip to colorado. long story short, I have come back a few times since then for paddling/skiing, and grown to really appreciate the kids, and atmosphere that this group has. I was thrilled when Chris mentioned this camp in texas on mild whitewater, in warm water, I was sold. Now to the present, here in the 6th or so day of the camp, we finally have gates as of yesterday, and were able to get real sessions going. It seems to be pouring almost every day here in San Marcos (San Marvelous). a few days ago we received about 3 inches of rain, sending all of the rivers up to their boatable flows. good fun safe creeking was had and I was able to get out in Chris' converted Dagger CFS. while he kayaked.
Now to the course. For most of the weekend, and the hotter parts of the day, it is overrun by texan's swimming down the drops as one is trying to peel out into the current, making the beginning of the camp a bit sketchy. But always exciting. Due to my lack of expertise in the slalom, especially on these artficial feeling courses with the boily more turbulent eddies, i am having enough of a challenge paddling with the other's who grew up (paddling wise) on them. I love the dynamic feel of the course here, it makes the training much more effective (but darn, this humidity is a killer). It is just unfortunate that there are only 3 pools with drops. It would have been so much more functional as for a racing site if they had just used the site and made a continuous drop, instead of a couple holes with one that is sticky, with the bottom being rather shallow, but functional for a perfect up-gate in a hole. Also this team/association is a great thing to be involved in, it is a very inclusive group. which as I am sure most are aware is completely opposite(unfortunately) of the rest of the Slalom community. I was worried that I wouldn't fit in, being 2 years older than the oldest athlete from FRPA, but i have seamlessly melded in, and it is great fun on and off the water.
cheers
-isaac

Forum: Texas 2007 Team Blog

Texas

Tyler — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 22:15:55 GMT

I took of from Switzerland the same day the rest of the group left from Colorado I will say that my Loki jacket was helpful and the McDonald's dollars helped when I was stuck in Boston airport for 18 hours. but back to Texas. other than the rain and thunder it has been a good trip. if you ever get the opportunity to paddle from Ben and Micheal's to the San Marcos training sight. take a few extra minutes to look in to the river and observe the wild life. also if it is possible you should go run onion creek it is a really sweet river, also the tube shuts. I will continue when we get back from what ever adventure we seek next

Forum: Texas 2007 Team Blog

Extreme Paddling in Texas

Max Van Pelt — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 22:15:45 GMT

For me, the most epic paddling adventure this week happened the evening that dodge, turvey, mark, and I chose to paddle the Purdinales river after a nice long day of Texas rainfall. When we pulled up to put in, the water had already passed well over the bridge and within five minutes we could tell that the river level was rising quite quickly. We put in, and after just a few miles of bouncy 2-3 foot waves, we headed over our first damn and embarked on the epic. Before this, i honestly wasn't even sure what this kind of river surfing meant. The waves turned absolutely huge, curling over with intense dynamic crashing; they looked just like 8-foot ocean waves, only they were in the middle of a river. It was AWESOME. It allowed me to do a lot of work on my edges and trying to separate the movements of my upper torso and my hips, something that i have continued to devote much of my energy to while on the course. It was an absolute blast. Nothing really compares to the feeling of holding oneself on the top of fast moving water, and miraculously finding stability in the thick of it all. At around 8:00, the sun started to set and the whole river turned dark very quickly. we went over one final set of waves under this low light condition, and let me tell you, with some of the waves converging into points that were almost 10ft up, it was absolutely epic. Chris pulled in with the trailer just as we paddled up to the takeout. This was just one of the many extreme experiences i have had on this trip.

Forum: Texas 2007 Team Blog

Tejas

Tam — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:24:35 GMT

It is day 5 of our Texapalooza. So far we have done everything from 18ft waterfalls to tube shootes to 3 hour kayak polo sessions to river runs that were much much longer than they needed to be. This is my first trip of this type and its been an overwhelming experience. A couple days ago I got my first combat roll and I can feel myself improving a lot. Since yesterday however I have been pretty wiped out energy wise and I've missed a lot of rolls. This has probably been my steepest learning curve and also my biggest challenge. Luckily the water here is warm and it is a safe course to swim in even. I hate cold water so this is a nice change. Today during the morning sessions it got a little cold. It was thundering for a little while and raining pretty hard. Mariah, Sarah and I pushed through and continued to paddle. Everyone it seems has really improved. Time to make me some lunch and maybe go for a moonlight session tonight and a movie! Wish us all luck for the race tomorrow.

Forum: Texas 2007 Team Blog

You know you're in texas when we go paddling at night

michael turvey — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:55:44 GMT

The team van rolled slowly down a hill towards the Pedernales river. As we approached, we saw that the water covered the road entirely, and it was rising fast. I rolled out of the back of the van and changed quickly; daylight was fading fast and Mark (our local buddy) was adamant that it was now or never - he didn't want to put on if we waited any longer. The sky that afternoon was a dark blue gray, with a constant threat of thunderstorms. It was a very surreal experience - I had just woken up so I was still a little bit groggy, and my brain didn't really take in the "flood gauge" sign that was rapidly being covered in water. We put in rapidly and paddled down the river, dodging debris, dams, and the many trees and things that were normally not underwater. We had some excellent surfing times (eight- and ten-foot waves!), and it hadn't even been dark for that long when we got to the takeout.
Another successful paddling adventure in the chronicles of the FRPA travel team!

Forum: Texas 2007 Team Blog

Texas is awsome!!!!!!!

JP — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 17:17:42 GMT

I have to say this trip is so much more fun than I was expecting. The drive was long and not very comfortable, but when we finally arrived at 5 o'clock AM we found the house locked. We had to sleep in the changing rooms that night which wasn't all that bad. We began the next day paddling the loop and going off of my first waterfall. We went upstream and paddled around the course for a bit. We got a good night sleep that night. When we woke up we got in our groups to paddle flat water stuff. I have gone through the top hole which was a little intimidating at first, but now I can cross it with ease. I am working mostly on keeping my boat flat and making good strokes. This trip has made my role better than ever. I don't think we have done what we were planning on any of the days, but I'm glad. We were planing to go to Onion Creek but it was dry so that we went to a class five river that nobody from FRPA went on, so we left to the pederanles. I was really tired after the 4 hour drive so i decided to stay at the put in. The put in (a bridge) was soon over taken with water that was at the top of a flood gauge. The bridge formed a six foot wave that was looking pretty scary. I got the nerves to go in it and found out that it was really easy with you, but had extremely fast water. The next day we found out Onion Creek was running and we left as soon as posible. I then ran another (bigger)waterfall that was 18 feet high. I am so glad i learned to play kayak polo, it would be fun to get some polo thing going in Colorado. Yesterday we went to tube chutes. It was so fun and i even tried to stand in my kayak while going down. We usually always have a morning session up at the course but we had to set up the gates so it was a bit later that we had the sessions. I am couldn't be more ready for the race tomorrow. My confidense has gone way up this trip because of the waterfalls, surf-wave, crossing the hole, and everything else we've done. I'm just sad that the trip is almost over!!!

Forum: Texas 2007 Team Blog