So we're coming up on Phase III of this year's paddling-travels (I:Olympic/Pan-Am Trials, II: Lake Placid Camp and regattas), off to Long Beach, CA, tomorrow! Dragon boat Nationals, and along the way, paddling in some pretty cool places - we're going up to the OTC in Chula Vista to visit friends and get on the water with some stellar athletes (YAY!!) and over to Newport Aquatics where we'll hopefully meet up with Billy Whitford. If you don't know him, Uncle Billy is a great waterman who moved up to California from Hawaii a few years back. He is one of the reasons HCKT's athletes have done so well in the past: the team won several National Champs with him as head coach. Although Uncle Billy isn't coaching here anymore, we've still been really fortunate in our coaches - Robyn, Blane and Pat!
We went out on the C1 yesterday, it was a blast. Pictures to come soon, we hope, which you'll want to see: it's pretty hilarious. This was our fourth time on the water working on the C1 in Kailua (Uncle Pete Roney has been nice enough to let us keep the canoe at his house), and while we've had the balance thing down ok, the issue of steering is a little tricky. See, there's no rudder, you're paddling on bent-knee, and you are NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE SIDES (crazy). Who, we asked ourselves, came up with this sport?!?!
Here's the good news: breakthrough in the steering challenge, so we can actually go forward rather than around and around in circles. Phew!
Oahu Champs today, yeehaw!
Kati
