Kayak Camp

It was a bit of a strange feeling heading into camp with the AUS Kayak team at the AIS Eurohub in Varese....I realised that I only made it overseas with an international team after I left the AIS! Anyway, after wondering what the hell I was going to with minimal gear, borrowed computer, headful of mud and a few things that I Maguivered from the hardware store things got pretty busy. Workwise the setting was beautiful, the food fantastic and the athletes more than willing to work hard with the impending slection regatta ahead. One of the highlights of the camp was the relay....basically everyone cheated (false starts) and everyone claimed the win...the athletes are still trash talking each other.


Another highlight from Varese was a trip up the mountain to Socra Monte....a village up the mountain with a very religous history, and chappels built all the way down the mountain. Hard to explain...but a must see if you're ever there.


Following the camp we jumped in one of the vans that were being driven across Italy, through Slovenia and down to Szeged (Hungary), which is where the final World Cup was held. After a few near misses in the cars, some amazing scenery, particularly through Slovenia, and about 13 hours in the vans we finally arrived. Our athletes put on a very good showing, most of them making A-finals, placing in B-finals or winning medals. In the end we left with 1 gold (Davis Smith-Luke Morrissson MK2 1000m) and 2 silver medals (Ken Wallace MK1 1000m, Matt Goble MK1 200m).


Apart from the enthusiastic crowd which was more akin to a Rugby League crowd in AUS, and the extremely high calibre of competition, there was one of the most amazing displays of stunt flying that any of us had ever seen. I think the pilot was actually from the Red Bull plane racing circuit.


Following the competition we hitched a ride with one of the coaches back to Slovenia which looked amazing on the way through...so far we are very glad we came back to unexpectedly one of the most beautiful countries we have seen so far. More on that in our next post :-)