Surfing

As a change from our usual summer training, Shob and I joined Mick and Kath to go surfing in Saltburn. A slightly earlier start than I would have chosen after the GCSE results celebrations on Thursday began the day. The weather was fab and the good old camper got us there slowly but surely. Camping was pretty luxury compared to the Nationals the weekend before.
Saturdays surfing was really good, but the waves weren't that big so it involved quite alot of floating around. As my first surfing experience it was definitely alot of fun and very different from canoeing! Not the biggest surf you've ever seen on the Saturday, but clear blue skies anyway. Yes that is Jimmy in the orange wetsuit!

On Sunday the waves were a bit bigger, I went out on the single ski and was slightly alarmed by the waves coming at me. My morning involved alot of falling off! However I began to get the hang of it eventually and managed afew good rides. After a much needed sunbathing break, Mick and I took the double out when the waves started to get bigger. This was definitely the best surfing I did over the weekend, and other than a bit of falling off, we got lots of really fun rides.

The Trent seemed a bit dull after a weekend in the waves, hope I get the chance to surf again in the future. Thanks guys, Beth x

National Marathon Champs - Results

Here's the link to the results page!
http://nationalchamps.co.uk/results.aspx

National Marathon Champs 2007

For those who didn't stay for the prize giving on Sunday night, you might like to know that even with so few members able to attend this year, we managed to come 6th in the team trophy!
The other important piece of news is that Hayleigh Mason has been selected to represent Great Britain in Ladies K1 at the forthcoming World Marathon Championships in Hungary. This is great news as Hayleigh is obviously on her best form ever this year. All the best Hayleigh!

Photo - Hayleigh in the leading group of the Ladies K1 Assessment Race on Saturday.

We look forward to a few more reports & photos from the Nationals from other members.

NKC Member Tim - World Champion

Congratulations to Tim Brabants from us all. Thanks to Shaun Cavan for photo & e-mail.

"Hi,

We have a new World Champion – Tim Brabants in the K1 1000m!!! Last weekend in Duisberg, Germany.

Tim also won Silver in the K1 500m, in the second fastest time in History!!!

See attached photo of Tim crossing the line!!

The rest of the team performed well and overall Team GB is moving up the World Ranking thanks to the example set by Tim.

We now aim for Beijing next year.
Regards,
Shaun Caven
National Head Coach
Olympic Podium Program"
Use this link for reports on the World Class website. http://worldclass-canoeing.org.uk/wcp/2-latest-news-and-results.aspx

Tuesday - Clifton & WWR World Champion

The weather was a bit breezy & Clifton times seemed slow this week with only one PB recorded in the book. Michael managed a PB in his K1 for a change, but with a corrected time did not manage to dislodge Mark Hampton from the Junior Mens seasons best spot. The timekeeper had an unusual approach to recording the times, and discussion (& adjustments) still continues as to which results are correct.

Most members were unaware of the visit of a recent World Champion to the club on Tuesday, so I include the text & photo from an e-mail from Mike Mason.

"We also have British Junior Wildwater Racing World Champions. Sandra Hyslop of Hexham, aged 16, destroyed the rest of the field winning by 38 seconds over the 18 minute classic course. She also won a silver medal in the sprint event. The girls team of Sandra, Hannah Brown of Bath and Olivia Churchill of Royal won gold in the team race by 15 seconds and Olivia also won bronze medals in both the classic and team races. This was the most successful championship for a British Team and bodes well for the future of our sport."

Ironbridge

The 8 mile and 12 mile courses at Ironbridge were slightly different to previous years. For the 8 mile course, we completed a loop, which perhaps made the course more difficult because of having to paddle upstream through a few sets of rapids. There were two Nottingham crews in the 5/6 K2 race; Hayleigh & I, and Mick & Beth, and we finished 5th and 6th. Thanks Hayleigh for an enjoyable race! The k1s had some good results; Norman, Simon and Toni all finished within the top 3 in their races, with Kath finishing just behind Toni in div 8.

Lovely weather - lovely day.

The evening was the best so far this year with near perfect conditions for Round the Bridges. Norman had quite a large group for the casual paddling & Kath accompanied the younger junior/Lightnings down to the sailing club. It was good to see Ben back after his illness in July. He couldn't find the old battered left handed wings he has used for a year, so used flats & ended up with one blade dropping off. Kath swopped him for her left handed wings & paddled back most of the way C1 style!
Shobhanaa & Beth did Round the Bridges with Cathy, Ralph, Graham and a few more. Ricky & I joined them after our paddle to the sailing club.
Cathy was rewarded by a PB, Shobhanaa, on Cathy's wash & Ricky clipped a bit more off theirs while Beth managed to take about 20 seconds off hers with her first time sub 7:00 minutes on my wash. I managed to prove that mine was not a fluke last week by equalling it!

Clifton

The Trent was at normal levels, there was no thunderstorm, it was fairly sunny if a bit breezy, in fact almost what we would expect for the time trial this time of year. This could account for the whole crop of PBs, Season's Bests & a World Record.
The straight PBs in K1 were from Michelle, Beth & Simon. The K2 PBs were from Dave & Alice, Martin & Minnie, Michael & Becky, Kath & Laura, Mick & Ricky.
The season's bests were Norman & Des who did a PB and now hold the Over 50s K2 time for this season. Paul & Shobhanaa took the Veteran Junior season's best with their PB of 35:50. Dave & Matt captured the Mens K2 time for this season.
The truly great performance came yet again from from Hayleigh, this time in K2 with Tina who now hold the all time World record for Ladies K2. Well done Tina that's a neat way to stay in the record books after Hayleigh broke your other World Records in the past few weeks.
Altogether there were 37 people paddling tonight.

Friday Night Round the Bridges

Considering that this was the first week for a while that the Trent has been back to normal summer levels for Round the Bridges, there was a "thin" turnout this evening. An added dimention of the Nottingham Water Festival offered a few extra hazards, with boats moored in odd places, a continual stream of narrow boats & rather too many little rubber boats wizzing round to make paddling above Trent Bridge a particularly pleasant option.
To add to the distractions of loud music & assorted boats, there was a noticable downstream breeze. Des, Tom, Tim & Shobhanaa were the main participants in the time trials, with Tim recording a PB of 6:18. Kath, Laura, Alice, Ricky & I did a steady paddle to the Sailing Club, with all the juniors showing the results of having trained with Beth C on Tuesday nights. Their technique & speed shows real progress & they have all made the transition from Lightnings into full size K1s without any difficulties.
Kath, Ricky & I opted to do a couple of times Round the Bridges when we got back from our "long warm up." Kath did a season's best, while Ricky & I managed a PB each. Ricky is now on 7:36, while I went 3 seconds faster than my PB set in 1984 with a 5:47!
Thanks as always to Dave for the timing.

Tuesday Night

Now the Times Book is available, it is possible to record just how successful the Tuesday evening Clifton race was this week!
At the top of the list is Hayleigh's outstanding result of 34:59 which is both a PB & a new "World Record" for Ladies K1. Well done Hayleigh from all of us.
Shobhanaa, now with a PB of 45:22 took over a minute off her time. Simon managed a PB of 43:48, Tom is now down to 36:44 & Michael, despite his aborted attempt on the White Water boat World Record, did manage a PB of 38:19. Perhaps he needs to approach it a little more "quietly" to get the result he wants!