ReadyToFly

Women's canoeing is currently excluded from the Olympic games just as women's ski jumping was.  This is the trailer for their journey, which is very similiar to my dream to become an Olympian in women's canoeing.



http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=403901244363

http://www.readytoflyfilm.com

Women's C1 Gender Equity

Standing up for gender equity

CKC Commodore, Peter Giles delivered these remarks this morning at the International Canoe Federation's Congress inSaint Petersburg, Russia. Canada continues to be a vocal leader in supporting equity in canoeing. CKC will continue to push this issue internationally despite a disappointing proposal by the International Canoe Federation to hold the Olympic program unchanged in 2016.

"Mr. President,

Canada appreciates the progress that the ICF has made in promoting gender equity in sprint and slalom, and in particular the growing presence of women's canoe on world championship programs.

However, Canada is extremely disappointed with the proposal to hold the Olympic program unchanged in 2016. This is in conflict with the ICF's Equity Charter, distributed at the 2012 Olympic Games; and indeed with the ICF slogan, "Always Moving Forward." The Equity Charter commits the ICF to increase women's events in sprint and slalom on the 2016 program, and to achieve "50/50" – full gender equity – on the Olympic program in 2020.

To achieve these goals will require some very difficult decisions. We applaud the efforts of the ICF to lobby for an additional women's C-1 event in slalom. However, it is clear that the IOC cannot solve our larger gender equity problem. There is no easy way out; delaying the decision is not an answer, and will not satisfy the demands of the IOC, the media, or the public. We strongly urge the Board, as our elected leaders, to take on these difficult challenges; and as a first step, to submit a program proposal for 2016 that includes women's canoe for slalom and sprint.

Thank you." 

Peter Giles, Commodore, CanoeKayak Canada

Here is the overview of the ICF Women’s Commission Congress in St Petersburg, Russia from the International Canoe Federation's perspective:

http://www.canoeicf.com/icf/NewsGallery/News/ICF-Gender-Equity-Workshop-a-success-in-St--Petersburg.html

Here is the Response from Sports Scene:

http://www.sportscene.tv/news/canoekayak-canada-and-community-respond-to-icfs-decision-to-maintain-gender

REALIZE OUR DREAM - Trailer

One of my fellow C1W paddlers made an awareness video for C1W, here is the trailer.

Enjoy and Share!

Upstream gates with Daniele Molmenti

CARE Canada: Reach Out

Gender equity is a issue not only in sport, but all over the world. CARE is an organization that is fighting for women's rights.

http://care.ca

Twelve Productions - It's Sick. It's Sweet. It's Sandiline!

A cool production detailing how our connected dry top and spray skirt tops are made!

Bratislava 2011 Pre Worlds

In Reflection

It has been a while since I have wrote as I have been busy getting back into the groove of school, training, and work. I am very happy to be back in school though it is nice to be home and have some consistency. 

It is the end of the competition season, but there is no end to training. Fall is when we ramp up our lactic and aerobic capascity and ease into weights again. I also completed a 30 day yoga challange that finished on Oct. 9 at Moksha Yoga West.

At the beginning of the summer I injured my left knee while running. Throughout the summer my knee dislocated and dispute my efforts to strengthen the muscles in my quadriceps and surrounding my knee I still felt pain and had dislocations. Therefore, I recently had medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction knee surgery. Because of this I am forced to sit on a couch all day with my knee elevated and iced. This is a challenge for me as I am a very busy and active person. This time resting has caused me to reflect on my previous competition season. I made huge strides this year within my motivation, technique, and overall involvement. 

In Prague I placed 21st, which was not the result that I expected of myself. Vajda (a carbon/Kevlar boat production company in Slovakia) had a abnormally large amount of orders for boats. Therefore, when I arrived in Europe I expected to pick up a brand new boat and have it outfitted for World Cup #4. Unfortunately, this was not the case and I was forced to paddle a TEST boat which was outfitted very differently to how I have my own boat outfitted; the seat was to high, there were no hip pads, and the slots where my knees go were too loose forcing me to constantly slide around in my boat. In the end I was 1 second away from making semi-finals. Senior World Championships will take place in Prague for the 2013 competition season. I am exited to get back there and show that river what I am made of!

Bratislava was the last World Cup of the season. Every year there is a World Cup here and there always seems to be a cold snap with intense wind and rain. Michal Martikan, who is a famous C1 paddler from Bratislava designed the course, he made all of the moves very difficult, but attainable if you used the water. In my race run I made a mistake on one of the easier moves in my semi final run, which caused me to flip over and miss 2 gates. I was also in the middle of fighting cold which really weakened my body. In the end I placed 12th overall, with a significant improvement from last year from 22nd.

I then went on from there to take a vacation with my Austrian side of the family and my boyfriend to the Cote De Azur, South of France. It was a well deserved break, where I swam in the ocean and ate way to many croissants! 

On the way home from Europe my brand new boat that had only been paddled about 10 times was badly damaged by Air Canada. I am still in the process of getting it covered by insurance. Luckily I have my older boat that I was able to train with up until my knee surgery. 

To finish off the paddling season we had our first ever slalom race at the Harvie Passage on the Bow river. It was a great turn out with people from all over Alberta and many spectators. I had very good race runs, but I had more fun coaching the up and coming paddlers Calgary and Alta area has. There were some open boaters that came out and a bunch of the kids were trying different categories! 

That same day while I was taking down the course I was informed of some very sad news that a respected fellow paddler passed away the day before while running a class IV waterfall on the Cheakamus river. Peter Thompson was a person who made impact on you even if you had only known him for a short time. He was always optimistic and his smile was infectious. 

Peter you will be greatly missed and I will continue to paddle hard for you.

Peter Thomson 1993-2012

Here are some links to check out live video from my races and results:

http://www.123result.com

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw_BLM7FVcUoR29rU295OHNGQUU/edit

New C1!!!!!

I received my new boat today!!!

Canadian Nationals 2012

The 2012 Canadian Nationals wrapped up about a week ago in Valleyfield, Quebec. Jessica (teammate) and I stayed at a fellow paddlers house, where we enjoyed fresh vegetables and fruits from the gardens of Valleyfield. We would bike to the course each day and stop for a coffee or at the market along the way! It was a very relaxing week of training.

The race schedule consisted of:

Thursday – Down river classic (4km paddle on mostly flat water), down river sprint (about 150m), and Parallel Slalom
Friday – Coarse set and demos
Saturday – Juniors and U23 slalom race
Sunday – Seniors slalom race, semi finals and finals, Team Races

I raced 2 classes for the slalom races (K1W and C1W). My overall rankings were:

DR Classic – C1W 2nd Place
DR Sprint – C1W 1st Place
Parallel Slalom – C1W 1st Place

U23 Slalom – C1W 1st Place, K1W 7th
Seniors Slalom – C1W 2nd Place, K1W 7th
Team Race Slalom - C1W 3rd Place

Result can be found here: http://canoekayak.ca/content/ww_results

Parallel Slalom against Ally McGee

Parallel Slalom against Ally McGee

Parallel Slalom against Ally McGee

 Canoe Slalom Race

 Kayak Slalom Race

  Kayak Slalom Race (rolling)

 Gillan Graves Photo

  Gillan Graves Photo

 Gillan Graves Photo

Seniors Race Awards

It is a Canadian Tradition that every team race all of the girls who placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stand on the 1st podium together.

I am now on the next leg of my competitions in Czech Republic for CZE Nationals and World Cup #4. 

U23 World Championships - Wausau, USA

I was recently at the Junior and U23 World Championships in Wausau, Wisconsin. This was the first U23 and Junior World Championships and will occur each year from now on.

I made it to finals and the pressure was on to stay clean. I ended up touching 3 gates with a loop at gate 10 this put me in 8^th for the final result. 

The most difficult part of racing is ones ability to control their mental toughness. The best racers are in excellent physical shape and technically sound, but the thing that keeps them at the top is their diligence to focus on the task at hand and race well. 

My coach Mike has been talking a lot about a new Sport Psychology technique called MAC, which stands for Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment. Where in a race situation I would be mindful of the fact that I am in an important competition, I would accept that I am racing and I want to do well, and committing to the plan that I have made to efficiently execute the coarse set.

At the end of each race a strong feeling stirs of wanting to go and race again. This itch was prevalent at the end of my finals run at Worlds. I have 4 more competitions to redeem myself and climb my way up in the international rankings.

These competitions include:

Nationals – Valley Field, Que –Aug. 11-12 

Czech Nationals – Prague, CZE – Aug. 18-19

World Cup #4 – Prague, CZE – Aug. 25-26

World Cup #5 – Bratislava, SLK – Sept. 1-2

Some video from training

Rfort Fotos

Training

Training 

Team Canada at the opening ceremonies

Qualifiers

Qualifiers

I am exited and ready to be aggressive and clean at each of these competitions! I have Nationals this weekend!

CTV News Clip

Another News Opportunity!

http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=726569

Thank you TECK!

A BIG Thank you to TECK for contributing to the Alberta Slalom Canoe Kayak Team!

Thank you to Adrian cole for making this video.

http://vimeo.com/46126197

Media Exposure

I thought it would be a good idea to compile all of my media exposure over the last couple of years.  So here are they hyperlinks!

Harvie Passage Safety Awareness:

CTV - http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120517/CGY_harvie_passage_120517/20120517/?hub=CalgaryHome

The Calgary Herald - http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Redesigned+weir+still+presents+dangers/6640234/story.html

CBC - http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/Calgary/1305515274/ID=2236359717

The Calgary Sun - http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/05/17/white-water-warning-for-new-look-weir#disqus thread

Global Tv - 13:58 http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/early+news+may+17/video.html?v=2236373235&p=3&s=dd#video

The Fan 660 - http://www.660news.com/news/local/article/363873--harvie-passage-project-finished

Harvie Passage Hydraulics:

Kananaskis Training

It was 22 deg and beautiful out at the Kananaskis. Hayden Daniels came out and took some great shots of Adrian and myself. 

Adrian Cole

Adrian Cole

Andreaes Stabb Coaching

Pan American Championships 2012

Pan American Championships was a great success where I achieved my goal to be on the podium with a silver medal. The competition took place in Foz Du Iguassu, Brazil, off of the Itaipu dame. The coarse was a in a beautiful setting full of wildlife such as Cappa Bears, Caiman, and fish.

Here are a few photos of the wildlife, race, and awards.

Canada, Brazil, Argentina

During the Race

Cappa Bear

A caiman sunbathing