Blog Archive

2019-05-01 2019 World R6 Rafting Championships

We have just converged on Tully in northern Queensland, Australia for the 2019 World Rafting Championships. There will be a couple of weeks of training ahead of us as we learn the fast lines on the world famous Tully river. .more...

2017-10-02 2017 World R6 Rafting Championships

After a long flight, and a night in an airport hotel in Osaka, we have made it to Miyoshi city, Japan. Our accommodation overlooks the Yoshino river, and the food is fantastic. more...

2015-11-27 2015 World R6 Rafting Championships

We have arrived! After some lengthy travels for many of us, we are almost all assembled at the venue for the 2015 World Rafting Championships in West Java, Indonesia. Still to arrive are Bill (and most of our paddles), and Jenny our team nurse. All being well, we will see them tomorrow more...

2015-06-07 2015 Canadian R4 Rafting Championships

We again headed over to the Rouge river and New World rafting for a very well organised race. The first day was certainly busy, with the first 3 events all happening in one run down the river. The field was the biggest seen in recent years more...

2014-10-19 2014 World R4 Rafting Championships

On Oct 8th, 2014 I started my journey to the south, escaping the soon to be cold of the north yet again. This time however for a much better reason then usual. Myself and a few other Canadian boys were elected to be the R4 national Canadian team in summer of 2013. We trained hard up 'til the date of departure more...

2013-11-08 2013 World R6 Rafting Championships

We are all now in Rotorua, New Zealand, ready to get some training in for the upcoming World Rafting Championships. The team managed to converge on Okere Falls today for a few familiarisation runs down the Kaituna river. For some of us, it was the first time down, and it really is as good as everyone says! more...

2013-06-10 2013 Canadian R4 Rafting Championships

The first day of the Canadian rafting championships saw some great racing from the ladies teams. The Petawawa river was the venue for the sprint course, down Lovers and Catwalk rapids. Water levels were good, and provided challenging conditions for all the entrants. more...

2012-09-21 2012 Pan-American R6 Rafting Championships

At the end of September we made our way to Quebec to compete in our first international rafting event; the World Cup/Pan-American Championships. This event was not only our first international rafting competition but it would also act as the Canadian Championships, deciding which team would represent Canada at the 2013 World Rafting Championships in New Zealand. more...

2011-06-04 2011 Canadian R4 Rafting Championships

Fresh from our recent success at Hell or High Water 2011, we were determined to do well at the Canadian championships, our aim being to win and thereby qualify for the 2012 R4 worlds. On arriving at the Jaques-Cartier river north of Quebec city we found a quality run of fairly continuous grade 4 water on the Tewkesbury section. more...

2011-05-07 Hell or High Water 2011

The annual Hell or High Water festival is fast becoming an established Ottawa valley boaters favourite. After having had such a great time at last year's event; Hell or High Water 2010, we put in some training in the week leading up to the race - more...

2010-09-02 2010 Canadian R6 Rafting Championships

This is it! After countless early mornings training hard we were on our way. We had arrived in the Saguenay region of Quebec the previous night after a long drive from the Ottawa. Keen to hit the rivers and get some practice in before our first race against the Qubec teams, we drove up to St Stanislas and the Mistassibi. It did not dissapoint - more...

2010-06-08 The Rouge - Seven Sisters

Fresh from our successful run of the Kipawa, we set our sights on the series of drops on the Rouge river in Quebec. As soon as we could get a team together, a check of the levels confirmed that the waterfalls known as the Seven Sisters were all good to go. This time we bought some kayakers with us to run safety cover. more...

2010-05-07 The Kipawa

After having taken delivery of our brand new raft (thanks SOTAR!), we were keen to get out and run some rivers. The only problem - the driest spring and summer in living memory! With our plans for adventures further afield scuppered, we settled upon a low water Kipawa trip. more...

2010-05-01 Hell or High Water 2010

A fresh Mayday weekend in the Ottawa valley - what better opportunity to get out for the first run of the season? We wrapped up warm and headed to the superb Hell or High Water event. This event usually sees the Petawawa river in full spring flow, and this year was no exception. more...

Blog

2019-05-19 WRC2019 - Downriver

This was the event that we hoped that we would do best in, due to our combined whitewater experience, and extensive training on the river over the last few weeks. We were set off in two heats of 8 boats each, which made for some crowded racing in the first few rapids. We got off the start initially in 4th place behind Costa Rica, Indonesia and the USA. We managed to sneak past the USA in the 3rd rapid, and from then on the racing was tight with several lead changes and lots of interest. A strong Nepal team fought from last off the start to eventually win our heat, and we finished just behind the USA to take a 9th place finish, and 11th/16 overall. We are very happy with this, and now have some idea of what we can improve on for our next try at racing with the best in the world.

2019-05-18 WRC2019 - Slalom

Our first go at slalom as a team couldn't have been better! We put down a couple of decent runs, got all the gates with style and only hit a few of them. Many of the other teams were missing gates, so we finished a very respectable 10th place, and we are sitting 11th overall so far heading into the final race, the downriver tomorrow.

Photo: IRF

2019-05-17 WRC2019 - Head to Head

This morning we faced off against a strong Russian team in the head to head race. This was our first experience of the new and improved race format, and we were impressed with how much better it is.

Photo: IRF

Russia proved too fast for us, and after a brief contact off the line they pulled ahead and maintained the lead to the finish line. We put in a respectable time though, that saw us finish 11th place. Russia went on to place 3rd, so we are not too surprised that we didn't prevail.

2019-05-16 WRC2019 - Sprint

The first day of racing as a team! We had a good day out on the river today, hit our lines and paddled well together.

Photo: IRF

The course was long for a sprint - over 4 minutes. We put in a respectable performance, finishing 11th/16. Just ahead of the USA!

Tomorrow is the Head to Head racing, and we are excited to try the new race format. We saw some of the U19 and U23 racing the course, and it looks like a lot of fun. We have a tough first race against Russia.

2019-05-11 WRC2019 - Training

Our training time here on the Tully river turned out to be really productive. We have made so much progress as a team in the last 10 days. Learning the details of the river has been a challenge, with 28 rapids on the Downriver course! Many of the rapids are long and complex, and there are some fairly big ones here and there.

The racing is shaping up to be fantastic, and nearly all of the teams are here now. The slalom course is on Staircase rapid, and it is easily the steepest slalom course that we have seen. Here we are practicing the first drop.

Photo: Annie Theis

This will be the first World Rafting Championships for some of the team, and the first time that any of us have raced the new head to head format. We are looking forward to seeing how we compare to the other teams out there. There are a few days of official practice to go, and then we start 4 days of racing on the 16th with the Sprint.

2019-05-01 WRC2019 - Arrival

We have just converged on Tully in northern Queensland, Australia for the 2019 World Rafting Championships.

There will be a couple of weeks of training ahead of us as we learn the fast lines on the world famous Tully river. We have arranged a raft from Raging Thunder rafting who are co-hosting the event, and have already been really helpful.

Our accommodation up until the event starts is this awesome house in Cardwell, 30 minutes from Tully. Cardwell is a bit of a sleepy seaside town, but we are glad of having a place to rest, recover and cook up some awesome meals. We will update soon on how the training is going.