Well a bit has happened since yesterday lunch time.
Yesterday (wednesday) afternoon I Did an easy speed session on the lower section of the river followed by a relaxing swim in the pool! 

Today ben and stew arrived back in sort from their time in Austria, so the whole Australian team is now in sort. We all seem to have settled into our accomodation with the usual amount of banter and good will. Martin( our Swiss friend) is now squatting on the lounge room floor on the roll out bed untill his team arrive on Saturday. My race boat is with the Swiss team, as I sent it back to Europe after the world cup in the container with the euro's boats and it has been living at martins house. I am looking forward to unwrapping it again and getting it wet! 

The river is much lower now. It has dropped throughout the day. It was 15cm lower in the afternoon session than in the morning one. Which leaf to a few adjustments and a change in the feel of the water. The wave heights change as the water gets lower and the faces get steepper which means that potentially you take more hits to the chest, which slow the boat down.

This arvo I paddled the river with ben stew and matt. This is probably only the third Or forth run down the rover for me when I have been paddling with other people in front of me. On our second run we did some teams practice where we worked on paddling close together. This is much harder than it sounds particularly on ths course where there are vurtually no flat/still sections of water. As the water moves the boat around and you Also need to change your focus points you spend more time watching the boat angle, leans and ladle strokes of the person in front to stay close and stay online, whilst also watching the water around you. Often the points used yo lien up rapids are obscured by the person in front of you.  However if you are too close in the waves there is potential to crash into each other, tapping tails or have one another boats land on top of each other.

As an aside for those that don't have a large knowledge of wildwater racing a combination of leaning, varying stroke timing and types are used to turn the boat. The boat is leaned the opposite way to the direction you wish to turn, or to conteract a side current. The boat can also be turned on the crest of a wave using a flatter stroke if timed correctly.

I had my first tapa's experience this evening! It was good, however I still can't get used to resturaunts not opening untill 8pm at night. This is way too late for me as I tend to get a little strung out and grumpy when I am hungry!

Anyways it's getting late I should scoot off to bed

Beunos noches

Foo