I was disturbed by a recent Facebook post from a paddling friend who said “my session (at Lee Valley) today was completely ruined by the hoards of extremely selfish slalom paddlers..” an update that led to a long stream of comments about the difficulties of slalom paddlers and others sharing the same stretch of whitewater. [...]
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“You don’t stop paddling because you get old, you get old because you stop paddling”
The 2013 slalom season 2013 has been an amazing slalom season. I’ve achieved much of what I set out to do and really enjoyed myself along the way. My first slalom career lasted from 1978 to 1990, so I feel immensely appreciative that I’m able to have a second crack at this brilliant sport. Watching [...]
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Ageing and exercise
I spent a couple of days last week being a member of the “worried well.” During a routine check up, my doctor became concerned at my low resting heart rate and sent me off for an ECG and blood tests. She thought it might be a sign of an underlying heart problem, despite my protestations [...]
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Ivrea World Masters Games
I’ve written a descriptive report of the Masters Games for Sportscene (http://www.sportscene.tv/whitewater/canoe-slalom/news/canoe-slalom-at-the-torino-world-masters-games) so now I’m taking a much more personal perspective, in keeping with the ethos of Diary of a Middle Aged Kayaker. “Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” ― Salvador Dali I came across this quote at a Dali art [...]
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Final preparations
I’m now in my final few days of training to complete my preparations for the slalom at the World Masters Games. The WMG takes place in Ivrea on 7 August, and it’s been the focus of my training for the last 15 months. When I first wrote about the WMG back in December, I said [...]
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The slalom season begins
Most of my recent paddling has been in a slalom boat, training at Lee Valley. GB Canoeing has started twice weekly training sessions as part of its Olympic Legacy programme, and although this is targeted at young paddlers I’ve been able to join in. As Paul Ratcliffe said, it’s about creating a healthy slalom ecosystem [...]
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Wet weekend in Dartmoor and the art of decisions
My paddling highlight so far for 2013 has been a wet and cold January weekend in Dartmoor. Paddling with a good crew, we managed three excellent rivers with good water levels. First up was the Upper Plym, a beautiful steep Grade 4 / 5 run that the guidebook calls the ‘jewel in the crown’ of [...]
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Destination Ivrea – World Masters Games
2013 is shaping up to be a big year for me. For a start I turn 50 this month and that feels like a significant milestone. It’s also a year in which the quadrennial World Master Games takes place, and there’s a slalom event at Ivrea in early August. http://www.torino2013wmg.org I decided a couple of [...]
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Re-building your confidence
I was prompted to write this after reading this blog post from Louise Jull, describing her experience of an injury on the Green River. http://playak.com/news.php?idd=2129836684817 I wanted to write something that would be helpful for anyone in her situation – so I hope this is useful! Everyone knows that whitewater kayaking depends on your ability to [...]
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Parenting Athletes
My last post about paddling parents provoked a great response. In particular from Tim Ward, who emailed me about his experience as the parent of a competitive paddler – Alan Ward, who was junior World Champion in freestyle. I thought it was worth putting Tim’s note up here because it contains some real nuggets based [...]
Categorized in kayaking, motivation
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