Each spring, sprint paddlers from many different countries gather in Florida for warm weather training. This year a stellar group of paddlers has descended on the Melbourne area, preparing for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

I was able to drive down and visit for a couple of days last week, showing our new line of K-1’s and K-2’s, and enjoying the comraderie.  While I was there, I managed to get in 2 paddling sessions, something I was looking forward to, especially given the caliber of the athletes.  We had a training group of 7 – including 4 World Champions and/or Olympic Gold Medalists. Besides myself, our group included Adam van Koeverden (Canada), Marcus Oscarsson (Sweden) and Philippe Colin (France).  These three have all won gold medals in the past 2 years, while my last medal was 16 years ago in Barcelona.

 

I got to feel what it was like on the other end of the training squad.  During my prime, I always paddled hard on every piece of the workout, usually in the lead and almost never riding the wake of another paddler.  Many of the others in my training group would ride my wake (or the wake of others in our group) in order to keep up. This time I was the one often riding wake!  Adam van Koeverden was moving fast on every piece – clearly setting the pace of the workout. Jeff Smoke, aspiring to qualify for the US Olympic team this year was also paddling well – not up with Adam, but going on his own power not far behind.  I was often riding Jeff’s wake or one of the other paddlers in our group, but managed to stay with the group throughout the workouts (not bad for a 48 year old who’s been working much more than training the past few years!)  It will be exciting to see how they all do this summer in Beijing. 

 

I’ll be attending the U.S. Olympic trials in Oklahoma City April 18-20. This time, I’ll be watching rather than competing.  I’ll also have paddles and our new Legacy K-1’s and K-2’s for anybody to see and try.

 

After that, I’ll be in Memphis for the Outdoors, Inc. race on the Mississippi on May 3 (and demo day May 4.)