WE STILL LOVE CHINA! Raft race day on Dajue Mountain, Eastern China

So…here it is and what an experience – race day on Dajue Mountain in China!

It seemed the entire population of Zixi had turned out to watch the excitement of us foreigners and many local teams enduring the whitewater knuckle ride, dropping over 200m in 3.6km.

Two giant blow up gold dragons, many red Chinese lanterns and decorative banners floating in the breeze flanked the ceremony area which was full of very (and I really mean VERY!) exited locals with cameras. Athletes making the mistake of venturing from the safety of the foreigners enclosure were instantly swallowed up by the crowd amongst cries of ‘Photo! Photo! Photo!

A weird giant mechanical wasp buzzed overhead, filming the proceedings as speeches were made by Zixi government officials, the head of the Chinese Watersports Administration and the head judge. Before long the race was declared open to huge green and purple smoking fireworks and a shower of pink confetti; totally surreal but pretty cool!!

Although no one really knew exactly what was going on we were lined in our rafting gear up on a wooden platform at the very top of the river, overlooked by an enormous dam. With no time for a warm up teams were ushered into their rafts, with 30 seconds time between each boat.

Before we knew it the head judge bellowed down a megaphone….‘Three, Two, One, Attention, GO!’

China China here we come!

Suze and I set off at a good pace, somehow managing to keep the twitchy two-man raft straight on the flat approach to the first slide.

And then to be honest I’m not really sure what happened; a blur of massive slides, spinning, water, boat filling up, almost flipping, high side left, phew, right, up into our seats again, ready for the next drop just around the corner.

 

Within a couple of minutes we spotted the first raft ahead of us – passing was really difficult as the river was so narrow. So as soon as the opportunity arises it’s power down UP UP UP, ping-ponging from rock to rock until the other raft is safely out of sight.

More than a couple of times rafts were bunched up unable to pass at the top of the drops, resulting in quite a few disgruntled teams pinned for valuable seconds, and with four teams finishing just 30 seconds apart this definitely affected final race positions.

27 minutes, 43 seconds and 74 milliseconds of chaos and it’s all over – the mixed New Zealand team won the race with the Men’s Czech Republic team following closely behind. Overall we placed 7^th out of 18 teams and came first in the Women’s Category.

After a quick shower and change we headed down to the awards ceremony flying our Union Jack with pride. Again the whole of Zixi turned up to the ceremony, which is was an surreal concoction of drumming, fireworks and traditional Chinese music.

With aching cheeks from many many many more photos (‘Photo, Photo!’) we headed over for the closing ceremony lunch. Unaccustomed to Chinese traditions we were unaware that a celebratory lunch would involve continuous toasts (everyone must empty their glass each time) with government officials, and the compulsory downing of 60% rice wine from incredibly beautiful decorative bottles. There was no get out clause here as top officials splashed more of the searing liquid into our cups – down the hatch it goes!

A trip in a cable car over the majestic Dajue Mountain followed before the next party that evening, this time held in our luxurious hotel.

Much hilarity followed as the top bread of the local government took to the Karaoke machine, break-dancing, waltzing to Auld Lang Syne and making each country in turn sing or dance in front of the audience. Thank goodness for our new made friends from the other international teams as Suze and I were made to sing ‘Hey Jude’ to the world – only a minute in (it was clear we needed help!) and the other teams rushed in to support us – thanks guys!

A massive thank you to the organising committee namely the China Watersports administration and the Zixi County government for being so welcoming and inviting us to such a fantastic rafting competition. A huge thanks to Palm Equipment for keeping Suze and I kitted out and safe in top notch gear. A truly unforgettable experience.

Gaobie! (Goodbye!)

Rosie n Suze

GBR Ladies Rafting – Training Session Mark 3 – What’s in the Box?

There’s nothing quite like getting a big box and not knowing what’s going to be inside…

However, several days after receiving the box from Palm, and the day before we were all to meet in North Wales for Training Bryony was struck down with a bad case of food poisoning… disastrously spelling an uneven number of paddlers for the highly sensitive raft! Luckily, being true professionals and driven by the excitement of what might be in the box for us we soldiered on regardless.

Needless to say it wasn’t long before we ripped open the box, to reveal some gorgeous amazing, warm, dry and sexy Amaris dry pants !

Being decked out in new gear gave us all a chance to get up close to that lush XP150ª 3-layer fabric during the warm up…yummmmm Plus there were rumours that over the next couple of week there may be another delivery!! Very Exciting!

On day one we worked on the Tryweryn making eddies, practicing our timing, using slalom poles and, for the newer members, learning the best lines for a raft. Poor Susie and her new Amaris Pants got to know the drop under Miss Davies pretty intimately as she fell out a couple of times, although she was heroically rescued by the team. She obviously did it on purpose so that we can get practice at rescue scenarios should it happen whilst racing…

On day two we weren’t so lucky with the Tryweryn release so headed instead to the Menai straights for some flat water drilling. With it being spring tides we were strongly warned by some firemen not to park our cars on the jetty unless we wanted to have them floating away on our return! And they were right – don’t park in a tidal car park!

In the morning we worked on sprint starts and sprint pacing setting ourselves pyramids of distance – (we all hurt at the end of those sessions!). In the afternoon we managed to get the tides completely wrong so paddled against the flow to Britania Bridge then against the flow back to Menai Bridge as well! What a good workout it was though. We were all still smiling

All in all a productive weekend.

Ciao till next time!

From Fran and the Girls

Enduring Winter Training with Team GBR

It’s wet, cold and a strong freezing wind is blowing the raft off course – again.

It’s our 584th hour of training this year, and despite the mechanical repetitive drills and boat still veering off to the right it feels good. Spending this much time in a boat with 5 other determined and competitive girls puts you in some stressful situations but has great rewards when it all comes together.

On our 12th and final training session of the year we are focussing on maximising the efficiency of the blade and torso rotation, key skills for kayaking that you can directly transfer to whitewater rafting. With two sessions a day; two hours on flat water and two hours on whitewater with 10 minute off the water warm ups it’s an intense day. With no coach at present we spend time providing constructive criticism to each other on the flat, trying to create a balanced boat where everyone moves in symmetry with perfect vertical paddle shafts, matching torso rotation and sinking the blade to the same degree.

Timing is key to maintaining momentum and making moves on powerful water, and with two new squad members in the boat we spent a significant portion of the weekend working on synchronising all paddlers.

Over the next year we will be working on this and other skills, using video feedback and intense coaching in the hope that it might just give us that extra edge. In this game every second counts, and minute adjustments to the boat can make that difference between a medal placing, or nothing.

We’ll be bringing you updates from our training weekends over the next year as we prepare for the European Championships to be held on the River Vltava, in Czech Republic. We’ll be bringing you training tips and showing you what lengths we go to in order to stay fit and healthy and build up our fitness – it’s a real challenge! Follow our monthly blog to see how we’re getting on.

I know the gear can stand up to it – whether I can or not remains to be seen!

Safe.

Rosie Cripps
http://www.gbraftteam.co.uk