GB Selections 2017

Another year and another round of Selections. Having been out of a boat for the majority of winter it has been strange getting back into a boat, and quite a rush to prepare coming back from Ugandan waves...

Event 1 - Cardiff

Despite having paddled the course a couple of times in the last few weeks, on the 10 cumecs session Friday night, I was still struggling with the feature as well as being thrown off by a number of other factors.

This meant on Saturday I was still unsure on my ride and although I had one in mind, I knew it was going to be a tough event. However, during the day I decided to take another opportunity to jump in my Zen and do some big boating - which was actually pretty fun, although really quite tiring (they take a lot more energy to move than a playboat!). 

As usual with events at Cardiff, the competition didn't start until well into the evening and I was also in the penultimate heat, so was gone 7:30pm by the time I was up. Having struggled with the feature, I didn't manage to moves or rides down that I wanted and additionally hurt my back a little bit on my second ride. In the end I finished joint 5th, which is a little disappointing, but I guess that is sport, and sometimes things don't go in your favour. 

It is the a week's wait until the second event in Nottingham on the infamous inlet gate at HPP. Hopefully get some training in during the week and just enjoy the competition. 

Event 2 - HPP

The second event in GB Selections was at Nottingham. Having had a rough time at Cardiff, for me this was more about showing myself I could put in some good rides and reinstalling some confidence.

After lots of waiting (I was the last paddler), it was finally time to go and I felt pretty chilled out. I managed to put down some good rides, even scoring a McNasty which was pretty exciting, and links on a couple of moves. However, with a few moves being slightly off the mark they didn't quite score. 

In the end, in a pretty high calibre field, I finished 4th, behind Islay, Nicky and Lowri. Now it is a case on waiting to see on the overall results, but with the year ahead it looks like I may be out of World Championships and taking the reserve spot for Team GB for 2017.

Anyway it was an awesome event and fun to be on the water, feeling a lot more relaxed than last week and my back being significantly better. 

Thanks to Tom Clare for photos!