Saturday, August 27, 2005
this is not an exit
something relatively exciting happened to me today. kinda. but it's not very exciting for the rest of you. well, angus will find it exciting. but he finds all of my blog posts exciting. so he doesn't really count.
Anyway, today I was at school at 9.15 - yum! I love ebing at school ont he weekend. It's my favourite past time.
Actually there were some people at school, and a St Johns medical truck thing. You know, like the ones that they have at events and festivals incase people die? And there were some random bands playing in the KWC. And I THINK i saw Jarred and Emily Wheaton there. but It could have been any round guy with black hair with a small girl.
So anyway... back to kayaking. I was at school for kayak training. Although only Jason and bass player Matt (the guy in charlies group) and I were going because everyone else was slack.
We headed off in the mini bus (yes, 3 students and a teacher in a 20ish seater bus) to Ivanhoe.
So... we got there. and then i went down the giant slide, and swung on the swings waiting for the guest coach man to come. that was fun. although the slide wasn't very slippery so i just had to run down it. which was semi fun.
Then from behind i heard a little put-put car come down the hill behind us. Then when it came it to view, it appeared to be a little white thing... a cross between Mr beans car, and the 3 whelled car that keeps turning over when Mr Bean is around. But it was not white, it was actually a mother of pearl type colour. In different light it had a purple and/or green tinge. It was damn cool. Plus it had an awesome boat on top!
Anyway, out of this tiny car came this 6"2-ish muscular guy... it was Warwick Draper! Yey!
now, before you guys wet yourself with excitement, at the thought of Warwick Draper in real life, let me reassure you that he is just a normal person just like the rest of us!
And for those of you that have no idea who i am talking about, Warwick Draper is (i think) Australia's best Slalom Kayaker. He came 9th in the Athens Olympics and 14th at the World Champs, which is pretty damn good when you think about how small the sport is in Aus, and how big it is in the countries that are actually good, like Canada and the US and pretty much all of Europe.
He was also pretty good looking, but before i tried to find a pic of him to show you all, but all the pictures i can find of him he looks like a stunned mullet. so please just go by my word (and don't worry, this guy actually is good looking, he isn't one of my men that no one else other than their mothers find good looking.)
So we hopped in the river and go for a bit of a warm up (which i was very thankful of, as i was very subconscious of my leg hairs infront of the olympian). Then he checked out our sweeps and draws and stuff like that. Then we learnt to pivot (thats when the bow of the boat goes in the water and the tip is in the air and you just pivot around in a circle). That was hard, but i managed to find the sweet spot, and i semi did it. Woo! go me! Yeah! Woo!
Then we went down to the slalom gates and did some nitty gritty things. That was fun. We were down there for like... a long time. 'Twas fun.
Then we came back, although i was getting tired, and paddling up "rapids" isn't too fun when you have no energy. So i got stuck in a passing log, and drifted downstream a bit, then i decided that i should at least make an attempt to get back up the river, so with al my effort i battled up those piss weak grade 1 rapids and managed to catch up with Ben. Go Me!
Once we were back up the top we got out and i managed to bruise my shoulder carrying my kayak back to the bus. Go Me!!!
After I had a long-ish chat with Warwick about kayak clubs. He's setting up one next year some time, and I'm his first member! Woo! Go Me! But i honestly doubt that will happen, nor will I actually be his first member. But he might call me. Woo! the olympian might call me!
So that was my day.
- Em xoxo
