Road to worlds

For most people, getting on the team to compete at the World Freestyle Kayaking Championships means driving down to your local spot an hour or two away, get a bit of practice in and then show up to the trials for their national team and hopefully secure a spot. Mine however, was a little different.

As I live in Canada, and had a failed trip back to trials from beautiful British Columbia in October as the water levels didn't work out, I was sure my dream of competing at this years worlds was done. I spent many days through the Canadian winter thinking what I should do with my last summer here before my visa runs out. After a failed ski season in Fernie due to lack of snow and some heartbreak,  I had my 30th birthday where I sat in the middle of the beautiful Rockies at a fire down by the local river, and decided best for me was to go back to the valley that made me want to come to Canada in the first place, the mighty OTTAWA and the sport I loved so much, kayaking. Coincidentally, within the next few days I got word that trials were re-scheduled in Ireland and water was guaranteed by the local Hydro dam. It was back on and immediately I booked my flights.

I bought myself a perfect kayak car, a 1995 corolla with racks, and loaded up my new whip with all my things and headed for Calgary airport and parked up my car and flew back to Ireland. As it had been a long time since I sat in a boat, I got a Project x56 off a friend which is  a design I like and started training hard. With the lack of water around I would hit my local spot sluice up twice daily and if there was no release id do strokes and drills on the flat at my old club WWKC. With just two weeks I went from off the couch to feeling pretty confident and had a ride chosen.

As I arrived to the venue in Limerick at the amazing Curragower wave, many old friends who competed with me back in the day had also turned up for their spot on the team including the Kelleher brothers. Excitement was high and so was the competition. The format was simple, 2 events, 1 Saturday and 1 Sunday with 4 rides each day best 2 count, with the top 5 gaining their spot on the national team. The standard at this event was proof at how good Irish paddlers are getting and it was really looking like anyone could secure a spot, but I kept my cool and focused on my simple ride of blunts, backstabs and airscrews and tried not to get thrown off by the awsome tricks by the Kellehers, Barry Loughnane and Billy Brett who were all throwing down.

After staying on track the whole weekend and finishing the comp on Sunday, I got changed, hopped in my car and started the drive back to my parents house in Dublin to hang out with friends. As Bob Marley's song "three little birds" comes on the radio my phone beeped and  glanced at the text slightly nervous. I'd made it, my 6th time going to worlds and was happier than a pig in shit!!! After a few days of Guinness with friends and chilling with the family it was time to fly back to Calgary and get the 3500km drive going to Ottawa to start some real training.

3 days on the road later and less than $300 in petrol I was back in Ottawa, and boy was it cold and the rivers were still full of ice.  I straight away found a place to live, a job as a roofer with an awesome bunch of guys at Classic roofing and started to paddle daily as soon as possible once the ice cleared. This year I was kind of boycotting big waves and really wanted to focus on learning all the wave moves both directions and decided the smaller waves in the center of the city were for me. It started with the infamous Champlain wave coming in, a sweet wave with a huge eddy, fast green shoulder and chance to do nearly every trick both ways. After 2 weeks of starting from scratch I was slowly building my trick-list and becoming comfortable again in a kayak, and with roofing every day it didn't take long for my strength and stamina to improve either, as its basically like getting paid to do cross-fit for 8hrs a day!

This year Champlain didn't last for more than 3 weeks and I thought there was trouble without  a wave to practice on but then heard that just river left downstream was sewer, a small green wave with endless possibilities and a decent eddy and once again I was hitting it daily and improving fast! Ottawa has a great crew of diverse people who paddle daily no matter what line of work they are in and come together and enjoy the beautiful whitewater the city has to offer. For me paddling with high-rise buildings in the background and beautiful nature around was a novelty and I was starting to be happy with the summer set out for myself. The warm weather was in full effect, paddling was great and just as the levels started to drop and sewer was becoming un-paddleable there was word of a wave out in the center of the 500m wide river called Desert wave which was little paddled due to the 20min per surf lap involved. I had to check it out, and was happy to find a wave which is pretty much the mini- Big Joe of Ottawa city and with it all to myself I started paddling it as much as possible, usually 3 laps after work putting a ride together and focusing  on every trick as you knew there was no eddy waiting just a nice walk. This river just kept delivering.


Meanwhile upstream, the valley was now dropping fast and before long corner wave was in.  For those that don't know this is a fast almost perfect righty wave and one of my favorites ever. Weekends now involved the commute from the city 1.5 hrs to the beautiful remoteness of the Ottawa whitewater region.


I Decided to dedicate my weekends to my passion the whole summer and based myself out of the Perfect relaxed environment of Liquidskill Sup and kayak school based just minutes paddle from mccoys rapid. I would paddle Friday, 2-3 times Saturday and Sunday and then go back to the city to work.

All was going well and the body was holding up. Then one weekend I pulled into the eddy at cornerwave and noticed babyface, a wave 30m downstream was in and immediately knew it was time... GARBURATOR was in and I could finally see how all my training had worked. After practically
sprinting down to find an almost prime garb I dropped right on and boy did it put me in my place. Fast, huge passes and exhausting are just a few things that come to mind. But after a session or two things started to come together.

I now started doing midweek trips after work when I got a chance to get as much practice as possible and work on what I couldn't do. After weeks of Garb to myself the big names started to arrive and throw down, and couldnt be happy to see that  my progression had come a long way and I was performing well with some great sessions and some that I learned a lot from, including getting my head around the whole pressure I put on myself.

 Now as I write this, its less than 2 weeks till worlds and training sessions are busy and more arrive every day. I've now set my ride and am confident that with 4 rides of which 2 count i'll be able to have some fun out there on the day, but really have already gotten what I needed out of this worlds, which is to get back in a boat and become a better paddler than I was before.

Now with team Ireland arriving over the next few days i'll take a break from work and move up to the valley for the next few weeks and get focused. I'd like to thank CJ out there, who has lent me a paddle (as mine broke), a Jackson Kayaks carbon boat and drytop as I have none of the above, without all that who knows where id be or how id even paddle. Thanks man!

And to everyone who wishes me good luck thankyou as well, and as my grandad would of said-"the more I practise, the luckier I get"!  Till next time... see you on the water-Tom


Photo cred: Chris Juvshik, John Rathwell