Monday, November 22, 2010

Winter hits us in Victoria



Well, after a four day training camp with coach Dave last week, this week we've been forced into a bit of a hiatus as winter sets in in Victoria.  Winds of 55 knots are howling down from the north bringing us snow and temperatures as low as -8 Celsius.  For many of you this is probably pretty tame, nonetheless, it was pretty chilly down at the yacht club and driving home proved to be an hour and a half long epic adventure of dodging accidents!



 

Monday, November 15, 2010

Video from AthletesCAN

Check out the great compilation put together by Canadian High Jumper Nicole Forrester! This vid is from the KidsCAN School Day, where National Team members worked with over 1000 kids to demo sport, encourage physical activity, and promote healthy living.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKNuQlxnKEY

Friday, November 12, 2010

New Friends at the Children's Development Centre

Jen here,

This week I was fortunate enough to be paired with two classes of students as part of the Adopt an Athlete program.  Their teacher, Melanie, welcomed me to the school where I spent an afternoon meeting with the students and explaining the sport of sailing.  All of the students were enthusiastic, asked great questions, and were eager to share their own stories about boating in general.  To say the least, I'm officially stoked at the opportunity to forge a relationship with the Development Centre, and make some new friends with the students. 

I will, however, have to control my urge to recruit them all onto the Royal Vic Opti Sailing team!

This weekend we'll be training each day with coach Dave Hughes, as one of our last major training camps before Christmas.  There are three teams training, and we're all keen to get out for some solid time on the water before the cold sets in for winter. We'll keep you updated as the weekend progresses.

Cheers,
Jen

Saturday, November 6, 2010

International Sailing Federation Annual Conference

Jen here,

This week is training as usual although everyone is biting their nails because of the ISAF Annual Conference.  There are some changes coming to our classes for the 2016 games in Rio, and we're all anxious to know what they are.  Mix 470 crews? Mixed multihull crews?  A skiff for the women?  All are options at this point!  I've posted the link to ISAF's conference blog below for all you keeners:

/http://isafconference.wordpress.com/

Multihull musings

November 6, 2010 at 9:15 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment If multihulls are selected to be back in the Olympics the Multihull Commission believe that it should be: 3 sails; twin trapeze; centreboard and a manufactures class. Size should be 16,  18 or 20ft.  If a mixed multihull were selected they think in most case it would be female helm and male crew on something like a Formula 16.
-Posted from ISAFconference blog.

Monday, November 1, 2010

AthletesCAN Forum

Jen here,

I just arrived home from the 2010 AthletesCAN forum in Gatineau, Quebec.  The forum consisted of three days of panel discussions, workshops for Canadian athletes from all sports.  I had the opportunity to meet athletes from a variety of sports and hear some of the stories from those fresh back from the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.  The day prior to forum was KIDSCan, which is a day when national team athletes have a chance to speak with schools about their sport and what it's like to be an athlete. We then run the kids through a series of sport related activities so that they get to experience our different sports.  As you may have guessed, this was a real challenge for me as there was neither a 470 nor a large body of water available!

I was partnered with Ryan Ferguson, a member of the Canadian Life Saving team.  Who knew that lifesaving was a sport!?!  Ryan's sport consists of pool events, surf events, and emergency response events-all of which emerged from the tasks of lifeguards.  We decided to combine our two sports into a relay race with stations from each sport to create the "Lifesaving/Sailing Relay Race of Intensity."  The race went something like this:

Station 1: Sun safety, smear your partner's face with as much sunscreen as possible as quickly as possible.

Station 2: Run to one of 3 trapezes and demonstrate your intense trapezing skills.

Station 3: The ocean, to simulate that wonderful feeling of driving a 470 while water shoots in your face, dunk your head into a bucket of water and have your partner towel off your face. Teamwork at its finest.

Station 4:  Rope Throw:  throw a heaving line to your partner and pull them in to rescue him or her!

As you can imagine, there was sunscreen everywhere and a series of smiling and soaking wet kids leaving our station. Great fun was had by all and many comments about wanting to try our two sports.  We even managed to do a few talks in french! 

All in all, the AthletesCAN forum was a great event and a great opportunity to network, learn more about issues outside of my own sport, and to make some great new friends.  Thanks to all the kids who participated in KidsCAN, you all made my day!

Jen