A Difficult Last Day

What a day.  There was great joy and even greater sadness at our event today.  We lost a member of our ohana - one of the 70+ Kapuna Men from Team Hawai'i passed away while doing what he clearly loved to do.  Our emergency responders tried their best to revive him but it wasn't to be.  He was led away in full salute by all the paddlers, volunteers and family.  It was a procession with bagpipes, drumming and singing, and chanting by Hawaiians & Kiwis. It truly showed how much everyone cared & felt the loss.  I can't tell you how deeply saddened all of us in Calgary are and we send out our heartfelt condolences and prayers to his family back in Hawaii and his on-water family - his teammates.  

His team bravely made the call to continue the races & I think any paddler would want the event to go on.  Team Hawai'i is in our hearts. 

We had another paddler - one of our own from Calgary, Bill Hemstock - go down with a medical emergency just a little bit later, after the races had resumed.  You may have seen one of my earlier posts where I gave a link to some amazing photos he and his wife, Edie have taken.  I'm happy to report that the last I've heard is that Bill's doing ok & is able to go home.  Thank goodness.  We'll keep thinking good, positive thoughts for Bill & Edie.

Kudos to Lynda for keeping everything together, to everyone who gave out medals in the dark, to the medics and the doctors & EMTs who happen to also be paddlers and who were on the scene to help out when needed, and again to all the paddlers for doing what they love with this amazing giant paddling family. Love to you all.

I'll post a bunch more photos tomorrow, but for now, it's been a long day & I will leave you with the race results:

http://www3.telus.net/public/cccweb/OCsprints/documents/RaceResults-Day5.pdf

And this beautiful photo of the Glenmore Reservoir as it looked this morning (thanks Khara Sauro for the photo!)

Day 4 - A Starter, Not a Finisher!

Quick blog today with a some updates & pictures for you.  I wasn't down at the site today, but back at the 'real' job, which oddly isn't blogging.  What?  Someday someone will pay me to do it professionally, I'm sure! 

Well, we got rained out today with quite a storm!  I don't think there was any hail, but there was certainly a lot of wind and rain.  I believe they made it almost to the end, stopping with only about 4 or 5 races to go.  It seems they are still going to try to go ahead with the medal ceremony today, though! 

Here's the link to the latest medal count - New Zealand still edging out Hawaii, but lots of medals still to come.  You can also click on the results link on this page to see the individual race results.  Some amazing times on those turn races!  Wow!

http://results.worldsprints.com/7

Here's what things looked like at the beginning of the day, when it was calm and peaceful for the boat blessing (thanks Ella Wilson for the photo!)



Boat blessing, day 4

 And it really was lovely from the start.  The sun came out & it was a beautiful morning. Here's a photo taken by volunteer Craig Esau:

A great day for racing.... so far.

Right?  So far, so good.  Speaking of volunteers, here's our intrepid member of the Technical Wizardry team, Malcolm Jubinville at work adjusting one of the cameras (hopefully tying it down more for the wind!)




How many volunteers does it take to adjust a camera? 

 And here he is again working on the video feed (thanks Valerie Krueger for this photo!)

Cola keeps our volunteers going! That's Alex from New Zealand in the background, and Malcolm up close.

Here's Neil working the finish line camera (well, he's clearly on some down time here...)

See?  Caffeine again!  No wonder these volunteers are so chipper!

And here's Brent working the social media updates:



That's not sunshine... it's Brent's personality!

So that's all I've really got for today so far... pictures of the tech team!  Hopefully people will send me more pics of paddlers for the next post to even things out.  In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures that include paddlers that I haven't included yet in the blog, but deserve a mention.  Here's the way the drinks were served at last night's barbeque - in a tin canoe!  Brilliant!  (Thanks to Kristine Malmqvist for the photo!)

Drinks - Canadian style!

 And here's a great shot (thanks again Ella) of some of the men from Team New Zealand.  Hey guys, it's paddling not rugby.  Kidding.... (I really don't want to make the Kiwis angry... have you seen their haka?  Yikes. They scare me a little!) (Kidding again, Kiwis are very nice people.) (Not kidding.) 



Team spirit - one of the things that makes outrigger paddling so great!



Race Day #3, Cultural Night, and Why I Want to Move to Rapa Nui

So here's yet another post about things I've learned from being part of the World Va'a Sprints.  I have learned some pretty fun things.... like how to run the finish line camera! Today this was part of my job as a volunteer.  You have to pay close attention and you get to see lovely pictures of the finish that show exactly what order boats finished in, even when it's really, really close.  I heard one boat won by a pixel the other day and there was a race today that was almost that close.  It's a pretty cool piece of equipment & is the same calibre of gear that they use in the Olympics.  (Did you watch any of the track & field or maybe cycling events?  Did they show those pictures of the finish?  Yep, that's the same camera!)  Shout out to the tech crew I worked with in the tower - Brent, Dave, Neil, Dianna & Scott, as well as the tower supervisors, Mo & Khara for doing such an awesome job! 

But see, here's the thing... when you do that job, you do have to pay attention, and you can't be say, blogging.  Or taking photos (fun ones, not finish line ones...). Or collecting proper names. Or stories. So, alas, my blog is crap today.  So, tick off another thing for the 'things I learned' column - if you want to blog, don't take on ten other jobs.  Anyway... here's a look at an example of a close race, not taken by me (thanks Derek Lonergan for the photo... Ummm... I hope no one minds when I steal their photos off Facebook.  I do try to give proper credit at least.) 

Team Canada vs. Team Hawaii

 And, by the way, it was an absolutely gorgeous day here in Calgary!  27 degrees & sunny!  However, last night we had a bit of a hail storm (which I slept through entirely.)  Check it out:

Can you spot the golf ball amongst the hail stones?

Yes, welcome to Calgary.  The weather is unpredictable to say the least.  Thanks to my friend Matt Burgener for the picture.

What's not unpredictable... great volunteers and amazing paddlers, all with smiles on their faces.  Like Craig & Luke from Red Eyes Paddling Club, a dragon boat team here in Calgary that I'm awfully fond of.  The team helped serve the meal tonight at Cultural night:

Great volunteers!

And here are some of my most favourite paddlers from Hawai'i.  The one on the left is Sui-Lan, and she gives the best hugs ever.  She's from Hilo, and for real, I do intend to take her up on the invitation to visit sometime.  Here she is with her teammates Lisa & Jona. 

Lisa, Jona & Sui-Lan from Hilo

So, Cultural Night.  Awesome.  So much fun.  So many amazing, amazing performances!!  I can't do them justice with my pictures (I kind of was stuck in the back - yet another thing in the 'things I've learned' column... get a seat early!  Also see, blogging vs. volunteering.) I'm sure tomorrow I'll get a few more pics & videos from others who had better press access. 

Here are some awesome Kiwis doing a very loud haka.  I was honestly a little bit worried that the stage wouldn't hold up.  I think one more Kiwi might have put it over the edge! 

A very kind, gentle looking haka.  OK, this may have actually been taken prior to the haka.  They were GREAT!

And here are some of the kids from the Calgary Canoe Club, prior to their line dance.  I did happen to overhear one of the boys (not necessarily one of the ones pictured here...) say, "why did I agree to do this?"  (Answer: because otherwise you could be near naked with body paint like Rapa Nui. Your choice.)  For real, the Canadian kids did a really good job.  I can't line dance.  It's hard.

Canadian boys looking only a tiny bit terrified before their line dance.  They proved Canadian paddlers do have rhythm!

Here's a shot of one of the Hawaiian crew before their performance.  They did a chant, a dance and their own version of haka.

Hawaiians - so friendly!

Here's the hula:

I think this group was popular with the boys.

And what? Hawaiians do the haka too?  Yup.  Again... things I learned....

It's friendlier than New Zealand's, but they're OK with that.

And here's team Italy.  One of their gals (whose name will be sent to me shortly - apologies!) did two very good songs.  One in Italian, naturally, and one Canadian - by Avril Lavigne.  She was a fantastic singer and had the support of her teammates behind her.  Apparently (say it with me... 'things I learned'.... ) outrigger paddling has only been on the go in Italy for about a year.  They have a lovely woman from New Zealand who coaches them and they're looking forward to expanding their program and improving their performance.  I'd say watch out for Italy in a couple of years. They already look the best (see earlier posts) (Oh, I got a pair of those cool Italian pants today, yay!) so pretty soon they'll probably be a force to be reckoned with.

Team Italy!

What else?  Oh yeah.  Rapa Nui!  They brought the house down (and almost the stage again!) with an absolutely spectacular performance. They have a lot of courage and talent, and not so many pairs of pants.  I am not at all complaining.  Seriously, they are so great and I believe that men and women alike were impressed by their... physiques? Yes.  Near the end of their performance, they brought some ladies up on stage to dance with them, including our very own Kirsten Goplen (in the red hat) and Kristine Malmqvist (in the yellow shirt). Way to not faint, ladies! 

Rapa Nui's public relations program to help increase female immigration

Not to be outdone, there were performances by the group from Tahiti and the terrific Canadian First Nations group, Red Thunder.  Quite a few are family (from the Crowchild, Pelltier and Buffalo families... sorry for bad spelling) and some of the Crowchild ladies are half T'suu T'ina and half Maori!  How cool is that for an event like this? Some really great dancing and singing from this group!

3 of the Red Thunder dancers. 

So, that's all I have for today.  Oh, except for the usual link to the race results...lots of VERY exciting finals today.  Well done to all the paddlers!!!

http://www3.telus.net/public/cccweb/OCsprints/documents/RaceResults-Day3.pdf

Race Day #2

Great day of racing today!  I'm really not sure I'm the best one to blog about it, because today I was out on the water all day lining up the boats at the start line.  See... here's a picture of some of the referees:

They are really nice people, even though it's true they might disqualify you for rule infractions.  Going outside of the lane has been a popular one.  Speaking of lanes, I've got a new favourite way to refer to the lane marker, or buoy.  "Number ball."  I like it a lot.  And it is really very much more descriptive. 

So, here is the link to the results page again in case you don't have it bookmarked already!  Just like in the Olympics, we've also got a running medal count.  So far, Hawai'i is in the lead with 21 medals, followed by New Zealand with 15 and Canada with 7.   Here's the link where you can see what went down in each race today:

http://results.worldsprints.com/7/results/race

Also, did you know there's live streaming video of the races on the website?  True story!  Thanks to our technology wizards, you can watch every day starting at 8:00 am MST.... which might be pretty early for those of you in the Pacific region.  You're getting up early to watch, right?

And, one of our local paddlers, Bill Hemstock, happens to also be a pretty good photographer & has posted his album here - check it out.  They're definitely better pictures than mine! 

http://www.jmodo.ca/JMODO_Graphics/Photography/Pages/Worlds_2012.html#grid

I'm lucky to be here though... Here's another glorious picture from this morning:

I've got to get the name of the man who's doing the race announcing. He's from New Zealand and he's doing a fantastic job!  (Even just pronouncing everyone's names from all these different countries!  Wow!)  I promise to get his actual name tomorrow for you (bad blogger, right?)

It was also a bit cold today... sorry about that.  I ordered better weather.  Still, we haven't been rained on, so that's a plus!

We also had some pretty fantastic races today from the adaptive paddlers. The last race had 3 women who are adaptive paddlers.  There were 2 hulis - one at the beginning and one at the end, but not one during the race itself.  A little huli doesn't discourage these ladies - they are inspiring!  Here's some celebrating at the end of the race (thanks to my friend and fellow volunteer, Ella Wilson, for the photo!)

And if the greeting from their fellow paddlers wasn't cool enough, some young men from Team New Zealand performed an impromptu haka in their honour, recognizing fellow warriors:



Then, some medals were given out for the V12 champions.  Here's a shot of the golden masters winners, Team Canada, in a Team Hawai'i sandwich.  Hawai'i won silver and bronze in this event.

So tomorrow I think I'm off the water and back to mingling around and doing other weird jobs, including being the official blogger.  I promise a better post!  In the meantime, I hope Bill's pictures and all the results postings will hold you. 

LET'S RACE!

First - here are the results from Day 1 for those of you who are excited to check & haven't already:

http://www3.telus.net/public/cccweb/OCsprints/documents/RaceResults-Day1.pdf

Do check the website for your Day 2 schedule & lane draw.  Here's the up-to-date lane draw:

http://www3.telus.net/public/cccweb/OCsprints/documents/LaneDraw-Day2.pdf

AND... most exciting... here's the video of the Rapa Nui fellas that I tried to post yesterday and couldn't upload (paddler Kelly Sherwood said, "It's too hot for the Internet?"  Yes!) .... I finally just put it on good ol' trusty YouTube.  Remember to listen for Heather saying, "That's it - we're moving to Rapa Nui!"  Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmeQsYJ97z8&feature=youtu.be

Now to today's races.  I honestly don't have a lot to blog about.  I was working all day.  I got to float around this morning doing this and that.  Worked on the docks for a bit, ran to the store to buy tape & post-it notes... and got to watch some races!  This afternoon I was an aligner... yes that was me, your favourite blogger, holding up (or not holding up, as the case may be) the black flag.  Sad to hear that the majority of the Tahitians won't be coming after all due to all the hold-ups from that airline strike!  Too bad!  We're missing a lot of awesome competitors.

Here's the scene from before everything got started:

It's pretty nice here, right?

The boats were blessed once again by our good friend, Brent Scout:

Brent blesses the boats while Jon Amundsen looks on

And volunteers got ready for the day, like Stephanie and Mo, who were rock stars at paddler check-in and the tower:

Stephanie & Mo - super smiley volunteers!

Races got underway and I think things ran pretty smoothly.  Races were pretty much on time. Brent's blessing must have worked, because although it was a little bit chilly and windy in the morning, we had no rain and the water stayed pretty calm right through the day.  Races were pretty close to right on time and there were a few upsets for sure, but generally people were pretty happy.  I only saw 2 small boats huli all day - with the last one being right on the start line.  That guy got back into his boat faster than anyone I've ever seen and made it for the start.  Probably not his best race, but kudos to him for carrying on! 

Then there were these guys - the Hawaiian 70+ team... including some pretty famous outrigger paddlers like Nappy Napoleon.  These guys do everything with a smile on their faces.  I think I'll smile a lot too if I'm still in shape to paddle like them when I'm over 70!  Do you know that this is a new category just added this year?   Here's a pic of the Hawaiian men's 70+ group:

Show me your ID! 

So that's about it for today.  I was busy lining up boats at the start this afternoon so can't tell you much else.  Here's one quick picture I snapped during a pause in the action (I promise, there was no flag at all at this point!)

My view from the start line...

All I can tell you is that I'm happy that no one was disqualified on my watch (at least not for going over the start line - there were lots of DQs for other reasons!)  I'm looking forward to doing it again tomorrow & can't wait to see you all at the start!

Opening Ceremony!

What a day!  I have lots of great pictures to share with you today thanks to Dave Arthurs, who somehow - even though we were standing together beforehand - got a front row seat at the opening ceremony today, while I was in the very back.  I guess I need to get myself a press pass.  Or follow Dave more often.  Anyway, many thanks to Dave for sharing. 

The Opening Ceremony was held today at Heritage Park, which is a park celebrating Calgary's early history... which for you folks from far away, wasn't that long ago.  We only became incorporated as a town in 1884, so we're a pretty young city compared to places like London or Rome... where this guy may be from:

Italian paddler or Roman guard? Both?

Also, I need to mention that I love the Italian girls' dresses & matching shoes!  It is so true - Italians are so fashionable!

Here's the always fashionable Team Canada posing for their large group picture:

Good luck finding anyone in this shot.  He's the one in the white cowboy hat....

And here's a lovely gal from Australia with her friend the kangaroo:

Showing off 2012's most coveted fashion accessory - the inflatable kangaroo!

Right... so once things got rolling, it was a fantastic procession of athletes into the event tent. It was so great to see so many people proudly representing their countries.  Like these beautiful women from Fiji:

So lovely! Giving Italy a run for their money!

The huge contingent from New Zealand:

This pic doesn't do it justice. Trust me, there are actually more paddlers here from New Zealand than there are from Canada!

Also with more paddlers than Canada, Team Hawai'i.  Here's a great shot of the group led by Kimokeo:

Different generations of Hawaiian paddlers

But, not to worry Canada.  You're still tops for comedy.  Here's one of our Canucks showing off his canoe tan.  Remember that post a few days ago?  Yeah, showing off tan lines seems to be a theme for the Canadians.

Nice tan!

But it's not always about the big teams.  It's wonderful to see people show up even when they may be the only paddler from their country!  Like this guy from Team Germany:

Looks like  he's been hanging out with Team Great Britain...

And don't forget the people who make it work.  Leading the athletes to the tent were Volunteer Coordinator, Tracey MacNeil and Committee Chair, Kristine Malmqvist. 

These gals are so organized, it's scary.  A good choice to lead the parade!

And then there was volunteer Heather Arthurs directing traffic to the grass next to the tent.

And I award Heather a perfect 10 score for artistic crowd directing.

And of course, overseeing the whole event were the Chiefs of the Treaty Seven First Nations. When I say Calgary is a new city, it's true, but these Chiefs' ancestors have a very long history with this land. Theirs is an interesting history, before and since Europeans came to what's now Canada.  As one said during the ceremony, hopefully visitors will be interested to learn about their people and culture.

Impressive Chiefs of the Treaty Seven First Nations

Whenever I thought I was getting too hot inside the tent, I'd think of these chiefs and how hot they must be in their gloves and headdresses.  Here they are receiving gifts from Team Hawai'i:

Receiving traditional Hawaiian paddles and leis amongst other gifts

Also, we were treated to some great dancing.  There were a few different kinds of dances represented here, such as fancy dancing and hoop dancing.  I will have to ask Brent what they all were called. Stay tuned while I brush up on my First Nations dancing!  Here are some gorgeous pictures from Dave's front row seat.  I especially enjoy the smallest member of the troupe:

We also heard opening comments from the Chiefs and other dignitaries, such as the President of the IVF, Charles Villierme:

And also one of our Calgary 'elders' John Roberts, who I wrote about in a previous blog as the one responsible for bringing the sport of outrigger canoe to Calgary.

John Roberts (centre) with French translator Denis and Kristine valiantly trying to make John stay on script.

We finished off with a water song from one of the Chiefs:

Oh, did I forget something?  No, I was just saving it up.  There were some great gifts presented at this ceremony, such as the ones mentioned already from Kimokeo and the Hawaiian delegation.  There was also a magnificent haka from the Kiwis (sorry, too far for a pic!) and then there was this bit of absolute amazingness from Rapa Nui.  You're all coming to cultural night now, right? 

(*** Note, I've been trying to upload this video for a day now.... Hopefully it makes it, but it might have to end up in the next post! How's that for a big ending?)

The Things You Learn...

Here it is - Day 3 of practices before the big event!  I don't have a ton for you to read about today, but it sure is nice to see so many boats on the Glenmore Reservoir!  Check it out - here's a photo from way back to Day 2:

Lots of teams are here now including paddlers from Tahiti!  That's got to be a long flight.  I hope all of you who have come a long way are doing OK with the time change and the altitude! Calgary is not a super high city - we are at 3,442 ft above sea level.  Compare to Mexico City, say, which is 7,349 ft!  But for some of you who are from places that are AT sea level... it might be a bit more challenging to exert yourself than normal.  Even places in Europe.  Paris sits at 112 ft above sea level, and Rome is only 46 ft!  Wow.  Speaking of Italy, here are some paddlers from Team Italy.  So far, they win for best uniform:



Team Italy to the left of the pic in the cool blue pants!  I like those!

Thanks Joelle, for the covertly taken photos! 

And, speaking of photos, I hear our fantastic technology team have all the cameras in place along the race course.  Apparently, Malcolm Jubinville was hanging off the edge of a cliff yesterday (well, maybe not a cliff, but a REALLY steep hill) setting up some of the cameras.  They are so cool.  Here are 3 of the team members:



Dave, Neil & Malcolm of the Technology Team

Check out those gloves Malcolm is wearing!  They must be his cliff-climbing gloves!  If you see these guys around in the next while, maybe ask them when was the last time they ate a meal.  We need to keep their strength up! Missing from the photo is Terry Lo, who arrived shortly after.  I'll catch him on this blog yet.  Terry is a not just a tech wizard, but a foodie who has posted a whole bunch of great Calgary restaurants on the Facebook page.  I'll re-post the list for you here later on. Terry is also in charge of our Twitter accounts.  Do you know you can follow along at @vaaworld2012 for general news & results?  If you're a paddler & just want to see results, you can follow @vaaresults1.   Here's a fun fact:  All these tech dudes are also paddlers on the same dragon boat team! 

Speaking of fun facts, one of the women who volunteers at the shuttle bus stop at Mount Royal University, Heather Arthurs, was telling me that Team New Zealand was super excited to see our yellow school buses.  Apparently, they don't have them there, but have seen them lots on TV and in movies.  Huh.  Who knew?  One of those things we see all the time (says Heather, "I see them twice a day all year long!") but are novel for others.  Kind of like us going to London & seeing the red, double-decker buses I'd imagine.  Cool.

So keep sending me your photos and stories.  I'll have a lot more of my own photos starting tomorrow at the Opening Ceremony!  Then races begin on Saturday.  Pretty exciting! 

I'll leave you now with this pic of Team Tahiti loading into their boat.  We hear they're pretty fast.  Can't wait to see all these teams in action!! 

Team Tahiti in the white, going out for a practice