A series of updates from Jim Hinsvark

Digging through my email spam box today, I found a host of email updates from Jim Hinsvark sent from Prague. I'm posting them in chronological order from the earliest to the latest.

Update #1
Today we race the 2000m. Woke up early with thoughts of racing running through my head. It seemed as though the entire team woke up early and was down eating breakfast in anticipation of the days events. Today we find out where we sit in regards to the other teams that have come to race. Hopefully the race goes well and we place in good stead.

Yesterday Janet and I walked the old town area and up to Prague Castle. This city is amazing in so many ways, the culture, the archetecture and the people that live and visit here. We walked for hours and were constantly amazed at tne varying types of stuctures in the city. When we alked throught the old town square the local vendors were out in force. The smells of the smoked ham, sausage sweets and potato dishes was WOW. We ate ham, potato pancakes and corn for dinner as we watched the sun light fade over the city.

The hike across Chalres Bridge and up the streets to the castle was very cool. I had to explain to Janet the almost overpowering erge for men to spit off bridges. I told her that I had surpressed the erge so she waited a moment and dared me to spit. A dare! I readied myself and as I leaned over the rrail I saw, just in time, the paddle boat below. What a stinker!

We ran into some teammates and so I walked up behind Skinner and gently grabbed her behind. The look o her face as she realized everone in her group was ahead of her was great! She spun around, red faced ( after enjoying the moment of course) and saw me. Gret fun!

Gotta go and get ready fo the races.

Update #2
Hi there, trying to catch up and fill you all in to what is happening here. Wed. we raced the 2000m. Thought we had a pretty good starting postion ,3rd, and took off ready for the race. First turn we caught the wake of the lead boats and took on water. Came out of the curve into hugh waves and took on more water. The waves were enough to our callers ass wet! By the time we came into the second turn we were half full and then the turn began. Sloshing water is not a good thing to have in a curve! Side to side we rocked and filled, sinking as we finished the turn. We drug the boat to shore and called it a day!

Next was the 1000m Thurs, and we did fairly well, but had to come up through the loser bracket, we were .013 out of the final. We placed third in the next theat and were off to the minor final, again by hundreths of a second. 6th overall was where we finished. The day ended with an amazing lightneing storm alll around. We sat in the bus instead of watching the final races.

Today, more of the same. Finishing out of moving into the finals by hundreths of a second in the 200m

Day off tomorrow, so Janet and I will spend the day checking ou t the city. It will be a nice break as we can get some good sight seeing in and the paddlers can get ours minds around how to pick up those hundreths!!

Update #3
Hi there, It has been a few days so here goes.

We had Sat off from racing so Janet and I took off on foot to explore the city a bit more. We planned a route that looked like it would take all day and headed out to see the city. Meghan would be proud of my figuring out the transit system as that was always her task in Thailand. We jumped on the subway and took off walking. The route led us through some less touristy areas and into the large park area on the west side of the river. There was an orchard in one area that had pears (ripe) and what we think were almonds and apples and it was like anyone could pick what they wanted as there were no signs to hint otherwise. The walk was much shorter thatn we thought and we were back at the castle in a couple of hours.

There was an orchestra of some sort playing that we could hear from quite a distance. I think it was some sat. concert in the castle. Hungry we headed to the Old Town Square and to the vendors that were roasting and smoking various meats and treats. Enjoying the huge kelbassa we had beer and margaritas (Janet is not to fond of beer).

Sun races

It was great. My birthday and I was racing for Gold! We worked our way through the heats and into the medal round. Sadly, I set my goals to low and we only raced for the gold. We finished .06 seconds out of 3rd. I have never been in so many races that were determined by so close a time. Our heatsfor advancement or medals were missed by no more than .13 secs . Crazy, fun racing.

We are coming home early and will see you soon.

Final results from Prague

From Michelle Rudd:

Senior Women and GM Women took bronze in the 500m. Hard to believe Worlds are over. US did great but just wait till next time!

Day off for the women in Prague

Report from Kathy Skinner:

Ahh.... we have today off and will be back on the water tomorrow for the 500 meter races. Our team has been getting stronger with each race we have had. Canada has won all the gold in our division but we close the gap in the 200 yesterday losing by less than a second. After all was done we went back to the hotel for a meeting. One of our teamates made a comment of how sore she was and it was decided it was due to all our stretching. We won our first race yesterday putting us directly into the finals, which was much later in the day. This allowed Lisa time to take some pictures of some rather hot men. The Slovakian men and the Austrialian men so far have the hottest bodies. Lisa jumped on a pole, holding her body out to look like a flag. It really impressed the Slovakian men who were late getting to marshalling because of her. On to the 500 tomorrow and hopes of knocking off Canada. Its time they heard our national anthem.

Short update

From Michelle Rudd:

Short update: Great day for Wasabi Women in Prague today. GM Women took Bronze in 200m. Senior Women took Silver in the 200m. The teams are really clicking. Tomorrow all mixed racing for the 200m distance. Then Sunday we do the 500m races. I'm sure more colorful commentary will follow from others...

Cloudy Sky and Positive Thoughts in Prague

Update from Michelle Rudd:

Up early today for a 7 am bus departure. For Senior Women A the hour ride to the site provided some time to both rest a bit more and visualize our race as a group. The weather is quite different from yesterday with a thick fog present. Our first race has us bracketed such that we are hopeful we’ll be able to proceed straight to the grand final. It’s a 1000 meter race straight shot. People are hungry after the disappointment of coming so close to a medal with a fourth place in the 2000. I can already see us peeling out the fog, ahead of the pack…
First race we REALLY wanted to win because it meant we bypassed the semi and could save up our strength. Alas it was not meant to be with Germany nudging us out at the end in a photo finish. Turns out that wasn’t so bad because the semi gave us another practice as a team. This time we found the glide and cruised to first. Off to the grand final….
Word is that even though we didn’t keep them, we had Canada at the start. Germany edged us again but we pulled it out for the bronze. Liking the weight around the neck. Looking to continue to improve tomorrow in the 200. Hopefully the shorter distance will be an advantage for us over Germany since they will have less room to make up distance on us and we can put some serious pressure on Canada. Make ‘em fight for it. Positive thoughts….

Update from Prague with 2000m Race results

Michelle Rudd had this update today:

Hey Wasabi. It's late in Prague and we have an early day tomorrow but we wanted to check in.
2000 meters today. I think the following is correct:

Premier Open Gold
Premier Women Silver
Grandmaster Women Silver
Juniors Gold
Grandmaster Men, swamped, did not finish
Senior Open Silver
Senior Women Fourth

Strategy decision was made from above not to run any of our mixed teams today.

Coach Carol and the GM women did us in Power Surge particularly proud with their silver and I think Annie and Carolyn were interviewed by roving correspondent aka Coach Jeff.

Crazy wake on the water. Multiple boats got swamped. Unfortunately first was Grandmaster Men in the second turn, caught at least in part in Ukraine wake. Everyone's ok. They were close to the grandstand when it happened so it wasn't far to shore. When the Open men went later in the day, about half the boats ran with an empty seat to lighten the boat and that strategy certainly seemed to work for our men. Felt bad for the Iranian men who lost it in the last stretch, continuing (as our men had) to paddle in an attempt to get it done.


Kathy Skinner loves her racing tank top and next time will probably order the skort.

Prague update from Vassar Byrd & Kathy Skinner!

OK -SOOOOOO we can't seem to get the wasabi blog page up in english and our Czech is rusty. This means we are currently blog challenged so we're sending this to YOU. Those of us who arrived late did our first practice with the Senior Women's team - the boat felt great and very strong. The race site is WAY out of town - beautiful countryside, bucolic farms, very lush. After many hours of flying and almost none sleeping, it felt GREAT to get in a boat and MOVE. The most difficult part of this trip so far for Skinner and me is that we underestimated the vicious and tenacious nature of true jet lag...went to bed last night so tired we could hardly move, only to find our brains pinging awake, and completely unable to get back to sleep. Listening to the sound of the HVAC...listening to the sound of Michelle SLEEPING.... listening to the sound of each other NOT sleeping....
After our practice, we wandered around town without a map, hungry, and very sleep deprived but we fixed most of those issues. Except the sleep deprived part. -Vassar

So now the rest of the story. Practice seemed to go fine, of course there was video taping that occured which we have yet to see. However, fear struck poor Vassar when Jeannette called her and asked her to hang around so she could talk to her. Of course Vassar was convinced that she was the only one who looked bad on the yet to be viewed video. I of course, took no mercy on her and insisted that if anything could go wrong I was sure it was her fault. Alas all was well, jeannette only wanted to see her to say thanks for all her help with the Portland paddler's financial stuff. Than off we went to find some garden that Michelle insisted was somewhere in Prague. We proceeded into town with no map. After each picture Lisa, Holly, Vassar or myself took, someone would ask what is that building? Of course we had no idea but figure we will try to match up the photos later. Thank God we have races tomorrow. I need a break from all this tourist stuff. Skinner

We Made It.

Update from IDBF world championships in Prague from Jim Hinsvark:

We are settled in Prague after a good trip over the ocean. It was a very good (short feeling) trip intp Amsterdam where we had time to play.

We figured out hoe to get tickets for the metro and were off to the city for an exploration. We had 8 hours to sightsee and wanted to make the best of it.The first problem was that it was 8AM and there was hardly a soul in sight. After a walk around we found a small cafe and had a buffet breakfast. We drank coffee and juice as the city began to awake and start the work week. When there was a fair amount of folks out there we ventured out to see what we could see. Canals and flower shops and sex shops it ran the gamut.

Then we found a bike shop and rented 2 bikes, grabbed a map and were off to see the city. Amsterdam is laid out for walkers and bikers. The cars know that there is always another biker coming so they keep an eyeout. The only unsafe part was the bikes are old style and you need to back break. After a few bumps Janet finally stopped bumping me. Bike are a great way to see the city. So many sights and so little time :-). We returned the bikes and headed back to the airport to rest up and then off to Prague.

Arriving a bout 10PM we were ready for the hotel. Problem.... the other plane was late so we had to wait for them. The driver let us in the car and turned on some music. Techno and rap for 45 mins. Not my favorite music, but I was better off than Janet, she picked up a stomach bug along the way and was in no mood or condition to sit around anywhere to long. When we finnally left the airport the driver , who felt bad drove fast to make up lost time. Not good when one has to hold onto not only thier seat, but "other "things as well. We arrrived at the other hotel first so Janet ran in and the driver, who had been informed that Janet needed a toilet, and I chatted for a bit. We arrived at the hotel late and I , shall I say, slept better than Janet.

Breakfast was buffet and large. Off to the metro and down to old town for a walk. It is easy to see why people were telling us to just walk. The stuctures here are old, ornate, amazingly well crafted and great fun to look at and try to pick up all the detailing the old craftspeople did. Lunch in a park by the river, across form the Nat. Theatre, was quite pleasant. Back to the hotel and I was off to practice. Janet slept most of the afternoon to try to recouperate. She did that that well and was ready for dinner when we got back.

The venue was built for an Olympics a while ago, no one could remember which one, so it is very nice. Good practice. The last member of the team joins us tomorrow and we go do it again.

Love you all.

Jim

Angelica goes to Prague to paddle for Team USA

From Kraken coach Randy Stokes:

As we all prepare for the PDBA Club Crew regional championships this weekend, I wanted to send a quick note to everyone reminding them that we have a Kraken team member, Angelica Liharik, that is traveling to Prague to compete as part of Team USA in the IDBF World Championships that will be held next week.

Angelica was part of the incredible national team that swept all three (mixed, open, & women) Junior A berths last year in Long Beach.

I am very excited to see one of our own team members participating in the event and hope others can experience this level of competetion in the near future.

I know Angelica will represent Kraken and Wasabi very well as she travels abroad. Please join me in whishing Angelica and Team USA all the best as they go up against the top junior teams in the world.

Go USA and Go Angelica!!!

Finally done with work and can focus on the task at hand. First off, Seattle.