Upcoming Events

This fall we had the potential to be extremely busy, but as a crew we decided to pick our events that we either wanted to attend or we were required to attend. I will expand on this thought in a future posting, but once you win a World Championship.....everyone calls you to attend their regatta or banquet. Trow locked me in before I won again....I have a soft spot for you guys!!

I've passed on a couple of regattas so far this fall, its nice to travel but now that I have my babygirl Brianna, my wife needs me more at home. Most of the members of our crew is very experienced now and we always evaluate what we will gain when deciding what regatta or event to attend. Our coach set it out very plainly the other day. If you feel it will help you to win in Beijing, then you should do it. If it is just a "fun" trip, or you have any doubts as to its importance, don't do it. At this level....its all about winning medals....our focus is on that gold medal.

With all that being said, there are a few events that we will be attending in the near future.

1. Canadian National Championships - Welland, Ontario November 1-4
We used to call this event "Speed Orders". Basically for the simple concept that you were judged in the order of your speed and team selection were generally based upon these results. Last year was the first year that we have run a "National Championships". This is a good thing as young and up-and-coming athletes can attend this regatta and compete against the best in the country and assess themselves against the National Team Members. It also gives my coach a chance to see what the talent is like coming up the pipe.
The really good news about this regatta is that I will have a chance to visit one or two GTA Trow offices. It is yet to be determined where I will be stopping by, but hopefully I can see as many as time allows me to fit in around the regatta scheduling.
I will not be competing at this regatta as it is for "small" boats only.....ie pairs and singles My job will likely be to drive an umpire/official boat to make sure all races are conducted fairly. (and any other odd jobs that come up....not an errand boy....a job completion boy!!!)

2. Olympic Venue Pre-Scouting Camp
Shanghai/Beijing, China - November 6-14

We fly into Victoria at 1:30 on Nov 5 and fly to China at 7am Nov 6. Just enough time for me to wash my clothes and repack my bag and fly about 12 hours to Shanghai. We are going on this trip to visit our pre-Olympic training camp venue in Shanghai for 2 days, then we will fly to Beijing and row on the Olympic Rowing course for 5 days. We will also be staying in the actual hotel that we will be using during the Olympic competition next year. Why not stay in the Olympic Village you ask? Good question. When we stayed in the village in Athens and it was great. The transportation to and from the course was terrible and we were never really able to rest and train on our own schedule. The Olympic Village is a 40min car ride in today's traffic....who knows what it will be like during the Olympics. Our hotel is only 6km from the course and we will have our own transportation so we will be able to make our own schedule. We are extreme creatures of habit....you guys need your Tim Hortons coffee....we need our strict schedule.

So those are the 2 main events for me this fall. I will of course be posting pictures of these trips so you can all see them.

I am really looking forward to meeting more Trow employees and keep coming back to the blog during the event times as I will try and post more than usual during these exciting times.