Well it’s Thursday, and the season starts in two days! I can’t wait! Tomorrow evening I’m off to Bala in North Wales for the first Junior Selection race (on the Saturday) and on the Sunday I’m judging!
To qualify for the GB junior team I have to get at least 125.99% of the leading K1 men’s run time and to be definitely in with a chance I need to be even faster than that!
Updates to follow on Monday regarding the weekend!
Wow, so it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here, that’s thanks to busy school days, busy training days and busy weekends away. Thanks to my A2 studies, it’s been difficult to keep a balance of things as A2 requires an unbelievable amount of work. But here it is! My first post of 2013, which will be the first of many.
Updates since October 2012:
If you click on the link and then find (using ctrl+F) my name (Matthew Footitt) you can view my times and penalties! it’s easier than having to type them all out!
Tryweryn race 30/09/2012 (chapel falls) – 6 out of 13 – 615 points http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/300912tryweryn1.pdf
Llandysul 06/10/2012 – 3 out of 12 – 833 points! http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/061012llandysul12.pdf
Llandysul 07/10/2012 – 5 out of 11 – 636 points http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/071012llandysul12.pdf
Serpents Tail 20/10/2012 – 9 out of 11 – 273 points http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/201012serpents_tail1.pdf
Serpents Tail 21/10/2012 1st our of 11 – 1000 points http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/211012serpents_tail1.pdf
Serpents Tail was my best result of the entire season. and my first win in division 1! As you can see from the times, my first run wasn’t that bad – that score after first runs put me third – but i knew there was time to take out! In between my first and second runs i just talked with friends, watched the kayaks and ate food, and also went for a walk to the nearby horseshoe falls. All chilled out i carried out my run, with a strict plan in my head. All was going well with the top half of the run, but in order to nail the bottom half, it all rested on the set up for three gates, which involved a stopper jump and nailing the entrance to a gate that sat on top of a boil. Taking the speed off I put my race plan into action, lining myself up in the ideal space that would allow me to get a clean jump through the stopper. In a matter of seconds I had done it and almost got the perfect line through the 4 gate sequence! The rest of the course was relatively simple so it was a case of lining the boat up and powering to the finish! When I finish a run I can usually tell if it’s gone well or not, and if it has, there’s a shout of triumph from me; this was one of those occasions. From not knowing my time, all I could do was go through the run in my head,”no touches, good lines throughout, nailed the critical move around the stopper”. As I was getting out of my boat and walking back up the bank, I heard the finish attendant – Hazel – shout that I was first! I couldn’t believe it. It was one of those moments that I didn’t quite know what to do, so I promptly squealed with delight. Running back up to the top, I had various shouts of well done from other paddlers, pats on the back, but the one that I’ll remember is my dad saying “you did well on that run”. For my efforts of that day, I got a nice trophy – as seen below – and also 1000 points that helped my ranking!
My final ranking at the end of the 2012 season put me first! with a total points score of 4434. I was 66 points short of promotion! After the demotions from the Premier division, I now have bib number 4 for the 2013 season!
The last race of the season that I could compete in was the British Open. Each year the top 10 paddlers from each category in division 1 are allowed to race in the British Open. In Saturdays race I finished 14th out of 26, and in Sundays race I finished 24th out of 26.
Saturday – http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/031112lee_valleyP.pdf
Sunday – http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/041112lee_valleyP.pdf
One last piece of good news before the end of this post, I managed to get onto the Canoe England Training Squad for another year, which will inevitably be my last year. There have already been training camps in Wales and England, and there’s many more to come!
Matt.
Once a year sees the Paul McConkey Prem/Div1, a race organised by stafford and stone which features a very difficult course!
I only raced on the sunday, finishing 5th out of 18. Yet again lots of touches let me down, without the touches i would have finished 3rd by a clear margin of 5 seconds.
Matt
Europe Trip 2012
Well, what can I say. The two week trip was fantastic, not only was it only my second time abroad, but it was my first ever time paddling on international water. After spending a long time in a car, and also spending half an hour (I know I was pretty surprised too!) getting to France via the channel tunnel, we arrived at Lech Camping, in Germany! The first thing that I recognized was the heat. Oh the heat! It wasn’t like over here when it gets hot; it was a dry heat, one that was uncomfortable to be in! After setting the caravan up in our pitch, we ventured out to the white water course.
The white water course was like nothing I had ever seen. It swirled around the banked slopes in a soft s shape, the water was crystal clear (In places you could even see the bottom!), however the down side was that we had come to train in the week before the Germans had their ‘National Cup’ race and therefore the water was always busy!
For my first experience of paddling in Germany, I was thrown in at the deep end; I entered the ‘Vajda Teen Cup’. This race was open to anyone that wanted to travel to Germany! There were people from as far away as the USA and New Zealand! My first even were the heats for C1 men, in which I finished 10th. I was competing against someone who had finished 4th at the junior world cup! In the race I was also competing in C2 with Peter McColl, in our heat we finished 3rd. In both events I qualified for the semifinals!
An early start on Sunday for preparation for the semifinals, the British competitors had conquered a hill and had set up base camp, using tarpaulins, blankets and of course numerous union flags! In our C2 semifinal we progressed through to the final in third place, with a substantial amount of touches! In C1, I didn’t progress through to the final, in my opinion, because of poor judging, but everyone has their own opinion on what a 50 second penalty is! Because of the 50, I finished in last place in C1, 12th.
So out of the numerous British paddlers that entered the competition, only 4 boats got through to the final, a c2, two k1 men, and one k1 woman.
Once again peter and I finished third, well actually we got a DNF so we didn’t really finish third. At about gate 17 we capsized, and peter bailed out just before I rolled the boat up, the two events were so close to each other, that one of his legs was still in the boat as I righted it. Almost immediately we were swamped with safety people seeing if we were ok! Being me, I stayed in the boat and paddled down to the finish, negotiating some gates. Kindly I was assisted in emptying the full c2 by two members of the safety team. As a side note, Peter had managed to fall out of the boat with his straps still in place and also managed to fall through the waist tube of his deck, meaning that it was still attached to the boat!
Probably my favorite part of the course at Augsburg was the bottom stopper. It wasn’t very deep but the curl onto it made it exceptional for up gates midway in! On our last training session there we jumped in to the stopper and were body surfing in it (where you swim upstream to begin with until you are in the trough of the stopper, here you can surf from side to side using your arms)
Throughout our training week here I experienced what training on an international level is like! How busy the water is, but the main difference, how the water moves! Most of you will probably question this, but each piece of water has its’ own characteristics!
Prague
What can I say about Prague… well to start with, if you don’t know where you’re going it can be one of the most difficult cities to maneuver a caravan and car around; when we went the city was full of road works and diversions, leading us on an early morning (4 a.m.!!) tour of the city
Eventually we arrived at the site for it to be nothing more than a field next to the HG Sports building. I’m pretty sure health and safety didn’t exist, as our electrical supply for the caravan, came from an extension lead plugged into a socket in the men’s’ toilets! This then ran out of the first floor window, down the side of the building, through the field, to underneath out caravan!
Once we were set up, the British group headed into Prague, it was around a 20 minute walk to the city from the campsite. Once we were there and had got lost numerous times, we ended up in sometihng that resembled a movie set, the buildings reached up so high that you were unable to see anything past it, clear blue skies filled the sky and beneath the sun, was the Hard Rock Café! Our little excursion led us all the way around prague and when we got back we found out that we had been gone for nearly 7 hours! Oh the joys of being a tourist!
At first sight, prague didn’t look much. The course seemed quite narrow with some sketchy eddy lines. But it was a totally different story on the water. The course (according the the owner of HG Sports) was originally intended for the transportation of logs during the winter, when the rivers froze over, essentially making this a log flume.
We only had a week training on here, and unlike the german course we could get on whenever we wanted, for as long as we wanted. As my coach, Greg, had gone home, I was put with Nathan, another canoe england coach! In my group were, Will Smith, Kosi Atkinson, Sam Moss and Paul Sunderland.
For me Prague was a better place to train as opposed to Germany, I liked the water better (The deep brown colour of the water resembled home!) The features were also very defined compared to germany where you sometimes had a waves and others there was nothing there!
Whilst training in prague, we were on the water at the same time as the Czech team, which included Vavrinec Hradilek, (K1 men silver medalist 2012 olympics) and also Stanislav Jezek (competed in the C1 men and C2, with hradilek, at the 2012 olympics)
The nearly three week summer trip this year was one of the best holidays that I have ever been on! Not only for the training and being a tourist; it also gave me a chance to become friends with many people that I had hardly spoken to before! It also allowed me to see the coaches in a whole new light, being themselves, not just someone that stands by the side of a river most weekends!
If you’ve got any questions about my trip, don’t hesitate to ask! My contact details can be found on the ‘Contact me! Page of my blog!
Happy Paddling,
Matt
For the second year in a row, i’ve been to washburn and it’s rained. great. kayaking and canoeing is awesome in the rain, but being a spectator in the rain isn’t fun. Between my first C2 and first C1 runs i had a gap of 2 and a half hours, two and a half hours of standing in the pouring rain; you’re probably asking “why dont you just get in the car?”, well the car was being taken up by damp kit hung up to dry. Washburn on saturday was not a fun experience! The course wasn’t too bad , however it seemed shorter than last year, it started just under the bridge and finished just before the second bridge, however the course was a lot more technical and physically demanding. A sequence of 7 gates, followed by a large sprint, 3 more gates, another shorter sprint, a sequence of 5 gates, another sprint (!) and then the final three gates to complete an 18 gate course. The course was difficult in C1 so it was horrendous in C2, and extra person AND an extra meter of boat. Going back to the caravan it stopped raining (thankfully)and it gave us some time to dry kit out! After a trip to Harrogate for tea, (pizza!), a mess around with friends, some chat and a little bit of gossip, was a great way to end the day.
Before going to Washburn, i carried out some essential boat repairs on the C2. Because we’re the 5th crew to paddle the boat there are bound to be some problems with the boat. These particular repairs involved nothing more than half a roll of duct tape! From the 7 years of use there were a few cracks in the boat, some bad repairs that leaked and the boat is generally in a state of dis-repair. Thankfully the duct tape has temporarily stopped the boat from leaking! 🙂
On Sunday, I finished 3rd in C1, this is my best result so far in division 1 this season, giving me 895 points! In C2 we finished 4th giving us 200 points, not our best result, but there’s always room for more improvement!
Well, when I say new what I actually mean is that I’ve had the boat for about two months now, its been padded out, paddled at HPP, scratched a lot on the bottom and I’ve also competed in it. So yeah…new. 😀
I recently bought a Vajda Supremo 2 from the people at Hydrasports, in racing pro construction. It also has the new IRC (Internal Reinforced Core) that has replaced the old foam support. It compromises of two carbon rods that support the middle of the boat so that it doesn’t flex. I can say that it definately as dad has already run over my new boat with the car and there isn’t a scratch on the boat! (accidentally, he assures me).
To fund the boat I had to sell my old K1, the blue Caiman Torero, and also my Galasport Yin, which this boat has replaced. I also had some help from JD Carter which is why their stickers appear on the boat (these are the peole that helped with my caiman)
But it was all worth while as this boat is far superior to the yin; the tail had less volume in it which means that it turns quicker and with much less effort. It also tracks in a straight line better, where my yin used to like tracking to the right. I’m currently at school so I’ll put some pictures on later that I took with my phones
Coming soon…!
A big thanks to the people behind Peterborough Sports Aid that invited me to the recent lunch at the Mariott Hotel. I carried out a presentation on my life through kayaking from the start to where i currently am now. Whilst there i was also introduced to three Posh legends, John Cozens, Dave Llewellyn and Tommy Robson, one of which my dad knew, and still does, quite well!
Once there, I brought my boat through reception and i also had some of my kit on show during the presentations. When the ‘costs’ slide of my presentation came up, i think at least everyone in there was shocked as to how much equipment and training cost.
After the raffle had been drawn from the people that had donated money, my dad was given a small gift! One of the raffle winners chose a bottle of whiskey, and then proceeded to give it to ‘someone that deserves it’, I apologise now, as i don’t know of your name! but thankyou anyway!
Well sorry for not posting in a while, its been a bit hectic in my life recently. I’ve started sitting my AS level exams and i haven’t reall y had much time spare! But i’ve got a race update on the way! This was from the recent Holme Pierrepont race, which was a division 1 race and also a pan celtic race!
See the results here:
http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/120512HPP12.pdf – HPP division 1 results
http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/120512HPP_PCC_teams.pdf – HPP Pan Celtic Team runs
http://www.canoeslalom.co.uk/results12/130512HPP_PCC.pdf – HPP pan celtic results
the easiest way to find me is to press control+f and then type my name!
Back home after a tough week of training, its quite sad to not be paddling every day. We travelled up on the friday (30th March) and after a short 8 hours travelling we arrived in scotland! No soon after stepping foot onto the campsite (see here: http://bit.ly/HAvl5I) I was changed and onto the water for my first session! This particular races’ preparation was quite possibly the best, we (Callie, Kosi, Jonathan, Andy and I) relaxed in the local swimming pool in the warmth of a jacuzzi.
For the last race of junior selection this year i finished 11th out of 13; coming less than half a second slower than one of the ranked prem paddlers. Not bad for a prem race result! Sunday’s race was another normal prem race, with junior selection being over, I was back to sitting on the bank side judging, to get a run a run. In the officials category (a mix of K1’s and C1’s, consisting of anyone who wants a run on the course) i finished 11th out of 24.
The training week consisted of a variety of training techniques, from concentrating on certain sections of the course, certain moves, and techniques. The weather was constantly changing from minute to minute, the day we travelled up was unbelievably hot, warm enough for shorts! Wednesday was cold enough for it to snow, i woke up to the top of my tent being in my face; and having to do my first session in blizzard conditions. Thankfully as the week progresses, the weather got better.
The weekend’s race was a double division 1 event, with the addition of the first leg of this years’ pan celtic cup on sunday! My results from the weekend are as follows:
Saturday:
C1
8 th Matthew Footit run 1: 108.99 + 4 = 112.99 run 2 104.75 + 0 = 104.75 Best total 104.75
C2:
3 28 Matthew Footit / Peter McColl run 1: 118.21 + 6 = 124.21 run 2:116.42 + 6 = 122.42 Best total 122.42 134
Also, as part of the Pan celtic, team runs must be completed, a kayak and a canadian team run. I was part of the canadian team run, we finished 10th out of all of the teams! A fantastic result!
Sunday:
C1:
15th Matthew Footitt run 1 136.55 + 2 = 138.55 run 2 127.65 + 0 = 127.65 best total 127.65 133
C2:
2 28 Matthew Footit / Peter Mccoll run 1 132.65 + 10 = 142.65 run 2 146.17 + 204 = 350.17 best total 142.65 113
After a long week of continuous paddling, it was safe to say that i needed a race and some proper food! So after a buffet curry i fell asleep almost instantly when in the car on the way home for a solid 8 hours!
Thankfully after a lot of sleep, I’m up and rearing to go again, ready for whatever else the water throws at me!
Matt
Yes! Finally Easter has arrived, and that can only mean one thing, the grandtully races in Scotland. Two consecutive weekends of racing (one weekend a double prem and the next a double div1/div2/pan celtic), an awesome way to spend the easter half term.!
I’m travelling up to scotland tomorrow, for the prem race, a week of training and then the division 1 race! There’s very few wi-fi spots available up there so i might not post for a week or two.
Wish me luck!
Matt
Well, the second selection race didn’t go too well. No, to be honest i thought i did well for my second time on the water. I finished 23rd in the C1 class and 14th in C2. In C2 it was our first time going down the course, so to get all the gates was quite an acheivement! However on our second run, on the last gate, we capsized and my front man decided to bail out, so unfortunately we ‘did not finish’, as we didn’t go through the finish beam. I still managed to stay in the boat and roll it up though!
The course itself was designed by Greg Hitchen (my gb canoeing coach) and Richard Lee (The welsh coach), it was quite a technical course with some tricky moves and interesting up gates.
Cardiff was an unusual event, with the first runs starting at 14:00 (the demo runs, as it was a prem race) and the first race runs startimg at four o’clock. This was because CIWWC is a pumped course and its cheaper hire it in the evening. The event ran around 30 – 45 mins late meaning that my second C1 run was at 8 o’clock! Far later than any normal race…
Next race is the final junior selection race, being held in Grandtully, Scotland!
Stay tuned!,
Matt
During my first – 08:35 session this morning in wales at the Cardiff international white water course
Well, it’s a change in the weather from last time i was here! It’s unbelievably sunny! Last time i was here, we were breaking inch thick ice from the warm up lake, on our way to the conveyor in -14 degree weather! thank goodness for thermals! 😀 As promised i’m sitting here on the cafe balcony at the CIWWC. The first session of today is complete, with a big thanks to Callie Halliday for paddling with me!
The water’s changed a lot since last time, with less boils and some nice eddies for cross-bow ups! Sadly it was a little bit busy, with a mix of abilities on the water; i was lucky enough to paddle with Matej Benus. A bronze medallist at the world championships in C1 last year!
The rest of today’s going to involve a large amount of relaxing, a-level maths, music, friends and sun
So until after tonight’s race, bye!
So, here i am, sitting in the bar of the Cardiff north premier inn, with a nice cold glass of coke and a laptop on my knee. The night before a race is always a tense one, especially tonight as I’m paddling on water that I’m not familiar with, but having a chat and messing about always seems to get rid of those nerves. But tomorrow’s the big day and will push me to my limits, the course tomorrow, will be similar to what’s shown in this video http://bit.ly/GLz4v6. I’m competing in two different disciplines tomorrow, in my C1 and C2.
The race at CIWWC is run differently to others, with the race being run at night to save money. The demo runs for the course start at 2:00 , with my first run being at 3:30 and second being at 7:10, so racing in the dark is going to be a whole new experience! My next post is probably going to be from the cafe tomorrow, with me, eagerly waiting for my runs!
Matt
With help, from my sponsor, JD Carter Electrical services, I’ve been able to purchase a brand new C1 paddle! I’ve been and purchased a Gpower Challenger blade, take a look at it here! http://bit.ly/GOBmc5 It’s been setup for a while now and training with it has been going pretty well! The blade shape is slightly larger than the paddle that I was using before – a Raab Senior C1 paddle – it’s also slightly longer than my previous paddle – only 2 cm, (from 142 cm from top to tip, to 144cm) but it makes a lot of difference!
Sad to say, that it’s not in pristine condition anymore, after taking it to the tryweryn, there’s a couple of scratches, but i’m sure there’ll be penty more of those to come!
In a bit,
Matt
As part of this years’ sponsorship deal with JD Carter Electrical Services (http://www.jdcarterelectrical.co.uk/ ) I’ve received a new hoodie and t-shirt to wear during competitions! Watch out for these at events! I’ll post some photos of them, probably when i’m sitting in the cafe at the white water course in Cardiff at the weekend, waiting for my runs.
See you later,
Matt
I’m sorry for not telling you about this sooner but i have made two different canoe winter training programs! I’ve made it in C1 and in C2 which means that i’ll be almost living up at HPP!
TTFN
Matt 😀
Once again i’d like to thank Justin Carter from J.D. Carter electrical services for continued sponsorship through the winter and next season. For those of you that read my blog frequently, you may have seen the two boats i currently paddle, well i’ve had them sign written again as part of the new sponsorship deal with J.D. Carter electrical services. Already with their help i’ve purchased a new winter cag, and i can tell you from wearing it in the back of a c2 and paddling in it last thursday evening it was well worth the money, warmth and the ability to stay dry; it also matches my boat!
find their website here: http://www.jdcarterelectrical.co.uk/
TTFN readers, White Yak
Well folks, its that time of the year again, the canoe slalom season has finished again for another year… For my first full season, I’ve made quite a lot of progress (if i do say so myself!) After working my way up the divisions this year, starting near the top of division 2 in K1, I’ve climbed up and gained enough points to be ranked 20th in division 1! As for C1, this year i started in division 2 somewhere near the middle, bib 18, and slowly worked my way up, after winning three races one after the other, i was promoted to division 1 and i still had a 4 meter boat. (For those of you that don’t know what that means, try walking with concrete blocks on your feet, its a lot of effort!) So not long after i purchased a second hand C1, and development shortly followed, my final place for C1 this year was 20th, not a lot of improvement, only 15 places, but considering i only did 6 races, thats not too bad… right?
My final results for this season are as follows:
| K1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Bib | Name | J/V | Club | Points | Grandtully | HPP | Washburn | Washburn | Grandtully | Grandtully | Abbey Rapids | HPP | Llandysul | Llandysul | Teeside | Serpents Tail |
| 20 | 132 | Matthew Footitt | J16 | Proteus CC | 3692 | 273 | 681 | 765 | 500 | 635 | 421 | 615 | 620 | 667 | 725 | 600 | 854 |
| C1 | |||||||||||
| Rank | Bib | Name | J/V | Club | Points | Grandtully | Grandtully | HPP | Llandysul | Teeside | Serpents Tail |
| 12 | 35 | Matthew Footitt | J16 | Proteus CC | 2084 | 308 | 273 | 286 | 357 | 333 | 800 |
www.mattfootitt.wordpress.com 