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By Emily Jackson

We just finished up the 2008 Olympic Qualifiers for Slalom and all I can say is WOW! I have paddled and participated in a lot of events before but that one was a first for a lot of things. VIP Tents, Cheesecake and .05 Second Differences were only a few. I knew I hadn’t been training enough to be competitive, Spending 3 weeks in Canada for Canadian Team Trials didn’t help. But I did know that regardless for how much time I had spent in my long boat that it was going to be just as fun.

The first day I didn’t know what to expect, the off sets looked hard but the whitewater looked fun. I had aweful times but at least I knew it could only get better from there. The second day I had much better runs but was given two 50’s that belonged to the person in front of me, Oh well! The protest tent scared me since there was a lot of drama seeing who was going to the Olympics for Canada and I didn’t want to get in the way! My third day I had one okay run and one really good run. My first one was a bit slow because I almost didn’t make it into a gate but the next run I styled every move and was only 20 seconds off the leader! That made me super happy and I remembered what paddling a slalom boat was supposed to feel like after the run!

Dad paddled great and was definitely the crowd pleaser, the announcer knew him well and you could see my dad liked that. I had a great time watching him on and off the water!

5 of my favorite things were:

  1. Sneaking into the VIP Tent, (Only worked once)
  2. Paddling in Warm Weather and Water
  3. Drinking 100 Vitamin Waters ( I recommend the Orange one)
  4. Attempting to walk down the course with Rupert and Rio (we didn’t get far with their cute faces!)
  5. Spending quality time with my Dad and Nick, definitely made me miss Dane more (2 more days!)

I hope everyone is enjoying the greenness of Spring as much as I am!

Happy Paddling
Emily