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Vice South American RSX Champion and Brazilian Slalom Champ!!!

Oi from Buzios, Brazil!!!

I can’t believe that January is almost half over, so it’s a little late to say this…but Happy New Year! 2012 is going to be a great year and it’s also going to be my year!!!

After returning to Vancouver from a relaxing Christmas holiday with my family in Germany, I got straight back into training. My plans had been to attend the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta at the end of January as per usual. Only problem was that not many girls were going and I what I really needed was to have good quality training and racing in order for me to make the trip worthwhile, for me to be properly prepared to win the next Olympic Qualifier which is at the 2012 World Championships in Spain in March. As our Canadian Olympic trials have it, unless I placed top 10 in Perth, the trials would continue to the next Worlds, top Canadian gets the spot. So, not only am I gunning for this spot, I’m doing everything that I can to be a contender for an Olympic Medal come end of July this year!!!

Thus after only a week at home I made the decision to go to Buzios, Brazil, for the South American Championships. There was going to be a solid fleet of sailors, including my Spanish training partner Marina, the German girl Moana and the Brazilian Patricia. Add a bunch of youth boys and some other girls and we had a fantastic fleet.

After 12 races in mostly windy sailing conditions, I’m Vice South American Champion. Congrats to Marina from Spain who won the women’s title and Yago, a Brazilian youth boy who blew us all away finishing 1st by miles 12 impressive times. A broken fin and an infection under the callouses in both my hands didn’t help my situation. Until it became completely obvious that something was wrong, the broken fin had me miss the layline a few too many times, dropping back a few places each time. All in all, I had a few key things I was trying to work on, I accomplished what I wanted to and despite a few set backs that cost me the title I am happy with how I sailed.

The RSX races were held each morning and in the afternoon as the wind picked up even more, the Brazilian Slalom Championships were held. Many of the guys that raced slalom were kind enough to lend us their equipment and so I raced on borrowed equipment! After 16 slalom races, I won the Brazilian Slalom Champs!!! It was crazy fun and was really helpful in getting my timing right for the starts and gybing practice. Our last day of racing was in up to 30knots, I was trying to hang onto a 6.7 and was on a bigger board. HOLD ON!!! Check out this awesome VIDEO of one of the races, I’m the one with BRA 1 on my sail, and I had a really sweet first gybe :)

After 6 days of racing, with at least 6 races a day, I am totally shattered and can’t wait to give my body a rest over the next few days!!! Then back at training…I’m here till the 25th.

Oh, and those of you living on the North Shore, look out for the Sunday (today's) edition of the North Shore News. You can read the article online too: West Van Windsurfers

Worlds Day Five

What a roller coaster ride this event has been.

Yesterday we had our final two races before the top 10 was finalized and move onto the Medal Race today. Going into the day, I had no chance of making the top 10, so I just had to go out there and do what I could to move up the rankings. We had a different race course - making me a pretty happy girl for the chance to sail on a decent race course rather than being tucked into Bathers Bay as we had been for the previous days.

In the first race I had a terrible start, thinking that the entire fleet was over the line early and that we would have a general recall and be restarted. However, that didn't happen and so I had to just deal with the start I had. I was going fast, tacked near the port layline of the mark...only to realize that I was heading towards the wrong top mark...it was the reach mark I was going to. I wasn't alone in making this mistake, I was in plenty good company at that. What could have and should have been a top 5 or better mark rounding ended up being a bottom 5 top mark rounding. I salvaged what I could from that race, now knowing exactly where the reach mark for the next leg was...and managed to claw my way to 15th.

Race 2: I was pretty damn determined to get it right - for once!!! I didn't get a stellar start, but at least I got off the line and was able to make my own decisions rather than have my decisions be dictated to me by the others. I had a private battle with Zofia from Poland, us duking it out for the entirety of the race. I was closing in on her ever so surely and as we headed through the final slalom I had to try what I could to get around her. On the last mark I tried to make a move, but ended up having a good wipeout instead. Another scar :) Attached is a picture of me pulling up the sail, while the whole fleet was still miles behind and I still finished 2nd by quite a bit. Smacking the fleet was a great way to finish the regatta.

While my regatta goal of coming top 10 got tougher to achieve each day, I think the toughest part of the regatta was dealing with the mental component of all the ups and downs, the weeds, the crazy course area, our terrible launch area etc. From being ranked 52nd on Day 1, to 18th, back down to 22nd and then up to 15th. It was a Canadian Olympic Qualifier so it made the emotions run a bit stronger too, and thus by not making my goal, it extends my qualifying period to next World Championships at the end of March.

The good news is that I qualified Canada for a spot at the Olympics. I placed 15th (10th country) which has been my best Worlds result yet - despite having had only one good race - one race that I felt like I was actually switched on. I am disappointed in my result despite all this - which really begs the question - what would've been my result had I actually been switched on for all 10 races...? Congratulations to my training partners who came in 1st , 2nd and 3rd at this regatta...

I have come away from the regatta with a renewed list of what needs to be worked on - one that'll make my next months quite interesting and fulfilling. I absolutely know I have it in me to be a medal contender in London, it's all just fine tuning now.

I can't wait to jump onto the plane tomorrow! Only one day at home for me before jumping on yet another flight with my mom to visit my sister in Germany for Christmas. Really looking forward to this downtime!

Worlds Day Four

Three scheduled races - with a great windy forecast. I was pretty excited about the day and my chance to move up the leaderboard.

Lots of cloud cover this morning kept the breeze from filling in like it was "supposed" to - our first race was in 5knots, lots of chop and heaps of weeds. I had a great start and was in the top ten at the first mark, but some bad positioning on the downwinds had me lose quite a few places, dropping me back to 23rd.

Races 2 & 3 - the wind did actually fill in finally, however it didn't pack much punch, nor could I figure it out (strategically or tactically) nor did I find a clear path through the weed infested waters. The weeds on our course today were absolutely brutal - despite the organizers promising they would be trolling our area for weeds. I wasn't the only one set back by the weeds, sometimes it was just the unluckiness or luckiness of when you actually got the weeds. I got some just at the start of the 2nd race - a most crucial moment that dictates a bit of how the rest of the race will go. I think I must have stopped to clear my weeds about 15 times that race. Stopping is not very fast...but sailing with weeds is even slower. Frustrating. In both races I just never was able to get in the grove, a disappointing 15th & 18th had me drop down to 22nd overall now, making my top 10 goal (and qualifying myself for the Olympics at this Worlds) a bit of a far fetch. But you never know....

It was a long one for us starting at 12pm...and finished at 7pm.

Check out the article in the Globe and Mail And pictures will come, but it's late and I need to go to bed. A rest day tomorrow and then back at it for 2 more races on the 10th.

Worlds Day Three

One word: PHEWFF.

Today we had 3 races in medium windy conditions that were really quite shifty and difficult to decipher. I hadn't looked at the results until after sailing today, but I knew that I really had to light it up on the race course today to have any chance of making the Gold Fleet or the top half. Today was the last day to qualify for this.

Although I would've like to have an even better day than this, an 8th, 9th and a 3rd has moved me up to 18th overall (up 34 places apparently from 52nd, which I was in this morning!)

Attached is picture of my battle wound for today. It happened on the last race. I was on starboard (right of way board), when a board was coming at me on port (they must keep clear of me), but they didn't. I tried to avoid - and then at the last second they tried to tack to avoid me. She started falling part way through her tack, I had already gone as low as I could to try to get around her, but her sail cut open my back. Dripping blood around the race course is never a good thing here... doesn't help that there were 2 big men in grey suits seen here today near/in/under our race course...aka Great Whites!

3 races are scheduled for tomorrow!

Worlds Day Two

This morning I woke up to heavy rain, sometimes hail - funny cause "it's never like this" in Perth in December. Considering it was the hottest day on record a few days ago, and then it's hailing...it's become a bit of a running joke amongst us sailors (but it's not a funny joke) that the normal weather patterns never hold up for race time. The norm here in Fremantle is that "The Fremantle Doctor" blows consistently between noon and 3pm, a cooling afternoon sea breeze which occurs during the summer months in SW coastal areas of western Australia. In all our training time leading up to the Worlds, we had these great "usual" conditions, however, that's all changed. The Doctor has yet to come, I think he's drowned in all the rain. I'm pretty sure that Perth has a new rainfall record from today.

Thunder and lightning kept us onshore all day, and at 2pm the race organizers called off the day. Too dangerous. Lightning was hitting things in our boat park!!!

I came home to check out the weather and news...only to learn that: Storm-ravaged parts of the city have been declared natural disaster zones.

With racing cancelled today, we lost the opportunity to race 2 races. Tomorrow they have 3 races scheduled (which is the most they can do on a given day - provided that we windsurfers have at least 1 of the 1st 2 races in planing conditions). With only 6 races in the opening series scheduled, now having been dwindled down to a maximum of 5, it's quite important for me to have 3 super solid races tomorrow.

Attached are some pictures of the "craziness" of today, one of our lovely waiting area at the boat park, St. Nikolaus came paid us a visit (a German tradition), and MY PICTURE OF THE DAY FOR TOMORROW!!!!

Bring it!!!

Worlds Day One!

Well...

I didn't get hit by the lightning that came down today, I didn't get attacked by a shark, I still have all my limbs in tact and I'm not injured, I came home to a mini Christmas tree and warm rice pudding! A decent day in that respect.

My gear unfortunately didn't hold up quite as well as I did. Unfortunately one of my battens broke in the first race, which I tried to repair between races but never managed to fix it. Then for the second race, not only did I have a broken batten but then the cambered batten above the broken batten came off my mast (which I can't put back), a sure guarantee that I was going to be slow, not pointing high and unable to pump effectively. Two tough and unlucky races for me, however my stuff is fixed, and I'm back at it tomorrow.

Worlds start on Monday!

The past week of training here has been pretty good. We've had a few very hot and dry days - up to 39 degrees, a shark sighting just off the beach and some of the windsurfers were lucky to sail with some dolphins. This last week my taper program came into effect - lightening my training load, freeing up some time for me to do all the other bits that needed being done. Equipment measurement was today, and for that I needed to have all my gear chosen, stamped and stickered. Tomorrow is my final practice day on the water before the Worlds start on Monday. I've been working extremely hard to prepare all that I can for this event as it's not only the World Championships but also the first of two of the Canadian Olympic Team qualifiers. No doubt that come Monday till the end of the event, I'll be firing on all cylinders!!!

You can follow the results through the: Perth 2011 ISAF World Championships Website , but the RSX Class has also created their own microsite which will cater only to the Windsurfers: RSX Worlds Microsite

We will be racing with a GPS, so you'll be able to follow races live as well.

More to come once the races start!

I'm Down Under!!!

After returning home from the Pan Am Games, I completed a hard two weeks of training at home, both on and off the water in what were some pretty great November conditions in English Bay, all in preparation for my trip to Perth - and the upcoming World Championships/Olympic Qualifiers. I was relieved to finally have everything packed and done when I got on the plane last week to Perth. After a super long day of travel, a Vancouver to Sydney flight (luckily direct but still 15+hrs), then another 5 hour flight from Sydney to Perth, I finally arrived, safe and sound, somewhat tired and luckily with all my equipment in tact.

Excited about sailing in warm and sunny Perth, I went out for a session on my first day (always helps with the jet lag). The next day was very stormy, rainy and cold - which gave me a perfect chance to get myself organized: I food shopped, got my gym membership, phone card etc. Since we were starting a 4 day 'coaches run regatta' the following day, I didn't mind taking this day off.

There were 3 races each day for the last 4 days. The coaches organized this regatta and charged an entry fee so that there would be some prize money at the end for the top competitors, and more importantly so that the competitors would actually take the regatta a bit more seriously than "just training races". I broke my batten on the first day before racing so I sailed 3 races like that... not the best and thus my results suffered a bit from that. However for day 2, 3, and 4 I had gear that worked and I was able to test my speed and my racing skills against many of the sailors that are here training. One of the days got really windy and with the bay being quite shallow, the waves/chop made it very difficult and sometimes a bit scary upwind as we get launched off the waves, but they also make for some particularly sketchy downwinds. Attached is a picture of me leading this crazy windy downwind! I think we were about 20+ girls. I managed to have quite a few good races amongst the 12 race regatta and finished the event off in 3rd....which meant prize money...$100!!! Ok, so it's not that much, but since we never get prize money, this is the most I've ever won for an RSX event :) Here in Perth, everything is so unbelievably expensive that I gladly welcomed this addition to my funding... check out the picture of tomatoes & their price attached.

If you haven't checked it out yet, get a copy of the November edition of Canadian Yachting Magazine, they featured me in an article.

The online magazine Sail-World.com has also just released an article on me yesterday...click here to read it: Perth 2011 - Canada’s RS:X Champ Nikola Girke shares love and luck

And...that's all for now. I'm having 2 days off the water before I get back out there...today I went to check out Perth and tomorrow I'm heading down the coast to the infamous Margaret River.

The first day of racing of the World Championships is on the 5th of December. I'll be sending details on how to follow results etc then, but you can also check out the website: Perth 2011 ISAF World Championships

Pan American Games...

and the leather medal (4th) goes to Nikola!

Well, I'd be lying if I said I was happy with my result at the Pan Am Games. I definitely had hoped to be on the podium, but going into the event, knowing what the conditions would be like, and not putting my focus on the Pan Am Games at all either, rather - focusing all my training efforts on the upcoming Olympic Qualifier in Perth, I was probably not as "prepared" as my competition was for this venue. For many Pan American countries, the Pan Am Games is as important for them as the Olympics - and thus, these athletes focus on this event alone. Canada however places no value on these Games (for sailing) and thus it was always regarded as a great training/racing opportunity. Needless to say, the competitor in me, still doesn't like to lose...

The sailing conditions were very tough and very ground hog day-ish. Our Canadian team leader and head coach Ken Dool summed it up nicely: the breeze has been predictably unpredictable, a sea breeze evolution has occurred each day and for the majority of course areas this has seen breeze top out in the 5-8 knot range....so add about 35 degrees of temperature, 30 degree water temp and 95% humidity and you have the type of weather that slowly climbs under ones skin. Then, add heaps of current on my course area, swell and chop, then combine that with a race committee that set "wonky" courses, and have my competitors weigh between 12-15kgs less than me, I was in for a real treat: pumping intervals against moving targets for an entire week!

Considering the conditions described above, my least favourite and the most unaccommodating for my size, I sailed an incredibly solid regatta. I had excellent starts and I gave my most relentless and powerful performance each and every race. I definitely was a few clicks slower and didn't point as high as the others and when the odd puff came through, I couldn't plane when they could, and thus had to rely on sailing near flawless races (both tactically and strategically) just to remain in touch with the others. All great practice for when I'm up against a world class fleet in all conditions.

There were definitely a few "coulda, woulda, shoulda's" moments throughout this regatta - or rather things that weren't quite right and had they been different... who knows!?! The event was filled with more variables then I had ever encountered before. The wind was very unpredictable, the courses were not what I was used to, etc. Regardless, I never gave up and I never stopped fighting! I was able to stay level-headed, and looking back this event was excellent training for the Worlds and the Olympics, I don't think anything could phase me anymore!

And now the fun stuff: It was my first time at a "Games" where we sailors weren't the only athletes in a satellite village. In our Pan Am Village in Puerto Vallarta, we had the beach volley-ballers, the open-water swimmers and the triathletes. The best was befriending the other Canadian athletes; sharing, comparing and motivating each other through our stories - all built on tenaciousness and hard work and fun. I was so stoked when Heather, one of the CDN beach volleyball girls gave me one of her super cool Olympic tops to race in, hands down - making me the best dressed out there! Since sailing extends through out the whole week, when the others had days off they came to be our fan club, haven't had one of those before!!! The volunteers were great - super friendly and helpful, and I felt secure and safe as there was security everywhere we went - on the buses to the venue, at the hotel etc. Definitely a bit intimidating at first, but that didn't stop me jumping on board their police truck and getting a picture with them (happy to be an athlete and not anyone wanted!)

And last but not least, on Monday morning before most of us Canadians flew back home, some of us went to an Orphanage in Puerto Vallarta to visit with the kids. The kids were amazing and so happy to see us, and as they could not go to see the Games themselves, they were stoked to have the Games come to them. We were greeted by their huge smiles and medals that they made for each of us and we spent our time playing with them and giving them pins and getting all stickered up. It was a really fun visit for all - and in the end, I did get to fly home with a medal after all.

Now that I am home it's back to preparing for the Olympic Games, with my key event coming up: the World Championships in Perth early December, which are also my Olympic Qualifiers.

Tarifa Training Camp

My two-week training stint in Tarifa, Spain was no doubt one of the best training camps I’ve ever had. I arrived roaring to go and by the last day, didn’t have a single bit of energy left within me. Our group included: Spain’s Marina, Israel’s Lee-el, Poland’s Zofia (all who stood on the podium most regattas this year), Vicky from Hong Kong and myself.

Arriving after a long 37hr trip (bag issues), I fell into bed the first night, excited about the next day – a planned recovery/adjustment day for those of us with jetlag. Plans changed though and by 11am Spanish time (which was my 2am), us girls were on (and sometimes in) the water taking on 30knots. Talk about having to get adjusted and getting “catapulted” into the new time zone quickly.

The forecast for the next days was for way too much wind for us to sail (40+knots) so we moved our venue to just beside Gibraltar, a 45min drive north up the coast, where the wind was quite a bit mellower. Two sessions a day in windy and shifty conditions had us completely wiped out after 4 days. Tough days, but what made it a bit more bearable was having tons of dolphins jumping around in amongst us.

Two days off followed. I pretty much did nothing!!! We checked out some beautiful beaches that had cows walking randomly along them and ended up going to a totally secluded sailing spot, where some of the others went short boarding.

And then…back at training. The morning sessions had us mountain biking for a few hours and in the afternoons we were in the water. Windy, windy, windy... so hard, yet so much fun. Drills, speed testing and racing… and after another 5 days of training we were all so pooped that none of us wanted to or could leave the house.

We had such an awesome group of girls, with great energy – all of us pushing each other to make it through the camp, which we did, but just barely!!!

I flew home on the 10th, only to catch a flight to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico two days later. I’m competing in the Pan Am Games here starting on Monday the 17th. Also based here in Puerto Vallarta in the athlete village are: triathlon, beach volleyball and open ocean swimming. It’s quite cool to have a mix of athletes finally after always being only amongst sailors!

More news to come on how to follow Pan Am Games results etc. soon.

What a month...

and it just totally flew by.

After Pre-Olympics, I came home to some well deserved rest. A bit of biking, running and yoga kept me sane as well as lots of catching up with friends, getting my body fixed and then of course there is the usual work associated with organizing campaign stuff.

At the end of August I headed down to the Gorge (Hood River, Oregon) for 5 days. I haven't been there for 3 years and it's just as great as I remember it. Absolutely beautiful, sunny, windy. I went there to do some “fun” training... getting back into sailing on the RSX after about 2 weeks off the water. It was a fantastic trip, I had wind everyday and sailed the RSX mostly, but on one day I was overpowered on a 4.0 and a wave board, then I sailed powered up on a 5.4 and a slalom board. Definitely feels different to a big board and the 8.5 sail that I am used to!!! Seeing my old racer friends and sailing with Gorge's own 14year old superstar Fiona Wylde (who kept me on my toes the whole time) at the Gorge was so great, the windsurfing scene is still alive and well down there and it gave me renewed energy for the upcoming months of hard training and competition that’ll require my 100% focus.

Once back at home, the next thing I had to look forward to was riding from Downtown Vancouver to Whistler in the GranFondo. Over 7200 bikers participated in the 122km ride along the Sea to Sky highway, with a total vertical of 2400m or 7500+feet. I competed and completed the race/ride in 4hr43mins. It was an absolutely amazing ride, warm at the start at 7am...to a blazing 30+ degrees closer to Whistler. A super relaxing afternoon and next day followed, which was great as that was the end of my down time and my real training started back up two days later.

My time at home is almost up again, next stop is a training camp in Tarifa, Spain with my training group. I'll be there for a bit over two weeks, before heading back home for a quick turn around, then the Pan American Games in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Lots of excitement to come in the coming months:

October 17-23, Pan Am Games, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico December 3-11, World Championships/Olympic Qualifier, Perth, Australia

Attached are a few pictures from my last month, and have a read of my article in the Water Safety Magazine: Water Safety Article

I'll keep you posted!

Pre-Olympics recap...and the medal race!

When I woke up the morning of the medal race, the day was already shaping up quite nicely - blue sky, windy and building, with only one race at 1pm. Once down at the boat park, there was talk that it might be postponed as it was 24-28knots+, but that didn't stop me from being ready. I was one of the first girls to launch and sail downwind, outside of the harbour to the "Nothe" course once again. It was a hang-on, wet and crazy downwind - it was actually really really quite windy!!! I practiced my gybes, fell in several times, and once on the course area made sure that my sail was set up properly for the conditions. I had gone around the race track a few times, checking out the top mark - especially because on the Nothe course they liked tucking the top mark in very close to the beach. I was pretty much gunning for a top 3 finish, knowing I had the ability to do so in these conditions.

I had an awesome start, and ended up rolling over the Spanish girl. I tacked up the left side (which had worked for the previous fleets on that course), but it didn't really pan out - the girls that tacked a bit earlier gained on me and I was coming into the top mark in 4th. What I hadn't realized was that they moved and tucked our top mark even further into the beach making the wind extremely fickle at the top - with the wind range from about 5-18knots. That made laying the top mark really quite hard, and I was already struggling from my already tight layline which I was trying desperately to make work, but then I ended up falling at the mark as I was trying to get around it as I had no wind. That quickly dropped me to 8th place. The rest of the race was pretty much me trying to catch some of the girls ahead of me, but there weren't many passing lanes as the wind had dropped quite a bit and all the girls were managing to get around the course quite easily. I finished the race in 8th, neither moving up or down in the overall score - leaving me at 9th.

9th...9th overall!!! Stoked...it was my first time making the Medal Race against the Olympic calibre fleet at such an important event "Pre-Olympics" on the Olympic course. Sure I could've done better in some races - could've done worse in some too. Albeit a number of poor starts, I made great tactical decisions throughout the event, never gave up and worked as hard if not harder than any girl out there. I'm still on a steep improvement curve, and it's so rewarding to see that all my hard efforts are starting to show. I was 1 of only 4 girls that won a race at this event...which is a pretty cool little statistic :) Just a few more of those and ... BINGO! ... definitely bodes well for next year!!!

A major change in my program was implemented in May, and since Sail For Gold in June, when I won my first & second race at a World Cup event, my expectations have shifted as well. My fitness is at a new high and in combination with a new found confidence in my sailing abilities, I am no longer satisfied with top 10-15's, but am now gunning to be in the medal race each regatta, setting the bar even higher as I shoot for the medals. I have always wanted to win, but wanting to and knowing you have what it takes are two different things. I know that I can and that in one year from now, the Nikola that shows up for the Games...has what it takes to win!

It's not only me that gets me around the race track, but it's everyone that helps me right then and there or behind the scenes. A big thank you to my coach Jason Rhodes and the athletic therapist Alicia for keeping me on track and good to go everyday as well as the rest of the Canadian Sailing Team support staff. Thanks to James and Chad from the Canadian Sport Centre for making me your fitness slave and Tom Patrick for keeping keeping my head in check :) Without this year's support from CYA, Wind Athletes Canada, Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, Chapman Land Surveying, CAN Fund, USANA, Kaenon Polarized, Robin at Body Engineered, EHYC, Dr. Chin and everyone that involves themselves in my campaign, I wouldn't be where I am today. THANK YOU!!!

And some pictures - medal race start, an upwind of a light air race, what the bay looks like on a windy day, my ice bath, my super duper changing towel, doing my recovery bike in the container after racing, and Alicia working on me before racing in the container.

and...I am now on Twitter...you can follow me at: NikGoing4Gold

Tomorrow's Medal Race

The medal race for RSX Women will be at 1pm on the Nothe course. It's been blowing dogs off chains all day today...and it's supposed to remain like that for tomorrow - it'll be super fun and full on!!!

You can follow the race live (or watch the replay when you are awake) and follow the results through the event website: GPS Tracking of the Races and Results

I'm sitting in 9th overall, 1 point from 8th place and 9 points out of 6th. The medal race is for double points, which means winning a race gives you 2 points instead of 1, 2nd = 4 points etc. Doing the math, the most I can move up to is 6th place yet of course I could also fall to 10th.

Looking forward to racing tomorrow!

I'm in the MEDAL RACE!!!

Today was the day...I had to give it my all, in some of the most trying racing conditions ever!!!

Racing for the girls was scheduled for 2pm right after the boys finished their two races on the Nothe course (remember the one I had described a few emails ago with that headland and the mark tucked in close to shore). With the wind direction today, the wind had to go around either side of this headland - creating something like 40-60 degree shifts with massive puffs and holes (4-13knots?). Needless to say - very tricky. Us girls ended up being postponed onshore cause the guys were having trouble getting their race off. Eventually, I figured that the guys would be done soon, and headed to the race area....only to sit around for another hour and a half while they attempted about 8 starts, all to be postponed due to these crazy shifts. Finally the guys had their race - which meant we were up next!

Get off the start, look for and stay in the pressure, tack on the shifts, pump till I couldn't pump no more, get planing and stay planing on the downwind and repeat was on my menu for the day...oh, and stay ahead of all the girls that were barking at my heels in points - which if they had better races than me could end up putting me out of the medal race. Before both races we had numerous postponements which meant being ready for the start...not starting...and then having to refocus all over again for the next start, over and over again.

Race 1: Did all of the above quite well - finished 13th

Race 2: Did all of the above quite well - finished 14th

With those 2 solid races, I finished the day in 9th...and thus I'm racing in the Medal Race on Thursday!!! YEAH!!!

And to top off the day, when Jason Rhodes, my coach and I finally pulled up at home at 8pm, tired, cold and hungry after our 6.5hours on the water, we were greeted with the whole Canadian Sailing Team waiting for us outside the house cheering! A special moment....thank you!

A yummy dinner followed by a massage and a hot shower has me half asleep now. Time to sleep and recover....

A race win!!!

Sunny, windy...a great start and a solidly sailed race having to battle it out with the top 4 girls = 1st place for the first race of the day. Big smiles :)

Race 2: I had another great start. However there was a right puff/sheer that lifted everyone that was to windward (or to the right of me) up...and they gained so much windward distance on me it was incredible. There was nothing I could do about it, I was just a bit unlucky. It had me rounding the top mark in 12th maybe and each leg of the 3 lap course I reeled some girls in. I finished 5th.

Happy with my performance today - I got off the starting line, like I said I would!...and that makes a world of difference. I've moved up to 8th overall now, with two more races to go tomorrow to determine who gets to race in the Medal Race on Thursday.

Day Three...

Woke up to absolutely no wind. Slowly and steadily the wind built and by time it was race o'clock, we had 11-15knots. Was stoked for a great day of racing.

The bad news: two lousy starts had me clawing back for the entirety of both races.

The good news: I sailed really well, executed my own race strategy and made distinctive gains each leg of the race. I was quick, I had - what I thought were some of my best planing gybes ever (especially under high pressure in board on board/mark situations) and well...that's all I could really do. I finished 10th and 9th respectively and now sit in 11th overall.

I had a good rest day today. Recovered and ready for tomorrow's two races. I WILL GET OFF THE STARTING LINE!!!

A tough day two...

So first you have to take a look at the course diagram and zoom in to find the "Nothe" course, which is the second from the left, nicely tucked into a bay under a headland. Then you put our windward mark pretty much on the beach...and there you have our course. We were about to start our race when it was postponed due to the "fast cat super ferry" heading straight at us to the port...and then there was a course change....so were were even more to the right. It made for really puffy and shifty racing today in light to marginal wind conditions - those really tough conditions for me when it's really hard to plane downwind, and combine that with some tactical mistakes I made = a slow painful slide backwards. Not all was bad though... I gave it 100% (and although I had a net loss on the downwinds, I did make some gains to pass a few girls right before the finish on the last race because I kept planing and they weren't, I had a great start in the second race at the pin end, I made some good decisions and well...I know what needs to be worked on and there is a plan in place!

A 17th and a 19th slips me to 12th overall. "Nothe-ing special on Nothe course today". 6 more races to go in the opening series...so I have room to move up!!!

More news after tomorrow's 2 races!

Day One of Racing at the Olympic Test Event

After several nice summery days here in Weymouth, it was back to good old UK weather! I woke up to the heavy rain several times this past night...and sure enough, this morning was no better. My races were scheduled for 2pm and luckily by that time the front passed, it was beautiful and sunny with some breeze.

For the entire time of my pre-race warm-up/getting dialed in, it was fully planing, but then just at the start the wind died quite a bit and we ended starting with our daggerboard down in railing mode. I did not have a great start, I was too close to others - both from above and below and quickly got rolled. I had planned on going left up the first beat - so decided when the breeze came up a bit again to go planing. I was soon in clear air and with some good speed and height, I was passing boards. I tacked just shy of the port layline and it looked to me that I was in the lead...until about 3/4 up the track when the wind went a bit right and the boards that went right were coming in hot. Needless to say, I did not round first nor did I round in the first 10. I battled the rest of the race and with a few smart calls up the second upwind, I worked myself up to 7th.

Race Two: Everyone had figured out that the right side of the course was favoured by this point and thus 3/4's of the fleet started on port (heading to the right side). I started on port as well - but once again was too close to the boards below me and lost my ability to sail high and low working the waves. Dirty air is never good and thus I decided to foot off (sail lower than those around me) which in turn had me sailing through them to leeward. The leaders were gone at this point (they had great starts with clean lanes) and I just had to try to catch up as much as I could. Bit by bit I took boards down and by the third upwind mark I was in 3rd. On the last downwind the wind lightened off a bit, I didn't gybe in the proper spot missing a gust, then got dirty air from the boards behind/on top of me, and I had trouble staying on a plane. Then one of my battens broke during a gybe which kept me from planing out of my gybe, I wallowed a bit while the others planed past me from both sides...ARGH!!! So, 200m from the finish I went from 3rd to 8th. Definitely disappointing and some lessons to be learned from that....I must fight to plane no matter what!!!

I sit in 8th at the moment. Many more races to go...

And attached is a picture of me getting my sail all stickered up....GO CANADA!!! no mistaking what country I represent :)

Gearing up for the Olympic Test- Event!!!

Tomorrow will be my third day here for me in Weymouth, and so far it's been really great. The trip started off nicely with an upgrade on my Air Canada flight, Vancouver to London...so I actually arrived somewhat rested. Yeah for e-upgrades! And the Canadian Sailing Team is set up in really great accommodation, we even have a chef who's making us really great dinners each night which is a total bonus!

I'm here for the Pre-Olympics or the Olympic Test-Event, which is an actual test for the organizing committee of the London Games and us for everything (security, media, racing, etc). My actual racing starts on Thursday August 4th and will finish on the 11th (Medal Race Day). Although the test event does not count towards Olympic qualification, it is an important event because it is on the Olympic course and only the top sailors of each nation are here to race. Doing well is always a good thing :)

Interestingly enough, today the course schedules were distributed. And to my astonishment...the course that we have been racing on for the last 3 years (World Champs, and 3 World Cups) is not the course we will be racing on. The windsurfers have always sailed inside the harbour...and I have only ventured "outside" the harbour once. Yet at this event, we are racing on the outside courses the entire time! It may not seem like a big deal - but conditions are drastically different: waves & swell vs flat & choppy waters, current vs no current, etc....I guess I'll find out what else is quite different as I'm going to venture "out there" in tomorrow's training.

Lately I've had many of you asking if the Test-Event is part of Olympic Qualification...and it's not. A quick run-down of what needs to be achieved in order to qualify for London. We have two chances to qualify for the Olympics. My Olympic Qualification starts this December at the World Championships in Perth, Australia. First, Canada needs to qualify itself for a nation spot at the Games. There are 28 RSX Women Country Spots available. Which means only one athlete per country, from 28 different countries. Next, a top 10 result at the Perth Worlds would have me auto-qualify for the Games, as long as no other Canadian is in the top 10. If none of us Canadians are in the top 10, the trials continue to the 2012 World Championships which are in Cadiz, Spain in March 2012...and top Canadian there, wins the spot.

Attached are a few pictures, one of the North Shore Outlook article about me (but you can check it out online yourself at: North Shore Outlook Article, one of the still empty venue today - windsurfers get stored in that white tent and we get to rig on that nice blue foam carpet :), and the Canadian Team has a team Container - with Spin bikes in it...which is super for after racing recovery!

More news to come as it happens!

Homeward Bound...!

After an incredible 3 weeks of training, I'm going home tomorrow, but just for 10 days before I head back to Weymouth for the Pre-Olympics. Some may ask why I am going home for such a short time...with all that jetlag to deal with etc...and well, over the years I've learned how I work and perform at my best. Five weeks away is my cut-off and if I didn't go home, I'd be gone for 7+, whilst racing the Pre-Olympics in those last 2 weeks. Plus it keeps my training away intense and exciting!

The training camp in Santander with the girls was awesome...we pushed each other hard both on and off the water. Sailing, gym, surfing, running, biking, yoga, eating and sleeping was on the menu each day and by the end of the 11 days I was too tired to sleep. My body had had it...I was done, I had given it my all.

My last day in Santander started with a morning surf, then went straight from the beach onto a bus that took me to Bilbao 1.5hrs away, from where I flew to Germany. Thunderstorms and missed connections had me and 3 others stranded in Munich late at night when we wanted to get to Nuernberg, and thus Lufthansa ended up sending us in a taxi. Yikes....a 250euro cab ride. Three days in Germany to visit with my family and go to my cousins wedding was my treat for the long day of traveling. And all was great until I got some sort of stomach flu...

Arriving in Weymouth, still feeling a bit under the weather, it was perfect that there was absolutely no wind on what should have been my first training day. I soon regained my strength and the past 4 days of training have been really good. Both yesterday and today it was very windy...about 15 degrees with intermittent squalls that had the wind get up to about 30+ knots today. Being out in those conditions for more than 2hrs each day is very tiring and I thought it was a good idea to call it a day when I lead around the top mark on the 4th practice race of today. A nice way to end my training here in Weymouth...and the sun even came out to dry everything nicely as I packed up.

Celebrate Canada Day by supporting Canadian Athletes!!!

Training is going well here in Spain, we've had 4 big days of training already. Yesterday was the hardest of them all...2hrs surfing followed by 2hrs of pumping intervals, then a run and then yoga! Attached are some pictures, although none of windsurfing....yet!

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Hola de Espana...

After two weeks at home, I'm off again...no competitions this time, just training. My first week at home was spent recovering, the second was back at training - both on the water, dryland/gym and at the end of the week, just to finish me off, a fitness test! Needless to say...yoga was quite tough the following morning.

I arrived here late last night, my training started today (our session was already over by 7am my time!), in Santander, Spain (atlantic coast), at the Spanish Olympic Sailing Team training center. I'm joined by a really great group of girls - both on and off the water. Within our group (World #1 - Spanish sailor Marina, Lee from Israel, Demita from Mexico and Vicky from Hong Kong, and myself), we've got experts to cover all the bases: heavy, medium and light winds. The training facility is world class (we sleep here in dorm rooms looking out over the boat storage area and the harbour), there is a gym here on site as well as a gym/pool close by that we can go too. The sailing conditions here are good too, as is the surfing. It was a requirement to bring a surfboard :) And for all of you who've expressed some jealousy that I'm in Spain...it's NOT the warm part of Spain I just found out. It was a normal summer day today; 16 degrees and rain. Hmmm...I wonder why nobody told me that before I got here.

Attached are some pictures: the loading of the Spanish Van in Weymouth after Sail For Gold...little did I know until packing day that there are about 8 guys training in Santander too...and everyone's equipment had to go in or on the van. Not much room left for anything else!!! The pile of gear that we had to sift through to find our stuff. Our dorm room...before and after we moved in, and the view of where we are at the club. The town is very close...although I haven't seen any of it yet because it's been raining too hard.

And now it's off to try to sleep - should hopefully be a bit easier after a full day of sailing and the gym!

And another two races...

however, today was a slightly different day.

The wind started off quite light today (5-8knots) and only built ever so slightly by the time the Gold Fleet Women's races started at 11am. The wind was more to the right of the "normal" breeze direction and was much more unstable, meaning there were lots of puffs and shifts.

In all seriousness, 4 weeks ago, at my last event in Hyeres, in very similar conditions, I was out of touch with the best in the fleet, however in the races today, in the first upwinds, I was with the top girls for most of the way, still slightly slower than them but closer. The lack of speed means that the race becomes dictated to me rather than me making decisions based on what I need and want to do. While the result of today is not what I wanted, the work that I've done at home with my physiologist and trainers just in the last month has closed the gap. More work to do but luckily the Olympics is still 13 months out. I had two 27th's today - knocking me out of the medal race by only 3 measly points to finish 11th overall. Still a great result, but hard not to be quite disappointed - all I needed was one decent race today.

There are many positives that have come from this regatta. First, I've proven that I'm medal contention in the breeze. I've always been quick, but now I'm showing that I can do it, race after race and I won 2 races!!! This is a first and a first of many. It feels pretty good, especially when I'm racing the best girls at the Olympic venue. I had more consistent good starts than ever before, and they only got better as the regatta went along, and for the most part, I was making good decisions and retained my focus in pressure situations.

And....I thought that having a bird crap on my sail twice yesterday after I washed my sail would bring me luck for my two races today,...I proved that theory wrong and not buying any lottery tickets today either!

Thank you for all your support and a big thanks to my coach, Jason Rhodes who helped me each step of the way and had his work cut out for him today...reminding me of all the positives and putting everything into perspective while I was down and out.

Home on Sunday!!!

GOLD FLEET DAY ONE: And.....

another good day on the scoreboard for me. It was 13-17knots, not quite as crazy windy as yesterday. Today was the first day that the fleet was split into Gold (top half) and Silver Fleet (bottom half). I was in Gold Fleet.

Race 1: Was a few seconds late pulling the trigger at the start and didn't get off the line in the position I wanted, which in turn didn't give me the ability to go how and where I wanted. I was going on a lower angle than some of the girls below me and fell into them, and eventually had to sail underneath them to get to where I wanted to go. I was about mid-fleet half way up the first leg, but tacked in a good spot and by the top mark was in 5th. I had a few really good girls right behind me and on the downwind they got inside of me and we ended up battling it out the next few runs. I managed to keep them behind me to finish 5th.

Race 2: I had a glamour start. I was leading by the time I made my first tack, but unfortunately I had to sail through the 2.4m course when they were racing upwind to their top mark. I ended up having to weave in and out through the fleet and through their dirty air. Most girls did the same as I, but the few that sailed around the 2.4m's ended up gaining on me. I did end up rounding the top mark first/second neck and neck with a Polish girl. A good move on my end had me rounding the leeward mark in first. I missed a shift and wasn't pointing as well on the second upwind, losing to the Spanish girl. Once again, I rounded with the Polish girl, and was gaining on her on the downwind. I ended up gybing just inside her to try to get to the leeward mark inside her, but the layline was too tight and although I was pumping the whole time to try to go faster and lower, her angle was better and faster, thus passing me...and while I was going slow, the Israeli girl sped past me too. Urgh. My first, which first turned into a second very rapidly turned into a 4th.

Lots of lessons happening for me here, stoked I'm going well, but still have tons of room for improvement. My races have moved me up to 5th!!!

Two races scheduled for tomorrow.

Thank you for cheering me on! I love waking up to all my emails :)

Breeze on for Day 3 of racing!

Today was quite windy...and a pretty good day for me.

In the first race I had a great start - was going quick and was leading by the top mark. I held my lead for most of the way around the course but then had a battle with one of the Chinese girl. We exchanged the lead a few times, but some confusion at the finish had me finish 1st :)

Race 2: Had a decent start but not good enough to have a clear lane and just go. I rounded the top mark in 2nd, but once again, this crazy fast Chinese girl was nipping at the Polish girl and my heels...and eventually overtook us both. I finished 3rd.

I've moved up to 8th overall. These last two days have been the best two days I've ever sailed in my RSX career. Yeah!

What a night...and what a day!!!

The regatta started off with a bleak forecast for yesterday's racing. Initially I thought I was racing at 11, which actually had been rescheduled for the girls for 2pm, but with the boys being postponed for most of the day prior to us getting out there, it ended up being something like a 6pm start time. The wind definitely stabilized through out the afternoon and we actually had some pretty decent racing, in moderate conditions. Both starts I did not get off the line too well and had to deviate from my plan, however always fought back hard and finished mid fleet, a 19 and 14 (We have two girls fleets of 30). I thought I had sailed much better than my actual results showed, but it's still early in the regatta. I was in 34th at the end of day one. Home by 8:30, dinner, stretch and...bed. Made for a pretty late night, and all I wanted to do was sleep.

And sleep was definitely not in store for me last night. Unfortunately, whatever stomach bug I had 2 weeks ago came back to haunt me...all night long. I couldn't help to think...was it the lettuce that I ate a week ago...or was a cucumber or sprout that was snuck into one of my meals?!? Needless to say, dry toast was going to have to sustain me for my racing today, a day that was forecasted to be windy.

Race One: It was nice and windy - about 20knots!!! We had 2 general recalls (meaning that two times in a row, too many boards were over the start line too early so we were recalled to start again.) Lucky for me as the first start I messed up, the second start a board crashed on top of me...so I was gunning for 3rd time lucky.

For the 3rd start, I was determined to get off the line, clear and with speed....which I did. I sailed high and fast and by my first tack I was in the lead. I tacked onto the starboard layline (something like 150m ahead of the next board) and...thinking I had enough room to round. My layline was oh so tight and I was praying that I'd make the mark....and I....almost did. I got half way around and then my fin caught onto the mark anchor line. It was so embarrassing. Windsurfers are allowed to hit marks, but having such a nice lead and to get stuck on one with all the coaches in their boats watching!!! I tried backing up to clear my fin but that didn't work, so I actually had to drop my sail in the water and get on the back of my board to take the rope off my fin. AHHHH! Finally I was free, got back up and somehow...I was still in the lead, but only just. I now had to work really hard and not make anymore mistakes to stay there. I pulled away from the pack behind and focusing ever so hard. AND....I FINISHED 1ST. It's my first ever World Cup Race win!!!

Race Two: I basically did the exact same as in race one. Was leading after my first tack, but then some how couldn't keep my lane and got passed to leeward. Not such a big deal, I was in second coming into the top mark....and then a puff hit me and lifted my board up and I exploded. NOT GOOD!!!! This time there were plenty of girls at my heels and I lost about 15 boards in that. I had my work cut out for me for the rest of the race. I managed to catch back up to 8th, but disappointed in that result as my goal was top 3.

Overall, I've moved up to 18th. 4 more days of racing :) and hopefully no more sleepless nights!

World Cup: Sail For Gold, Weymouth, UK

Tomorrow is the first day of racing in Weymouth for the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta. This event is important in many ways for a lot of teams. The first being that this is where the Olympics will be sailed so teams are looking to see how they go in the conditions here. For a lot of teams, this regatta is part of their Olympic trials so the pressure is on to perform. For Canadian sailors, this event is the qualifier for the Pre-Olympics, or Test Event which will be here in August. The Pre-Olympics doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but it is a full on test of what the Olympics will be like for both the organizers and the athletes.

I arrived to Weymouth on the 24th of May, but it took a bit of time to get into the swing of things as I had got some food poisoning the night before my flight, which also unfortunately accompanied me for the majority of the plane ride. Needless to say, I was feeling a bit drained upon arriving and thus took the first few days pretty easy. My board had also sustained some damage to the rail on the way over and I was lucky to have had it repaired very well and quickly. The rest of my week I had good training; in mostly very windy conditions at the beginning, followed by the last few days of light wind/drifter conditions.

I've spent the last two days getting myself ready: first figuring out what gear to use, registration, measurement, the last minute fixing and polishing....and now I'm good to go.

The event will consist of 11 races, going through till June 11th.

Follow the results through the event website: http://www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk/_1729/Results

Hyeres Wrap Up

A week has already flown by since the end of the French Olympic Sailing Week - and I'm happy to be home after being away for over 5 weeks.

After the first day of the regatta with nice breeze, the winds remained quite calm for the remainder of the regatta. After the first 6 races, the fleet was divided into Gold and Silver fleet (top half/bottom half). Although I had a few bad races, I did have 3 top 10's in the first series which easily put me into Gold Fleet. With only the top girls in the final series, the racing was much tighter and any mistakes that were made, were much more costly.

The wind conditions and sea state made it quite hard on me. For the most part I had decent starts and a pretty good first 2/3rds of the upwind, but then I became unglued at the top mark. With the fleet being so tight, the distance between being in the front pack and the back pack wasn't very much and my errors in positioning at the top mark had me slide into the back pack most times. Once in the back, it's always a struggle to catch up, one is always in dirty air and my decisions often clouded or ended up being dictated by others due to this. Needless to say, it was a trying regatta for me.

If I can take one thing away from the regatta, it would be that I never gave up. It's pretty easy when you round the last windward mark in last (which happened a few times)...to put your head down and just want the race to be over with, trying to convince yourself that you don't really care....when you really do. Determined that I was not going to come last, I continued to work hard and my relentless effort made me pass a few boards each time... Every single point counts, even when one is in the back of the fleet, with the highlight of the last race being the passing of a Chinese girl, which everyone in the fleet knows...the Chinese never let up or give up.

I finished 33rd. The regatta pointed out a few key things I need to work on for my next stint...which although a bit daunting, I'm excited about and it's keeping me quite busy at the moment.

Up next is the "Sail for Gold" regatta in Weymouth, England, June 5-11. This is a pretty important regatta for many sailors as it's a qualifier for the Pre-Olympic Regatta in August.

And until then...I'm home and loving it :)

World Cup: Semaine Olympique Francaise

With a record number of entries across all classes, this World Cup race is the largest it's ever been. In the RSX Women's fleet, there are 75 competitors - more than what we had at our World Championships last year.

I've had almost a week of training leading up to the race; the first days were quite light and training sessions were grueling pump-a-thons. Then the wind picked and gave us 2 days of beautiful conditions - 12-17knots, waves and sun! Then...my day off was planned perfectly - as it was blowing 30-35knots on Friday, and Saturdays' weather wasn't much better...still blowing but this time with rain squalls.

The forecast for the week of racing had the wind dying after it's big blow-out and was to remain quite light for the remainder of the regatta, except for today when it was supposed to be 11-14knots. The morning didn't start off windy, in fact the breeze was dying before the boys' start, however it did pick up a bit again and gave us a railing/potential planing race. I started well, and kept my board on the rail (instead of going planing- which is the "conservative" mode if the wind isn't quite enough to plane). I was in the lead pack, but then should've followed their lead when they went planing. I lost huge and by the top mark, all those that did go planing got past me. I rounded in the mid teens - which is where I remained all race to finish 14th.

Race 2 basically had the same conditions - however this time I decided that I was going to plane once I tacked shortly after the start. I made the right call, was going fast and rounded the top mark in 3rd. On the run I didn't gybe early enough to stay in the puff and thus lost a place and some distance on those ahead of me and those behind me caught up a lot. Up the second windward leg, the wind dropped slightly and those that rounded behind me with their centerboard down (while I was planing) got inside of me and passed me. The last downwind was even tougher as the wind was dropping and planing was now quite tough. I rounded the last gate in 8th, only to get nipped by a board in the slalom that came from behind in a gust, while I couldn't get planing.

Then we got sent in to shore for an onshore postponement, while they decided if they were going to have a 3rd race today while the wind was good - as the rest of the week wasn't looking so promising.

And a 3rd race it was going to be. The sun was shining and the breeze actually picked up a bit. I, along with probably 80% of the fleet decided to start on port, as the right side had been favored for most of the day. I had a mediocre start, but my planing speed was quite good and I managed to sail through some boards...right to the front of the pack. I rounded in 1st, kept my lead down the first run, then must have hit something on the second upwind because my sailing angle drastically diminished, however I was still leading. I tacked when I thought I was on layline...but as it turned out, and ...with a slight drop in pressure, that changed my angle enough so I didn't make the layline anymore. Planing tacks are very costly and having to throw 2 extra ones in at the top mark cost me my lead. I lost another board on the downwind, but finished a solid 3rd.

Sitting in 16th at the moment. Racing starts at 9:30am tomorrow morning.

The last days of Princess Sofia Regatta..

After the crazy windy day I couldn't sleep at all that night probably because my adrenaline was still pumping too much and my whole body hurt. Losing a night's sleep definitely didn't help the next few days...

The next days were super tough long ones: the mornings started with an offshore breeze, building to a super nice 15knots. Before the race, I did my sail tuning to make sure I was set up right for these conditions. A slow race committee combined with the guys fleet starting before us and having general recalls (which meant they had to restart several times), meant our start time was continually delayed. Finally we got underway, only to have the wind back off...the first upwind still had planing conditions, but by the first downwind it was marginal planing - for the second upwind - the wind continued to shut off and it was already pumping conditions, while the last downwind was painfully slow and lumpy, only to finish off the race with what seemed like a never-ending slalom (supposed to be fast, exciting and 2 minutes long) that took 8 minutes, in near glassy (no wind) conditions. Needless to say, very tricky and almost impossible to catch up as the distances between sailors was increasing as the wind was decreasing. Then the wind completely shut off and thus we were sent ashore to wait for the wind to fill in from the other direction.

Lots of waiting...but in the afternoon the seabreeze started to fill in and we were sent out for our second race of the day. The wind conditions for the rest of the days were always between 7-11knots. The water in the bay of Palma is also quite shallow making it quite lumpy - definitely very tough for me as I'm one of the heavier girls and I'm not the fastest in these conditions. The wind was also oscillating slowly (going from right to left back and forth) and I just couldn't ever get it right. When I went to the left, the wind swung to the right and when I went right, the wind went to the left. In those 3 middle days of the regatta I added many points to my score as I finished in the late 20's for most of them. Frustrating races they were...but I learned from some of my mistakes and finally...on the last day I actually put into practice some of the things I had learned from the previous days. Before the start I was very diligent in monitoring the wind, devising my game plan and sticking to it. For myself, I also needed to finish the regatta off on a better note...

Which I did. On the last day I sailed to finish a solid 18th in these difficult conditions yet was in the game the whole time, while in the 2nd race I rounded the top mark in 3rd, and after losing a few boards on the downwinds (I just couldn't plane as long and as deep as some of the others) to finish 7th. Happy to end the regatta on a positive, my last races also helped me move back up to 18th overall in the regatta.

Dead tired - I am now enjoying some days off (no sailing although I still have my regular fitness routine to uphold). I haven't even had internet, so I've really been out of the loop too.

On Sunday the training continues in Hyeres, France... Where the next World Cup Race: Semaine Olympique Francaise will take place from April 23-29th.

Attached are two pictures that I pulled off the regatta site: the first is of me rounding the top mark (you can only see my CAN17 on my sail), while the second is me rounding the mark inside the German girl with the Audi logo on her sail. More pics to come hopefully...

WINDY!!!!!!

Races were scheduled to start at 11am....I was preparing to launch at around 10am, but everyone was kind of waiting around...unsure of going out because the the wind was so strong. Some windsurfers went out, only to come straight back to shore. Now it was already half an hour before start time and everyone was still on the beach - a bit nervous and probably some quite scared to go out. Just getting my gear to the beach while getting absolutely sandblasted was a struggle ...luckily I got some help. Thanks Laura!

Finally some of us girls decided to go...and we went...31knots offshore - and that wind reading was taken at the beach. That only meant that it would be stronger in the bay...and then add waves to it. Needless to say, it was a bit scary going downwind. The race committee took forever to set up the course, with us starting over 1.5hrs after being out there in those conditions. It was so draining.

Finally race one got underway. About 20 seconds before the start, a MASSIVE puff came through and flatten the majority of the fleet. I went flying into the water and struggled to get up for the next 3 minutes. Once sailing...I had lots to catch up. I was in survival mode and just had to stay upright. I sailed relatively well and fast, white knuckled ...and let the others do the falling. I climbed back to 5th :) Pretty stoked to hear once the race was over that it was 35knots, really really windy.

Race 2....wasn't so good although I got off the start this time...sailing. There was a shift at the start which I didn't get, then fell on my first tack...lost lots of boards, then was catching up on the downwind but fell in my gybe, lost more boards. Was catching back up...but then on the second upwind...a massive left hand wind shift (and really puffy conditions) had me underlay the top mark by a meter!!! One silly stupid meter unlaid meant I had tack twice to get around the top mark, and tacking in these wind conditions is hard and costs a lot of distance. Needless to say, I lost 6 boards just at that top mark. Duh!!! I passed one board on the downwind to finish an exhausted and somewhat frustrated 18th.

After our first two races, I sit in 12th of 44. After a good dinner and some chocolate, it's bedtime now...I feel like I got hit by a truck!

Hasta manana

World Cup: Princess Sofia Trophy

Hola from Palma de Mallorca, Spain!

After what seemed like an extended layover (9 days that felt like 3) in Vancouver; just enough time to unpack, do laundry, train both on the water and in the gym, run all my errands, do laundry again and then repack, I arrived in Palma de Mallorca last Sunday the 27th.

I can't believe it's been a full week of training here already. There are so many good girls to train with here, so I've been able to check in and see how I'm going. The weather's been great and surprisingly warm, but we've mostly had lighter wind conditions. The racing starts tomorrow...and will continue until Saturday the 9th.

Princess Sofia Trophy is the 3rd of this year's World Cup Circuit, the first in Europe, so we have a big turnout in the fleets. I think we have 50ish girls racing the RSX.I'm hoping we get a variety of wind conditions throughout the week. I'll keep you posted.Attached are a few pictures of me...and some of my surroundings!

Hasta luego

Only one more training session to go and then over 7000 flying miles till I'm home again....

I can't believe it's been a month already. Each day, as long as it sometimes felt...went by quite quickly, only to fall into bed each night with total exhaustion.

My weeks of training here in Buzios have been incredible. We only had 4 days of strong wind at the very beginning of my stay here. Then we got some offshore shifty and puffy marginal wind stuff - where we did tons of drills and races, followed by a stint of super hot days (40+ degrees) and light winds. After a bit of a break, the rain started. Twelve days of rain nonstop...meanwhile, my laundry was trying to dry (which it didn't for 10 days, not even in the house as everything was just so damp) The rain didn't hamper our training though - it made it actually a bit more refreshing on the water. The last two weeks of training had Demita (Mexico) join Marina (ESP) and I as well as Bryony from the UK came back for her second session here with us. Occasionally we got joined by the guys or one of the coaches jumped on a board to mix it up a bit. Training was hard, productive, fun for the most part and rewarding. And when we weren't training we took advantage of the great surf beach - Geriba, had BBQ's (celebrated France's Fat Tuesday by getting crepes made for us by Alex, a French coaching the Spanish), went to town (tried to catch a bit of the rained on Carnival), enjoyed Acai's (a Brazilian specialty - smoothie of acai berries), battled many mosquitoes, the flooded gym when the rain storm hit and a power outage!

I get on a plane on Tuesday evening from Rio to San Paolo, onwards to Toronto and then to Vancouver! I am, (more so my tired body) is actually looking forward to sitting in the plane and having to do absolutely nothing but rest and hopefully sleep.

Attached are some pics of here. Wanted to get some sailing ones...but with all the rain, that never happened.

Oi from Buzios, Brazil

Well, no news can mean many things..., however this time it just means that I've been too busy enjoying Brazil to take time out to write an update.

I was home for just two weeks after Miami OCR before heading to Brazil. I was absolutely drained when I came home from the long bout of intense training and racing, and thus all I did during my first week was recover. For week 2, I was back at training, both in the gym and I got one great day on the water: sunny, windy (25-30knots), big-ish waves, fresh snow on the mountains, and yes....t'was a tad bit chilly too. 7 degrees plus wind chill meant extreme pain in the hands once the thawing process began onshore. Knowing that I was coming to Brazil a few days later...I couldn't really complain about anything!

On February 14th I flew to Rio, via Toronto and San Paolo. Once in Rio, I was picked up by Davidson, the taxi driver who all of us windsurfers use to shuttle us back and forth to Buzios. I had met him in 2006 and he was my tour guide then for a day in Rio, so it was great to be met by a familiar and friendly face at the airport. A very long day of traveling, but well worth it...following the 3 hour drive, we arrived to Bimba's Windsurf Club in Buzios, aka... Paradise!

The next morning, bright and early (about 5am my time) I was on the water with the training group. Marina from Spain, Bryony from the UK, Laura from Italy, Jazmin from Argentina, a few Brazilian youth guys, and myself. Windy and warm, it was a nice start to my training in Brazil. The next 4 days were quite windy - tiring all of us out. To vary it up in training we did some destination sails - sailing around 4 different islands, to a secret surf spot that you can only get to by boat and of course the usual boardhandling drills.

Week two saw a change in weather (stifling hot and little breeze) and our training group shrank as some left to go back home for a bit, while some of the guys had a competition to attend. We trained early in the morning, guys and girls together for some pumping sessions. Alex, the Spanish coach was creative in his drills and made it really quite fun for us - as we did match racing with/against the guys and other good drills. Short and intense sessions were great cause the crazy heat made all of us quite slow and lazy on land. On top of the on water training, it was quite challenging to fit in the gym and my cardio training in the heat, but when the day was all done, bedtime was incredibly welcoming.

I've had a few days off and a bunch of us went sightseeing around the Buzios peninsula with a rented "Bugre". There are so many beautiful spots and beaches to explore here, leaving no doubt to why it is the weekend destination of the rich of Rio. Geriba beach, the beach directly on the opposite side of the peninsula to where we sail from has been pumping with waves, so many days after sailing we'd go for a surf there. We've had several group dinners - either freshly caught fish by Bimba's (the Brazilian windsurfer's) brother or just meat...Brazilian style. Good times! Attached are a bunch of pics. None of sailing though...hard to take those myself :)

I can't believe it's already been two weeks of training here already, with two more to go before I head home. Time is flying...

10th overall at Miami OCR and I qualified for the Pan Am Games!!!

The forecast had it to be very light winds for the medal races at MORC. I was prepared for the day and really looking forward to the pump off, however, weather will be weather and surprisingly the wind was much more than anticipated - and shifting. The race before us had been abandoned due to a massive shift right.

I didn't have a good start. My centerboard came up partially as I was pumping off the line (which made me slide sideways) and thus I lost my lane quite quickly and had to tack out to the right. 5 other girls ended up going to the right with me, however, I was the last to tack, and ended up overlaying the top mark by a long shot (a potential combination of more current on the right and an even bigger right shift) Sailing all that extra distance had me round the top mark in a distance 10th, and for the rest of the race I worked to catch up. The wind was dropping quickly and they ended up shortening the second windward leg by half the distance and thus my opportunity to catch up aly and they ended up shortening the second windward leg by half the distance and thus my opportunity to catch up also shrunk in half. I did end up minimizing the distance to the girls in front of me to end up finishing a very close 10th. Needless to say, that race did not move me up the rankings and thus I finished 10th overall in the regatta.

Although I lost many points here, there and everywhere throughout the regatta, my end result of 10th doesn't truly capture how well I was sailing. I was up in the top 5 many a races and now it's just about becoming more consistent, minimizing the damage, so it's looking very promising for future races.

I had an incredible team that supported me in Miami - coaching me was my 2008 Olympic coach Jason Rhodes. The Canadian Sailing Team also had the "IST" - Integrated Support Team on site, which included James - Physiologist, Alicia - Athletic Therapist and Colin - Sports Psych - all from the Canadian Sport Centre's from across the country. Any and all ailments were fixed by Alicia, James was on the coach boat with Jason everyday and for the first time since starting to work together over a year ago, he got to see me in action along side all the others. Both Jason and James were able to pick up many technique subtleties and points that I need to work on. Very helpful. Blood lactates and blood sugar levels were measured before and after races - helping James get a better understanding of the physical demands of the sport on race day and over the duration of a 6 day long regatta, and hence being able to advise me of the recovery techniques I need to do each day, one of which included having ice baths for a whole 10 minutes! Brrrr. But oh so good after. Check out the pictures!

AND...My top Canadian placing at MORC had me qualify myself for the PAN AMERICAN GAMES this October in Mexico!!!

I just arrived back home to Vancouver. I'll be taking a break for a few days before I get back into training at the end of the week, both on and off the water. My next stop is in Buzios, Brazil from February 14th to March 15th for some training with Marina Alabau from Spain and Bryony Shaw from GBR, both ranked in the top 5 and first and second place finishers at MORC - should be good training :)

Medal Race Tomorrow!!!

Although today's weather forecast wasn't very promising, we ended up having some decent wind - offshore 8-12 knots, very puffy and shifty and were able to get 2 races off. In the first race I got off to a fantastic start, linked the first few shifts and puffs and just concentrated on being in the pressure. At first the girls on the left were looking good, then the girls on the right were looking good and as each shift and puff rolled through, depending on who capitalized on them, came out looking golden...and that golden girl was me at the top of the first upwind leg, rounding the mark in first... neck and neck with 5 other boards. The downwind was tough - staying in the pressure and pumping was the only way to stay planing! I rounded the leeward mark in about 4th and was going fine up the second windward leg until I became unglued. I missed a shift - or rather didn't get to the right side as there was a major puff rolling down. I had kept going to the left, thinking my puff would come, but it didn't and had to pump my way to the top mark on a header while the girls on the right were lifted and railing in lots of pressure. Needless to say, I got passed....by quite a few girls. I must have rounded the top mark in about 12th, and managed to catch back up to finish the race in 10th.

Race 2: I had what I thought was a great start at the boat end of the line yet somehow got out of phase early on. I'm not sure what I rounded at the top mark, but it must have been somewhere in the 20's by the bottom gate. I then sailed a great second upwind leg, pulling myself back up to 12th by the top mark. I worked incredibly hard the whole reach leg and the run...passing another two boards and rounding the last mark before the finish reach just behind Blanca, the current world Champ. I worked high on her and then had to dig pretty deep after my exhausting downwind and pumped and pumped and pumped. I ended up passing her to finish 9th. I was really happy with my comeback in that race and my ability to persevere when I all wanted to do was to stop pumping cause it hurt so much and I was so tired. The only bummer was, and I didn't find out till after the race when I talked to my coach...was that I was "Black Flagged" - which means I was disqualified for being over the starting line early. Regardless, I sailed a great race and took away some great lessons and heaps of positives.

Being DSQ'd meant it was touch and go whether I'd make it into the Medal Race tomorrow. Only the top 10 boards get to be in this race. I am the 10th board, tied with 9th (current world champ) and within reach of 6th. Light wind is predicted and I'm stoked. Ready to race in tomorrow's pump-off!!! I have no place to go but up :)

Miami OCR Day 3 & 4

Yesterday was a long day... first we were postponed onshore (for a 1pm start instead of an 11am start) because the wind was really unstable - both in direction and velocity. As we headed out to the race area the wind was building and there were some massive puffs. At one point as the dark clouds were approaching us, it got up between 20-25knots. Lots of sail adjustments and tuning...only to have the wind drastically decrease for the start of our race. We were railing for the most part upwind (so not quite planing) and it was really shifty and puffy which meant things changed quickly and one had to be very on top of the changes. I didn't have the best start but played the puffs nicely up the first leg - rounding in around 4th. The downwind legs were especially tough because if you sailed out of the puff you'd stop planing - never mind dodging the hundreds of weeds and the Portuguese Man of Wars!!! I had to stop a few times to clear the weeds off my fin losing a few boards to finish 6th.

Race Two: disappointing :( The wind had been pulsating all day with big puffs rolling through, but as the day went on, the puffs didn't come through as hard anymore and the wind was dying quickly. I got rolled right off the start but somehow managed to get through to my own lane and was going quite alright - tacking in the shifts and consolidating with the rest of the fleet. I ended up rounding the top mark in 2nd, extended my position on the first downwind leg but didn't play the 2nd upwind leg conservatively enough. I let the fleet get some leverage on me - giving them the opportunity to catch up to me should the wind shift (which it was doing) and nearing the top mark it looked like I had dropped back to about 8th - however, the puff I was hoping/waiting/praying for... came just in time to leap me back into 3rd again. The next leg was supposed to be a reach leg but with the wind being as it was, I must have gybed five times to get to it (not only to make it to the mark, but to stay in the gusts). I rounded that mark in about 4th, and that's when my "weed-mare" began. I must have had to stop 5 times to clear weeds...and well, I ended up 10th. Enough said. Definitely good points as well as lessons to take away from that race....but what a bummer.

And today...light winds were on the forecast. Pumping hard was what lay ahead. I had a great start at the boat end of the line with the Aussie girl. First shift came, we both tacked and hooked into it, second shift - same thing...tacked and hooked into it - crossed the fleet... and looking good. However, we let other boards get to the right of us and didn't cover (where we went the wind died a bit not to mention the 15 degree shift on the right side of the course) Needless to say, all those boards that we'd just crossed, got lifted up to the mark and I ended up sailing in less pressure and on the headed tack to the top mar... I ended up rounding 8th. After the reach and almost at the bottom of the run I had closed the gap on the girls in front of me... making it possible for a potential overtaking up the next leg, but at that leeward mark they abandoned the race as the wind shifted another 25 degrees. A good decision from the Race Committee...the wind just died completely after. We waited for another 3 hours on the water for the wind to stabilize and fill in, but that never happened. They finally called racing off for the day.

A Good Day Two at Miami OCR

Wind...YEAH! We had 2 races in 14-17 knots today. Before the races, I tuned my sail and felt good and fast, and naturally because I love sailing in breeze I was quite happy and pumped too. Always a good combo.

For the first start we had one general recall (many boards over the start too early) before we got off on the next start. My "first" start was pretty good, however, the second start was quite stressful. I was setting up in my position on the starting line, when another board came from behind me and basically sailed to windward (over me) a bit out of control and then dropped her sail and fell onto my board and me. Unfortunately this was at 20 seconds to the start and it was my Canadian team mate that took us both down. Trying to remain calm and focused on the task, I somehow was able to back up from under her and miraculously have a great start. I ended up leading to the top mark and kept my lead until the 2nd upwind leg. A wind shift had the boards directly behind me get up inside of me and I lost my lead. Then...I made a bit of a dodgy call on whether I could cross a starboard board (right of way) while I was on port (no rights). I thought I was okay crossing but then a big puff hit me and I couldn't keep my track - causing me to come too close for comfort to the British girl. She called protest - and thus, not wanting to be disqualified, I did my penalty 360 turn. Needless to say, that cost me plenty of distance, however I pushed hard and ended up finishing 4th.

So for race 2, the goal was to get off the starting line...which I didn't... which had me sailing in bad air for a bit, however my height and speed were pretty good and I was able to sail through quickly. I was in a pretty good positions when I unfortunately over stood (went too far) the lay line to the top mark and ended up rounding about 5th, when I really could have been top 3 had I made the right lay line call. I fought hard all race, moving up a board here and there - almost to 2nd, but lost 2 boards on the final run to finish 4th again.

Pretty pleased with the day (moved up to 6th overall)...however, it could have been even better as I let some easy points go with some mistakes. Lots more racing to go...

WORLD CUP: Miami Olympic Classes Regatta

Happy New Year!

Believe it or not... I sailed throughout the holidays at home in Vancouver. Some days were nice...others not so much, for my hands especially. My first day in 2011 was on Jan 7th - a beautiful sunny westerly of 20-25knots. Super fun but quite cold, loved it nonetheless :)

Since arriving on the 9th of January to Miami, it's been all go with training. Plenty of warmer on the water hours coupled with my gym and cardio routine had me feeling pretty strong leading into this event. I had been training with a few of the top sailors and raced in the Alex Caviglia BlueWater Classic (a 3-day regatta) last weekend. Conditions were light to marginal (my toughest) and although I battled it out every day, I couldn't stay with the lead girls. I finished 6th overall - not a result I'm terribly stoked about - but a great warm-up regatta both physically and more importantly mentally as it really got my head back into racing.

The first World Cup of 2011 got underway here in the Bay of Biscayne, Miami today. We had 10-14 knots and fairly sunny skies. In the first race I didn't get off to the best start, quickly falling behind a girl that just got ahead of me and then once in bad air, I went downhill quick. I ended up tacking out to the right and trying making the best of my bad start. I ended up rounding the top mark in around 7th, then made some gains to close the gap on the girls ahead of me on the downwind, but then didn't have a great 2nd upwind and last leg (missed a windshift) to end up finishing 12th. Bummer. The second race, I had a mediocre start, worked hard to try to protect my lane - only to hit a plastic bag or something that went "thump" against my fin and slowed me to an almost complete stop. Luckily, it came off easily and was able to get back into the race quickly. I had some good speed, tacked in the right place and rounded the top mark in 5th. Throughout the race there were plenty of weeds...and I had to stop and clear them about 4 times - it happened to all, but if you got lucky you didn't hit them as many times. I got reeled in by a few girls on the next few legs to hold onto a 9th place finish for that race. Two races down with 9 more to go....lots can happen.

And I wouldn't be able to go fast without saying a huge THANK YOU to Chapman Land Surveying for helping me replace my older broken board with a new one that I'm racing here with, named: "The Little Engine That Could." Very happy to have a new board :))

Tomorrow's forecast calls for a bit more breeze than today...so let's keep our fingers crossed for great starts, super speed & smarts, and some great finishes for me!!!

Winter Training in Vancouver...

Happy Holidays!

I have to say that I have been quite lucky with my winter sailing conditions here at home, as Vancouver's been somewhat mild apart from the odd really cold day (-1), making my training on the water quite manageable. It couldn't have been done without my coaches who have become experts in a variety of hand-warming techniques! (Sailing with gloves just doesn't work). My workout schedule is intense, I have been putting some good time in at the gym as well as hitting the mountains for some cross-country skiing. It's been busy and painful for my body at times but fun too! I'm loving being home too - it brings some balance into my life again, something that's not easy when I'm on the road 7-8 months of the year.

To each one of you that supports me, I thank you, the inspiration goes both ways.

Attached are some pictures of my training - both on the mountain (full moon skiing) and on the water (with rainbows). I am so fortunate to call this home and to be able to enjoy Vancouver's beauty most days!!!

I wish you a Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2011.

Perth International Regatta and now home again!

Sunny skies, warmth and a nice 18-25knot breeze is now just a lovely memory of the past three weeks in Fremantle, Australia. I've come back to Vancouver to some snow on the ground - an occasional peak of the sun, but mainly to rain and 3-5 degrees. Winter training (on the water) - seems a bit cruel after training in paradise. I'm going to be working on how to suck it up when my hands and feet are frozen stubs... of course alongside working on my sailing skills too

My trip down under was a great experience. Spending 3 weeks training there definitely gave me the opportunity to see what the sailing conditions were like - and what could be expected for our Olympic Qualifiers next year in December. For the week leading up to the Regatta, we had very similar conditions every day - mostly windy (which is the predominant wind called the "Fremantle Doctor"), yet for the regatta the weather pattern was far from normal (shifty and light/medium winds). We had 10 boards in my fleet, all of which were pretty good or pretty much the best girls in the World. Racing was tight and with such a small fleet, any mistake made was very costly and points were not easily made up. I had a mixed bag of results, starting off the event very consistently in the middle of the pack, but towards the end I lost my stride (since the start of training, I was nursing a sprain in both my foot and hand, which were continuously painful). I did not have many good starts and it's never easy to come from behind, yet the one good start that I did have, I led around the top mark but slipped back to 5th throughout the race. In the medal race I made one tactical error right before the finish, costing me 2 places on the scoreboard - thus finishing 8th overall. I leave the regatta with a few more tactical and strategical lessons learned and a list of skills I need to work on. I'm glad I have another year before trials...!!!

Other than learning about the venue, I booked my accommodation for next year already - very important as everyone was booking up places for next year and the prices were getting ridiculous (kind of like Vancouver 2010 Olympic prices). It was also a nice time to bond with my fellow Canadian Sailing Team teammates - on one of our day's off a bunch of us took the coach boat to Rottnest Island (about 22kms from Fremantle) to have some fun...like sprinting up sand dunes (...not that anyone is very competitive or anything)!

And now I'm back at home - getting back into training. Yesterday was my last rest day - so I enjoyed it by snowshoeing up Cypress Mountain with my friends! Yeah for cross-training. I'll be home till early January - sailing and working on my fitness before I head to Miami for the first World Cup of 2011 - Miami Olympic Classes Regatta.

until then...

Bring out the sun PLEASE!!! - that's all I'm asking for... just for the few hours I need to train on the water!

G'day!

I can't believe it's already been two months since I returned home from my World Championships - a time that has just flown by. Immediately following the Worlds, I took some time off the board, yet continued with my physical training, but more in a fun way. I participated in the GranFondo, a 120km bike race from downtown Vancouver to Whistler. It was great fun and a bit of a personal challenge as I'd never biked that far before, nor had I ever biked alongside 4000+ other bikers or tackled over 2500m of vertical throughout a ride. I finished in just under 5 hours and felt like a million bucks after. Can't wait to do it again next year.

The end of Worlds also was the end of the season for me and thus it was review time. Analyze this, debrief that, conference calls/meetings with all of my team making sure we are on the right track and then of course - the planning for the year to come based on the year analysis, taking my goals and the objectives of the year and periodizing them appropriately etc. I had a mini-camp in Victoria with my physiologist and bio-mechanic and Erik Stibbe the new CYA coach/manager in Vancouver to do some on water testing/analysing of my technique and had to do my fitness test :))) All this, plus training both at the gym and on the water, organizing the immediate fall/winter training plans made for some very time consuming and mentally draining days, all which were extremely worthwhile though. Next year (2011) is the first of the Olympic qualifiers and thus I want to leave no stone unturned when it comes to performing when I need to. With that also came the need for a total and complete mental rest/recovery away from my sport to re energize and press "re-set" so I could come back fresh for training and to be able to tackle the year ahead. I found my happy place surfing the waves in the Dominican Republic. I couldn't have asked for a more amazing trip - I was surrounded by absolutely lovely people and got to surf day in and day out, go horseback riding, sightsee and experience a bit of DR culture, eat real yum food (and freshly squeezed orange juice) and play some fun jenga! Definitely the mental break I needed. I windsurfed a few times when it was windy (but on a short board), went to spinning classes and spent at least 4 hours a day in the water surfing, all of which had me exhausted at the end of each day, a perfect cross-training holiday!

Once back at home, I got straight back into my routine - gym and sailing, and getting ready for my next training trip to Perth, Australia. Which is where I am now!!! Perth is the venue of the ISAF World Sailing Championships (OLYMPIC QUALIFIER) in December 2011, so I have come here to test the waters. Next week, from November 16-21, I will be racing in the Perth International Regatta - which will act like a test event for the Worlds next year. Up until now and until then, I have/will be training with a really solid group of girls, so needless to say, I need to show up with my A-game every day on the water while sticking to my fitness program off water, which once again has me falling into bed at the end of each day. More news to come as things progress!

Warm greetings from Down Under!

Hmm...unfortunately...another 2 average days

Average in many ways....

1) On our first day of finals there were perfect sailing conditions (it started at 9-13knots and built all day) and when it's planing conditions we are allowed to have 3 races per day, but were only scheduled for 2 and thus we could only have two, which basically ended our day at 1:30pm with 15-20knots on the race course, while still needing to catch up races but "couldn't" due to the schedule.

2) Then the next day, we only got one race off due to light and fluky winds. It was a very challenging races where the wind swung within a 40 degree range and the wind was from 3 - 7 knots. After the first race we were sent ashore and on hold until 4pm. We went out again later, but only to be sent back ashore again.

3) We finished the regatta 2 races behind schedule.

4) There were perfect sailing conditions on our scheduled rest day

5) Yesterday was the last day of racing with only one scheduled race and the top 10 were already decided

6) Yesterday, I had had only one race left to improve my overall standing, but I made a bit of a meal of it. I had a great start and things were going alright when all of a sudden my harness "malfunctioned" and I either had to fix it or sail for another 30minutes without being able to hook in and relieve my arms. Had the wind been super light, it would have been possible to just keep going without the harness, but it was just windy enough that you needed to be hooked in. So, I fixed it, which wasn't fast, then I went the wrong way (more than once) ....and basically I sailed myself to the back of the fleet.

7)I finished 28th overall, and 13th country.

8)I know that I'm not the only one a bit frustrated, but it's just a shame to look back at the regatta thinking about how the schedule dictated when we could sail and that we missed some prime sailing conditions.

I must say that I am a bit disappointed in my overall "numerical" result. However, what I am proud of is that I am continually sailing better, that I am able to recognize my mistakes, that I am now sailing with conviction; I make my own decisions and don't just follow the pack, I'm executing my strategic & tactical plan more often and better than before, and that with each regatta I do - I'm spending more and more time in the leading pack. Next is working on my consistency and putting the regatta together from start to finish. A huge thanks to Rob Fox my coach, who's been ever so diligent with me as I learn the ropes...

Congratulations to Spain's Blanca Manchon, the newly crowned 2010 RSX WORLD CHAMPION.

As I write this I'm sitting in London Airport - one flight to go and then I'm HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for all your support.

GOLD FLEET!!!

Since my last email, we've had the last day of qualifying races, then a rest day, and today's races - the first of the final series.

Day 2 of racing was incredibly difficult. The wind was very unstable both in velocity and direction (30 degree shifts and from 4 to 10knots), making it really hard for me to read the wind and make sense of what was going on. In the first race of the day, I had a good start but the wind filled in from both the left and the right side, and I was in the middle. Boards on both sides of me got into this wind, while I didn't. I managed to work to the right side of the course and then was actually looking like I would have a top 10 rounding at the top mark, but then all of a sudden the wind I was in shut off, and instead the wind came in from the left side, shooting all those boards that were on the left to get ahead of me and well...I rounded the top mark with only 4 boards behind me. I worked super hard and managed to start the second upwind leg with probably 12 boards behind me now. Unfortunately and once again, the wind was not nice to me and I got hung out to dry on my side of the course - sliding right back to finish 29th. Ugh.

The wind picked up a bit for the next race making the wind a bit more stable. I had a great start, got in a good shift up the first upwind and rounded the top mark in about 8th. On the downwind, the wind filled in from the other side (and from behind), so the girls behind me got into that new wind first, and flew past me. I finished 17th.

It was after today that the fleets were finalized: Gold and Silver fleet. Luckily I was in 22nd position overall and I made it into Gold fleet (top half of 66)

Yesterday we had a rest day!!! A much needed one.

Today we woke up to a thick overcast sky. It was forecasted that the clouds would break up and the wind would fill in...which it did. The first race was sailed in marginal planing conditions - starting around 9-13 knots. I had a great start and besides the weeds I caught a few times around the course (which really slow you down), I sailed a fantastic race. I finished 25th - not a score to be super pumped about, but Rob, my coach was very happy with the way I executed my race. He said it was the best race that I have sailed this regatta - executing everything correctly and albeit the few weeds (bad luck), it was an almost perfect race.

The wind was a bit stronger for the second race of the day!!! I had a great start - although it was very very close to the starting line. Too close for comfort. The "individual recall" flag went up - which means that someone started too early. I thought it was me. I don't know why I didn't exonerate myself (go back to the starting line and restart), but I think by the time I thought about it, it was too late and so I just kept sailing. I sailed fast and smart around the course, rounding the first mark in 5th, only later to catch some weeds again...I still managed to finish 8th. I had a great result, yet I couldn't rejoice in it as I had just raced the entire race thinking I would be disqualified for being over early at the start. My coach did not know if I was disqualified either, so I sailed in thinking about it....and why I just didn't restart. Then luckily once onshore, one of the coaches told me who was over early and luckily it wasn't me!!! Pfewf!!! I still sit in 22nd position after today.

Tomorrow we will have 2 more races - the forecast is for light winds.

Three races under our belt now!!!

We woke up to sunshine and wind - YEAH!!!!!!! and we had 3 races scheduled for the day. It was probably around 18 -20knots with some gusts around 23knots. The wind was somewhat onshore, with a lot of chop, waves and some swell - a condition we haven't seen here in Kerteminde yet, but I happily welcomed it :-)

Race 1: I had a brilliant start, was going high and fast out to the left side of the course and was in the top bunch until I got some bad wind from one girl ahead of me. I ended up tacking to right. Unfortunately, those that kept going left got a major lift (a change in wind direction) that launched the boards that were behind me...to ahead of me. I still managed to round the top mark in 6th or 7th. I kept that around the first lap of the race but then I got some weeds hooked onto my fin. These are not easy to get off, and I only managed to get my weed off when I tacked. I slid back to 12th position by that point unfortunately.

Race 2: Another great start!!! I was 2nd to the top mark and kept my second around the entire race course until the last downwind leg, when I didn't defend enough or properly (both a strategical and tactical error) and was passed by Alessandra Sensini (ITA 25) to finish 3rd. The second picture shows ITA 25 hot on my tail rounding the leeward mark. Would have been nice to have kept her behind me.... she's a 4 time Olympic Medalist.

Race 3: And.....I got a nice start again!!! I rounded the top mark in 4th, managed to pick up another board on the downwind to round the leeward gate in 3rd, and as I was heading upwind - ever slowly gaining on the girls ahead I got another weed stuck on my fin. Urgh! I got it off somehow, but then again another weed.... and then another. My chance at catching up to the leaders was gone and the girls behind me had reeled me in. Ahhhh. After I got the weeds off again....I managed to get back up to 4th again, but then lost a girl on the downwind to finish up 5th.

Not a bad start to the regatta. I could have done without the weeds - but I guess that's just how it is. I guess I could have done with out the mistakes I made too

Tomorrow is expected to be lighter winds - about 10knots. So it'll be a bit of a pump-a-thon. Wish me luck and no weeds!!!

Last day of Sail for Gold Regatta...

The wind was up and down, as were my results. We've had 3 more days of racing since my last update - long days! On the 3rd day of racing we had two races - both of which I had super starts and thus was in a nice position half way up the first beat. I tacked on the first shift - still in a great position, but then didn't protect my side at the top and let others get to the outside of me....and thus giving my two potential top 10 top mark roundings away and had to settle for mid-fleet. Urgh. The same mistake I had made on the first day, that I guess I'm having to learn over and over again. Hopefully the lessons will sink in soon.

Day 4, yesterday ended up being a bit of a surprise. The wind picked up to much more than expected and from a direction I had not seen before here in Weymouth. Once again, I had two great starts!!! - one of my main goals of the regatta was to work on my starts. In the first race of the day I had a great position after the start, tacked (still looking good), and then a random puff/gust hit me and threw/flew me into the water = swimming is never fast!!! So, I went from a top 5 position to late 30's - just like that. Once back on the board I worked hard trying to reel in boards. A nice call on the next upwind had me passing probably 20 boards! I think I rounded 7th only to lose a few more boards to finish 9th.

Then the next race...this should have been MY race. I had a bad start, tacked off right away to get clear air, tacked on the first shift and went on to round the top mark in first!!! We had a WS3 course - Windward/Leeward 3 Laps with a slalom finish. I led the fleet for two complete laps. On the third upwind, I got a bit unlucky in that the girls behind me got a nice lift on the inside of me, yet I was a bit silly in not tacking out to cover them. It was a bit touch and go as what I should have done, but hindsight makes it all pretty clear to me. I lost my lead by the top mark, 4 other girls got ahead of me. I worked really hard on the downwind, gaining 2 of them back to finish a very close 3rd. I'm really happy with my race, although a bit bummed as it would have been my first World Cup Race win.

We were equipped with GPS trackers - so you can check out both of these races online. Watch them - zoom in - see exactly our moves as we fly across the race course. You can watch RSX Women Race 5, 6, 7 & 8, but RACE 8 is the one that I'm leading...so that's one's the best (of course)!!! Click on Thursday, RSX Women Race 8, then watch me (GIRKE, CAN17)

So, after yesterday I was sitting in 10th position - a solid candidate for the medal race (with only two more races to go). Unfortunately today's races didn't go so well. Cold, wet, shifty, lots of waiting, postponement, sent back onshore, sent back out onto the water, wait....then finally the first race of the day around 4:30pm. Huge shifts, huge gains and losses - a 24th was the best I could pull off. The next race started - a great start, a good position going into the top mark (was on a nice shift) when the race was abandoned due to the shift....URGH!!! Another 24th in the next race didn't help me stay in the top 10 either.... I ended up 13th overall. A great regatta nonetheless. Stoked to have had numerous top 5 finishes... To check out the results click:

Now a bit of a break in Germany to visit my family before I head to Kerteminde, Denmark for the World Championships, beginning end of August!

Off off and away...to Weymouth, UK - Venue of the 2012 Olympic Games

After some great training both on and off the water in Vancouver the last few weeks in the best weather ever (and with my new friends that were on the dock daily), I was ready to get back to racing. I left last Thursday for Weymouth, UK. My trip got off to quite a nice start as I was upgraded to business class - great food and a nice sleep helped me adjust to UK time quickly. I was able to put in two short and intense training sessions each day before the racing started on Monday.

Sail for Gold is the last World Cup Regatta of the season and a particularly important one as it's the Olympic venue - a sort of dress rehearsal for the Olympic Games. For many countries it's a mandatory regatta so most classes have big fleets. We have 50 girls in our fleet.

Yesterday's first race started in 8-11knots. I had a super start, heading over to the left side of the course, with most of the fleet under me - a pretty good position. A few boards tacked back towards the right and I went along with them. Unfortunately, by doing this I got out of phase with the wind and found myself in the middle of the course as the rest of the fleet from both sides were in more pressure and lifted. The girls who I had been with before I tacked, ended up rounding the top mark in the top 5, while I was fighting it out mid-fleet - which is where I ended up finishing, 26th.

Race two of the day was much better. The wind increased a bit to 12-15knots. I had a great start again, and was 4th or 5th to the top mark. I had some issues with my pointing and thus wasn't able to keep my lane on starboard - thus lost a few boards to finish up that race in 6th.

And today....

A bit of a wait onshore as there wasn't much wind and lots of fog and rain....oh, and pretty cold, before we finally got sent out. The wind started to pick up as we sailed towards the course so that we were planing downwind. The race started in about 9 knots but it picked up slightly throughout the race to about 15knots. Again I had a great start, rounded the top mark in 6th and ended up reeling in one girl before the finish to end up 5th. Was happy with my result especially since I was trying to fix that "pointing" issue I had from the previous day. Unfortunately somehow in the midst of racing or the hour and a bit of waiting in between races, I broke the widget that holds the batten in place which rotates the cam around the mast - making my sail very flat and non-rotating around the mast. It was something that I couldn't fix on the water yet I thought it wouldn't pose too much of a problem as the wind was increasing more and that it wouldn't hurt my speed that much.

Race two got under way finally, in about 20-25knots. This time I had a bad start - pumped my way into a clear lane and was then able to sail freely again. I rounded the top mark in 4th close behind the top 3, but with many right on my tail. The lead changed a few times and I could have taken it but I overlaid a mark, keeping me in 4th...which I had all the way around the 3 lap course, until the last slalom mark. A big gust hit during my gybe. I fell. I was able to get up super fast and was lucky to lose only one place to finish up 5th. I'm sitting in 10th overall at the moment after 4 races, 7 more to go.

Our racing area is in the partially enclosed harbour of Weymouth - the water on the right side of the picture of the Olympic Sailing Venue. The windsurfers race inside this breakwall while all the other classes sail outside the harbour.

More news to come....

You've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette...

These were the words that my coach, Rob Fox had for me after what was a pretty tough regatta. For those that don't know the saying, Wikipedia defines it as: In order to achieve something, it is inevitable and necessary that something should be destroyed. (and yes, parts of me were destroyed!)

I finished 26th overall. This wasn’t the greatest result for me, however I’m not upset by it at all. I actually had a tremendous learning opportunity that I am thankful for - yet it was a bit frustrating too. We got mostly stable and onshore conditions as well as light winds, which were two items on my list of “need to work on”. Unfortunately they didn’t come separately, so I had to learn as well as put into practice both things at once. Slowly and surely, it was all coming together, but I knew I couldn’t expect more than that for the time being. I know that I am working on all those little pieces of the puzzle, and sometimes it feels like those pieces aren't coming together quick enough, but I am starting to see the big picture now and I believe that these pieces will all come together at the right time. Needless to say, I have come home with some key things to work on the water.

I will be home until August 5th. I'll be training diligently before I head off to Weymouth, UK for the World Cup Event: Sail For Gold, followed by my Worlds in Denmark.

Attached are a few pictures that Jochem took of me after racing one day!!! The last picture looks like I'm on a hydrofoil :-)

Loving the sunshine, hope you are too!

Half way through the European Championships...

I don't know what it is about this year but every regatta has been plagued with long waits. All my training days prior to the regatta were in light wind conditions with the exception of about 15 minutes when I got planing. With racing scheduled to start at 11:30, on day one I arrived at the club around 9:00 to get prepared... but then we got to wait for wind all day, eventually being sent out to race at 4pm, returning to shore at 7pm. Needless to say, a long day! Day two was the same, but the wind came a bit earlier so we were sent out around 2pm. Yesterday we finally started on time! All 3 days - all 6 races were in super light and lumpy conditions. Very tiring - both mentally and physically. The races were gruelling and my arms (especially my forearms) felt like they were ready to explode after each race.

I don't know why but I just couldn't get off the starting line.... 0/6! Having a bad start just set me up to have a bad race - mainly because I never had a clear lane to sail in. Regardless, I am focussing on certain goals and learning certain lessons - which although I'd love a change in the conditions... this non-stop light wind pumping races in sloppy waters is actually good and reinforcing those lessons. The racing is super close and there are lots of collisions all over the course especially at mark roundings - I've done two penalty turns myself already. I'm sitting in 31st at the moment - a result that I'm not really that excited about...but there are 3 more days of racing so I hope to turn that around!

On a different note, I made another article in a magazine about my work as a stunt double for Amanda Crew for the film "Charlie St. Cloud", starring Zac Efron. The film is coming out on July 30th. I've attached the article and a picture of me sailing the Open 50... by myself ;-) If you get a chance to see the movie, you might get a glimpse of me (although you shouldn't be able to tell it's me)...there should be some helicopter footage of the boat sailing along a rugged coastline with a lighthouse at the cape of it with me at the helm.

Three more days to go...

I'm in Poland...!

Hello from Sopot, Poland - venue of the RSX European Championships. I arrived here 3 days ago to hot and sunny days which has been super nice. Light winds have had me pumping hard and getting back into my interval training quickly.

My time at home was great. Whenever I am home, I usually spend my time getting my body repaired from the last training/competition trip which consists of massage and chiro whilst getting ready for the next trip and doing all those good for me things like: gym, yoga, biking, and of course windsurf training and some relaxing too. I went over to the Canadian Sport Center in Victoria again, both to do a gym session and an on water performance analysis of my pumping technique (comparing it to my previous analysis from May). I had made some big changes to try to make my pumping more efficient since May and I was stoked to see that my hard work actually showed improvements both on the water and on the graphs. All pretty high tech stuff with lots of squiggly graphs (see picture). Now I get to put that new technique into test here at the Europeans!

And I'm in a Magazine...!!! Check it out

Windsport - Early Summer edition pg 36/37

"Heroine: Junior Racer Fiona Wylde Looks up to Nikola Girke" (I met Fiona in 2005 after I decided to switch from 470's back to windsurfing and spend my summer in the Gorge learning to race on Formula gear. Fiona was just 8 or 9 back then, I think - already windsurfing and already ripping. Up-and-coming... that's an understatement... she is definitely one to watch for in the near future!!!

Tomorrow is my day off so I'm going sightseeing - Gdansk, Gydnia and Sopot!

More to come as soon as racing starts!

Denmark training camp wraps up

After a great finish to the Holland regatta, it was time to pack up and head to Denmark for the next training camp. As it turned out...the trailer almost lost a wheel as the bearing had fallen to bits and the whole thing needed replacing (see picture of what was left of the bearing). The super friendly regatta volunteers helped organize the potential fixing of the trailer in another town. First the coach boat had to be craned off the broken trailer, then the broken trailer craned onto a functional trailer...and then I had to drive to Hoorn, another town not too far away with hopes that the trailer place there could fix it...and fix it quick! Luckily the trailer man could fix the trailer....YEAH!!!! and fixed both sides as he said the other side was a bit dodgy and would not last that long either. By later that afternoon day we could begin the final pack up again...and get on the road to Denmark, arriving at 3am. Unfortunately, through all of this I tweaked my back - so my first priority once I got to Kerteminde was to see Bo, the Chiropractor who I'd seen several times last year, and after several visits and plenty of icing, ibuprofen and stretching, I was able to function again within a few days and it didn't hinder my training too much.

Our training camp was super: mornings were mainly technical and board handling sessions with just my regular training group (Danish, Finnish, Mexican, German & me), while the afternoon was spent racing on the race course for the Worlds. The Hong Kong team and the German youth guys joined us which made for a big fleet (20-ish) and plenty of great racing. We had all sorts of conditions, but mainly light to marginal and typically shifty and puffy = perfect for everything I wanted to work on! Racing in a larger group was also great to scout out the conditions and get to understand the venue a bit better. Coach Rob and I focused a lot on strategy and tactics, while maintaining proper technique....I'm happy to say....I'm improving heaps and made a few break throughs!!! :-) :-) :-) Previously, these were the conditions that were "not my conditions", but with plugging away at them, I have made myself an equal in these conditions - even winning several of the races! Everyone worked really well together, the coaches varied the drills keeping our sessions intense and interesting and it was fun too!

Our World Championships are held here in Kerteminde in August - hence the training camp here and the two training camps here last summer. Kerteminde is a small cute town and is very eager on hosting this competition. The newspaper and TV reporters were all over us - coming several times to interview, take pictures and film us - we were on the evening news for a good 3-5 minute clip and there were several articles in the paper - mainly because Bettina (Beijing representative) is the local star. Attached is a picture that made me the "local star" from last years' Nordic Champs! Also, check out this write up: The world's best windsurfers are out training on the waters of Kerteminde.

Now... after sailing 18 of the 21 days I've been here in Europe, I am mentally and physically windsurfed out. Time to go home!!!

What a Month!

What was just supposed to be a shorter two and a half week stay at home turned into a whopping 7 weeks!!! Who knew that Volcano Eyjafjallajökull could throw all my plans into the air too.

After a couple of days of being in limbo: to cancel all plans or to try to get on another flight later that week, I made the call to stay at home. Although it was a bit tough to know that all my competitors would be there and that I'd miss my opportunity to compete against them, it gave me to opportunity to get into a great training rhythm here at home.

Having wanted to get a head start on beating jet lag and changing my body clock before I was supposed to leave for France, I started getting up early and going to the gym before 6am. Definitely a very nice way to start my day! That left me with all day to get my windsurf training in, biking, yoga, and enjoying some of the things I don't normally have time to do. Although it's been quite chilly in Vancouver, it's nothing a pair of booties and a thick wetsuit couldn't handle. I had so many nice days on the water – it was actually a pretty windy and gorgeous month. The highlight for me was this past Monday sailing in steady 35knots just in front of Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. The first 10 minutes had me swimming more than sailing – barely able to get back on the board without flying off the huge waves. I was thinking I'd have to go in cause I (and my equipment) couldn't handle it, but I kept at it and soon enough I felt quite comfortable and was gybing with ease...well, ok, maybe not with total ease. I've sailed windy days like this on a short board before and even on an RSX in flat water, but never a day with waves like this too. The day had me smiling from ear to ear...stoked to have sailed and sailed well. Loved it!

Now I've just returned from a mini-camp in Victoria with my RSX teammate Zac Plavsic. We spent the last two days with the Canadian Sports Center Pacific guys putting us through the hoops. A hard gym session followed by anthropometric testing (fat skinfolds & circumferences), followed by a very tough 2 hour interval pumping session while having our lactate levels tested...9 pricks to my finger! Needless to say, I was a bit sore for for the next day's session. To conclude our camp we had our pumping techniques analyzed by a professional technical performance analyst – with video and a device that measures how our board is moving through the water. So much information – and very quite useful. Looks like I will be training more to try to fix my weaknesses!

Another two weeks of training at home before I head off to Holland for the World Cup Event: Delta Lloyd Holland Regatta. Then to Denmark for a training camp in Kerteminde, venue of our World Championships this August...that is off course if Volcano Eyjafjallajökull or it's neighbouring volcano will let me.

Attached are a few pics from the windy day...Isabella's Laser Radial bottom section snapped, and other pictures to show just how beautiful it's been here!

Till Holland...

O Canada

Happy Easter!

I'm sad to say that my time in New Zealand, to train on the RSX and sail on O CANADA, the Open 60 program has come to an end. It truly was an incredible and unique experience – one of a lifetime that only 5 of us Canadians got to partake in. With me on board, there was fellow RSX sailor Kevin Stittle, Mike Leigh from the Laser, Nathan Baron – a mini-transat sailor, who unlike any of us has learned on big boats and doesn't sail dinghies and Rob Fox, RSX coach. Led by Dan Slater, Ed Smyth and Allan West – all Kiwi sailing guru's – we were in good hands to learn all the ropes of this boat.

As a group, we got to sail on final time on Monday – onshore winds of 20-25knots meant bigger waves = a really fun downwind with the spinnaker up. At first we had to sail upwind for a long while so that we could get past Rangitoto Island and more into the open water. The boat is designed to go downwind better than upwind and thus we were pushing only 8-9 knots upwind in relatively flat waters in 14 knots of sheltered breeze behind the big volcanic island. Once past the tip of the Island, the wind was up to 25knots and with the more open waters, the waves got bigger!!! This is where we turned around to head back towards Auckland with the spinnaker up. O CANADA sailed so fast and so gracefully – surfing down the waves at 19knots with spray flying everywhere. Once we sailed into the lee of the island again...the roller coaster ride was over, we took down the spinnaker and put up a jib that we could sail on a reach towards the harbour with.

A lovely team dinner concluded our stint with O CANADA. I think I can speak for all involved – we loved our experience: we had a fantastic time while learning so much. We all felt so fortunate to have been given this opportunity. Get a glimpse of what our sailing was like (a great little teaser of the documentary to come): O CANADA video

O CANADA will be competing in her first race (after her transformation from former Spirit of Canada) in the Auckland to Tauranga Yacht Race. Check out this cool clip: The transformation of O CANADA and the getting ready for her first race!

And now... back home to Vancouver for two weeks before I head off to Hyeres, France for the World Cup Event: Semaine Olympique Francaise.

The Long Sails

The day after the Safety at Sea course, we headed out around 2pm for our first crack at night sailing. The wind was in the mid-20's and we had a beautiful sail out to Little Barrier Island – a 60 nautical mile round-trip. Sailing a beam reach, we were just flying. At one point we had dolphins come up beside the boat – there must have been 20 of them jumping fully out of the water and playing in our wake. It was incredible!!! It was a beautiful evening too – although a bit cold cause we got absolutely drenched from the waves crashing over the front of the boat. Sailing home in the dark was not as difficult as I thought as the lights of the city clearly marked our way. We made it back to the dock at 9pm.

Boat call was for 8:30am the next morning so that made for a bit of a short night. We were going to sail 200miles up the coast of NZ to "Hole in the Rock" up near the Bay of Islands and back. Once again the old main sail had to be taken off and the new main sail (that had just been altered from the previous day as it didn't fit properly) had to be put on the boat again. While the boys were busy putting the finishing touches on the boat, I went to the supermarket to buy food for the overnight trip – definitely a bit of a gamble, I returned to the boat with what I thought would be filling, nutritious, yummy, something that could be warmed easily on the Bunsen burner for which I only had one pot etc etc. At noon we left the dock and had to be quick to get all the sails up as the helicopter was going to be filming us for one hour starting at 1pm. We couldn't have had a better day and time for this photo shoot. Beam reaching, we had 25-30 knots – we were just smoking across the water. We all had turns as helm, but I hit the new boat speed record: 22.1knots!!! It was just incredible.

We divided us crew of 7 up into two crew shifts. My shift included Dan and Rob, while the other shift had the 4 other guys. We took first shift for 3 hours, while the others got to relax or sleep down below. We were so lucky on our shift – we had good breeze, sailed right underneath Sail Rock and were clocking up the miles quickly. At the end of my shift I prepared dinner for us in the "galley" with my one Bunsen burner. Fresh pasta with chicken & pesto was on the menu and was received well. Then it was my turn to relax. I was tired, but not exhausted and couldn't get to sleep with all the noises that were going on – and a carbon boat is a pretty good noise conductor. The winches, the grinding pedestal, sails up and down, guys running back and forth on the boat, the clunking of the boat over the waves, the canting keel...you name it, it makes noise. So, needless to say, I did not sleep. I was back on watch at 10pm, but not before I warmed up some soup for everyone. By this time it was completely dark. Sailing in the dark was great – a bit trickier as you have to sail by the compass numbers as you can't always see land, the wake coming off the boat was crisp white, if you looked over the side of the boat to the canting keel – you'd see it lit up by phosphorescents and it made it look like a missile flying through the water. Another shift change after 3 hours...this time I fell fast asleep right away - needing to be somewhat rested for my next 4am shift on deck. Once again, it was beautiful. Stars filled the sky, the milky way was as clear as I've ever seen it and we were still sailing so quickly, almost quietly in the middle of the night, a bit of a surreal experience. From a distance we could see the Auckland city lights - the Sky Tower clearly poking out above. We were making really good time and ended up arriving back at the dock at 6am. I was definitely tired then, having only slept 2.5hours over my 2 rest shifts. The other shift had 3 "rest shifts" and managed to be a bit less tired. The camera crew met us at the dock and after some more interviews, we could finally go home, back to bed....I had a nice 4 hour nap.

A documentary is being made about O Canada – capturing the high points of the Open 60 program which basically tells the story of 5 of us Canadian Wind Athletes learning how to sail , the transformation of the boat from former "Spirit of Canada" to "O Canada" that will be available on DVD to the public as well as it being broadcast on TV. I'm not sure of all of the details, but will fill you in once I do.

We have one final sail on the boat on Monday as a team before the program for us ends, but then Dan Slater and Ed Smyth, get the boat ready for the Auckland to Tauranga race starting on April 1st. It's the first time the boat will be raced since her transformation and hoping to set new records to show the sailing world what an incredible sailing weapon she is.

Lots of pictures attached above...lots of fun times!!!

Safety at Sea...

Two long long days...and we haven't even begun the longer distance sailing yet!

Yesterday morning we started off with our "Safety at Sea" lecture given by Alan Guyer from Sea Wise at his apartment. At first I thought that sitting down for 3 hours to listen was going to be a tad bit boring - but it totally wasn't. Alan could talk like the best of them and had us hanging on to his every word. He showed us video clips of boats that were in distress, boats that sunk and all the rescue efforts and footage that went along with each case and opened the floor to questions and did lots of explaining. I'd have to say that even as a sailor, it was pretty daunting to see what can happen and what does happen out in the big blue sea...and that one must take all the safety precautions seriously and be prepared. No case is ever the same and thus knowing the fundamentals can save your life. Three hours turned into 4 interesting hours quite quickly. I learned heaps! The afternoon was spent finishing up all sorts of odd jobs around the boat, finishing only at dinner time.

It was a 5am start for all of us this morning as we had to meet and get to the wave pool by 6am. We had to bring all our wet weather gear, life jackets and were briefed the day before that we might get sea sick, get scared and panic etc, so I was a bit nervous about what exactly we were going to do. We started off by just wading into the pool and seeing what would happen to us (without life jacket). The wet weather gear got suctioned onto us so quickly and had we been in deep water, we would've sunk within 10 seconds. So....definitely key to have the lifey on at all times in rough conditions or before you exit the boat to the life raft. Next we put on our life jackets - between all of us, we were had 3 different kinds - from cheapest model to the deluxe model. Those with the deluxe (most expensive) model were able to put them on in seconds, strap them tight instantaneously and were good to go. I, as well as 5 others had the "cheaper" version but not the cheapest - and it took us a good 5 minutes at least, on land to put them on correctly - tighten them etc. These life jackets were also not adjustable in the water. We all jumped into the water, lifey's inflating once we hit the water...all good there. Then the wave pool got turned on creating 1 to 1.5 meter waves - all still fine here. Then Alan turned on the cold hose and started spraying us all - in the face. So now we had waves bouncing us up and down, water off the waves was gushing at our faces and now the "fake rake plus wind". Breathing and trying to shield our faces was all we could do - for those of us who had the "cheaper" lifey's. The lucky ones that got the deluxe life jackets had a hood that they could pull over their entire head which attached to the front of their lifey. It had breathing holes on the side and kept them calm, warmer, and most of all breathing. We learned that with the cheaper life jackets, we had only 1/4 the chance of surviving as those with the deluxe version. Hmmm...I know which one I'd be buying when I go offshore. So then we learned how to huddle as a group, stay connected to each other and also how to move as a group.

Next was the lesson on how life rafts work. How, what, when, why...the whole nine yards. The first and most important lesson is: only get off your boat if it is flooding or on fire...otherwise NEVER leave your boat. WHY, you might ask? ... well, we were about to find out! The life raft - although it provided shelter, it was small, smelled of rubber & glue, was tippy, had water in it, and could capsize. So first we had to develop a communication plan and have a clear leader. Then we all jumped into the water and got into the life raft - as planned (big strong guy in the life raft first, others that held the life raft from behind so it wouldn't tip while the rest got in the front). It all got a bit squishy in there - so tight that we had to deflate our life jackets to make more room. Imagine being in one of these life rafts...as some people have done for up to 128days!!! So, one more time, out we got and i was designated as the "puller in" from the inside of the life raft. So, that meant I had to get in the raft on my own, and then, one by one, get all of the boys in - all of them....even the big ones!!! There is a technique - by dunking them 3 times, and after the third dunk, you can pull them out easier as they pop out of the water like a cork out of water, and like magic...soon I had all of the guys in the raft. Then the challenge of getting all of the water in raft out. There must have been a foot of water in the bottom of the raft. Then we had to learn what to do if the raft capsized. I was in the raft first with Nathan when we capsized. I was a bit nervous about being able to breathe under the raft, but by going through this procedure, it really showed me that I just needed to remain calm and that it was "somewhat" easy to right. We all had a turn at being capsized and righting the raft. Fun times (in the pool) yet very tiring!!!

The rest of the day we put on the new main sail (at least 2 hours), took it for sail to have a look at it - realized that it needed some modifications done to it....so had to take it off again so it could go to the loft. All this big boat stuff takes so long.

Left the boat after 6pm. Tomorrow we are planning on going on a longer sail take takes us into the dark!

O Canada – the Open 60 Program

Since the beginning of this week and until the end of March, I am learning how to sail an Open 60 here in Auckland as part of Wind Athlete's Canada "Open 60 Program". There is a small group of us Canadian Sailors who have been given this opportunity to expand our sailing experience - to something I rarely get to do and have really no clue about - big boat stuff, while continuing with our Olympic class training here in in warmer waters with Kiwi training partners.

The Open 60 Class is another pinnacle of the sport of sailing. These boats are designed to push the envelope for man and machine. Every four years, as with the Olympics, the Vendee Globe Ocean Race is the ultimate competition for the Open 60 Class, a solo non-stop unassisted around the world race taking about 3 months.

We are under careful guidance of experienced Kiwi sailors: Dan Slater, Edward Smythe and Allan West. They are getting us up to speed on sailing this powerful and exciting boat, teaching us how to handle the winches, put up the rigging, put reefs in the main, navigate, steer (twin rudders), go up the mast (yet to be done for me!), how the canting keel works & the two dagger boards, what each sail does etc etc. Each day my respect for the boat grows, - the loads that this boat can handle are enormous and she sails incredibly.

On the first day I think we all were a little overwhelmed at first with all that's going on in the boat. We've all come from different sailing backgrounds and so each of us has a bit of an understanding, but we all were blown away with what it really takes to sail this boat. The loads on the boat are incredible as are the creaking sounds that the boat makes when ropes are eased, when we grind etc. and we are all just getting used to that, but until then, I think we are all a bit..."oh crap...what was that noise". We had turns at some of the positions...and I can tell you that grinding up a mainsail is not so easy. It's funny...it's quite easy at the start and you think..."no problem", about a minute later you are thinking 'we must be getting close to the top now", only to hear from the others that you're only about 1/8th the way up! Ha...and to think that you'd do this one handed!!!

For our second day out on the water, it was supposed to be 20knots building to 35knots later in the day, so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to windsurf the RSX along side the boat... Kind of cool to see the Canadian Flags on our RSX sails and O CANADA together...blasting along. Kevin Stittle and I were on the water waiting for O CANADA to meet us. It was windy while we were waiting but then the wind slowly dropped...and dropped enough to make it pretty difficult to sail along side or even get in front of the boat. Although a bit frustrating...it was definitely pretty cool that this massive boat was pulling away from us...just hauling downwind - faster and lower than what we could do on a windsurfer planing! Once the boat got too far ahead of us we de-rigged in the water and caught up with the crew with the coach boat. Once back on board, we could see that upwind from us the wind was increasing and there were rain clouds...Quick decisions were made to reef the main. We didn't have much time left before the squall hit. We tacked over to get right into it... to go reaching and try to go real fast! It must have been blowing about 30 knots at this stage and we were flying...we hit 21knots! That was quite fast and very cool - I always love the full adrenaline, water spraying over the sides etc. Amazing that you don't feel that scared at 21knots in a boat like this though...

On Monday we take the "Safety at Sea" course and then we are ready for some longer distance sails. It'll be my first time sailing in the dark and we're doing to do an overnight trip as well - where we take turns being on watch etc. And for any of you who think sailing around on an Open 60 boat is luxurious, - it's not!!! The sailing part is luxurious, but with the boat designed as an offshore racer to be sailed single-handed, there is not much room underneath. No head (toilet) and only one Bunsen Burner to heat up something with (no kitchen), and plenty of low ceiling to hit your head on. And now with 8 of us on board, sleeping (if it happens) will and can only be done in shifts!

Hoping for some strong winds...Yeeeeehaaaaaa!!!

I've also now started a facebook fan page: Nikola Girke - Olympic Windsurfer. I invite you to be my fan - get shorter but more frequent news updates! Also, please check out my short video (enjoy the song - haha) and donate to my campaign through Fundrazr: Fundrazr Video!

Good bye Vancouver Olympics, Hello New Zealand...

After being at home for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, it's hard to decide what's more fun: being an Olympics fan or being an Olympic athlete!!!

What an awesome time to be at home – the Games were just phenomenal! From superb athletic performances to claim 14 Gold Medals, 7 Silvers and 5 Bronze to the incredible buzz of the city day and night, Vancouver was going off!

I wasn't an official volunteer for any organization but I did help out at a few places. One of which was the CAN Fund House. The Canadian Athletes Now Fund (a not-for-profit devoted solely to raising funds and awareness for Canada's athletes) had the 11th floor of the Shaw tower donated to them by Shaw which was right on the waters edge overlooking the Olympic cauldron and the Olympic Rings. The CanFund house was a place where athletes, family and friends could come any day all day throughout the Olympics to watch the Games, hang out and be merry. One very cool thing was that Eric Sprott and his investment company, Sprott Asset Management LP and the charitable foundation he runs, pledged $100,000 for every gold medal won by a Canadian athlete at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. On each day that a gold medal was won, there would be a cheque presentation and champagne toast at 11pm, where as many of us summer and winter Olympians would say a few words and a thank you.

We also had a Canadian Sailing Team Reunion which included having a nice dinner at RVYC, going to see the Czech vs Russia Men's Ice Hockey Game, followed by a visit to the World Olympians Reunion Centre. It was great to catch up with old teammates, reconnect with the sailing idols of my youth and meet some of the Canadian sailing legends from up to 5 decades ago.

It was a bit sad to leave all the hype behind but I definitely took some of that inspiration with me...for my training here in NZ. I'll be down here in Auckland for a month – the first two weeks are training camps while the last two weeks I will be learning how to sail an Open 60 (more on that to come later in the month). So far I've had three great days on the water already....I know I'm working hard when I can't stay up past 9pm :-)

Miami Olympic Classes Regatta Report Jan 25-30

After my North American Championships ended, I had a bit of a rest before getting ready for the next competition – the first World Cup event for me this year – Miami Olympic Classes Regatta.

It looked like we were going to start off the regatta with a windy day of racing – however with major storm clouds brewing and even tornado warnings, racing was cancelled early in the afternoon after being postponed onshore for 4 hours. In the end, it was only a bit of heavy rain that came through – but I guess they were airing on the side of safety. It was a bit of a shame as it would have been a fun day of racing.

Then for the next four days we had pretty similar conditions: 6-13knots, offshore unstable (very puffy) and shifty winds. These are the toughest conditions for me technically, tactically and strategically, however with 8 races over the 4 days I was given the opportunity to work on my weaknesses over and over again – perfect! With my coach Rob Fox, I put together a list of goals and objectives for the regatta – one that did not focus on my results, but more specifically focused on the process of each individual race – broken down into many pieces from pre-start routine to what my focus needs to be in these unstable wind; when to give it my all, where to position myself within the fleet and about wind tendencies. From each race I took valuable information and put it towards my next race. I had some super upwind beats, some great downwind runs, improved on my reaches and had a clearer vision for the game – it’s just that I haven’t pieced it all together yet to pull off one complete race... from start to finish. I am happy with my progress and feel much more confident in these conditions – especially in knowing what I need to work on and how. I finished 14th overall in a very competitive fleet, and although I would have liked to be amongst the top 10, I fully welcomed the challenge of sailing day after day in what used to be my most dreaded conditions.

And now... I’m back home!!! Finally after 7 weeks away (Mexico at first and then Miami) I am back in Vancouver. Stoked as the Winter Olympics start here on the 12th! For the month of February my focus will be on increasing my strength and fitness whilst volunteering at a variety of functions, participating in local celebrations and giving several talks at schools...now all we need now is snow on Cypress! Go Canada Go!

Sorry no pictures this time....

RSX North American Champion!

After three days of racing in a wide array of different conditions, we were able to get 7 races completed. There was only 6 of us girls but we raced with the guys fleet so we had more competition to race against, but we also are on different size sails and fins so it was definitely more challenging. Although there was only 6 of us, it was really tight racing - the group included two of my training partners that I was in Mexico with and the British Bronze Medalist from the Beijing Olympics.

Saturday started off really windy, 20-25knots. Our race committee was having some sort of problems with our course area and thus we ended up waiting for over an hour before they got the first race under way. We eventually did and it was a long race - two times windward leeward (2 laps of up and down). I led to the top mark but lost my lead to the British girl on the downwind, but with another good upwind, I regained the lead and kept it this time on the downwind...to cross the line first. After this first race we all got sent in for lunch (we sailed to an island and they provided lunch for us). By the time we were back on the race course, the wind dropped a lot. We were able to get two more races off in the late afternoon in these light to marginal conditions (not my strongest condition), but I fought hard and finished 2nd in both races!

Sunday once again started off with strong winds as a front was moving through. The sky was ominous and the clouds over to the right side of the course looked very threatening. Thus, the right side of the course looked very favoured to me, so I decided to do a port tack start (see the picture attached). My timing was a bit off....about a second or so too early but I was committed to crossing the fleet....Yikes!!!! The over early flag went up, I knew it was me so I exonerated myself by going back to dip the start line. Then it was catch up time! I was doing my best when the wind did over a 90 degree shift to the right and that's when the race committee abandoned the race and sent us to shore. Those scary clouds were now above us and were about to cause havoc. Heavy rains soaked us on the way in. We waited onshore for the weather to clear and then were sent out for two more races. Although the weather had settled, the wind was far from stable. My position changed numerous times throughout the race, but managed to finish in 3rd and 2nd.

Monday's forecast did not look promising, but luckily we did manage to get some wind and were able to get two tricky races off. I was leading the first race on the first lap, but got left behind in a puff that didn't reach me. I quickly went from first to a distant 4th. The next race wasn't much easier....the race was won already on the first upwind and there was no chance of catching up. I finished 4th once again.

Having managed to sail a fairly solid regatta, I finished 2nd overall to Bryony Shaw of Great Britain...and claimed the North American RSX Women's Title! Now for a bit of rest, recuperation and some more training before the World Cup - Miami Olympic Classes Regatta starts next Monday the 25th.

Happy New Year

A bit late...but I hope you all have had a Merry Christmas and a great start to 2010.

I left Vancouver on December 12th to go for a training camp in Cozumel, Mexico. I've been there twice before to train with Demita, the Mexican Olympic representative, but this time we were lucky to be joined by 2 Danish girls, one Finnish girl and a few local youth boys. So, most days there were 8 of us on the water with Demita's coach, Adrien running lots of drills and putting us through all the hoops. The first week was a bit tough to be back at full on training, but my body adapted quickly and all in all, it was a really great, fun and productive training camp. So a huge thank you goes out to both of them for making our stay and training camp in Mexico a big success. It was pretty hard for it not to be with great conditions each day and bikini sailing for the most part! My coach, Rob Fox came down for the last week of the camp, which increased the intensity and made sure I was getting the most out of my training sessions!

More training followed more training, but we had a great schedule and we were living in the ideal spot for training. In Cozumel, where to rig our sails and leave our equipment has always been a problem in the past, but a lovely Canadian lady who owns a house on the beach with a lawn to rig our sails on was kind enough to let us take over her grounds for one month. We lived across the street, so this was really convenient.

Between training and for our days off we went snorkeling, meandering around town to check out the mexican markets, went to some Mayan ruins or just relaxed.

Christmas was celebrated in by combining a multitude of traditions - Danish, Finnish, Canadian/German and Mexican. We danced around the Christmas tree (a small palm tree) singing in the morning accompanied by brunch (more of the European tradition) and for Christmas dinner we were invited to Demita's family's house for traditional Christmas Eve night. We feasted on delicious food followed by the hitting of the "piñata", a brightly coloured paper mache star filled with candy, which we had to hit blindfolded after having been spun around several times to lose our sense of direction. Everyone shouts at you to tell you to hit either left, right, higher or lower...in spanish and it gets quite confusing. For my turn and without me knowing it, Demita's aunt took the piñata and held it away while everyone was still shouting where I should be hitting. Of course I had no idea that I was going to be hitting just air...the whole time and everyone was laughing. I did eventually get a few good hits though! It was a really fun night.

New Year's Day started off with a Bang - literally! We had booked a snorkel/scuba diving trip - so that meant we would leave the harbour on a boat and head off to another dock to pick up some more passengers. Unfortunately...as the boat was attempting to dock, the gears failed - throwing the boat into forward gear and not reverse as planned and needed. Needless to say, there was a big bang as we hit both the rocks from below and the rock wall of the dock - and that boat was out of commission for the day so we ended up going on a much smaller one a bit later on. Always an adventure! Snorkeling was great and we saw lots of beautiful fish and a few bigger...not so friendly looking barracudas!

On the 9th of January I flew to Miami in preparation for the RSX North American Championships which start tomorrow. All of us from Mexico came here together...only to fly into Miami for the coldest day on record since 1920 or so. It was freezing. It was warmer at home in Vancouver than it was here in Miami. Luckily these cold days were my intended days off, so I didn't have to bear the cold too much. Since then it has warmed up heaps...today was even a shorts day!

More news to come once the racing gets underway at the North Americans...

So Much Good News

A lot has happened since I came home at the end of September. It sure has been a really busy time for me. I came home to an incredible end of the summer - it got me outside doing all sorts of exercise, mainly biking but also got some Vancouver short- board windsurfing in! Between trying to stay fit, working, doing some school talks, getting fitness tested, started up a new fitness program and trying to organize/plan my next years leading up to London 2012.... I had my hands full.

It was about mid-October when I was asked to audition for a stunt-double part in a movie (for a sailing scene). I got the part! It was only supposed to be a two day ordeal, but I quickly learned that's not how the film industry works. We went up to Port Renfrew, on the west coast of Vancouver Island to do the shoot, which ended up being a 6 day adventure. Attached are a few pictures of where we were and what we were doing - check out the nice surf spot! On the boat there was a total of 6 of us - 5 guys doing all the work and then hiding for when the helicopter came to take the shots of me sailing the boat "solo". It was a treat to sail on this Open 50 racer.

Early November I flew to Maui for a bit over two weeks. I haven't been back for many years so it was so wonderful to be back to my old stomping grounds. Before I started 470 sailing in 2001, I had lived in Maui for 1.5 years to pursue my windsurfing goals and dreams. Needless to say, there was plenty of catching up to do with my friends and then trying to cram what seemed like 8 years of not really short-boarding and surfing into two weeks! It was part of my "cross-training" plan to go and play there - to get back to why I started windsurfing - jumping in the waves, wave riding and surfing. Luckily, even after so many years went by, I could still do it. I guess it's like riding a bike...kind of. It is great training for the RSX too - as there are so many parallels, however one must be more precise/sensitive on a short board as it's not as forgiving as the RSX (big board & big sail). I arrived at a perfect time - for my first day on the water I was greeted with mast high (4m face waves) and wind. I was in wave-sailing heaven. I guess that's Maui - I didn't get eased into it....rather I got absolutely launched into it. I loved it.

My next stop was Toronto. I was elected to be the Female Athlete Rep for the Canadian Yachting Association's Board of Directors, thus, needing to attend the AGM. The night I arrived to Toronto, November 20th was also the Canadian Yachting Association 2009 Rolex Annual Awards Banquet. I was honoured to receive this year's "CYA Female Athlete of the Year Award". This award really means a lot to me. Although I have received this award twice before (2001 & 2004), both times was while I was sailing the 470. Changing sports from sailing to windsurfing in 2005 was a really daunting task, full of challenges, many pride swallowing moments and some doubt. Slowly and surely though, my hard work and determination has started to pay off. A 17th place finish at the Beijing Olympics left me with unfinished business - my goal is to bring home a medal from London 2012. Being the recipient of this award means that I've been doing something right and that I am on track towards achieving my goal!!! Thank you to all those who have helped me get to where I am today.

I'm home for two weeks before I head off again - this time to Mexico for a training camp with 4 other RSX girls. I'm looking forward to getting back on the board!

Final Day and Final result: Worlds 2009

Going into yesterday's final race, I had a bit on. After a frustrating evening in the protest room the night before that ended up adding many points to my score, which in turn dropped my overall standing, and a somewhat sleep disturbed night (as I was trying to figure out any other angle that I could take to reopen my hearing) I had to put all that aside and go do my very best on the one last race of the series. All I could do was to race my best, and hope that the other girls would do worse...and that everything would fall into place.

It was a beautiful day here in Weymouth. It was blue sky and between 12-18knots. Nice sailing conditions, not only because it's fun but because I am fast in these conditions. I was going out to win the last race of the day...

I had a plan, but during the last minute before the start, I ended up further down the starting line than I wanted to be and found myself in a difficult position, and one that was opposite from my game plan. I was in a pack at the start and was forced to go left...then the wind got patchy. Yikes. I tacked away towards the right side of the course having to duck many boards only to see that the girls that had gone to the right side originally were a long way ahead. I tried to catch up, headed to the right, chasing girls down, but once I tacked back towards the left side, the girls from the other side crossed in front of me. I was sailing myself backwards. Then I caught a weed and was forced to remove it, which I did but at the same time I fell into the water. Urgh... I got back up, tried to refocus only to round the first mark in second to last position. This was not looking good for my race win — nor helping me improve my result.

"Refocus, work hard, refocus....pump more, think....stay in the pressure, come on Nik - catch up" was all going through my mind.

By the first downwind mark, I had caught up a lot of distance on the girls in front of me, yet hadn't passed a board. I thought the left side was going to be better than the right side of the course — the right was where most of the fleet had gone to for the second and final upwind of the race. Following the fleet wasn't going to do me any good, and with good pressure on the left, I took it on. It was all or nothing at this point... I had great speed, great height, and didn't catch any weeds!!! I sailed myself up into fourth place by the top mark, to finish the race in 4th!!! What a comeback... I was so happy that I was able to turn that race around and make it count.

Then the waiting period started for the highly anticipated results to be posted. Who finished where and what would that do to my overall position. The way I calculated it, I had moved up one position to 18th, however the results still were not up. They had forgotten to score one girl on the results. After much suspense, that girl got scored and that changed my score. I now was tied with the girl who was in 17th place. However, I won the tie-breaker which means I finished 17th overall. Really happy with this result as this is my new personal best!!! (by 18 places) 

I learned so much this regatta and had so many great moments and races that I am all the more excited about the 2012 Olympics here in Weymouth. I know and now have proved it, that I am and can be one of the top contenders for a medal here in 3 years. Lots of work must be done in the meantime, but I am up for it. I couldn't have done this without the support of my coach here, Rob Fox. We worked very well together and I really hope that I can continue to work with him in the future. I see big gains to be made!

I would like to thank everyone that has supported me and encouraged me throughout this championship and in it's lead up. Rob Fox, my teammates, the CYA, the PJPSF, RVYC, Inventa, Helly Hansen, USANA, Rev3, Kaenon — Thank you!

Only 3 days off before the "Skandia Sail for Gold" Regatta starts here in Weymouth. It is the next World Cup event and the last one of the season... More news soon.

More from the RSX Worlds Finals

Another tough day at the office. I actually had two decent mid-fleet finishes only to come to shore to find out that in the first race I was OCS (on course side, which means I started early and was disqualified). I protested to appeal this decision as the Race Committee did not fly the correct flags on time, and spent 5 hours after racing to go through with this process. The outcome was that the Race Committee had made a mistake but they felt the onus was still on me to return and restart the race. My argument to this was that I didn't get the information that anyone was over the start early as they didn't fly the flag straight away as they needed to, and thus they can't disqualify you without going through the correct procedure. It was one of my first times going into the protest room and to protest a Race Committee is a hard one to win, but I actually did get my facts straight and the Race Committee was found to have made the mistake but I was not granted my finishing position and must keep my disqualified score. This didn't help my overall standing, and I am really disappointed but with one race left tomorrow I will finish on a good note and finish what will be my best Worlds result ever.

First Day of Finals

It was a tough day on the water today. Yet again, Weymouth presented us another day with different wind conditions. Today's breeze started off quite light, but built as we headed out to the race area — from about 5/6knots to a variable 6-10. We were able to sail one race before a thick fog rolled in between races, it got cold quite quickly and we got sent in to shore. We were postponed on land for what ended up being a short lunch and were sent right back out for the second race of the day in very similar conditions to what we had in the first race.

For both races, I had a game plan, based on what I thought the wind would do. I nailed both starts and had a clear lane and was in good position... I headed to the right side, only to have the left come out ahead. Then, when I headed to the left side, it ended up being the right side of the course that came out ahead. I just didn't get it right today. I made decisions based on what information we could get before the race, but sometimes they don't always work. My speed wasn't the issue, neither was my start, I just got gobbled up. Needless to say, it was a bit frustrating and I posted my two worst scores of the regatta so far. However, between my coach and I and the rest of the Canadian team, I think we were able to determine a pattern that was making the wind shift so perhaps next time, I will have a better clue as to go up the left or the right side of the course.

With that being said, tomorrow is a new day — and a very different day as the wind is forecasted to come from another direction, one that I have yet to see here. Should make things interesting. We have 2 more races in the final series before the top 10 move on to their separate medal race. Of course I'm still vying to get one of these top 10 spots. I'm sitting in 14th at the moment, but looking to move up some after tomorrow's racing.

Now I just need the winds to be in my favour.

Day Two of RSX Worlds

Although today was moderate breeze (well, anything from probably 11-16 knots), it felt like it was light air. Anything compared to yesterday would seem light and powerless. Needless to say, today's racing was a bit more tame. We had 2 races in these "marginal" wind conditions where one can sometimes get planing while other times you needed to sail with the daggerboard down and rail the board. To plane, you need enough wind to be able to sail on the fin only and you go fast, although the angle you sail at is not necessarily that great. The other option, which was to rail — means that you sail with the centerboard down (more like a sailboat) in a higher and slower mode. Choosing between the two modes can be quite tricky, while choosing wrong can be quite costly.

In both races I played my options well, didn't take any risks and clocked two good results. I finished 5th and 7th respectively, however there were a few girls that had finished in front of me that were disqualified as they were over the start too early, and thus my finishing results were 3rd and 6th.

I'm pretty happy about my results today. At this point, after 4 races I sit in 5th place. Tomorrow we have 2 more races before the fleet is split into Gold and Silver fleet. Then we sail the rest of the series, another 5 races for a total of 11 races.

The picture attached is of me and my coach Rob Fox waiting around in between races. It was a very chilly day!

First Day of Worlds... Insanely Windy!

The wind hasn't eased off for days now. Yesterday's practice race was just a taste of what was to be the first day of racing. The boys started racing at 11am while the girls start was at 1pm, and it was windy! Solid 25-30 knots for the first race and even more for the second. The girls fleet was split into two, thus we only had 29 boards in each fleet. The first day is done and luckily I am still alive to tell about it! 

My start to the first race was horrible. I don't know what happened but somehow I couldn't see what time it really was or how long I had to go to start and thus I started in the back of the pack. My speed was great and I basically plowed through the fleet to get up to about 6th place. Unfortunately at the leeward mark I had a big crash (me versus a nasty wave) and I went swimming. That didn't help me as tons of boards flew by me. So, once again I was in catch up mode and by the end of the race I had caught back up to 8th place.

Between races the wind dropped off a bit to 22-25knots. Still really windy but "hardly windy" in comparison to what we'd just sailed in. Then, before our second start, the wind ramped up again. I had a super start, I was to windward or above the fleet and going fast!!! I was first to the windward mark, and kept my lead for the next downwind and up the next upwind again....until we got hit by the mega-gusts. With the wind now gusting just over 35 knots going downwind and needing to gybe... I had a bit on. It wasn't easy and unfortunately I fell. I got up quick and managed to come back to 3rd, but then at the very last gybe to the finish (we have a slalom course at the end of every race where we have to gybe around marks back and forth 3 times), I fell again. Urgh....I lost a few more boards and finished 6th in that race. A bit of a bummer as I held on to that lead for so long had the wind not picked up another 5knots and threw crazy waves at me....maybe the result would have been different.

Nevertheless, tomorrow I get another try at it. Of the 58 girls racing, about 24 girls did not finish the last race...

Tomorrow's racing starts at 11am. Current forecast is for it to be windy...but not as windy as today and lighten off as the day goes on. Not a bad start to the regatta...now onwards and upwards! Off to bed for me now as I am one spent girl.

update from weymouth, england

Hello again....sorry I haven't been in touch lately, but it's been all go! At the end of June, after Kiel Week in Germany, I flew home very briefly before I headed to Toronto to coach at a Development RSX Clinic for a week. I too was able to sail with the two development guys (and not just coach on a coachboat) as well as two of the Canadian Sailing Team guys as we were lucky enough to have a coach from Royal Canadian Yacht Club to run drills and do video footage of us. Although I had just come off of six weeks of sailing in Europe, this camp was super. We got plenty of time on the water and all of us improved our board-handling skills.

At the beginning of July, I was finally home, and home to stay for about 5 weeks. I was really looking forward to my time at home. I needed to concentrate on my fitness and try to get back to “race weight”. We had the most beautiful weather at home, which allowed me to do everything outside– biking, running, swimming in the ocean, windsurf training and outdoor yoga! Combined with going to the gym and eating really well, I managed to shed some weight, and even better, I feel healthy, fit, recover quick and have lots of energy. All which is helping me build my confidence for the World Championships coming up in Weymouth, UK at the beginning of September.

Weymouth is where I am now. I arrived here last night after a 10-day training and competition stint in Kerteminde, Denmark. Like earlier in the year, I joined the Danish and Finnish girls in atraining camp with the Dutch coach Jochem. We had 5 days of superb training & weather!!! Lucky us as in June the weather was miserable. We managed to sail 2 sessions a day for 2-3hours each, so by the time the rest day came, we were all shattered. We only got one rest day before the Nordic Championships started.

There weren't enough different Nordic countries entered in the competition so the Race Committee decided to make it an "open" event and to sail both the men and women/youth together. The men sail on a bigger sail and have a bigger fin so they are generally faster and can point higher. This made start positioning a bit trickier, but since it was windy for the most part, they didn’t affect us too much. We had 9 races in total in windy, very gusty and shifty offshore breeze. It was quite challenging as one could get anything from 4 to 18knots. I was able to get off the starting line well, had good speed and sailed really well. I tacked in good pressure and in shifts and made good downwind decisions. Being scored with the guys also made the scoring interesting. It was such close racing that it all came down to the last race of the last day, where there was three of us girls all tied for the top girl spot. During the last race it got quite windy and by the first downwind I was leading the race. Then, I hit something, perhaps it was weeds, butI  fully spun-out and couldn't recover myself and ended up wiping out during my gybe. Needless to say, I lost my lead, and finished up 3rd girl (tied for 2nd but lost in the count back) and 6th overall. I wish I wouldn’t have fallen in that race, so I could have won the event, but I know that I sailed well enough to have won it and I feel so much more confident going into my world championships with this training and competition under my belt.

Attached are a few pictures of the training and competition...and I'm the Canadian Star in the local newspaper! I now have a few days off before training starts up again. 'Til soon...

a 6th place finish in kiel week

I just got back from "Kieler Woche" or Kiel Week in Germany. Kiel Week is the biggest sailing festival in the world, involving the whole city and something like 3.5 million visitors come to enjoy the festival that goes over 10 days and there are thousands of boats on the water each day. It is one of the best organized regattas of the olympic circuit and it extends well beyond sailing, although for us it was a World Cup Event. The Schilksee Olympic Harbour, where the 1972 Olympics were sailed, turns into a carnival type area. Food, shopping, bands, and always some kind of action is all within the marina base. Whether it was frankfurter sausages you were after or a nutella crepe or beer, it was all there. From morning until midnight, there was buzz...one of which we even felt through the walls of our apartment as the bands kept playing till midnight each night!

The week before the regatta we had great training; the wind blew from all sorts of directions and the weather was a bit up and down - this venue is renown for it's looming black clouds that changes what was a nice day into a wet & cold day quite quickly. Ironically, the wind started to do weird things once the regatta started. On day one we were supposed to have 3 races but were lucky to get two in. Big shifts and pressure differences made those races quite difficult and since our top (windward) mark was only about 100m from shore, there were some big gains and big losses in little to no time. Although I sailed quite well, I realized some of those losses and finished the day with a 6th and a 9th. Then the waiting began. The wind forecast did not look good for Day 2. Thankfully, the organizers called off the day after only a few hours of postponement and that was a great call as the wind never came. We were all eager to race on Day 3...but once again, it was shaping up to be too light to sail. As no front or weather system was on it's way past Kiel, we really needed the sea breeze to build - which in this case wasn't going to happen as the land temperature just wasn't going to warm up that day. On this day though, the organizers really needed to get some more races under way and thus, we were on postponement at one hour increments all day long. Finally, they called the racing off for the day at 5:30pm. Waiting can almost be as tiring as sailing! Having sat around all day with some energy to spare, a few of us girls went for an evening training session just to loosen up a bit for the next day. Luckily Day 4, which was also the last day of racing for all sailors but the top 10 that make it to the medal race, looked a bit better. Also a light-ish wind day (6-9knots), but enough to get 3 solid races in. I had a few better races that day, enough to put me into 7th overall. Wednesday the 25th was the medal race. I had the opportunity to move up a spot to 6th and if all the stars aligned, perhaps even to 4th. I had a great race - I finished 3rd in the medal race (although I had at one stage been in 2nd) and thus moved up to 6th place overall. I was quite happy with my result, especially because the whole regatta was sailed in my most trying and difficult conditions. Finishing 3rd in the medal race gave me back some confidence, that I too can be at the top of the game in all conditions.

If you want to see what the Medal Race was like...and follow me (as we were all wearing a gps) click here

With my 6th place finish at Kiel Week, my World Cup Ranking has now brought me up to 8th overall.