The Road to 2012

I spent the last two and a half months in Georgia training with my friend Morgan House. The training has been great, with lots of paddling, lifting, running, biking, and swimming. We have also been able to do something fun pretty much every weekend. Some of the cool places I’ve been to include Dahlonega (site of the first gold rush!), Highlands, NC (awesome hiking and stay at our friend Suzy’s house), Stone Mountain (meeting place of confederate generals.) I also went to the UGA vs Ga Tech game in Atlanta with my buddy Tim “Pillow Ripper” Hornsby which was my first experience with southern football games and an interesting time.
Here is a picture of the gang at stone mountain:

And one of me shooting a shotgun with my friend Rob Finlayson!

As much I’ve enjoyed immersing myself in southern culture I will be heading back up North (”yankee-land”) for the Holidays. I’m planning on another great cross country skiing camp in the beginning of January before getting back on the water for next season.

Okay, time for those serious updates I’ve been talking so much about. For this issue of Kayak2012 and You, I’d like to do a bit of a feature piece on the athletes of the 2009 World Championship team. We’re a strange bunch, culled from the kayaking teams of Georgia, Hawaii, Washington DC, and Canada. You may have heard of these legends–perhaps you’ve even fantasized about them. Here’s a bit of material, for those of you who fit the latter profile. I’ve assigned middle names to each of us in quotes… feel free to discuss what the hell they mean in the comments.

MORGAN “HOTPANTS” HOUSE

This is Morgan, the K1 stud of the team and one of the three lead singers of our three-man band, The Testostertones. He has a viciously good Hawaiian accent, which he whips out each morning at breakfast in front of the Dolan brothers, desperately seeking their approval. He’s been converting each of us over to the shaved head look, so don’t be surprised if I post a shocking group photo of our hairless selves.

PAT “PATTICAKE” DOLAN

Here we have the stroke seat of the K2 500 and 1000m; He’s also the guitarist and the second of the lead singers for the Testostertones. (We’re currently working on a myspace page, which feature some of our latest tracks and a forum for our groupies to pass around pictures of us and stories about their experiences… can you tell I’m excited about this band?)

Pat and I have decided that we’ll be competing in Ironman New Zealand in 2013 after the Olympics, in a bid to qualify for the IM Worlds in Kona that year. We’ve been out on the bike and running around, living the dream… more news on that later too.

RYAN “RD” DOLAN

Here’s Ryan, arguably the biggest stud on the team and notorious sarong wearer, as depicted in this paparazzi photo from the shores of Mirror Lake. He sits behind his big bro in the K2, again for both the 500 and the 1000m.

DION “RI-DION-KULOUS” DION

I remember Dion from way back in the day, when Morgan House and I raced him in the Bantam 500m and 1000m National Champs out in California. We placed top three… victory went to me, in a stunning 2:12 finish that I vividly recall each time Morgan dominates me on a piece out here during our workouts. I’ve become intimately acquainted with Dion in the past few weeks, since we both made the national team K4. I sit behind the big boy and give him technique tips, scolding away, safe in the knowledge that no one can see MY technique. (Until we watch video. Whoops.)

TIMY “TIMMMMMMAYYYYY” HORNSBY

Now, I’m going to go ahead and say that this picture is not really the Timmy that I interact with on a daily basis–that Timmy is a madman, and strokes the National Team K4 like it was a dog at the pound in need of some serious loving. I’ll try to get some better ones of him in the upcoming workouts. That said, I want to let this pic soak in, so no more on Timmy for now.

DAVE “SLICK WILLY” PETROVICS

Dave is a surfer bum from Rhode Island, catching sicknasty waves and wakeboarding in a startlingly straight line in his off-time from paddling workouts. Since being separated from his aqueous home and displaced to Lake Placid, he’s spent at least 8 hours each day in bed, tit-tatting away on his computer keyboard, yearning for the open ocean. If you feel sympathy for this young man, make sure to click the Donate button to your left. Papa D sits 2-seat in the K4, two in front of me and one behind Big Timmy.

SAM “NON SEQUITUR” RITCHIE

And if you don’t feel sympathy for that dude above, you certainly should feel sympathy for this guy, for his face shows every indication that he finds his behavior appropriate. This is me, friends. When not smacking my paddle around, I sit 4-seat in the K4, wear hats from companies I’m not sponsored by, and generally rock out with my socks out.

Hope you’ve gotten a feel for the boys! More to come on training camp specifics very, VERY soon.

~Sam

Dave and I managed to get out of Princeton this June, distinctly ravaged by the previous four years of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, but toting our degrees and happy to be moving on.

The schedule for this summer–

• Head out to Chula Vista until July 13th for some team boat training with the guys, and a final set of trials on that final weekend
• Move out to Lake Placid on the 15th for a final training camp, before…
• 2009 World Championships in Nova Scotia, August 13th to 17th!

The official website can be found here.

More updates to come soon; expect pictures, youtube videos, and outrageous stories.

After reading some of the great entries over at http://www.vankayak.com/ and http://emily-wright.blogspot.com/, it’s become clear that this blog is woefully under-updated. There ARE exciting things afoot in the lives of Dave and Sam, but how the hell would you ever find out, with our update frequency?

We’ll be working hard at rolling out some shorter entries over the next few days, complete with pics, to get you all inside the MINDS of the athletes hard at work here at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA.

We had our National Team trials last weekend, so both Sam and I flew out to sunny California to enjoy some good weather and to take place in some exciting racing. Our big events were the K1 500 and K1 1000, where we were both shooting to place top 7 to maximize our chances of making the World Championship team. Overall, the racing went extremely well, with both of us achieving our goals. In the 500 I placed 4th and Sam 6th (both with PRs), while in the 1000 I battled a broken footstrap to come in 9th and Sam 7th, which ranks us as #6 and #7 overall. The K2 1000 also went quite well… we battled blustery conditions and a vicious sidewind to come in a close 3rd behind the Dolan brothers (www.dolanbros.com) and Tim Hornsby/Morgan House. Morgan actually won all of his events, so a big congrats to him! Pictured below is the K4 combination of (front to back) Sam Ritchie / Dion Maxwell / Taran Stucchio / me. It was our first time in the boat (and my first time in 4 seat– I couldn’t even see above Taran’s head!), but we still came in within 2 seconds of the winning crew which was great. Full results on the USACK website.

After the trials we also got a chance to clean our boats off with some Marine Restorer, compliments of Debby Page. We know have shiny, new-looking boats which will hopefully glide across the water even faster now that they have a shiny new finish. (It’s amazing how dirty our kayaks get in their neglected state behind the Princeton boathouse). 

We’re now back in New Jersey, where it’s been raining for 48 hours straight. (Gotta love the dirty Jerz!). We have a few more exams left, and a presentation of our senior thesis entitled: “Variable Drag Element on a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine for Improved Performance” (I know what you’re thinking, but hey, I wasn’t the one who came up with the title). If all goes well, graduation is June 2nd after which we will officially be in the ‘real world.’

So now its back to training basics as we prepare for the next trials in July, which will determine exactly which boats will race at the World Championships (Aug 12-16 in Dartmouth, Canada). Stay tuned for more updates!

Okay, all, It’s that time of year again… though again doesn’t really apply, since this is really our first Winter election…

I seem to have blown the suspense. USACK Elections are here! We had a bit of a hiccup last time, what with the whole restructuring of the national board, but we’re back in business. All of you readers who are paying members of USA Canoe Kayak should have received ballots via e-mail over the past few days. If not, make sure to send a note to the fantastic Gerald Babao (gerald@usack.org) and make it known that need some assistance.

I’m running for the Sprint Athlete Director position, and would love all of your support. I’ll end with a copy of the letter I’ve just sent out the the Yahoo “Kayak” group.

(On the horizon, a week away: Sam Goes West to Chula Vista, for a spring break voyage rivaled by no other. Seriously, comment if you have a better idea than two weeks at the Olympic Training Center.)

—————————

Hello all,

my name is Sam Ritchie–I’m writing to ask for your support in USACK’s current election of a new Sprint Athlete Director to the Board.

I’ve been kayaking competitively for 12 years, and have represented the US on three US Junior National Teams, and one Pan American Team, traveling to Brazil in 2007. I’m currently finishing my final year here at college, after which I’ll be moving out to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA, to start seriously training for the 2012 Olympics in London.

I’ve put in many hours over the past few months as a volunteer, working with Brett Heyl and other members of the USACK staff on various outreach initiatives to the membership. I’ll be co-authoring a column in the upcoming USACK monthly newsletter, assisting in website development, and keeping you all up to date on the goings-on of the national team through my website, www.kayak2012.com.

I’ve also created a web portal–usack.slinkset.com–to allow you all to speak directly to the USACK board, and offer the membership the chance to hear back on any and every issue it deems important. (Keep contributing to this, please! The Board will be responding to the most interesting ideas in the newsletter each and every month.)

Whatever the outcome of the election, I’ll be working hard as a representative for the athletes and members across the country–your vote, and my spot on the Board, would bring you one step closer to the heart of USA Canoe Kayak, and allow all of us a bit more faith in the organization we’ve believed in for so many years.

Make sure to vote, using the ballots you should have received via e-mail over the last week! If you have any questions, or problems with the ballot, get in touch at sritchie09@gmail.com.

~Sam Ritchie

Once again, for the FIFTH year running, I’m on a plane, heading out to the TED Conference. It’s a conference for big thinkers, visionaries and world-shakers. This may prompt some of you big thinkers out there to wonder, how the hell did Sam get invited? I’d like to tell you all that this is news of a comeback in the flatwater kayaking world. Was I invited to give a talk on one of the most prestigious athletic pursuits currently in existence? Is one of our own finally going to get some press time, to plug USACK and the rest of the sport?

Unfortunately not. As with my paddling, I’m riding on the laurels of my past achievements; last year, I was invited to TED as assistant photographer. That was back before Dave and I had discovered our fiery passion for updating this website, and, unfortunately, the account of my experience is lost. This time, at TED’s first appearance in Long Beach, CA, I’ll be one of 100 TED Hosts, responsible for familiarizing the 1400+ Conference goers with the new venue. Dave will be holding down the fort back in frigid New Jersey, partying like the madman he is, out at Cloister, one of Princeton’s ten eating clubs. I know he’s looking forward to Two Articles of Clothing night this Thursday, so make sure to leave comments giving him some suggestions on what to wear.

Nothing of substance to say here now–only, look forward to some fantastic updates over the next few days. Here’s a sample talk to get you acquainted:

Dave and I try to bring you all the best training tips and stories on the internet–up until now, I thought that we had succeeded in holding this high office. Then, I found Club Trillion. Mark Titus, a walk-on at Ohio State, named the blog after him and two of his walk-on buddies, down at the end of the bench, all members of Club Trillion. To earn a ticket to the club, you have to get into the game for a single minute and do absolutely nothing that would add to your stat line. Your row in the stat sheet at the end of the game shows up with a 1 followed by thirteen zeroes–technically TEN trillion, but no matter.

Here’s the link:

http://clubtrillion.blogspot.com

In other news, please look forward to Dave and my upcoming announcement about the new and exclusive Club Last-At-Trials.

USACK is starting a newsletter! Brett Hyle’s putting it all together, so make sure to send him a nice note here. Brett also wanted me to let all of you know that USACK is looking for stories about you, your training, your coaching and your camps. ANYTHING will do. Send off a story and some pictures to addtoweb@usack.org, and Brett will immediately go to work getting you published to USACK’s website!

Back to the newsletter. During some brainstorming sessions at the latest Lake Placid Training Camp, Brett asked Emily Wright and myself if we wouldn’t mind writing a short column for the newsletter each month. Here’s what we came up with:

FEM AND SAM’S USACK COLUMN

Of which this is the first; of which there will be many.

Nearly two dozen years ago, hundreds of miles apart, two kayakers were born. Their names were Sam and Fem, and they each had a strange knack for voicing opinions in short essays of 500 to 1000 words. Fast forward 21 years. Sam and Fem both realize simultaneously that USACK’s biggest flaw–perhaps its only flaw–is its failure to produce a hilarious and cheesy column for the monthly newsletter. The curious pair decide to author such a column, because–improbably–the one thing they both do better than paddling is write funny columns about paddling.

Allow us to introduce ourselves. Our names are Sam Ritchie and Emily “Fem” Wright; we’re both members of the Sprint Kayak National Team, based out at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. The idea for this column came about when slalom Olympian Brett Hyle, seeking to get USACK’s membership excited and engaged, suggested setting aside space in his newly-created newsletter for a column focused on the lives and interests of USACK’s athletes. He offered us the chance to write about anything we wanted, provided it had at least some tenuous connection to training or kayaking. Naturally, we accepted. Immediately.

Starting next month, we’ll join USACK as regular contributors to the monthly newsletter. Between columns, we’ll keep you all satisfied with numerous posts to our up-and-coming blog on the USACK website. We’ll be answering questions sent in by our readers, crafting essays on all sorts of athletic topics, and providing an entertaining glimpse into the unique lifestyle of the full-time flatwater kayaker.

Here’s a quick list of some of the items we hope to provide in coming editions:

• Gear Reviews
• Race Reports
  
• Technical analysis, using videos of the best paddlers
  
• Advice on training, both on the water and in the gym
  
• Updates from the Sprint National Team
• Anything else that we deem worthy.
  

To make this really work, we’re going to need three things from you all, our readers: questions via e-mail, comments on our posts, and feedback. We want to hear what YOU have to say, so that we can get to work shedding light on the topics you care about. We’re going to answer your questions, conduct interviews with the world’s greatest kayakers, tell hilarious stories, write comics, post videos; and, if we do our jobs right, give you all some insight into what it’s like to do what we do.

See you all next month!

Hailing from Rochester, New York, Emily is currently living at the farthest geographic point from her hometown without leaving the continental US. At the training center, where the ratio of kayakers named Emily to kayakers NOT named Emily can reach 3:7, our columnist is known as “Fem,” short for “Femmy Emmy”. You can find more about about Emily at www.emilywright.org, or email her directly at emily.mary.wright@gmail.com.

Sam has been racing flatwater kayaks since age 9–up until that point, his athletic prospects were bleak. He joined a local soccer team at age 4, and quit weeks later, running off of the field to an adjoining playground. It was scarring for all involved. After earning his engineering degree from school this spring, he’ll be moving out to join forces with Fem and the rest of the National Team in Chula Vista. Read more about his life as a paddler at www.kayak2012.com, and make sure to get in touch at sritchie09@gmail.com.

We’ve been down in Satellite Beach, Florida for the past week for a 13-day training camp. This is the first time that we’ve been able to get on the water in January, and it feels fantastic! The weather has been really great (apparently cold by Florida standards, but not bad compared to D.C., where the Potomac is still frozen!). We added some pictures and video to the gallery, so you can check out where we are training.
There is a system of canals here that we paddle on—the longest one is about 6 kilometers in length. We can also go out on the Banana river which goes on for a really, really long time, so there are plenty of options. Debby Page has kindly let us stay at her home, and Taran Stucchio, a senior national team member with hefty culinary ambitions, has produced some really tasty meals for us. Debby’s home is right on one of the smaller canals and has a dock in her backyard, so it’s a perfect training location. Thanks Debby for giving us a place to stay!
We will be here for another five days, and then head back up to Princeton for our last semester, which starts on February 2nd. We have more dry land training and kayak erging planned, hopefully followed by some time out at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista in mid-March. Check back for details…