The Road to 2012

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

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!

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:

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…

I’m just getting back from a wonderful training camp up at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, attended by some of the nation’s finest paddlers and hosted by Scotty Greifenberger, a member of the USA Canoe Kayak Board. Nathan Luce, the national team coach, announced this camp just a few weeks ago, while Dave and I were out in Chula Vista; we would be cross country skiing, he said, some of the BEST cross training available to us water-locked kayakers. Having heard stories for years about the prestigious XC skiing camps hosted by some of the best kayaking countries in the world–Poland, Hungary, Germany–I decided that, even though I knew nothing about the sport, it was time to learn.

Dave and I, along with Maia Farrar-Wellman, arrived up in Placid on New Year’s Day, after a 10 hour drive, and settled down into our rooms. I stayed with Taran Stucchio, an exceptionally tall kayaker from New York, while Dave bunked down with Tim Hornsby. First skiing session was the next morning. We enjoyed the snow, drank hot chocolate, and crashed early, excited for the camp ahead. In the AM, Scotty drove us out to the old Olympic XC course, helped coordinate our rentals, and let us loose under the care of Caitlyn McElroy, and Emily Wright, both Xtreme XC studs.

It became clear almost immediately that skiing was incredibly hard. All 6 of us inexperienced athletes had dressed quite warmly, and within minutes were shedding articles of clothing; stashing extra shirts in the woods, tying jackets around waists, sweating profusely all the while. Terrible. My heart rate crashed up through 170 and stayed there for a solid hour. The workout felt great, though technically it was quite awful, and I grew even more excited for the camp. That night, of course, we all slumped down at around 8pm, much more tired than we had expected to be, and sore in the strangest places (or so Taran claimed?)

Other notable training camp moments:

• Watching the bobsleds tear up the course on their qualifying races, very cool
• Getting up on the OTC Record Board, 1st in the Weighted Pullup category (and realizing that to get a squat record on the board, I would have to triple my current number …)
• My exceptional crash, which the fantastic Emily Wright blogged about here…

The camp was pretty brutal, though very satisfying–we’re all really hoping that the coaches extend this one to three weeks for the upcoming Winter of 2010. Our skills DID improve, mostly due to embarrassment after being goaded by our 14 year old pal Bug Lokken on the slalom team (shown below in all his pubescent glory).

Oh, I forgot. The TRUE highlight of the trip came during a visit to Starbucks. Imagine, Dave, Tim, Emily and myself sitting by the fire, warming our hands, waiting for our drinks. Dave’s is the first to arrive. The barista calls out: “Venti Mocha Double Raspberry Frappucino!!” See below for a little vid of what happened next.

It’s true. This post is shamefully, awfully late. We’ve added a few updates to the gallery and tweaked the look of the site here and there, but any sort of updates on our Road to 2012 have been absent. I’m writing this from work at DEKA Research and Development up in Manchester, New Hampshire (more on this later) where I’m living and training for the summer. Dave is back in Washington, DC working for Boeing. Neither of us can talk about what we’re doing, as we’re operating under NDAs or Secret clearances… pretty cool, though not as exciting as it should be.

So much to talk about! For now, I’ll start with a quick list of the events in our lives, both academic and athletic, since the last post.

• Triathlon! I attended the Lone Star Half-Ironman in Galveston, TX and the Endurasport Olympic Triathlon in Pomona, NY, and won both (for the 20-24 age class). I’m still gearing up for the full-length Ironman at the end of August, so, more on that to come.

• Olympic Trials! Dave traveled out to Oklahoma City this past April to race for a spot on the US Olympic Team. He ended up with some impressive results, finishing 6th in the finals. Unfortunately it takes a win to go to the Games, so we’re going to have to hold off until 2012 to make our statement.

• The school year’s over, along with the brunt of our work for our Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering degrees. Next year should be much simpler on the brainy side of life, giving us plenty of time to focus on the brawn. The US Men’s team has been fantastic in 2008–we’re going to need the brawn.

• We’ve decided on a senior project in the engineering department. For those of you who haven’t seen this already, go over and check out the Flyak;Einar Rasmussen has been working on this hydrofoiled modification to the K1 for years, and it looks like it’s about to go into production. David and I are going to take this concept and apply it to the K2. It’s a slightly tougher problem, as we won’t have a paddler sitting at the rotational center of the boat (important for pitching the front foil up out of the water and alleviating some of the hull drag, allowing the boat to speed up for “lift-off”. We’ve got a few ideas for overcoming this, including generating bubbles from the leading edge of the hydrofoil to keep the kinematic viscosity low until take-off–props to Mike Harbold, 3x Olympian and former WCC coach for this insight.

• I’m learning the Blues Harmonica, mostly on my own but with some help from Adam Gussow over at YouTube. One of the unfortunate truths of full-time training is the overwhelming boredom that sets in once the initial excitement of it all wears off. I’ll always be the kid with the odd hobbies, but composing the 2012 Blues might just make up for all that. (Other obsessions in my life–I’m learning to ride motorcycles this August, I’m playing Jazz guitar again, and I’m finally, finally learning to cook.)

• David and I will be making an appearance at the Lake Placid Invitational on the weekend of July 5th. Come out and support the dream!

Back to work. Thanks for reading, everyone, if you’re still checking up on this. David will add his voice again shortly. One fun little addition to the site we’re expecting to begin shortly–video posts from our respective locations, via YouTube.

PRE-TED CONFERENCE

I’m sitting here on a Sunday afternoon with clothes strewn around my room, trying to figure out what to pack for the mind-blowing week ahead of me. Through a wild stretch of luck this past year, I managed to get myself invited to the TED Conference in gorgeous Monterey, CA as the assistant photographer. For those of you who don’t know TED, take a look at Thomas Dolby’s fantastic description of the conference. I’ve been going to this thing since 2005, but this will be my first year as a volunteer and should get me backstage and talking to a lot of the big speakers.

Though next week is a rest week in the program, I can’t wait to get out on the California coast on my triathlon bike. No, let me boil it down a little further–I can’t wait to get on my bike without donning four pounds of warm clothes that don’t really do too much to fight the bitter, bitter cold of this blasted land. More on TED: From a mental perspective, this is one of the only weeks of the year where my mind is boggled on an hourly basis. It’s really quite exhausting, but I come away better every year, open to possibilities and with more connections (and TED freebies) than I could imagine. I’m showing up at TED this year armed with my kayak2012 business card:

a nice little something that I’m hoping will garner interest in our goal. Really, be sure to take a look at that link up above and get a feel for what TED is all about. The talks on their website can change your life, and they’re all free for download! Post comments here on the blog about what you find

LONG-TERM TRAINING PLANS

In other news, David and I sat down today to discuss our long-term plans for these Olympic dreams we’ve been so bold about sharing with all of you. It’s becoming clear that to really reach our full potential, we need to throw all of our effort into this one boat and push for the K2 spot on the Olympic team with all of the will-power at our command. That’s going to mean plenty of sacrifice, but it’s also going to mean that we need to be fairly fierce about working our way into the best K2 training groups on earth. We’ll be starting out with the US team in Chula Vista after we graduate, something we’re both very excited about. From there, if all goes well, we’ll pull our way up to the next rung of ability and begin the slow, painful climb up towards the upper reaches where the giants roam.

To start down this road while still at school, we’re going to need to raise some serious funds and work with either Princeton or our local Canoe Club, the WCC, to purchase two kayak ergometers so that we can continue our kayak specific work during the winter season. We want to thank everyone who’s donated so far–you can track our progress towards these two ergs with the ChipIn widget over to the left in the sidebar. We’re almost a third of the way there! Seriously, all of the guestbook posts and personal messages we’ve gotten have been really inspiring.