HAPPY CAMPERS: The Hawke's Bay Canoe Club members with their 15-medal and four-trophy haul. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
SO you love canoe polo but after years of thrashing about in pools with paddles you suddenly feel like a gold fish that has outgrown its bowl.
Then fret no more because whitewater kayaking enthusiasts are itching to prolong your aquatic pleasures.
"More people should be involved in it [slalom] in Hawke's Bay, which is big in canoe polo," says Casey Hales after eight Bay paddlers returned with 15 medals from the NZ Secondary Schools Nationals and Open New Zealand Nationals at the Hawea and Tekapo Rivers in the South Island.
Hales, who claimed five golds and two silvers, says her fellow Hawke's Bay Canoe Club and Colenso Paddlers had collectively hauled nine gold and six silver medals as well as four trophies in the fortnight of competitions.
"Slalom is not that well advertised here," says the 15-year-old from Napier whose father Warren Hales is the vice-president of the Bay club.
Guy Arnold is the club coach and Tom Kay, a Bay man studying in Palmerston North, help with coaching as well during the holidays.
That Casey Hales, a year 11 pupil, only got into slalom a year ago, after kayaking for three years, and has stamped her supremacy even catches her by surprise.
Lewis Hall, a fellow Taradale High School year 12 pupil, didn't win any any medals or trophies but is relishing a No 10 ranking in the country for under-18s in the K1 men's event.
"I've only been doing slalom for two months so to get 10th in New Zealand, I'm really stoked," says the 16-year-old who started with canoe polo at Taradale Primary School when he was 10.
"I'm over canoe polo now and into something more competitive, interesting and helps build technique.
"White-water kayaking is more exciting than splashing about in a pool. There are a lot more risks so it gets the adrenalin going," says Hall who found himself paddling with "casual kayaker" and father David Hall "most of my life so I thought I'd do something with it".
Like Hales, he harbours dreams of making the 2020 Tokyo Olympics or the 2024 one which is still under bidding for hosting rights.
"I'll have to put in a lot of hard yards to get to the Olympic standards," he says, finding Luuka Jones' and Mike Dawson's reselection to the Rio Olympics in August an inspiration.
Jones, 27, was New Zealand's first female canoe slalom Olympian in Beijing while 29-year-old Dawson was the third Kiwi male after Donald Johnstone (1992) and Owen Hughes (1996).
Hales echoes similar sentiments, says that'll entail more trips away.
Her immediate goal is to make the cut for the Junior World Championship in Slovenia next year.
She won golds in the down river (DR) classic race over 2.2km, DR classic sprint (400m), K1 (kayak single, two blades) U16 on a complete course on fastest time.
The remaining golds came in C1 (canoe singles, kneel and one-blade paddle) in a team of three and C2 (canoe doubles, kneel, one-blade paddle).
Her silvers came in the K1 team of Taradale High under-18s with Jamie Wilson and Kaya Shlomi and in the NZ Open Nationals in the U16 K1 event in Tekapo.
Her haul opens up avenues for quality coaching and competition at the national and international levels.
"It's pretty exciting because one of my goals is to get into the New Zealand Development team," she says, hoping her name will be in the list come June.
The teenager who got into kayaking three years ago is under no illusions she has to work extremely hard in training and increase her volume of trips away to start realising incremental gains especially when performances start to plateau.
Hall impresses the need to do different and challenging rivers around the country because although the Mohaka is exciting it doesn't have training gates.
The closest rivers to training gates are in Rotorua, Taupo and Shannon.
Coach Hales says the group of eight paddlers from four different secondary schools (THS four, Hastings Boys' High two and one each from Hastings Girls' High and Napier Boys' High) had been preparing for the championships for a year and wanted to show the Bay was ready to re-enter the competitive field of whitewater slalom in the country.
The road trip to Hawea and Tekapo Rivers in Central Otago and McKenzie country alone took two and half days.
"We then had two lots of two-day training sessions and three-day competitions before jumping on the road to return home again so it was on the go from 6am to 10pm almost every day and even longer on some days."
While it was a development trip for most with next year in mind, Warren says, the paddlers had excelled at many levels.
Firstly, the other regions were excited to see the Bay paddlers return after several years in exile so it was humbling.
Secondly, it was satisfying to see the skills of the Bay paddlers grow and reinforce their self-belief in their ability.
Thirdly, their medal and trophy haul instilled a sense of pride heading to next year's championships to be staged in the North Island.
Warren says the club is indebted to pub charities Endeavour Community Foundation, First Light Community Foundation, Infinity Foundation, Lion Foundation, Four Winds Foundation and the Southern Trust for helping the code in their quest for success.