Mike Dawson: Creating NZ's canoe slalom 'buzz'

New Zealand will be chasing world championship canoe sprint medals when their pinnacle event for the year starts in the Czech Republic next week.

But across a couple of borders, there is also a hunt on for canoe medals of a different sort this European summer. Canoe slalom racing has its world cup final early next month in the Spanish Pyrenees, followed by the world championships in Pau, France.

And while Lisa Carrington's Olympic prowess has given the flatwater racing a high profile in recent years, the slalom version is starting to gain traction.

Put that down to the Olympic silver medal of Luuka Jones in Rio last year, and now add Mike Dawson's gold and bronze medals in World Cup events this season. There's a distinct buzz around the sport.

Dawson's is a remarkable story of an athlete whose love for what he does enables him to keep his chin up when times are tough.

It's also a reminder that sport is about more than big money, the glitz and the high life. The rewards are about personal achievement, and the enormous satisfaction to be derived from that.

The 30-year-old from Bay of Plenty competes in a sport which flies below the radar.

These athletes just go about their business with buckets of enthusiasm but have discovered recently there are monetary rewards, not enough to have them flying first class, but to enable them simply to fly.

The days of slogging 20 hours cooped up in the back of a van driving across Europe, breaking down on autobahns, trying to flag down rides with their kayaks on their backs, to get to the next event are behind Dawson and Jones.

There is $450,000 set aside for each of this and next year from High Performance Sport New Zealand. It covers a range of elements including seed money for the development programme towards Tokyo in 2020 and the 2024 Olympics. As the two figurehead athletes, they are looked after.

There's some fulltime support from high performance. They have both been based in Pau this year so they know the world championship venue well.

"We're staying in place which resemble where we'd stay in New Zealand. We're not having to compromise and we're really lucky to be able to do that," Dawson said.

If you don't know Dawson's name for his canoe slalom exploits you might recall he came up with the novel idea of a cookbook last year as he tried to raise money for his Rio Olympic campaign.

And if you don't remember that, you certainly won't know that while in Rio he went out into the city's favelas to hand out food parcels to residents.

"That was pretty cool," Dawson reflected. It also speaks to Dawson's character and is one reason why you should applaud any success that comes his way.

He has competed at the last two Olympics, finishing 15th in the K1 class in London five years ago and 10th at Rio.

Jones, similarly, has slogged away on the international circuit for years, and got her reward in Rio with silver, at her third Olympics. This year she's branched out into C1 racing, which is different in several respects, from the K1 variety.

Dawson became the first New Zealander to win a World Cup medal, taking gold in the extreme cross slalom at Prague - beating three good Czech mates in the final - and followed that with bronze in the next event in Germany. Good times, for sure.

Think BMX racing, or skier cross, in that a group of paddlers take off together, dropping down onto a course then battle elements and each other.

"You've got to have a physical presence on the water to be competitive in that discipline," Dawson said. It too is distinctly different from the standard slalom disciplines and he's happy for the variety, and more on that in a moment.

But a magnanimous Dawson was chuffed for Jones at Rio.

"It's what we do it for. Looking back I got to share with Luuka in her medal and it's one of the most special moments of my career to see all the hard work that went in.

"She's spent so much time working away, getting better to show she could stand on the podium and that was really inspiring for myself and lots of other Kiwis."

It's not hard to imagine the soaring spirits each of them felt at the Rio and Prague success. You slog away in a largely Eurocentric sport with few crumbs over the years. Now this.

"It was awesome," Dawson said of Prague. "It's easy to get disillusioned when you come from the bottom of the world in a sport that's Northern Hemisphere-based. It gives you a lot of self-belief and confidence.

"We've been at this a long time and we're getting older, but these results pave the way for the younger generation, so you have kids coming through who have the belief that they've got what it takes. That's a massive thing for me, seeing the young guys with that belief already."

Maintaining an upbeat outlook is "one of the biggest challenges a lot of Kiwi athletes must have," Dawson believes.

"Keeping it fresh when you're in Europe, a long way from home. While it's awesome to be over here, you don't want to get stale."

Which is one reason he's recently spent several weeks back home, enjoying a winter and recharging to be fresh and motivated for the worlds.

Dawson and Jones live close to each other in Pau and spend plenty of time together. They are "really good mates, there's a few Kiwis around and we're lucky to have that benter to keep it fun and healthy."

Put Dawson on water and he's happy. Right now he blends traditional slalom racing with adventure sport, diving into a gully high in mountain ranges around the world, where the risk is higher but the adrenalin is off the charts. You sense it's that type of activity which really spins his wheels.

"You've hit the nail on the head," he laughed.

"I love slalom because it is so precise and accurate. You get to go to the Olympics and race on the biggest stage and see if you've got what it takes.

"Extreme is full noise, a bit less precise, a run and gun thing. Then you have extreme adventure kayaking when you go to the middle of nowhere and see how far you can push your body.

"You're battling not just white water but the elements, things out of your control. The consequence of something going wrong out there is a lot higher. You need to have huge confidence in yourself.

"(So) two totally different things. I love the racing but also the freedom of the extreme side, where you're putting everything on the line."

So what about Tokyo, when Dawson will be 33? Is it on the radar, and how about the challengers?

Only one athlete can compete in Tokyo in the men's K1. Fast-risers like Alexandra's Finn Butcher and Callum Gilbert from BOP are set to press for Dawson's place. No respect for their elders, but Dawson loves the challenge.

"We are continually progressing, and have a wicked relationship with high performance sport.

"(Coach) Campbell Walsh is doing an amazing job developing us as athletes. There are so many young guys coming through that push you on and it gives you a lot of motivation to try and get better every day.

"It's pretty inspiring to be part of an evolution of the sport in New Zealand."

You could also say Dawson is himself a pretty inspiring figure for those up and comers to emulate.