NIKOLA GIRKE - Sailing

Hello 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 peek 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...!!! 

Results can be found at: http://www.perth2011.com/competition/PIR2010/SAX102000/results

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 hours I need to train on the water!

Nikola