DAVID FORD - OLYMPIC KAYAKER
Friday, February 04, 2011
Live Stream Interview with Sportscene
New Blog Post on my web site with the video footage from the Live Stream Interview with Sportscene Productions here in Australia.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Go along to Play along
Friday, January 21, 2011
Three weeks done, six to go.
The first three weeks of training here in Australia are in the log book and banked away. The weather has been very good for training and most sessions have seen no fewer than four past and current K1 World Champions on the course. This kind of fantastic technical training that comes with the Olympic course here coupled with the hard physical work makes for productive early season work. Something that I hope will pay dividends later in the season.
A big thanks to my Australian family the Buckleys, they have made me feel right at home as usual and settling into the routine of training has been very easy.
I am also happy to report that Kelly's recent surgery was a great success and she is already spinning on the bike. It is never a great option to have a surgery like this but the long term benefits will make this a great step forward.
As for me, I have been working extremely hard down here, trying to use this time to get in as much volume as possible before the hoards arrive in February. Attached is some video from the last session from this past week, I was a little tired from all of the volume but still having lots of fun out on the course.
One more week of heavy volume and then it will be time to switch gears with the arrival of the rest of the Canadian Team and the start of the race season.
As Kelly likes to say, bring it!
Don't forget to check out my blog on my new website, www.davidford.ca
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
New Year, New Sponsor, New Website...Same Old Australia!
Thursday, December 02, 2010
ON THE SLOPES
Kelly is finally back on snow and you wouldn't know watching her that she is still recovering from the knee injury that knocked her out of last winters Olympic Games. She is here working with CBC for the races and enjoying her first few days back on snow.
Today was bitter sweet as the joy of watching Kelly back in her world was tempered by the fact that today is the one year anniversary of my Mothers passing. I miss her every day but today is especially hard.
Back to the water on monday but for now it is a mental break and a visit to winter life.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
BACK TO BLOGGING
Right now the priority is fitness training to reinforce the base that I am going to need for the final push to London. The new year will once again be spent in Australia training and racing with the world's best. As has been the case for the past ten years this will be a great opportunity to build on the technique work and test the fitness against some of the fastest slalom paddlers from around the world.
More to come soon.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
BC Championships on the Rutherford Whitewater Park
The event went off without a hitch and marks a milestone for Canadian Paddling. Kelly Vanderbeek put together a short montage on the weekends events and can be viewed on youtube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Fo242trjSQ
The course can be best described as Bourg St. Maurice meets Bratislava and is a fun and challenging track. There is no doubt that whitewater sport in BC is moving into a new and exciting era.
See you on the river!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Next Stop Beijing
Kelly made a video montage from footage she shot while she was with me in Beijing. She did a great job and you can view it on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zAIeDVMXJI.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Final Olympic Selection
Still I was able to have solid runs and had a very consistent weekend. I was very impressed with the level of paddling displayed by the other Canadians, I did not expect that level of competition and I think it bodes well for the future of slalom in Canada. The days where I could arrive as I did this year without having done any race specific lactic work or really any speed work to speak of are long gone. The level has risen to the point where the Canadian National team trials are a formidable event that must be taken as seriously as any other major competition. This is a big step for our program.
Now it is time to buckle down and focus on getting into that ever important race shape, converting all of the technical work into a fit and fast racing mode. May will be spent working hard on strength, speed and the lactic system before heading back to Beijing at the end of the month for a technical camp. I am looking forward to sharpening the tip of the sword and seeing just how fast I can push the new model.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Pan Am Championships
Renowned Irish film maker Eoin R Speilberg produced a short video of me from our February training camp which you can find at this link. It will give you an idea of the difficulty here on the course in Charlotte.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7z0xQST8tA
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Racing
Our most recent camp in Charlotte North Carolina ended with an international competition with athletes from
I was happy with my competition considering our priority is still squarely set on training. The volume was quite intense with all of our paddling sessions for the two week period being out on the whitewater. The gym work also compounded the stress on our bodies and by the time the race came around we were dragging our feet a little bit.
I have been struggling with my first runs in the early races this year so I wanted to be sure that I was as precise as possible and attack the first run. I have been working very hard with my coach Han Bijnen to create a solid platform to race from and while it was a little mechanical I was happy that I was able to execute the model quite well. I finished the first run in first place, right where I need to be.
Second runs saw the wind pick up a little and the fatigue set in as well. Still I had a solid run with one mistake near the bottom, good enough to take first place, my first win of the season. You can check out video of my first run at the following link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1431817087735249090
Now it is a little time at home before heading to
Sunday, March 02, 2008
NEW BOATS
I have just received a new boat from Galasport and I am amazed at how identical the cut is. I measured it against my other new boat that arrived in November and most of the measurements are identical and those that are different are only out by 1mm. I am curious to get them both out on the water and see how they feel, it will be hard to decide which one to leave in
Monday, February 18, 2008
Home
Home again, for a night or two at least.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
World Series Race #1
2008 has started in earnest with the qualifier for the first World Series event in the bag. In the men’s kayak class 110 competitors started the race with no fewer than 5 past and present world champions and the reigning Olympic champion as well. It is by far the best World Series start line to date.
My day started with a solid run marred by one bad split section and a touch. I felt good during warm up despite the early 8:17 am start time but was not quite on my A game. Fabien Doerfler of
Second runs I was much more within myself and tried to go for controlled precision and had one of those effortless runs. There were a few places I probably should have pressed a little bit harder but I wanted to test the waters on my pacing model and stuck to my plan. I managed to move up to 7th place for the day and my time was good enough for one of the fastest on the day, in fact if you double my second run time it would have won the competition by over 1.5 seconds. Not a bad start.
Tomorrow is the semi final and the A and B final so it will be a full day of racing. I am curious to see how things will shake out.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Where is the sun?
While I must admit it is better for training, coming all this way for cloudy weather is not really the point. Still it is good to be training down here again with lots of really fast paddlers from all over the world. With the World Series starting here in only a couple of weeks it will be fun to get back into the competitive groove.
The course here which was used for the 2000 Olympic Games has been modified significantly taking advantage of the design features which allow for the obstacles to be moved quite easily. The course has significantly more texture in what I assume is an attempt to emulate the conditions in
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Race 1
Last night was race one of the double header and it was held under the lights. The spectators were treated to fires lit on the river bank and John Hastings rocking the PA, it was a great atmosphere.
The first run was tough for me, I had some trouble adjusting to the lighting and my depth perception was a little out of whack. My second run was much better and I was able to move into second place. It was a surprisingly international field with paddlers from
Today is race number two and I am looking forward to some natural lighting.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
All is well, its summer here!
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Car Accident
Our first day on the course went by fairly well with the time spent acclimatizing to the river and the conditions. With the course only being on from 12pm to 5pm, the time between sessions is not ideal.
The excitement of the day came after dinner when on the way home we were hit by a driver who didn’t see us, wrecking both cars and shaking up everyone involved. The Toyota Prius we were driving did not deploy the air bags which is a little bit scary but thankfully everyone is okay if quite sore. I was in the back seat and didn’t actually see it coming and was lucky to be leaning to the side so I did not hit my head, Jim was not so lucky and took a pretty solid nock. I am curious to see how my body feels in the morning.
Back in the USA
Today is the start of another two week camp here in
I will keep you posted and hopefully post a few pics as well.