Click on photo to check out the 2004 Pre-Worlds photogallery

The Penrith Whitewater Stadium is a totally unique experience. Each day we walk two minutes from our house to take our practice rides on the whitewater treadmill. While the drive is short it is extremely hot, and we are happy our house has a nice pool. Each morning we wake up, eat Crunchy Nut cereal (my favorite), stuff ourselves into the family van (a huge station wagon with 3 rows of seats), and head off to the course. In the family van we smear each other with sunscreen, which usually ends up not working.

Once we arrive at the Course we unlock our boats and gear from the constructed racks. We gear up and jump in at the bottom of the course in a small, turbulent pond sort of thing. After a short warm up, I paddle to the conveyor belt, and it shuttles me to the top of the course. I usually take advantage of the conveyor belt by doing a couple of stretches that require a lot of balance when done in the water, but not so much on a stable conveyer belt.

After the belt I paddle over the first small drop, usually slamming into the plastic pylons that create each feature. Then I turn around to try and surf the next wave, which I usually miss because I am not dead center of the small pile. Next, I pull into the eddy above the main wave, where most of the paddlers usually are. I wait until someone allows me to paddle through the wave, then I surf a little hole about 25 yards behind the main wave until I flip or flush. I usually become temporarily pinned on the pylons below this hole. The pins are sort of unavoidable from the small hole. I then proceed on for about 25 yards until I reach Jak's. Jak's is a sweet little hole perfect for cartwheeling, and learning any move. Twenty feet downstream from Jak's is a little pourover that the commercial rafts always purposely stick in, and if you're lucky, you can catch one flipping. Fryer is next. I call it my wave because I am usually the only person on it. This is where the junior girl's competition is, for reasons I do not know.

Fryer is fast and extremely shallow. I have scraped my knuckle, both of my elbows, my head, and my shoulder. You can tell who has been spending time at Fryer because they will have a scratch and a bruise on their right shoulder in the exact same place. All of us junior girls have scratched nearly all of the paint off of the back right side of our helmets. About four feet after the green part of the wave is a big cement slab. It is connected to the bottom of the course, and it helps shape the wave, somehow.

After a couple of rides on Fryer, or until I am fed up with it, I will boof the last drop, and usually slam into the wall. The wall is a bunch of river rock in bundles, held together by chicken wire type stuff. Then, after that drop, I head to the conveyor belt to do it all over again. The course has a sidewalk along the outside and inside of it, and you can walk the whole thing in five minutes. The water is pulled from a man made lake that is nearby. Tiff and I think that the water is pulled from the Nepean river into the lake, and then into the course. At night, and when commercial raft trips are not scheduled, the water is turned off, and the course goes dry. I have not yet seen this. The whole thing is basically a huge tourist attraction, and somewhat like an amusement park, complete with the whitewater terrace cafe when you walk in. There are showers, a resturant, everything you would need for a fun filled day, and it is sort of in the middle of nowhere. It is an extremely different type of paddling experience, but it is great.

Peace out,
Ali "Danger" Wade
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Update: January 18, 2004

I am finally starting to figure out the wave here in the Penrith Whitewater Stadium. Having fun has a lot to do with a good performance. I can consistently spin and clean spin now, which is a huge accomplishment since my first couple of training days. I am also learning how to blunt.

Yesterday, we went to Manly beach. It was soooooo cool. The girls and I shopped in the morning. Lots of surf shops - Billabong, Rusty, and tons of surfer clothes. After lunch, we went to the beach, and I took a kayak into the surf. It was my first time doing this, and it was awesome. The waves were perfect and seem really big. Paddling back out after a ride was the hardest part, the waves would break on or in front of you and pound you, or the foam would pick you up, carrying you past where you began. It sort of seemed helpless a couple of times, like I wouldn't move for several minutes, but once you got back out, it was all worth it.

The surfers were rude as they constantly cursed and yelled at us. I think they are sore, because with our paddles we catch nearly every wave. One of the waves I caught felt like it was at least 100 feet tall, and I was pumped until one of the Canadians said it was probably only 7 feet max. It was awesome though, and I would definetly love to do it again. We are going to paddle at the course again today, and I WILL GET A BLUNT!!!!! If it is the last thing I do.

We are going to invite the Uganda national team over for a barbie, you know, a barbecue. They are soooooo dark black, it is awesome. They have never been outside of their village in Uganda, and they learned to kayak on the White Nile. I thought I had a culture shock! They had never seen an elevator or an escalator, and then they came here, and got to ride on one in their kayaks. So, that should be fun. I think this is the first trip that I have ever gone on alone, without family or friends that I haven't been homesick. But I do still miss and love you Mom and Dad, don't you worry. I am having a blast, and I never want to return to school, this place is awesome, and so are the people that I am surrounded by. Also, I am happy to inform you all that there were no shark related casualties at the beach yesterday, thank God. Well, I am going to eat breakie now, so I will write again soon.

Peace out,
Ali "Danger" Wade
Brought to you by Huge Experiences

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