Canoeists enjoying final training

Press, 26 July 1984, Page 20

Canoeists enjoying final training

NZPA staff correspondent Los Angeles It is a toss up who has the best training facilities — the canoeists or yachtsman. The yacht team is down by the sea at Long Beach — home of the Queen Mary and Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose” plane. It is beachside, sun and clear water, holiday apartments, resortland. The canoeists are holed up in a motorway motel at the turn-off to the Magic mountain fun-park, home of a huge and frightening roller-coaster ride. Being in a motorway motel doesn’t sound much but it is just over an hour east of Los Angeles, has two pleasantly placed swimming pools, while the team rooms look out onto grass and trees as far as possible away from the motorway. But its the nearby lake they are using for training which is the big plus. After the smog and hassle of Los Angeles, Lake Castaic, a recreational water area created at the bottom of a spillover channel from a dam, is heaven. In the warm evening the sun glistens across the water bouncing of scantily clad sailboard riders and yachties. The barren hills are highlighted by the blue sky — the wintry depths of New Zealand, let alone the Sressures of the upcoming lympic competition, seem a distant dream. “You will stress that we are having a hard time,” grinned the New Zealand canoe team manager, Mr Bill Garlick as he watched his team of six slicing their canoes through the water. Almost out of sight, the coach Ben Hutchings, an orange buoy tied to his

body, had gone off for a long distance swim across the lake. “Its just superb,” says Garlick. The feeling is more of a holiday camp than preparation for the highlight of four years effort. But despite the girls rushing the well-built canoeists for them to autograph tshirts, the atmosphere is determined. The canoeists arrive at the lake for the second training session of the day and its quickly, or as quick as attention will allow, out on the water for arduous training up and down the 1000 m course they have set up. Mr Garlick said the team got to train at Castaic through a local travel agent,

Jack Kirkwood, who had taken a keen interest in antipodeans and sportsmen after attending the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Mr Kirkwood found them the motel, the lake, and has also arranged a secluded house for them to rent, set in the middle of a 40 hectare citrus orchard about 10 minutes away by car from . Lake Castaic when the competition starts on August 6. “I just trusted the guy and he came up trumps,” said Garlick. The rowers also decided to keep away from any official Olympic village as they prepared for racing. They are at a motel a couple of minutes from the beach, and about 20 minutes from the lake, at Ventura.