Start of camp: trials, water effort and a tip and slip

Trials
The mens side got back on camp and pulled trials on the 5th. Tradition has usually stated in the past that you are not allowed to row a boat on camp until you have completed a trial.
This was the second trial for the men since the start of training at the end of May and results were not good in comparison. Times were not better with the second trial, in some cases, being up to 30secs off their previous effort.

Rowing Effort
Doing a lot of water time down at settlers. We're averaging 14km easy per session. Its not a straight dam so the corners are the only worry at the moment- we're having to stop once or twive during each staright of the dam. One straight of the dam is about 3km and we're doing that 4 times per session.

It was interesting to note in the video above of Tristans race off with a schoolgirl sculler. His list of excuses for being rowed through included:
-the settings on his scull were wrong
-she was rating one or two pips higher than he was
-she had the inside line
-boatrace is a sweep oar event, not a sculling event.

Tip and slip
Manon, Jess and Jax were here a bit early for their camp and so had a session in the pair.
Jess expains in the vidoe how Jax and Manon managed to tip the pair.
The humbling part though is while I'm there jesting at the girls when they come in, I stand and take a few steps back and slip through the docking boards- have a watch:

All and all its pretty kiff training at the moment. Here's a video showing just how good it is training in Africa. Last few sessions haven't been as nice though with quite a bit of wind making training hard.