Summer Novel Part Two Two days after returning home from California, the boats that had been so carefully stacked on the tipsy trailer were now heaped in a pile in Denver International Airport. Mount Kayak stood in the middle of the British Airway's check-in line. Ten boats formed a new peak in Colorado as the British Airway employees argued that those boats would not be going to Europe on a plane. Oh but they will the team argued back. After a time of litigating the boats were on the plane, but a disgruntled British Airway's employee sent out a notice that all boats under the Front Range Paddling Association would not be allowed on any more British Airways flights. The Junior World Championships were to take place on the Ziller River in Mayerhoffen, Austria. The team stayed in a farm house at the base of one of the more pristine valleys in the Alps along with the Slovenian Canoe and Kayak Team. The team had two weeks to get to know the river, a river much easier than anything they faced on the Kern in California. In California the team had spent much of their time training, but had made time to take a side trips to Disney Land, ocean kayak surfing in Malibu and on the way back from California they went to Las Vegas. As a break from training Chris took the team to Venice, Italy for a day. The anxiety for the race was softened by this side trip, but not for long. The days of the World Championships races were filled with nerves for many of the athletes. Perrin was nervous, but not as nervous as Tom was. Tom had taken dead last in C2 (two man canoe) the year before. This year he was paddling a C1 and no one but himself, Chris, and the team came to the race having any expectations for him. Perrin noticed that other teams were noticing him though. During practice runs other teams would notice that he was not the inexperienced paddler he had been the year before. The world was beginning recognize, this was not a person to take for granted. On the day of the sprint race, Perrin stood on the path next to the race course and watched as many boats flew down the river. A German boat sailed past and as she turned to walk down to the finish bridge she was nearly hit by the German coach on a bike. He was barreling down the path next to him yelling, 'HUP! HUP! HUP!' Perrin had to wonder if that really helped. She made it to the finish bridge. Kal told her that after Tom there were nine more racers. "Look, here he comes." Sure enough Tom's blue squatter was flowing down the course. He looked determined yet calm, something Perrin had not yet managed. He crossed the finish line. Kal, Lisa, and Perrin all looked at each other. Tom's time was the fastest so far. No matter what he was going to get a top ten time! He did, he got tenth in the world, something that no country, was expecting. He finished tenth in the world, the highest any American Single Canoe has ever placed at Junior World Championships. The world was watching and they could not believe it. Kal and Perrin were cheering when the realization that Lisa had disappeared hit them. "Where'd she go?" Perrin asked. "Dunno." Kal said. Just then Chris walked up. "I think there is another racer coming down." "But the races are done Chris." Kal said. "Just watch." A few minutes later the blue Squatter came tumbling down the course. The paddler in the boat had long blond hair flowing from under her helmet. It was Lisa. In International racing women are not allowed to compete in canoe, only in kayak. Lisa, wanting to participate in international racing, had hung up her canoe paddle and taken up kayaking right before the team went to California. She now had finished as the top American Junior at the World Championships but decided she needed to do one more run. The International Canoe Federation, the ICF, were the ones who were barring women from competing in canoe. They were standing just beyond the finish bridge. Lisa and Chris had decided that this was a perfect time to make a statement. Perrin could see in the first lengths of the 1500 meter stretch of course, Lisa was having some trouble. Perrin knew that downriver boats were more unstable than slalom boats. She also knew that downriver canoes are way more unstable than downriver kayaks. The waves had been no problem for Lisa in a kayak, they were small compared to the Kern, but now, they no doubt became huge and boat crushing. Perrin watched it seemed that Lisa's boat was a piece of driftwood and Lisa a rag doll atop of it. Perrin and the group watched. Lisa's eleven years of canoeing experience seemed to be coming back to her though. Reach; pull, whoa, a little bit of a brace. Reach, pull, reach, pull, it was all coming back to her. The bridge was approaching; the ICF men were just beyond that. The team stood on the bridge. "Is that a girl in a canoe coming down the course?" They cried so the ICF men could hear. The ICF men turned, they saw Lisa's flowing blond hair was making its way down the course in a canoe, she slid past them into the take out. Perrin watched as Lisa shouldered Tom's boat and made her way up the embankment and started past the ICF men. One came out to her. "Next time you paddle, pretend your kayak paddle is a canoe paddle, pull like you just did, and you will be twice as fast." back to Summer Novel 2003