Posted July 28, 2012
Brad Buchanan, 41, of Blacksburg surfs in New River whitewater at McCoy Falls near the Montgomery/Giles County line. Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times
The 2012 Summer Olympics kick off today in London.
Thousands of athletes from across the world will test their skills in sports such as diving, wrestling, track and field, volleyball and even badminton.
We turned to local athletes who specialize in these sports, asking them for tips and what to look for during the epic event.
CANOE SLALOM [Kayaking]
DESCRIPTION: Competitions consist of timed runs down a white water course with up to 25 gates. Red gates must be negotiated upstream, while green gates must be negotiated downstream. There are events for both canoes and kayaks. In canoe single (C1, for one person) and canoe double (C2, for two people) events, competitors kneel and use single-bladed paddles; in the Kayak event (K1), competitors sit and use paddles with blades at both ends.
HISTORY: Canoe Slalom made its debut at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games, but didn?t become a permanent part of the Olympic programme until Barcelona 1992.
COMPETITION DATES: Sunday-Aug. 2
LOCAL ATHLETE: Brad Buchanan, 41, Radford University outdoor recreation graduate and Montgomery County Parks Outdoor Education Supervisor
EXPERIENCE: Buchanan started kayaking in college and is an avid whitewater kayaker. He?s been teaching kayaking locally for 20 years.
Q: What do you like about the sport?
A: I like the aspect of the water moving under the boat and the freedom that a kayak gives you as far as maneuvering and getting out in nature and experiencing whitewater and the waves.
Q: What advice would you give to the Olympic kayak athletes?
A: Advise? Ha Ha..at that level they are pretty skilled in what they are doing?but with our local competition down here, it?s relax and do your own thing. Try and have fun and mellow out. I?ve noticed with whitewater kayaking and freestyle that if you get too amped up, it really throws you off. Having the ability to relax when you?re trying to do a maneuver or something like that really lets the boat flow allot easier.
Q: What should the average viewer be looking for while watching the sport on television?
A: In the slalom they will actually be competing in C-1 Canoes, it looks like a kayak, being a low volume stern, and the racy pointy ends, but they are actually kneeling down in the boat, they?re legs aren?t forward and they have a canoe paddle. But as far as the slalom goes, where they are going to make allot of their time up is when they are doing their turns into the gates. A certain maneuver racers use is called stern squirts, it?s when they take their upstream hip and drop the stern of their boat into the water and get the boat to pivot on an axis. The maneuver accelerates them through a turn.
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Related posts:
- The Burgs Olympics series: Sailing
- The Burgs Summer Olympics series: Swimming
- The Burgs Summer Olympics series: Gymnastics
- The Burgs Summer Olympics series: Cycling
- The Burgs Summer Olympics Series: Equestrian
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Source: http://blogs.roanoke.com/theburgs/sports/2012/07/28/the-burgs-olympics-series-kayaking/
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