3.05.2012
Letter from Oz: Australia 2012
I know, it’s late. In my mind written and addressed to all of you already some time ago, it arrived in my virtual online mailbox just now. After all, the way from the coast of the South Pacific to the banks of Soca river by any means isn’t short.
I never went to train so far from home. In fact, for a kid from Most na Soci Land Down Under is so far, that you can’t get any further away before you already start going back home.
My teammate Lovro Leban and I started this 16,000 kilometers long journey in winter, to come back in spring faster on that only one, 1000 meters long kilometer, to which we devote so much attention and time every day. Thousand is also the number of all beautiful memories and impressions that I have boarded on my return flight to Venice along with my luggage and I had no less expectations when we flew from there towards the for many promised land two months earlier.
Australia and its people justified many of those. Despite the fact that I was only staying in relatively small towns of Maroochydore and Mooloolaba over the entire time of the visit and never left the area of Sunshine Coast and the state of Queensland, exceptional things weren’t hard to find. I’m well aware that fascinating people can be found in every corner of our planet, but the fact is that I’ve been meeting them in Australia a lot more frequently than I do at home. Their relaxed approach, friendliness, calm and generally positive attitude are the qualities that stood out the most in daily contacts with the locals. Another great thing about Australia is the weather. As I saw it, it has a significant impact on their way of life. In a town with long and very hot summers, spending free time in the nature seems as the most logical choice. Full picnic spots in city parks, numerous beaches, where people are sunbathing, strolling along the coastline or swimming in the ocean, and many walking and biking trails are, as I experienced, the most popular areas.
Despite all the little differences from the European lifestlye to the one in Australia, there was at least one thing that was surely equal to things back home: hard training. We did a lot of it in two months, certainly more that if we stood home and travelled to a shorter camp to Croatia. Even though I sometimes missed some professional advice from my German coach, working in the new environment, with new people and quality Italian athletes has been both refreshing and beneficial . Throughout the preparation period, Iwas focusing more on becaming “fit” and not that much faster, as the time for that came after our arrival home. We didn’t complicate the formula for progress: big amount of paddling kilometers with long endurance training sessions, some specific power in the boat and pumping iron in the gym, lots of running and for me particulary hard training in the pool, all of that in the beautiful summer weather with a group of kayakers where at least one is surely better in each of the above mentioned sessions.
I am grateful to everyone who made this training camp possible: Kayak Federation of Slovenia and Slovenian Olympic Committee for financing it, Andrej Jelenc for the organisation, Josef Capousek for the warm welcome and generous help, Maximilian Benassi for all the lessons on the water, all the other boys for a good company in practice and in spare time. I wouldn’t want to forget Sunshine Coast Kayak Club and their head coach, who kindly helped out when we needed something despite, as it turned out, our unannounced visit. Truth is, the upcoming races will show if the decision to go in Australia was the right one, but I already feel we walked on the best possible path.
He proved his progress at this year’s U23 Europeans (finished 7th in the 1000m event) and is as a really hard working guy, more than welcome on our lake.
