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The Superman Clan got back home from Oklahoma City yesterday. They were there so Superman Jr. could paddle in the national kayak championship, slalom competition. We're real proud of him, he's our "son." Here he's showing Unit the photos that I took photos of.
He's been training super hard on the Ocoee River and at home. I'm home all day and I see him. What's he doing? He's running around the block 5 more times when it's 93 degrees outside. Again. With a fancy George Jetson watch that sends his cardio data to his coach a few hundred miles away. I get tired watching it all from across the street.
The championships were held at a manmade facility and the course is way some kind of calculated hard. Here's the course as they are turning the water on. There are a bunch of drops and lots of crazy eddies going on when it's running.
Part of the game is to get your head into it beforehand. I told SM Jr. he looks mad in this photo and he said no, he was thinking.
We watched some of the feeds from the competition on the computer. He did some really cool looking stuff getting through the gates. As long as your head goes through the gate and nothing hits the gate, it's scored a clean gate. Touching either of the gate poles with your head or body or paddle or boat is a 2 second penalty. Missing the gate entirely is a 50 second penalty (statistical death). You have to go through some gates downstream and some gates upstream, as indicated by red and green stripes on the poles.
Typically kayak racers peak at around 25 years old. SM Jr. is 15 and he finished 11th overall in the national slalom championships. We happen to think that's impressive and amazing. Way to go young man!
He's been training super hard on the Ocoee River and at home. I'm home all day and I see him. What's he doing? He's running around the block 5 more times when it's 93 degrees outside. Again. With a fancy George Jetson watch that sends his cardio data to his coach a few hundred miles away. I get tired watching it all from across the street.
The championships were held at a manmade facility and the course is way some kind of calculated hard. Here's the course as they are turning the water on. There are a bunch of drops and lots of crazy eddies going on when it's running.
Part of the game is to get your head into it beforehand. I told SM Jr. he looks mad in this photo and he said no, he was thinking.
We watched some of the feeds from the competition on the computer. He did some really cool looking stuff getting through the gates. As long as your head goes through the gate and nothing hits the gate, it's scored a clean gate. Touching either of the gate poles with your head or body or paddle or boat is a 2 second penalty. Missing the gate entirely is a 50 second penalty (statistical death). You have to go through some gates downstream and some gates upstream, as indicated by red and green stripes on the poles.
Typically kayak racers peak at around 25 years old. SM Jr. is 15 and he finished 11th overall in the national slalom championships. We happen to think that's impressive and amazing. Way to go young man!
Wow!!
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