Following on from the World Cups Series, the New Zealand Junior Team departed Europe and most of the seniors have gone to various locations in Europe to train.  Mike Dawson and Aaron Osborne chose Prague as their venue for 3 Weeks of solid training, during which, they were invited to compete at the Wave Festival 2009, in Ceske Budujovice. They spent their time early in the week coaching young juniors from France, Czech Republic, Belgium and Germany.

Coaching was rather interesting with the Kiwis only knowing the basics of each language, therefore hand signals proved to be the best way of communication.

"Well, we were in the Wave Festival for the first two days, helping out as coaches for the young juniors. We had a wicked time chilling out, coaching and paddling on a new course."

There was a short trip in between training to pick up Brent Bastin (NZ C1 paddler) from Vienna, then straight back for the race. Large numbers at this race meant the organisers let the top 40 go through to the semi finals. All the team qualified easily. "In usual Wave style they set a rather tight and challenging course for both days of racing. Saturday was pretty easy with the top 40 going through".

In the final, both paddlers pushed too hard at the top of the course losing valuable time and picking up a 2 second penalty.  "Sunday only top 10 went to finals so semis were the critical part. I had a pretty solid run nothing fancy, and was down in 8th place. It was a good final, I had a pretty good bottom section but had a shocker gate 1, 2, 3 and hit gate 2. Not a good start. But was pleased with my run to get back online and finish it. I finished 7th, Mike 6th," said Aaron Osborne. 

For video of race - click here