It’s a lively time for 8Adventures and this week we are proudly hosting the Thai National Slalom Kayaking team at our basecamp. The group of 8 highly talented teenagers have come to train on the Mae Taeng river under the supervision of their head coach Nico Noel: “The support of 8Adventures is really important to the success of our team. Their enthusiasm combined with the food and accommodation they’re providing has been fantastic”. For the young athletes, finding locations to train in their home country can be difficult, as 17 year old Gai explains “Slalom kayaking isn’t very well supported here, there are no artificial courses or good places to train. At a competition in England, I saw the training centre for kayakers in London- it was amazing!”. The Mae Taeng Valley is one of the few suitable places in Thailand, as it benefits from good road access.
The team are training in the river twice a day and also exercising by running through the jungle. “We’re training hard” says coach Nico “the team has to compete with China in the Asian qualifiers. We need to best at our very best”. For team member Dream, from Chiang Mai, this is a big opportunity “I love Mae Taeng, it’s really beautiful and I hope someone in my group will make it to the Olympics one day”
