Kayaking legend and world number one, Ji Prskavec, visited Penrith Whitewater Stadium recently to give some of the local aspiraring slalom kayaking juniors a few pointers.
The local kids were training for the The Sydney international Whitewater festival to be held at the venue on February 21-23.
If they do well they have a chance of making the Australian Junior team which will compete in Tacen, Slovenia, not too far from Prskavec's home in the Czech Republic.
Prskavec himself is in Australia's warmer climate training for this year's Olympic Games in Tokyo.
He has been in the country for a few months now and kindly took the time to share some of his skills with Australia's own junior and under 23 paddlers while his wife and baby son, Ji junior, watched from the bank.
The athletes who were coached by Prskavec have all progressed through the purple, blue, green and yellow levels that the local club has to offer. Hopefully they can continue to have fun as well as making the national teams.
Prskavec paddles with a lot of speed and intent and is able to put his boat almost exactly where he wants on the white water. Explaining how to feel the water beneath the boat and use that to the paddlers advantage was difficult but he gave it his best shot.
Prskavec suggested that Callan Grady use a wider angle into the upstream gates, which would allow him a smaller turning angle and possibly give him more time to accelerate his boat.
He also advised Jackson Raward on techniques for using the pressure of the water on his blade to accelerate the boat through the unstable turbulent drop and into the next sequence of gates.
At the end of the session the group got together for a picture.
