Kiwi kayaker will need his experience on tricky slalom course

Olympian Mike Dawson will compete at the World Slalom Championships this week. Photo / Jamie Troughton

In the dynamic world of whitewater slalom racing, it helps if you have an extensive toolkit.

Every course is different, every submerged rock has its own idiosyncrasies, every eddy tries to find a new way of tipping unsuspecting paddlers into the drink.

After the best part of a decade on the World Cup circuit, as well as half a lifetime paddling massive whitewater rapids and competing in extreme kayak races, Kiwi Mike Dawson's toolkit is just about overflowing.

This week he hopes to unleash all of his tricks at the ICF Canoe World Slalom Championships in Maryland, United States, at the Adventure Sports Center International's course on Deep Creek Lake.

"The course is really tricky and technical," said Dawson. "The water changes a lot but I'm really fired up for the race. The characteristics are a lot like Mangahao, near Palmerston North, and that's a course I really enjoy racing on."

Dawson will join fellow New Zealand Olympian Luuka Jones at the event in the US, with both paddlers bringing in rare form as they enter the final year before trying to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games.

While Jones finished the World Cup season ranked eighth - with a season-best result of 10th in Slovenia in June - Dawson switched between slalom and the more lucrative extreme paddling, a combination he's used to fund his Olympic dreams for the last 10 years.

Earlier this month he had another decent boost, to both his bank balance and confidence, at the European extreme race championships in Lipno, Czech Republic, winning for the third time.

It was especially satisfying after recovering from wrist surgery earlier in the year.

"Extreme racing will take a bit of a backseat while I build up to the slalom worlds, but it's nice to know that my wrist can stand up to the pressures of racing in big water," said the Tauranga-raised kayaker.

It was the 27-year-old's second extreme win of the year, following his victory in the Great Falls Race in the US in July. He also finished third in the Ekstremsportveko (Extreme Sports Week) in Norway in late June.

He's also made plenty of headway in the Olympic slalom discipline, picking up his best World Cup result, an eighth placing in Slovenia.

Following the Great Falls win, Dawson spent a month slalom training at the Deep Creek site and has been back there for the last fortnight in an effort to familiarise himself with the unique course, which recirculates 550m over a manmade series of boulders. "The course is built at the top of the ski resort here and made using real rocks, as opposed to plastic rocks, so it's quite a good feeling to be paddling on a course that almost feels like a natural river.

"I'm loving paddling here - we are surrounded by some of the most amazing whitewater in the US, living at the edge of a lake and paddling on a ski resort - it's almost like we're in New Zealand.

"I was even able to escape the slalom scene last week and head off to paddle on the famous whitewater of Gauley River, a nice change from the slalom scene."

How to get started in whitewater slalom: Canoe Slalom New Zealand is the starting point for finding out about slalom - visit www.slalomnz.org.nz for more information.

Beginners' camps are run in Kawerau, with the next camp in mid-December and then January. Local clubs also run beginner camps.

There is also excitement brewing about the Wero whitewater rafting centre in Auckland.