Many people that are not familiar of what whitewater racing is all about, become confused why our kids are always out kayaking. These people become interested and usually want to know more about why it is that these kids can be away from school for weeks at a time, yet still carry such a remarkable GPA.

The athletes of the FRPA carry a quiet, well sometimes quiet self assurance that many people do not. Due to the very difficult medium we work with, we are forced to drive many hours to a river that may not be there. The dam may have been closed due to a terrorist threat or due to a valve breaking. The fact that the river may not have enough water in it due to no rain or snow in that area. These unfortunate occurances are an everyday concern for us.

Here in Denver we are faced with many more concerns than most places in the world. We have a concern with "water rights" and wondering if the City will kick us out of our training spot where we hang our training gates or even worse, will the car break down or get a flat on the 40 minute drive to practice or will a strap break on the roofrack that holds 2000.00 boats on to allow it to skip down the highway at 65 MPH? These are just some of our concerns and difficulties that we must deal with in this logistically difficult sport.

Typical fall training night

Now for the day in the life of an FRPA athlete.

06:00- Wake-up

06:10- Breakfast

06:40- Leave for morning training at the FRPA Gym

07:00- Start Morning weight work and calisthenics

08:00- Rush to class

12:00- Lunch

3:30- School is out, time to head to practice

3:35- Pile into the FRPA Suburban

3:36- Get out of FRPA Suburban... It did not start.

3:39- Pile into a few seperate cars and drive 30 miles to our Denver Course

4:15- Arrive Denver

4:17- Still in car, it is 20 degrees with snow and wind

4:20- Still in car with the heat on full blast, trying to change into the frozen gear that was left in the trailer from the day before

4:25- Start practice on water,

5:00- "Darn it is hard to see the gates in all this dark, Chris, but we are too tired to worry about this... please   don't flip"

6:00- After a long difficult workout of sprints or endurance technique, head back to the car.

6:04- Arrive at car and start to remove gear

6:20- Still trying to remove gear but it has frozen solid in the walk to the car

6:25- Got gear off.. now can not strap boats to roof... hands too cold to push in the metal clasp on the straps

6:30- Finally make it on the road.

6:35- Sitting in traffic on I-25 " Chris, look at all the skiers looking at us funny with the boats on the roof"

7:15- Arrive back at the FRPA "Chalet"

7:30- Arrive home, "just realized I left my gear on Chris's driveway..... ARRGGHHHH!"

7:45- Finish shower and eat the cold dinner that mom made 3 hours ago.

8:00- Start homework and study for test

8:15- fell asleep on History project

9:00- Wake-up startled and realize this project needs to be completed

12:00- turn out lights and sleep for the night

03:00- Calf cramps from training....

03:15- Darn... can not fall back to sleep

03:18- Eat cookies and milk and head back to bed

03:20- Brush Teeth

03:30- Fall back to sleep

06:00 Alarm goes off

So tired!

Sure there is a little humor in there.... but the sad thing is that these kids do this 6 days each week. Notice no time for walking the mall, playing video games with friends, going to the movies, or just laying around watching TV.

These are kids with dreams, big dreams. Please support them!