Shout out to our 2013 partners

A big part of how we get through each season is through the help of sponsors, whether it's through products or financial help. We are so excited to be working with these awesome companies:

Competition gear at it's finest

Overkill at Canuck Stuff




I've already mentioned that we've partnered up with Canuck Stuff, a Canadian volleyball specialist store that offers sweet clothing from Overkill. These guys have been so supportive of us and we are proud to be a part of their team.
 www.canuckstuff.com

These babies kept us nice and toasty in Holland

2XU


These tights are awesome. Not only do they keep you nice and warm on cold training/ competition days, the compression that is built into them is key for long flights. They are also really comfortable and reflective! So many features! We love our 2XU tights.
www.2xu.com

Jamie rocking the Dawn Top, one of our faves!

Sensi Bikinis

Jamie and I know bikinis. We wear one almost every day. So when we found Sensi,  we got pretty excited. Not only are these bikinis sporty and functional (as they're 'designed for girls who rip') they also look really really cool. There are so many sweet styles. We can't get enough of them!
If you contact either one of us, we can get you a promotional code for a discount on anything on their website. OMG! Definitely worth checking out!
www.sensibikinis.com









Adopt an Athlete
One last bit of exciting news... if you like being kept up to date with our adventures and want to help out, here's your chance! Every little bit of help goes a long way... more than you know. It's also nice to see people's support. It means so much to us, and you may be the difference that gets us a couple more wins on tour. Not only that, you can be eligible for a tax receipt! Win/win!!  Here's a link to the form: Adopt and Athlete
A couple of things to note:  In order to offer a charitable tax receipt Volleyball Canada requires donors specify a sport (not an athlete) to direct the funds to; the donations cannot be earmarked for any individual athlete. However, donors can add a note of who they would like to see their money go towards and Volleyball Canada will do their part in providing expense reimbursements to those athletes. So please consider looking into this. If you feel like you want so spread some love or earn a few karma points, keep Jamie and Kristina in mind!

broderjamie@gmail.com
kvaljas@gmail.com
Facebook us!

Argentina

On the road again, and it's time for another update. After coming home from China and visiting our favourite respective islands (Victoria and Maui), Jamie and I had 6 days to train and prepare for the next stop on the world tour: Argentina! Specifically, the city of Corrientes. This is a place that neither of us had competed in before. On doing some (light) research, I was delighted to see that there was only a mere hour time zone difference from Toronto. MUCH better than the 6 hours to Europe and 12 hours to China. Despite the time zone being in our favour, I didn't quite realize how far south our destination was.
After enduring a 24 hour travel day to get to Corrientes from Toronto we finally made it.... to find that (to borrow from the Game of Thrones) Winter was coming. Upon stepping off the plane to a frigid gust of cold wind, our thought process went something like this: Man that was a long trip. We are so far down south!... Southern hemisphere.... Our spring is their fall. Riiiiiight... Cold weather... Why did I pack shorts?

Flying over the Andes should have given me a clue.....

Anyway, we made it in one piece and got a couple of training days in before our qualification match. Unfortunately that match did not go our way and we lost to England in 3 sets. That was a tough loss. I'm sure I would have enjoyed being in Argentina more if I had a win or two under my belt. But it was not to be this time, so we changed our flights to come home early and leave winter behind.

A cool shot of the venue at night. www.fivb.org

We met with our coach and mapped out the 10 days we had in Toronto to maximize training before leaving for the next competition.

Springtime at Ashbridges Bay

It was also nice to be home because it was my birthday! I am so lucky to have such fabulous friends and it was such a treat to spend time with them while I was in town. I love you ALL!!
Not to mention my awesome family! They managed to surprise me by flying Len in for my birthday dinner :) The timing worked out perfectly and I couldn't have been happier (actually, it would have been nice if my youngest brother Austin was there. Apparently he needs to "study" for exams. Trust me, we're all shocked.) Although I think some of the motivation is my fault.. if he does well in school this year I owe him a very lavishly expensive dinner.... yikes.

One last bit of exciting news: We are pumped to be partnering up with Canuck Stuff as our team apparel sponsor! We are proud to wear the Overkill brand and are so happy to have their support!

And so, I've packed my suitcase once more... this time for a longer trip than usual. Jamie and I are heading to Europe for 5 weeks! I'll be sure to update our adventures. First stop: Lille, France! An exhibition tournament to get us warmed up for the four FIVBs in the weeks that follow. Huzzah!!

Fuzhou & Shanghai CHINA

So much has happened since our victory in the Cayman Islands! Here's a quick recap:

We went directly to the next stop on the NORCECA tour in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. We had some solid games in pool play but had a tough match in the quarter finals vs Mexico and ended up with a 5th place finish. Disappointing after such a successful previous tournament, but there was lots to learn from this experience, stuff that has made us a stronger team now having gone through that. 

We were home for two weeks, where we continued to train hard, and get organized for our trip to China. This included getting our Chinese visas and lots of food (camping meals, protein bars, oatmeal, nuts, etc). Our suitcases were pretty heavy! 

Overlooking some of the courts at the Fuzhou venue.

The first stop on the FIVB World Tour was Fuzhou, China. It was a new stop, somewhere we hadn't been before and it was actually really nice. On the first day we participated in the Qualification tournament. We had to win our one match against a team from the Netherlands to earn a spot in the Main Draw. After getting over some nerves in the first set, we eventually won (18-21, 21-18, 15-7). This put us in a pool with 3 other teams. We played Brazil and another team from the Netherlands on the first day of Main Draw action. We lost both, definitely not playing our best, but still managing to do some good things. 

It was especially tough for me that day because I heard about my grandfather passing away between matches. I'm very close with my grandparents so this was tough being so far away from home, missing the funeral and not being with my family. I like to think my grandpa was looking out me for though, because the next day we beat Kazakhstan to make it out of our pool. And not only that, the Russian team we were supposed to play in the first round of playoffs pulled out due to an injury, so we advanced to the second round. Eventually we lost to the top team from Italy, taking a 9th place finish. A career best! 

This was a super emotional tournament, but one I'll remember fondly, knowing my grandpa is up there with front row seats to my games. Love you grandpa, miss you.

...Ok, before I start crying again, back to volleyball! After Fuzhou, we flew to Shanghai for the Grand Slam event, which meant there were more points and prize money to be earned! But first… qualification. Grrrr… 

Well, we took down Spain in a 2-set heated battle, then beat Columbia in the final round of qualification to earn Main Draw again! We were pumped about that!

Again we had a rough start in pool play, losing to a Chinese team and the same Netherlands team we faced last week in the main draw. But we managed to pull out a win against a Czech team to advance to pool play! Here we lost a tight battle against a team from Brazil. We fought hard, but just couldn't manage to keep control of the game in the third set. 

Mav and Sam playing China on centre court in Shanghai. 

Jamie out-jumping the competition, as usual.

What a game, the lines people were SO into it!

Overall, we are very pleased with our performance over the past two weeks. It feels awesome to qualify, and even sweeter to win a couple games in the Main Draw. This gives us confidence for the rest of our season, we're ready to keep working hard and improving our game! 

Now I'm on the road (...air?) again, heading home after making a quick pitstop in Maui to visit my brother. Aloha!!!!!!

Out with a bang!

 It’s been a long, cold winter, but we managed to survive! We were so excited to get to go to the first event of the year, a NORCECA in the Cayman Islands. We were really looking forward to getting back outside and getting used to the heat and wind. Cayman definitely has it’s fair share of both!

Jamie and I arrived a week early to get used to the conditions. We also ran a two-day beach clinic for the local kids who are into playing indoor volleyball and want to check out what beach is all about. It was really fun getting to know everyone, we all had a fun time. 

Definitely some super talent here! We better watch out... :)

The tournament organizers also offered complementary dolphin excursions, so I got to swim with a dolphin and kiss him too! (yes, this place IS paradise).

Getting things started at the technical meeting.

The tournament started on Friday with pool play. We defeated Mexico 2 and Barbados, and on Saturday morning we took down El Salvador to win our pool. Later in the afternoon we matched up against a Cayman Islands team in the quarter final to advance to the semis.

We were matched up against USA2. The sun was out, the wind was strong and Jamie and I were ready to battle!
Kind of. We had a shaky start, losing the first set 16-21… This team’s aggressive serving took us off guard a little. But we fought back in the second set and won 27-25 (despite a few questionable calls from the ref…). We found our groove and got a grip on the wind in the third set and finally beat them 15-11.

Then we had a couple of hours to rest before meeting USA1 in the finals. We had done all the hard work leading up to this game, so we were able to let ourselves enjoy being in the finals. The atmosphere was crazy. I took a deep breath and looked around before the first whistle blew. The stands were packed with so many Canadian fans. This was my first time in the finals at a NORCECA and I was SO PUMPED to be there. Jamie and I played like we were on a mission, playing smart with the wind and hitting balls as hard as we could whenever we had the chance. We beat the Americans  21-16, 21-13. Jamie served an ace to win the match. What a great feeling! We were exhausted and thrilled!! 

The water spider and the beast.

We started working with a personal coach this year, John May, and flew him down here to help us out with this tournament. It was great to have someone with us to keep us focused (and entertained in the down time!). I can't thank John enough for his support. We've learned so much from in the short time that we've been working with him, and we're looking forward to more big things in the future!

The next day we took a boat cruise with fellow Canadian teammates Heather and Liz. We checked out sting ray city and did some snorkelling. It was a nice recovery day, relaxing for the most part (except when we had to hang out with the sting rays. Those things are CREEPY!) 

Here are a few photos. 

Busting through the winter blahs

It's official! Jamie and I will be heading down to the Cayman Islands in a couple of weeks for the first event of the 2013 season. I can't tell you how excited I am to start competing again. We have been training hard all winter long, just itching to get back outside and play!!

The Cayman Islands NORCECA was my second international competition ever, in 2010. I actually played in it with Jamie, even though we weren't partners at the time!

It's been a pretty solid winter. We've both managed to stay healthy and improve our strength, fitness and team tactics. The national beach program also welcomed a new head coach in early January. We're thrilled to have Steve Anderson take over and share his philosophies and unique coaching style.  He worked with the Australian beach team for 17 years and helped them earn Olympic bronze and gold medals. His energy and belief in Canadian athletes and our program is infectious... and I have to say, it's it's been pretty fun working with him so far.
It's also been nice having a routine, staying in the same city for more than a week, not dealing with jet-lag, and knowing I will always be able to get my favourite foods from the grocery store whenever I want. Having said that, I'm really looking forward to racking up the air miles :)

Although our training has been great, I can't deny that sometimes it's hard to stay motivated in the cold winter months when we're bundled up in our training centre for practice and the sun seems to set so early that sunny summer feels so far away! I have to give a shout out to somebody who has been an inspiration to me. My younger brother Lenny is a member of Canada's national cross country ski team and he's one of my best friends. His competition season starts when mine ends (November) and he's been in Europe since then, so we don't get to see each other very often... but we manage to keep in touch through skype and funny emails. Lenny is one of the coolest people I know. He's always so chill and level headed and he actually gives really great advice. Not to mention he is kicking some serious butt on the World Cup tour! So when I'm stuck at home, freezing and longing for summer to return, I feel lucky to be able to tune in to my brother's season and watch him ski like a champ! Every success he has makes me more and more excited to compete again!!
Mahalo bro!!!

Throwback! circa 1992 and 2012

Snow Day!

The forecast called for "Toronto's biggest snowfall in years".... and I have to say I was a little bit skeptical. It seems that people tend to over-exaggerate a predicted snowfall these days. I had planned a road trip to visit a friend in Ottawa this weekend, so I was really hoping the weather man was wrong with this one. 

When I woke up, the city was covered in snow and it was actually coming down pretty steadily. Our coach cancelled training, so I enjoyed my first real snow day since being back in school. It was great! 

I decided to hit the streets and take some pictures.

 At the end of the day, the amount of snow that hit Toronto wasn't completely ridiculous. I guess the city panicked because of the amount that got dumped in such a short time. Over a foot of snow fell today and it did give drivers a hard time on the roads. I think I made the right call by postponing my road trip for another weekend.

I am missing the sun and sand more than ever!