8 Feb, 2010 - The Gisborne Herald- Fire is back — ‘I’m going to win’

Kristine Walsh

POLLY Green’s mate reckoned that if she started training now, she could be in the top 10 at the 2011 whitewater kayaking freestyle world championships, in Germany.

He should know — German kayaker Arnd Schaeftlein is considered a legend in the sport. But Green says she did not receive his praise with much grace.

“I’m not interested in being in the top 10,” says the US-born sportswoman and filmmaker, who settled in Gisborne in 2007.

“I’m going to win.”

A bold claim but, if anyone’s going to make it, she is. This is the woman who last year told The Gisborne Herald she wanted her second short documentary — Soft Power Health, about kayaker Dr Jessie Stone’s humanitarian aid efforts in Uganda — to be an award-winner. The film was last month named jury winner of best action sports film at California’s Mammoth Mountain Film Festival.

She has a strong foundation to work from. As a fine arts student at the University of Colorado, she was already a hardcore sportswoman when she took up freestyle kayaking in the early 1990s. In 2003, she was fifth at the world champs in Austria.

Though she gave up competing two years later, Green believes her experience and ability to work under pressure will stand her in good stead.

Taking a top place next year will not be easy. In 2009 the championship in Switzerland was won by US kayaker Emily Jackson, at 19 half Green’s age.

“But it’s certainly do-able so I’m stoked that my sponsors, Jackson Kayaks and Kokatat Watersports Wear, are back on board.”

Green is already doing her part — a seven-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week schedule that combines flatwater training on the Waimata River with cycling, yoga and meditation.

To supplement that she plans regular trips starting this week to Rotorua’s Kaituna River which, with its grade five rating, will give her the whitewater she needs to perfect her tricks.

“But because I don’t really want to leave Gisborne, much of my training will be on flat water — which means a lot of the work I do will be mental,” she says.

Schaeftlein will coach her via the internet. Today she is in Auckland for a session with neuroscientist/sports coach Kerry Spackman, whose book The Winner’s Bible is a source of inspiration to her.

She will also appear on tomorrow’s 8.20am edition of the Sunrise television programme to talk about both her sport and her filmmaking.

She has a meeting booked with the New Zealand Film Commission to talk about funding for A Fire Burning, the feature film she intends to make documenting her comeback into whitewater kayaking.

The first shoot for the film has already been done and Green has assembled a team that includes co-producer/co-writer Darnelle Timbs and co-directer/co-photographer Jo Tito, with high-profile Gisborne-based US duo Peter and Sarah Dixon on board as mentors.

“You have to approach these things with a sense of humour, so the film should be quite funny as well as being very personal,” Green says as she buckles on her helmet for the day’s training session.

“It will be very raw, very real but should have a few life lessons along the way.”

Polly Green in part blames The Gisborne Herald for her coming out of retirement, after it reported comments she made last year about not having won the world championship she coveted.

“Seeing it in black and white brought it home that I hadn’t achieved my goal to be the world No. 1 and I knew that if I didn’t go for it, I’d regret it.

“So now I’m absolutely committed. The fire is back.”

A Fire Burning

Its official, I just had my first shoot for A Fire Burning, my new film about my comeback into whitewater kayaking, and training for the 2011 World Freestyle Kayak Championships.
It was a little weird at first filming myself, but after awhile I got into it and feel like I am talking directly to the viewer. Being the camera operator and the subject adds a whole new twist and I think I like it. I think it will make the film a lot more intimate and I think the viewer is going to get sucked in and involved. Plus it was fun, which is my main goal.
We are having our first pre-production meeting on Monday and begin the official shoot 10 Feb up on the Kaituna River.
I am really excited to be kayaking again and am feeling stronger than ever. I have just been training on flat water this week, but so far so good. I am also cycling 2 hours a day, doing yoga for an hour+, and meditation 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour at night.
So my days are pretty full. I am reserving Saturdays to do my artwork and take the day off from training.
My whole goal is to have balance, and make room for everything that's important, which is something I was lacking last time I was training.
I am feeling good and happy and healthy and will be making regular posts about the progress of the film and how my training is going.