Finn Butcher holds his place in the squad while Kensa Randle has made the step up to be named in her first national senior squad.
The squad will travel to Europe for the series. Finance from High Performance Sport New Zealand has made the trip possible.
It is the first time High Performance Sport New Zealand has backed the sport to such an extent and it will receive $450,000 over the next couple of years.
The performances of senior paddlers Luuka Jones and Mike Dawson have enabled to sport to go to the next level.
"The sport is definitely on an upward trend and it’s cool to be an influence on that," Butcher said.
"There are so many people who’ve put huge amounts of voluntary hours into the sport, that have helped us get to where we are.
"Now the younger guys coming through can see where we’ve come from and seen how High Performance Sport is recognising us, which hopefully keeps them in it."
Butcher admits he is an aggressive kayaker which can lead to an equal mix of elation and frustration.
He made two world cup semifinals last year and finished 15th at the under-23 world championships, although his qualification run for the latter — putting down the second-fastest time — remains a highlight.
"I’m trying to focus on improving a lot of different techniques and trying to get a lot faster, with less of a focus on consistency.
"It can sometimes be a bit disheartening when you can’t keep laying things down but I think I’m going in the right direction. Once my speed gets to a good stage, that’s when I’ll start working on my consistency, so it’s fun. That’s the cool thing about slalom. Everyone goes about their training in completely different ways and have completely different styles and at the end, you’re 0.1sec apart."
For Randle it has been a quick rise.
She started off at Dunstan High School and stood out in any sport in which she competed.
She won national age-group multisport titles, was a South Island basketball rep and regional netball rep before concentrating on canoe slalom about three years ago.
She has quickly risen through the ranks and has moved to Auckland, where she enrolled in correspondence school, so she could concentrate more on her canoe slalom.
Most of the squad are now based in Auckland, so they can be close to new Wero Whitewater Park.
Randle (18) left for Penrith, in Australia, earlier this week for the Australian Open and could not be contacted yesterday.
