Last weekend, I headed to North Wales to the BCU Student Safety Symposium, hosted by Plas-y-Brenin. A weekend orientation for University Canoe Club members to get a rapid education to forming, running and enjoying a club. During the weekend, topics as diverse as transport and the law to trip planning, running swimming pool sessions to introducing people to paddling were covered. It’s an information max weekend. Also in the back of the car, was the new 2012 Palm Range for display (everyone loves, lets gets drawn to the one off sample Harlequin EV PFD, Palm might end up having to make it….) and 3 of the new Mamba’s, for testing. On the Saturday, I was involved with running a session on overseas trips planning and white water skills, so got to enjoy some of the great Autumn sunshine of the day.
On the Sunday, I ran a Steep Creeking Skill clinics for the more able paddler’s, who often play a leadership role within their clubs. So getting the skills right to hand on to the new wave of student paddlers is ever important. With there bing no recent rain fall in North Wales, the only option was to hit the Graveyard section on the Tryweryn, a popular dam release run. We focused mainly on tactics for river running, and then added in key stroke concept for boffin’. The boys picked it all up fast and were flying off any reason and some less reasonable boulders and bedrock ledges. The great thing in focusing in on tactics, is most paddler’s simply over look them, and follow the lines on rapids they were shown. Opening up tactics allows a paddler to get to their target, with their momentum heading in the correct direction to get some great results. On the Graveyard, you can make Class III boulders into a FreeRide fun park, with flares, grinds, spins and boofs.
The new Mamba’s were popular, we had 2 of the Mamba 8.6 prototypes and a production 8.1 available. There are several Mamba 8.1 around now, and the feedback is great, a kind of cross between the old Mamba and the Dagger Nomad, yet faster. A creeky river runner with speed to spare. During the creaking skills clinics, the new boat was a popular option.
The BCU Student Safety Symposium will be back in 2012, and if you are wondering why can’t general paddlers get a symposium, well you can, 27/29th January 2012 at the River Dart Country Park in Devon, Gene17 are hosting the very first the River’s Source – a white water symposium event
It’s been an ace time in Norway, we arrived by mid Summer, and enjoy fun in Valldal, and then the Sjoa River Festival, which is now run by Gene17. After which it was several weeks of Gene17 trips, and then a works outting to the North of Norway, see the following write ups on Simon Westgarth’s blog;
24 hour day light, the northern Summer
Sjoa, a northern paradise
Nordland; the huldra & the draugen and a berry Tour
Image Nick Horwood
See the Sjoa River Festival Images and a recent Gene17 trip report. We’ve also been testing the prototype of he Mamba 8.6, and that needs another post all together….
Given that it rained all day in Sjoa, no one was best pleased to bring their camera out, still this year’s Sweet Rumble BoaterX time trail was, given that in the my Saffron Missle, ie Dagger Axiom 9.0, I managed a tidy result. Palm Paddler, Andy Phillips, Nick Horwood & Tom Parker also managed to make the cut. This is only for the seeding of the main BoaterX, on the famed Ămot Canyon of Sjoa, this Saturday afternoon. It’s one the best BoaterX events around, as the river is both contained, creating powerful and steep white water, that allows for different lines and with surging conditions and changeable outcomes.
Stay tuned for more of Saturday’s actions, plus an update from the Gene17 Ula Extreme Race tomorrow, on the famed Ula Slide, the sun is meant to come out, which will be ace. In the mean time check out one of the prizes for the Ula Race, an image of Rondane, the National Park, Ula flows from.
Simon@Gene17
In between fronts, here in Devon. Team Palm arrived late last night to the River Dart Country Park, with enough time to get a pint of Butcombe Blond at the Church House Inn in Holne.
A fresh morning, awaited, and we headed to the Erme in hope, and hope it was. The base level was there but with no rain in the last 48 hours, meant that there was no fun to be had. So we headed to the Upper Dart and had some fun with Tim Trew, Nick Horwood, Satu Vanska-Westgarth, Shane Cornin and Dave Carroll. Many of the grind and rock spin moves were in, so I showed our guests the fun lines, and a great morning we had.
After lunch, we set up the Palm stand, banners and all. And now wait for Cheese’s famed Thai Green Curry, hmmmm
There is rain due over night, and also Saturday night, so there is more fun in the barrel. Big Simon Hirter has arrived, Matt Tidy, Ed Smith and Rosie Cripps are in bound, Team Palm will be around all weekend, if you wish to ask any questions, or see the delights of the new EV and AV PFDs or the flash Gradient shoes…….
See G17 APWE Facebook Event for details
Wall to wall blue bird sky, with searing early Autumn sunshine made for what is a change maker. The older generation finally fell to the youth, and like father handing on the baton to the son, its all change at the top of the World Freestyle arena with Jackson Kayaks and the Jackson family ringing the changes. American Emily Jackson won K1W, along with her husband Canadian Nick Troutman in K1M, younger brother Dane was 2nd in the Juniors and their Father, EJ was 2nd in the Mens.
The exception to the Jackson kayak whitewash was the Junior ladies, where Nouria Newman from France true to form stole the show. After her winning ride she gave us a glimpse of her potential, we saw an air screw and helix, both with big air. In the OC1 Jeremy Laucks from the US continued his dominance of this event by sweeping the gold medal. Stephan Pätsch from Germany gave Jeremy some late pressure, however the American managed to stay on the wave and perform even when his boat was swamped.
In the Junior Mens, favourite and smooth styler Jason Craig produced the goods on his first run, to ensure it was plain sailing. Although Jason’s score was not so high, the big occasion got to fellow American Dane Jackson and Sebastien Devred from France, who not until the final round managed to bring the medals to their door. Still the consistence of Jason Craig, who trains in Reno on the new white water course, made him the one to beat, and alas with such a strong opening ride, the competition was placed in the shade.
The ladies saw a lot tighter race, with Mariann in the Semi’s finalling breaking into the one two duel of Emily Jackson and Ruth Gordon. From the off this contest was a twist and turn affair, where none of the paddlers were getting the rides of the earlier rounds, and the all too big scoring moves, when attempted were not executed well. Tanya Faux, Ruth Gordon and Mariann Sæther kept us on the edge of our seats, with patchy performances. Not until the second round did Emily lay claim to the title with a solid aerial blunt filled ride, whilst Tanya managed some big air moves to secure second place. Both Ruth and Mariann left it to the last, Ruth pulled a big ride out of the hat, and pushed Tanya into thrid, and Mariann, under all the pressure of having to delivery in one ride, fell short. Mariann’s last ride was all guns a blazing, a wonderful donkey flip and aerial blunt combo, then another blunt, and a huge surge from the wave came. With the surge, a big pop from the boat, a huge air screw seamed likely, and Mariann paused, then went, and that pause was slightly too late, a flaw in the move. Deep the boat went and then out of the wave, there was no medal for Mariann in Thun.
In the C1′s, the hot shot of the class Guillaume LaRue from Canada was having a bad day, his rides fell well short of the sort we’d seen earlier in the week, and as a result, the title was up for anyone. The UK’s Dave Bainbridge, took the finals by the neck and delivered a wonderful display of off side air blunts, both front and back, and his willingness to go for the big air secured him the Championship. Alexandre Besseau with huge and loud crowd support, brought France yet another medal, this time a Bronze. Guillaume LaRue did manage a reasonably solid ride, but without his normal air screw move, and the big points this move bring to place him ahead of the pack, it was silver for the Canadian.
The blue ribbon event, the mens final proved to be a pivotal moment for freestyle, with the eyes of the ICF and President of the IOC looking on, the coming of age for this sport was very apparent. In the first round, Nick Troutman ran through his two air screws to the right then to the left routine, a helix here, flip turn there, huge air back blunts, and then the pistol flips, to hit a score of in excess of 1500 in one ride. A score of this order is seldom seen, especially in competition and very rarely ever matched, the gold was for certain after this one ride, always going to Canada. Nick’s Father in law, Eric EJ Jackson, Four times World Champion fired up all the competition expertise and precision he could and managed his highest score of the event, a 900 to take silver. American Stephen Wright, threw everything at his rides and grabbed the bronze.
This was the style of competition the event organisers could have hoped for, massive high end performances, set in a world class wave and a great host town in the heart of the mountain’s, the place for white water kayaking. Thun 2009 was by far the best kayak event I have ever been too, excellently managed, all the side shows inclusive and the vibe through the two weeks truly wonderful, well done Thun, well done Simon Hirter the organiser.
PS, I got to paddle in the Legends Session with Olli Grau, Clay Wright, Arnd Schäftlein and Richard Fox, what a great morning paddle on the Thun wave, happy days indeed.
Drained expressions and blank stares covered the faces of many a paddler this morning, the morning after the night before, told tales of party revellers and high octane music at the World Championship Loser Party in Thun. Yet for the selection few, well 60 paddlers who had made it to Semi Finals, there was no party, just an appointment with the wave, twice shots, one high scoring run for Sunday’s Grand Final.
The open boaters started us off just after lunch, where catching the wave is difficult with most of those kayak conversions to OC1. The rules that governed this class, are that the boat must be able to carry 40 litres of water with the paddler in the boat. Thus the kayak conversions are often too small once the additional water gets in, plus the paddler sits a little higher resulting in a higher centre of gravity. Needless to say, it can be a painful class to watch. The runs are quick but the scores are low, occasionally there are a few near amazing moves. Jeremy Laucks of the USA pulled ahead of current champ Pätsch Stephan from Germany to win the round, plus two other Germans made the cut Toby Hüther and Fabian Krumreich with Spain’s Areta Odei on 8 points getting 5th place! These boys are under pressure from the ICF to up participation or be cut from Future Worlds, this is the reality of potential IOC inclusion. On finals day Jacques Rogge the IOC President comes to see what Freestyle Kayaking is all about!!!!
Next up were the Juniors, for the girls Nouria killed it again, with a score three times that of the rest of the field. Nouria, in addition to her blunts, attempted both a donkey flip and helix, not bad for a slight figure of a girl, strong is this one. Local girl Leoni placed 2nd, to ensure we’re have a noisy crowd on Sunday afternoon. With the boys, Jason Craig again continued to dominate the rounds, its all smiles and thumbs up for this lad, the cup is in sight. Yet his domination is being cut into, as both Sebastien from France and Joaquim from Spain step their performances up today with air screws, aerial blunts and big air pan-ams to ensure some minor doubt, although the outcome is far from certain, this title is Jason Craig’s for the taking.
Next up were the ladies, and again the top 5 fired up the heat, by paddling at a level well out of sight from the next 5. There were a few nerves should as the initial surf’s were established, yet once a few moves we hit, there was only one outcome. The top five in their first runs of semi’s secured the place in the finals. Mariann Sæther found all her moves in one run to win the semi’s, a surprise that unseated Emily Jackson and Ruth Gordon’s duelling domination of the top 2 spots thus far. In Finals here will be 3 runs, where one the single highest score will count, so the favourites can relax a little into their paddling, knowing that there are at least 3 chances to win.
In the C1, Guillaume LaRue dominated, not unlike earlier semi’s where the favourite was under pressure, fell a little short in performance, yet managed to stay a head of the pack, the UK’s David Bainbridge and Odei Areta of Spain raised their game. The off side blunts and pan-ams are amazing to watch, especially with the higher sitting position gives more leverage for bigger air. Its ace stuff to watch, especially under the lights. Note another French paddler made Finals, the army of “le Blu” supporters has certainly livened up the 750 capacity grand stand that is nearly always full. The event organisers have put on a great show, and as I type this blog late on Saturday night, yet another party of great music is underway, and again the French are leading the charge for maximum action.
Squeezed in between the C1 and K1 mens, was the VW Big Air event, prelims were earlier in the day. Under flood lights the 10 or so paddlers in the Big Air Final, the capacity crowd with the big screen playing back the action, cheered for more, and more big moves were attempted, and a few landed. Anton of Sweden was the master of flight, and although the results are unknown, Anton stole the show.
Next up and last in order were the Mens. On all big occasions, the high flyers can fall and those struggling earlier on can find their form, and this is nearly always the case, and today was no exception. Current World Champ, first up EJ finally found form to blow away his heat, and stamp his name on the Finals, and this style tactical move played its part to lessen the certainty of the previously mighty. Peter Csonka and Miku Lantto, both 3rd and 2nd yesterday, fell away with minor mistakes amidst high scoring rides. Surprise addition for tomorrow Jules Gallais from France, cranked it up, so an amazing aerial ride to claim 3rd place in semi’s, along with Jonny Meyers, both had just made it through the quarterfinals. Nick Troutman the firm favourite, wobbled in his first ride, and needed to wait until the second attempt to claim his ticket to final, where Stephen Wright in the earlier heat had less pressure to delivery from the other paddlers, and so fired up another ride that included his fast action pistol flip. Competition is such a cruel arena for great paddlers, its do or die, and today we saw several of the top paddler’s fall short, that is the nature of the beast, so get ready to raw on Sunday for World Champions will be made.
Rain, rain and more rain was the order of the day on a damp Friday, quarter finals day for the ladies and men in Thun. After a late start and after lunch, the ladies heats got under way. However, over on the out channel in Thun all morning had the Squirt boaters been battling it out for final honours.
These subsurface squirt boats had 60 seconds to do both a flat water sequence and mystery move on an eddy line. Through Thursday afternoon, the prelims and semi final had cut the field to the top 5 for both ladies and men. The traditional strong nations of Japan, USA and the UK were all in the running. In the ladies the ’07 champion Valerie Bertrand, a Canadian who now lives in Norway headed the pack, but UK power ball Claire O’Hara managed to blow away the competition to take the gold with Scot’s lass Emma Runciman just steeling second from Valerie. For the guys its was a tight affair with the honours split between Uk paddler James Reeves, Ishihara Toru of Japan and Jeremy Laucks from the USA respectively. Toru had been using the far river right eddy, where the seam line along the eddy fence provided often spectacular mystery move combo’s, yet it was James’s wonderful smooth style whilst cartwheeling away in the eddy, that brought home the bacon.
Over on the Inner Channel, after lunch the ladies got under way. Easier heats were full of safe surfin’ with the occasional big move, and yet these were all to expensive, resulting in short runs. It was a tense affair, until the third heat when Martina Wegman from Holland hit two ace rides, and place pressure on the last heat of top girls from the Prelims. In the final heat Mariann Sæther of Norway started with big bang, with her whole ride, in fact all her rides were much the same, explosive, aerial and full of confidence, clearly Mariann’s performance is peaking at the right time. Also Tanya Faux gave explosive rides, often waiting to set up for that perfect move, but when the moves came, they were very convincing indeed. The pressure of the occasion, killed off Jesse Stone, whose’ early short rides played on her performance, a great shame as she’d been hitting numerous donkey flips in training and the prelims. The duel between Emily and Ruth stepped up in intensity, where both managed to extend their donkey flip efforts into air screws. The site of the style of move in a competition is a real step forward for the girls and proof that the sport is still charging onwards. The cut for the top 5 spots in the Semi’s went to Emily, Ruth, Mariann, Tanya and Martina. Lower down in 6th place, Paula Suurseppä from Finland gave determined rides with several felixes.
In the mens Quarter Final, the energy went into overdrive from the first heat, the boys stepped up to the occasion and gave us great rides. The likes of Tyler Curtis booked his place in the Semi’s with several smooth runs and calculated tricks. The key was two good rides, and this is where the cast of men fell short to deliver. Other notables whom gave great single rides were Billy Harris, Simon Strohmeier, Byran Kirk and Anthony Yap. Paddlers able to deliver were several established performers with Eric Jackson, Steve Wright and Casper Van Kalmthout, all providing the goods over two runs. With the army of French Supporters with drums, tricolour flags, moustache’s and a live chicken, Jules Gallais fired it up to pull himself into the Semi’s. Yet the real tight end of the last heat brought the real attention grabbing show. Miku from Finland, who was first up in the final heat, turned up the pressure with an amazing ride, huge air everything, clean blunt, air screw and pistol flip, thus unknown to the international scene was paddling wonderfully right in the scorching heat of the competition. Peter Csonka blew his first ride, so added considerable pressure to his second run, yet the professional performer made his mark with a killer ride, and proved that come the Semi’s he has what it takes to deliver. Nick Troutman, yet again gave us all a lesson in modern aerial freestlye, loving the crowd, firing them up before heading into the wave, its show time and this is the entertainment. At this point it is increasingly difficult to wonder how Nick can be beaten. Still tomorrow evening its Semi Finals, where one ride counts out of two runs, and here is the most difficult round to ensure your shot at the crown on Sunday. In Finals you get three runs and one counts, a little easier, but with some much at stake who can say, right now things are looking very interesting for everyone watching.
Heavy rain certainly cleared the air for Thursday morning, and events got going at 10 sharp. The action for the ladies was a great show, often a lot of safe surfing and then bang, a cool aerial move, its was eye catching stuff.
In the crowd of ladies, were two new nations competing at the Worlds, Prossy Merembe from Uganda and Sunuwar Rai Susmita from Nepal. Both were very nervous and both have a great time in front of the people of Thun. These paddlers have received support from the ICF’s Canoe World programme, where funding for paddlesports development can be used to bring athletes to major events. Sunuwar Rai Susmita yesterday had her first visit to a supermarket and was so excited to see all the vast range of goods. Afterwards she was so drained, she slept all afternoon, which clearly did her good, as she was all smiles on and off the water.
The action at the sharp end of the ladies competition was attention grabbing, a blend full of fine moves and disappointment. Nerves seamed to pull several paddlers whom in practise were very much on fire, yet by competition day had become all but a damp smoulder. The likes of ex-Champ Jutta Kaiser from Germany and ex-European Champ Lowri Davies both fell well short of their potential. There were some great surprises too, Kataya Kulkova from Russia found form after a tense training week and new girl Carly McDonald banged out some great air blunts and a donkey flip to cruise into the top 10.
The entertainment of the ladies prelims belonged to the duelling pair of Ruth Gordon and Emily Jackson, who got 713 and 601 points respectively. Today’s show was not all theirs to revel in, as neither found their form of the training week, plus with the added pressure from Tanya Faux on 500 and Mariann Sæther on 528 clearly having an impact on performance. Tanya and Mariann looked strong, both with 3 or 4 air moves, yet the consistent rides were with Ruth and Emily, both repeatedly nailed left and right air back stabs, to please the waiting crowd no end. This race will probably get quite tight as we approach the semi’s on Saturday, until then its Quarterfinal tomorrow for the men and ladies, plus the King of the Wave and Raft Ender event to look forward too.
Overnight rain gave rise to a damp morning and an overcast sky. Day 3 in Thun looked like it would be a very grey affair. With the event still in the prelim stages, mid week was for the Canoe classes and Juniors. Due to very late night practise I was sleeping in this morning and missed the C1 and OC1, yet my training partner on the water last night, Jeremy Laucks of the USA, hit a huge air loop in his open boat to please the crowd in the morning. Next up were the C1 paddlers, and my hot tip from the training days Guillaume LaRue of Canada made several clean air moves, including his very flash looking air screw to bring home the bacon, and a score of 1000, which would of put him in the top 10 of the kayakers. Brit Dave Bainbridge was not far be hide on 930, expect the Semi Finals on Saturday to be tight.
After lunch, the Junior Ladies went, and we saw some nervous paddling. Imagine, you’re 16 years old, you’ve battled with your team mates for the 6 team practise sessions, at night the eddy is completely full, and now you are in the bull pit with hundreds of people watching. Your friends and family are making all the noise they can, national flags are flying and you need to make a show of your paddling. Needless to say, thanks for the four rides, the first one can be a throw away. And once one gets into the rhythm of paddling, the moves start to flow, smiles are found and any tension departs. True to form Nouria from France sat on the wave blunting here and there, sometimes with air, and pretty much surfed out her rides in control and with style. Needless to say it was no surprise she got nearly 4 times the score of the 2nd place. With the rest of the girls making semifinals hitting around 100 points, its going to be tight for the 5 places of Sunday’s Final.
The junior mens was another matter all together. Few nerves were shown, only some frantic paddling to ensure the wave was caught, before the throwdown. The French supports dressed up to appear as quintessentially French as possible; beret, pencil line moustache and tricolour colours adorned. This made for a great party atmosphere with lots of noise with every French boaters paddle stroke. The French support clearly worked as both Sebastien and Thomas made the cut. A pre-event favourite Dane Jackson, wobbled at first but pulled through on his second ride to ensure that he beats his Father’s score in the Mens class from yesterday. Devyn Scoot from Canada hit the big moves to put up a 1200 point score that would of placed him 8th in the Mens. In the final heat Jason Craig, gave a finale performance with huge rides, and amped the crowd who cheered him on, always surfin’ off to a big cheer and wearing a huge smile. This boy flies, and boy does he enjoy himself, a great end of day show. Jason from the USA scored 1700 points, this would make 2nd place in the mens. The race for the title is going to be a great one to watch.
All today’s classes top ten go straight to semi’s, where they get 2 rides and only one counts, this is the toughest round of the event and where the tactical advantage of going towards the end of the pack can ensure a smoother passage to the final 5 places, yet like all things in white water, everything can change in a moments notice.
The long day, the mens K1 preliminaries that is. Over a hundred wave shredders, sized the Thun wave from over 32 nations, all in the hope to getting the phat tricks and big air to make it to the quarterfinals day on Friday. Last night the lake level had dropped so much that the wave was turned off over night, so after some readjusting first thing, we were off……
Early on Billy Harris set the marker with 1500 points. It was a stout start for Freestyles’ persistent medal hunter. Steven Wright made some excellent big air moves to score 1400 points and Simon Strohmeier nailed his clean pan-ams hitting 1100 points. Soon after, Peter Csonka fired up some 800+ points a ride to score 1600+, in the best two rides from a four run format used in the first round of the competition. By lunch time, these three were the only paddlers to break the 1000 point barrier. EJ hunting for his fourth was down on 900, after short rides with numerous helix attempts failed to bring the big score to his door.
After a short respite, Finland’s Miku managed to pull out the big crowd pleaser, a huge air loop at the end of a great aerial ride. Miku, a relative unknown on the international scene, trains in the far North of Finland all Summer long, just short of the Arctic Circle. The likes of Anthony Yap with his house made creation, threw several trademark clean pan-ams, but the big scoring moves were not forthcoming. By mid afternoon, numerous riders had placed their claims for the crown, yet it was not until late in the day, Nick Troutman hit proverbial home run, and so significantly was it struck, that it might as well be into outer space. Each run was a lesson in modern aerial freestyle, and delivered some 2500+ points and a place into Quarter Finals.
Considerable rain is due overnight, and the lake levels are predicted to recover. So a great weekend is on hand, just 2 more days of prelims, Canoe types and da youth go in the morning. Until Wednesday’s postcard, follow the talk of the day on simon_in_thun
