Greg Daspher drives 50 km each way from Squamish almost every day in the high water season to kayak the Callaghan creek. This river is at immediate threat for a hydro dam.
Calling European Alps my home left me stunned by the amount of unpopulated nature and free-flowing rivers in British Columbia. European kayakers can only imagine how much of our good white-water has been lost to the dams. Yes, I know I use electrical power every day and I’m aware that there’s a need to compromise in contemporary world, but who can blame me for loving the untouched nature? BC still has plenty of it and I feel serenity and amazement every time I find myself far away from anything reminding me of human civilization, except for maybe an old deserted logging road, which often tends to present the only access to the rivers here.
While big dams’ impacts are quite evident, from big populations of people having to be relocated, huge changes to the environment and even effects on climate, there seems to be much less general public concern regarding small dams and diversions. Why should we care about a small creek in a middle of nowhere, right?
Me on a renowned Ashlu rapid 50/50. A diversion dam has been built on Ashlu creek in 2009. Being a kayakers’ classic, kayakers (or somebody aware of the issue) managed to negotiate flow release dates for recreational kayaking.
Ashlu creek sees many kayakers on the dam release dates.
Hydro dams and diversions do not fit best into the wild environment and they tend to make river sections unrunnable for kayakers. Those are good enough arguments to have me opposing them, but they aren’t the only cons there are. Just from environmental point of view, small dams also fiercely affect fragile river ecosystems and can have devastating effects on fish populations. Most of them being hidden from our sight of view doesn’t change that fact. Read THIS report for a reference of incidents just around Squamish. It is also notable, that many of these projects produce most of their power at a time of spring run-off, time when there is no shortage of power generated by existing facilities. Finding a right balance between satisfying power needs while trying not to leave major ecological impact is challenging enough, but there are some deeper concerns involved with the trends of hydro power plant development, not only in BC, but anywhere in the world.
But let’s go back to a beautiful July morning, when me and a few kayaker buddies decided to go run a small creek named Skookum, located just a few kilometers outside of Squamish. We knew that not too long ago Run of River Power inc., a private energy company, started building a diversion dam far above the classic kayaking section of this very small creek. Having experience with European construction workers and security procedures involving such projects I expected being rejected before even asking about letting us kayak the section, on what would probably be a last attempt before they dam it. Instead we were welcomed by very nice workers, who were all trying to help us get to the river. I remember one of them saying “we are locals too and we are trying to work in the best interest of land and our community.” At the end we didn’t get to kayak, because we couldn’t find a put-in, after the landscape has been changed so much by construction work, that we couldn’t match it to the old river descriptions. It was my only day off for a while so sadly we didn’t make it back before the water level dropped too much.
Looking for a Skookum creek put-in. The old beta said drive to the end of the road. New road was built in a matter of months and is far longer than the old one.
Unrecognisable hill top at the Skookum creek. This was all forest just half a year ago.
Interesting is a story of Ashlu creek. Innergex is a company that owns the controversial Ashlu diversion. After strong opposition from kayak community, a compromise agreement has been made, which granted kayakers flow release dates. At the end kayakers were left with even more days with runnable water levels than before. It seems that a great battle has been won and a case example set for better relations between kayakers and any energy corporation.
It almost seems like we should applaud these corporations for their concerns for the local communities and kayakers, but who especially needs applauding are their PR departments. This situation inherently reminds me of how “philanthropic” financial institutions, like Rockefeller foundation, supported anthropological researches to better understand and communicate with indigenous people in faraway lands. Of course the agenda there was to avoid any resistance and to optimize conditions of exploitation of these lands.
After asking what do local communities, local environment and society in general gain with these interventions in nature, it is clear that something smells fishy. Quoting Hydropower Reform Coalition on a case of Washington State, about twice as much energy could be made just by improving efficiency of existing dams, than as building dams on potentially exploitable rivers. Energy corporations’ major argument pro building these is also providing jobs to locals. The fact is that most of workers on these projects aren’t locals and the jobs are available only for a time of construction. I believe that local communities can lose a lot more in long term by scaring their beautiful untouched nature and making it less attractive for tourism. Do locals get cheaper power after construction is done? Who is making profit here? If energy corporations are making profit, they are making it by selling power to faraway lands (because BC has enough power in time of spring run-off LINK and that’s the time when most excess energy is produced by small hydro dams) – and nobody but they seems to be making profit of it. Learning all that makes it clear that somebody did a really good job in “educating” locals, fishermen, environmentalists and us kayakers that in fact we are scoring a good deal.
Should we really let ourselves be silenced for getting some treats? The big question is where does this trend lead to? Maybe today these companies aren’t making much profit of it. But imagine the world decades from now. Who knows what can happen. Northern countries have plenty of water now, but the climate is changing and the glaciers are melting fast. What does privatization of water sources lead to in times when water can’t be taken for granted any more?
I’m happy to see there is more and more concern and awareness about this issue. I love a short educational video Hydro Power Reform has published on vimeo: Small Hydro Power. There has also been a noticeable revolt from the local kayaking community in the Southeast BC, though it has been largely limited to the rivers that are often used for recreational purposes. Cheers especially to the efforts of Steve Arns, Ric Moxon and other local kayakers for their swift and strong opposition to Innergex’s consideration of diverting one of Southeastern BC’s most kayaked and overall most impressive runs around, the Callaghan creek. If they can divert a river with such importance to us, kayakers will be shown to have no real power at all. Join a facebook page Save the Callaghan and educate yourself to help with the cause. The Callaghan race saw the most racers in its 4-year history so far. 52 competitors showed up, not just to compete, but to show tribute to this amazing creek and help support the efforts to leave this creek free-flowing. We can’t do much if we are few, but these numbers and the efforts of some people leave space for optimism.
My Callaghan Race team buddy Marlow McGregor enjoying the Callaghan rapids.
Callaghan creek. As good as it gets!
Crowd at a new Callaghan put-in before the race.
A group shot after the Callaghan Race.
Free flowing, remote and extremely beautiful. Tatlow creek is pure heaven for kayakers. Photo credit Jordan Bastin.
Me on a Tatlow creek 40 foot Slide. Photo credit Jordan Bastin.
On Monday evening the 2013 World Freestyle Kayak Championships opened with the official ceremony in Bryson City. Bryson City is actually a little town but it seemed like every person who lives here came out to greet the athletes as we paraded down the main street.
The local Cherokee tribe took part in the ceremony with a show of their traditional singing & dancing even grabbing athletes and members of the crowd to join the dancing. It was a really nice touch to welcome all nations, become friends and get to see the culture of the people who originally lived on this land and are luckily still keeping their traditional ways and culture going. Straight afterwards Kayakers took to the big air ramp to kick off the show and the event until musicians took over the entertainment with a big concert along the street.
This opening ceremony definitely gave us a distinct taste of America and some of it’s unique characters who came to greet us, some of them that you could definitely only see here. It was really nice though that so many people came to welcome us, see our sport and have a good time socialising with the athletes.
Competition
Today (Tuesday) the competition finally started with Junior Mens & OC1 prelims. Rides were as we were expecting of a very high standard.
Junior Men’s prelims was stormed by the USA’s Hunter Katich, we hadn’t seen him in training so hadn’t counted him as a favourite, turns out he’d been sick so had been away, now back on the water it looks like the rest has paid off as he is now definitely THE favourite, scoring 1979, with his best ride getting 1100+, a score that would likely put him in the senior mens semi’s. But not far behind was Max Karlson of SWE in 2nd with 1206, Thomas Richard of FRA was 3rd with 1138 & in 4th was USA’s Alec Vorhees. (Alec I should have mentioned as another favourite in my last blog as he’s been flying, just somehow slipped my mind. Sorry Alec).
Hunter Katich - USA
Max Karlson – SWE
Alec Vorhees – USA
Click the above results to see full size.
Even with Hunter’s impressive win today it’s hard to know if everyone was going all out or saving something for later, in my eye’s the event is still wide open, I think between them a huge fight for Gold is brewing. My personal pick is still that Max of Sweden will take the win.
Regarding the GBR boys they’d been doing great in practice and am sorry to report none of them made the cut to 10. Brandurn Hepburn just missed out in 11th. A hard thing to take for him, he is a great paddler and one who i was sure to see in finals, but often when you miss your target like this, when the sadness fades it’ll really spur you on, so I think he’ll come back even better and deadlier in thge future for sure!
A great performance though came from GBR’s 14 year old Jake Norman, at his first international event came in 12th! He’d really impressed me in training with his never give up attitude, focused approach and big moves. I know he wanted to go further but this was a great first showing for him and he’ll be one to watch in the coming years, i’d tip him to be a Junior Champion next time and if he keeps going the way he is will be a at the very top very quickly.
Open Canoe has usually been considered a bit of a joke but this Worlds I’ve seen moves being thrown I never thought would be seen in OC1. In practice I’ve been forced to take back my previous criticisms of the discipline as Jordan and Dane of the USA have been regularly getting Fonix’s, Mc’Nasties, Loops, Lunar Orbits and much more!!! No surprises that Jordan Poffenburger took the top spot with Dane Jackson just behind. It’s actually going to be a good battle to watch between them!!!
Well that’s it for today, tomorrow is squirt events then Mens Prelims are on Thursday, Women’s Prelims on Friday so please watch online & cheer us on!!!
I view kayaking as a convenient way to sample KFC around the globe. I must have sampled eleven secret herbs and spices in four continents. Easily over twenty countries. Despite my best efforts, I have struggled to find KFC which can match ours. In the USA, I am presented with watery mash; in Pakistan, with chicken so dry that I’d be pretty miffed with America too.
For reasons which I will explain, this practise has recently led me to question myself: If I am never more than a long drive a way from a Zinger Tower, have I ever really been on an expedition? Well, I suppose that depends on your definition. There was a recent thread on UKRGB which discussed, at length, the difference between an expedition and a holiday. It’s amusing that in our minds, the two ideas are incomparably different yet there is no functional way of telling them apart.
When I woke up at 3.30am, I thought to myself that the next three hours before my alarm was supposed to ring were going to be hilarious, later. This could only mean that they were going to be horrible. My down sleeping bag, zip broken and now completely saturated clung to me like a bin-bag full of cod. My clothes, which were already wet, lay in a puddle beside me. A wet dog sprawled on my feet, snoring. Vango festival tents, it appears, are not suitable for Icelandic storms. For the next three hours I would sit, wait and think. I also cried a bit.
Before we set off. Ignorance is bliss.
Friðrik ‘Frikki’ Garðarsson, Chris Griffiths, Dan Rea-Dickins and I had hiked for over 6 hours along the banks of Hamersá, a river which doesn’t waste very much time between a glacier and the eastern fjords of Iceland. We followed sheep trails which were the only discernible tracks once the off-road trail had ended. An agile 4×4 of the animal kingdom, sheep seem to favour scree slopes and overhangs. Humans, who are generally more suited to Segways and travelators, tend to struggle. Skúli, an experienced local reindeer guide who was still somehow alive after five or more decades, had earlier reminded us that we would most likely only be evacuated in body bags.
Even before the fog had set in, we had seen enough waterfalls to know that we were somewhere special; a kayaking paradise. Having already assured countless people that this was the case, Frikki was impressed. When we did get round to paddling it, the Hamersá was a phenomenal day out and we didn’t even nearly complete it. Countless waterfalls hid behind the colossal walls above our put in.
Dan on the Hamersá.
But was this an expedition? Well, it depends on your definition. It didn’t involve any frostbite, shipwrecks, missing fingers or quiet walks into the night. If we would have really needed it, we could have had a KFC. In Iceland, KFC is of an excellent standard. But in those three hours, the worst night’s sleep of my life, I came up with my own definition:
“An expedition is much more fun once it’s finished.”
James
x
I again would like to thank Frikki: Expedition kayaker, doctor and somehow still a kayak bum, for an unforgettable adventure. Also thanks to Dan Rea-Dickins for organising us and carrying an excessively large camera.
Frikki on Fossá. They should call it ‘waterfall river’ or something.
It’s now just 2 more days of training left before the 2013 Freestyle Kayak World Championships kicks off here at NOC.
Everyone is here now and has had a chance to get used to the hole and various paddlers are really looking good. I actually think this will be the most hard fought Worlds ever, there has never been so many paddlers training full or almost full time with such good equipment: carbon boats, cagdecks, lightweight plastic. Most teams even have 1 or 2 coaches working with them.
It’s hard to really pick one favourite not just in men’s but in all categories. The problem is that the standard is so high. On their good days upto 10 paddlers in the men’s could realistically win here. I think the key will be who manages to keep a good attitude, enjoy themselves and not get too caught up on the idea of winning.
Personally, I had a breakthrough in my paddling a week or so ago when GB team coach Dennis Newton arrived and ever since I’ve felt on fire. I’ve had 3 rides I think would stand a very good chance of winning so am feeling confidant. That said it’s going to be hard for sure. Having won last time I feel no pressure to win here I just want to do my personal best rides and enjoy the event.
Katya has been looking really good, she had a rest day yesterday and today she totally ripped, if she keeps paddling like she is doing she will be a very strong contender for the Gold.
Also from the GB team & Palm team Bren Orton has been getting some top rides, I haven’t watched him too closely as we paddle at the same times but he is easily capable of a medal here and can throw some of the nicest moves of anyone. Then there is Alan Ward the 2005 Junior World Champion, who is getting better and better here, I’ve actually always admired how he paddles and he seems focused this year so I reckon we could see him right up there too.
Here is a video Alan threw together of our 2nd team training:
BUT if I was forced to choose some possible favourites beside myself, Bren & Alan here are my top tips on who to look out for.
Senior Men
Peter Csonka: 2012 World Cup winner and twice World Championships silver medallist I think Peter wants this one more than anyone. He won the World Cup event here last year and if he’s at his best will be the most difficult paddler to beat.
Dane Jackson: Dane is in his first year competing as a senior at a World Championships and he is going constantly huge on at least 2 or 3 moves a ride, he will be one of the most impressive to watch regardless of score but we’ll see if he’ll be able to fit in enough moves in the 45 seconds to take the win. In my eyes he’ll be on the podium for sure, just which place is a mystery.
Mathieu Dumoulin: Mathieu the double European champion loves smooth flowing sequences of linked moves, it’s very beautiful to watch. Sometimes he might miss the angles on a few things but I’ve seen him hit some winning rides in practice and if he is careful with making sure he scores everything he can possibly do the highest scoring ride of anyone.
Sebastien Devred: former Junior World Cup winner, he is a very powerful methodical paddler and looks very in control. His rides seem to be coming together and he’ll go for every move possible. It lacks a bit of the flair of some of the others but he is very consistent whereas everyone else is more up and down.
Nick Troutman: the 2009 Men’s World Champion, he’s a great competitor and very strong, fast and snappy. You can really tell he has done a lot of work this last two years as his hole paddling is right up there now. I’d say Nick could really fly if it all comes together in one ride.
Jason Craig: the 2009 Junior Men’s World Champion, he has one of the snappiest styles of anyone and loves going big, in my opinion if he focus’s and really concentrates on a smart ride he will be in the medals.
Tomasz Czaplicki: Tomasz from Poland is one of my favourite paddlers to watch, I’ve admired his style for years and has had some good results in Europe and I think this year might be the time for him to finally show his potential internationally. He’s just started using the carbon Dagger Jitsu and is literally flying in it. If he can show in the comp what I’ve seen of him so far he’s going to cause some big upsets
Senior Women
In women’s it looks like the battle for the medals is wide open. Every girl would sell her soul for some consistency. No one seems to paddle the same level every day, but I will at least pick the ones who’ve showed some potential during this couple of weeks:
Claire O’Hara: the current World Champion from GB is still the toughest one to beat but the other girls are really biting her heels.
Katya Kulkova: she is my wife so I’m biased, but for years I’ve seen how good she is in practice and this year she’s really started to flourish in competition. (She was on the podium in every event this year). Here she can really thrown Mc’Nasties, Fonix’s, Godzilla’s all very nice and big. She has had a few rides I think would win but its still not every ride like this. She’s my top pick for the one who will cause some big surprises.
Marlene Devillez: the double European champion showed the other day a couple of potentially winning rides; mc’nastys both ways, Loops & Godzillas all nice, big and aerial, but it’s hard to tell if she will be able to pull it off in competition here. (the spot is hard).
Japanese Girls: Two Japanese girls especially Hitomi have been showing themselves as the most consistent when they’re fresh. It’s very nice to see them doing so good and I very hope to see at least one of them in the final.
Ruth Gordon: the 2007 World Champion, she’s doing some top scoring moves occasionally and of course you can never discount a competitor as experienced as her but we’ll see if she maintains the focus she used to have with the distractions of having a real job and slower lifestyle now.
Nina Csonkova: she is capable of high scoring rides if things come together for her. Knowing how good a competitor she is we expect her to get to the finals at least.
American Girls: This year US women’s team is not as strong as usually with Emily Jackson absent but their is potential for new stars like Adrienne to get their hands on a medal, but in general they start to look a bit tired after a week straight of team training.
Juniors
In the Junior men’s I haven’t watched everyone but the stand out paddler for me it’s between Frances Thomas Richard who looks very good at his best but a bit inconsistent and Max Karlson of Sweden, he’s my fellow team Dagger paddler using the carbon Jitsu and simply he looks incredible, every move is huge and so snappy, I think win or not win he’s going to leave a fantastic impression on everyone who sees him. He is going to be a top paddler on the freestyle world for years if he keeps paddling how he is.
For the Junior Women’s USA’s Rowan Stewart is throwing some perfect Fonix’s and Mc’Nasties and really looks good, I’m just not sure if her consistency is good enough to topple Nuria Fontane of Spain who will be formidable for the other Junior’s to beat.
Now it’s time to get rested, have a last few easy sessions and prepare for World War 3 to kick off
Pushing your self to paddle harder rivers and rapids is not always easy. Before you make that decision to put on, there are so many different pressures and questions; Will I make all the necessary moves? Am I ready for this? Where will that water push me? Why do I even want to paddle this? Is that stopper flushing enough? Will I get hurt? What if I go over?
Most of the time when I’m confronted with a harder rapid, these kind of questions start to race through my head. To be honest I would be worried if they didn’t. After all, fear is mainly formed by the unknown or negative past experiences. To paddle a rapid well I find my mind needs to be 100% clear, focused and committed. But with all those questions whizzing around, it can be hard to achieve.
Somewhere between scouting that rapid, and dropping in I usually manage to settle the nerves and get myself into that clear state of mind. Over the past few years, I have developed a technique that helps me to do this. So I thought I would share & discuss it, in the hope that it may be useful to others. It’s very possible its something you already do, if this is the case perhaps this article will draw some attention to the skill, and help you develop it.
To get us started the skill I’m going to be talking about is commonly known as visualization; put in simple terms, imagining. Think back to a rapid that you have paddled multiple times. I’m guessing the more times you paddle it, the better you get at it (excluding the odd unlucky mess up) There are many reason we usually paddle stuff better after a few attempts but in essence the main reasons are because we start to get a feeling for what the water is going to do to us and when we need to place our strokes to get us down in good style. Provided you can agree with the above sentence, you will hopefully kind of agree with the next one. If we can get good enough at visualizing our selves paddling a rapid, then we have effectively paddled it, and have therefore already practiced it. So when we ‘actually’ paddle said rapid, we should be better off than if we had not visualized it.
An exercise for you; Imagine you are at the top of one of the more challenging rapids you have ever undertaken. You have scouted the rapid, safety is all set up and your boat is waiting at the top, now it’s all up to you. Can you imagine yourself paddling the line? If so, how vividly? Is your image in colour? Are you imagining your self in first person or third person? Can you make out every single move? Are you styling the line or do you see yourself messing up? Can you hear the water? Is it in real time, slow motion or fast forward? Can you sense what it feels like?
If you can answer some of these questions then you already possess the skill’s to visualize. Which I’m fairly sure everyone can do to some extent or another? However like all skills, they can be improved with good practice.
Unwrapping the skill of visualizing our selves paddle a rapid also expose’s other skills which we need to master. One of which is reading the terrain (white water/rapids). If we cant read the terrain, then we are not going to be able to work out where we need to go and if we cant do that, then we cant visualize our route through the rapid. If your new to white water, try to ask better paddlers about rapids, find out about the different features and how the river works. Reading the river is a skill and I think we can always improve it throughout our kayaking careers.
Once you are able to read the terrain and pick a path, you need to have a good idea of how you are going to get your boat to follow that route. Here is where we need to understand both the tactics (e.g lateral momentum etc) and the hard skills (e.g paddle waggling, edging etc) of white water kayaking.
With these two major components in place we are free to see the best route though a rapid, and know how to command the boat to follow that path. From that point on successful visualization becomes a lot easier. The reason it becomes successful visualization is because we are now creating an image of what should in theory be a positive out come e.g we style the rapid because we have picked a good line and rehearsed the correct moves.
I think it’s important to point out that picking a line, is not the same as actually imagining your self paddle it.
Going back to that first exercise, you can hopefully see that there is a sliding scale of creating an imaginary event. At the simplest end we might just be able to see ourselves from a third person point of view, but the images is hazzy and we cant work out how every move might look. And at the other end, we can create an image so intense it feels real.
My theory is that the more realistic an image (or perhaps brain video?) We can create, the more useful it’s going to be to us.
Second Exercise: Look at the photos bellow of the same rapid. Your challenge is to pick a line, and then to see if you can visualize yourself paddle it. Can you create these pictures into a brain video of yourself paddling the rapid?
Top view
Bottom stopper
Bottom View
Side View
If you can, it’s probably because you have paddled a similar rapid before. If you have never paddled anything like this, then it may be very difficult to picture. The reason behind this is because of Engrams.
When learning a new paddle stroke, our motion is often inaccurate and jerky. This is because all of our muscles are having to be monitored through various kinesthetic sensors that are then analyzed by the brain, which in turn sends signals back to our muscles. If we continue to try to learn that stroke, our brain starts to write an Engram. This is a file stored by our brain, with an instruction manual on how to do that movement. Not only is it an instructional file on how to do that skill, it is also an effective short cut which allows us to reproduce the skill with a lot less effort. With an Engram in place our brain in no longer having to monitor thousands of conscious signals, which allows it to concentrate on other things.
To put this in context, the larger the range of rapids we paddle, the bigger the selection of engrams available to us. When we arrive at a rapid that looks/feels similar to something we have done in the past, our brain is able to access old engrams and use it to help us. Hence the masters of visualization will be the people who are very experienced in their sport. They will have an engram for almost any situation, so like a jig saw puzzle they’re able to put the pieces together to create an image for every part of the rapid. Whereas a less experience paddler may be able to look at a rapid, visualize breaking in, paddling over the waves, but then get stuck when it comes to getting over/around the final stopper, this is because they have never been over a drop and as such do not know how it looks or feels. But the more experienced paddler would have an engram for that drop and as such would be able to picture it and know how to apply the skill.
So the type of Visualization we have talked about so far is all aimed at creating a vision of yourself paddling a chosen rapid. This is very useful for learning where to go, and what moves to put in. In fact it has been shown by research (scanners) that by visualizing a task, your brain is firing all same signals as if it were when doing the actual task.
For the purpose of this article I would like to call this ‘factual visualization’. You are trying to create what will hopefully become an event. You are using the visualization technique to help you perform better.
To a large extent ‘Factual Visualization’ will only help us control our anxieties if we believe that in doing it, it will make our upcoming performance better. There is also one other type of Visualization technique that I would like to talk about. For the sake of the article I will call it ‘Motivational Visualization’ this is where we perhaps need to boost our confidence and get ourselves all fired up and ready to go. How to go about this? Well, I think its simple, picture some of the more positive moments you have had down challenging white water in the past. Remind your self of what you have done in the past, and how capable you are of doing it. It will be most useful if you can picture a similar style of rapid. But if not, don’t worry, just keep the positive flow’s coming, picture your self as strong and capable and ready to style!
Think of a game of tennis, so much of it is mental, when one player gets on a high the other may be on a low. Now think about how there performances differ. All we are trying to create with Motivational Visualization is the mind set of the winning tennis player.
Some top tips for practicing:
The great thing about visualization is that it can be practiced in most day to day tasks. Try simple exercises like putting an object on the floor (such as a ball) then stand back a few meters, visualize picking up the object, then shut your eyes and see if you can do it.
Like all new skills in kayaking, try it out on terrain you already feel quite confident in before trying it out on bigger rapids.
Try closing your eyes, to help you focus.
Use your hand to draw the shape of your chosen line, this could be a helpful prop and allow you to learn the line in a learning style perhaps more suited to you.
Do some air paddling. It may look a little odd, but by practicing the sequence of stroke’s on the river bank you will start to build up an idea as to how it should feel. To do this in the most effective way visualize your route down the rapid whilst doing the strokes.
The next time your out on the river, have a go at visualizing some lines (factual visualization), as well as conjuring up some strong positive images (Motivational visualization). Once you can see yourself getting all the way down, and hitting every move, see if you feel calmer. If you cant see it or you can only see your self not making the line, then perhaps your not ready for that rapid?
I hope its been a helpful read, its mainly my own thoughts on the matter, combined with some previous reading on the subject.
Tomorrow we are one step closer towards kicking off the 2013 World Champs as the 8 days of official nations training begins.
Yesterday was chance for everyone to have some fun in aid of a good cause at the NOC Pro-Am WorldKayak throw down. All to raise money for the First’s Descents programme. (A kayaking based cancer charity that takes cancer survivors out kayaking to help them re-build their lives).
The idea is that two amateurs (usually kids) join up with one ‘Pro’, the pro coaches the kids in the morning and then we all compete in the afternoon. Each team member get’s two rides, then the average is worked out based on all the team members runs. It was all a bit of fun but so close to Worlds it was a good chance to see how we’re all stacking up in competition so far, with Dane Jackson, Bren Orton, EJ & Nick Troutman all leading teams.
I was fortunate to get two great young paddlers, 11-year-old Isaac Hull & 16 year old Kenya Ingram. Both could already throw down some great loops, cartwheels and splits and were working on mc’nasties. In Isaac’s practice run he impressed everyone with a textbook paddle throw loop and then followed it up with a paddle-less backloop…. I think Junior’s are just getting better and better. I certainly couldn’t do the things they were doing at their age.
It was nice to paddle together, see if we could improve and cheer each other & everyone’s teams on. A real good atmosphere. I just went in and had a good time throwing the moves I liked to do and the kids did the same, so we came away as the top placed team in 1st position Hopefully it’s a good omen of things to come in 14 days time….
After the comp was the prize giving and a silent auction to raise even more money for First Descents. It was really good being out on the water, having fun with good people in aid of something worthwhile. Thanks everyone for such a good day especially Isaac & Kenya, you guys rock!
Now we have just 12 days until men’s prelims & 13 days until Women’s prelims, I’m feeling really good, my comp rides keep getting better and better and I feel like I’m just enjoying myself trying to see just what I can do in a ride here. I’ve grown to really love the hole here. Katya is similarly stepping it up with her Phonic’s & Mc’nasties getting more and more consistent so both of us are just really enjoying our paddling. Now almost everyone is here and team training kicks off tomorrow so we’ll be able to really see who’s doing what so will update you soon on the continued progression of all the top kayakers ripping it up out here
It’s now just 14 days away until the 2013 Freestyle Kayak World Championships kicks off in Nantahala, USA.
We’ve been at NOC the rafting base/ comp site for the last week now and it’s good to see all the faces old & new showing up and getting the hang of the hole.
It’s like a rainforest here, it’s rained consistently everyday! The upside is that it’s quite warm and the area is lush with forests so it’s very scenic all around us but it does make it hard to get our new thermals dry
The hole is quite tricky for some moves, but everything goes and because of the challenging nature it’s fun trying to figure out all your moves here.
It feels quite fresh and exciting this year, all the companies have new boats to show off and the number of paddlers ripping is higher than ever. It really feels like freestyle’s booming again.
Speaking of standard it’s quite impressive how much Women’s and even Junior women’s have come on in the last two years. It’s not unusual to see junior girls throwing Mc’nasties or Phonic’s and now it’s many senior women regularly throwing the big moves, I think there scores will be much closer to the men’s than we’ve ever seen. Even open canoeists are throwing mc’nasties and lunars!
In the men’s it’s going to be the battle royale, there are European Champions, WW GP winners, World Cup winners, multiple former World Champs and many new comers all fighting it out to get there best rides ready, it’s a very open competition so far, I predict the winning ride is going to be quite an insane ride & score.
Team Palm members that are here so far are myself, Katya & Bren. Personally I’m very happy with how I’m getting used to the hole, rides are going great but I still need to get some consistency in my Lunars & Tricky Whu’s to give me the extra jump up to stand a chance of winning but there is plenty of time for me to put the finishing touches to my ride. Bren fresh back from creeking all summer has got back into playboating without any struggle by the looks of it, he’s looking powerful as ever and has been getting some rides that could get him a medal already. Katya has had a great year of competition so far, and straight away has been doing rides that will let her go far, she’s just been working on getting her mc’nasty and phonics consistent which would give her a winning ride, she actually got one ride today that I don’t think is beatable
So to wrap my blog up here are my current tips on who else is looking good:
Dane Jackson, it’s no surprise but he’s really throwing some very nice moves and rides and he’s almost certainly going to be on the podium.
Peter Csonka I haven’t seen too many full rides of him yet as I think he’s mostly getting all his moves dialled in but he won here last year and of the full comp rides I’ve seen him go for they’d be tough to beat, he’s also in my eyes the best competitior in freestyle, no one steps it up like he does under pressure.
For women’s – Claire O’Hara is looking strong, but not all of her main competition arrived yet, it’s also nice to see quite a few new girls coming up and paddling well. Japanese girls very impressed us with their progress from last year, some American girls like Adrienne learned new moves, and many strong paddlers from Europe. So I think in the women’s it will be a tough fight as well.
So back to training for us we’ll have an update up again soon as more faces arrive and team training’s get started, this would be the time to pick our favourites and let you know how we’re looking!
In July we had 2 girls who were MIA. Deb was missing due to a festival where she was seeing some unknown band (Mumford and Sons! J ) – originally the weekend had been booked for the previous one but then Georgie went and organised the wedding of the year for that weekend! - and Suzie, who was on board an Icebreaker somewhere in the Artic, Polar Bear spotting (well actually she was working taking important biological samples of something but I think that’s just her cover story!). So we invited some girls along who had shown an interest in becoming a part of the squad to give us numbers and try to fill the massive holes left by our team mates.
Missing 2 of our girls!
On a more serious note, after the Worlds some of the ladies will be taking retirement both temporarily and permanently, so we are looking to build on the team and start training as a squad. We believe in this way we can be even more successful and hopefully attend even more events. So we invited the girls down to train in a boat alongside us to see what we put ourselves through for this fantastic sport.
Kate doesn’t look too impressed with the pre-session warming up…
Amid the heat wave it seemed Nottingham was the only place where we had cloud and rain! This was probably a good thing as our first session on Saturday morning was Endurance, Dave Brown Style, and the much loved/hated milk bottle session!! 6 sets of 5x100m sprints, each 100m one more milk bottle would be thrown into the water (tied to rope) to create resistance. The spare person would rotate into the middle and do either squats or the plank!! The newbies had a go at this but then set about working on technique…we don’t blame them, baptism of fire or what!
The Newbies setting up for a sprint start. Looking good!
That afternoon we had slalom sessions and were lucky enough to have stand-in coach ETIENNE-OLYMPIC-GOLD-MEDALIST-STOTT!! (and newly wedded husband to George CONGRATULATIONS!). His input was invaluable and it is so good having someone external watching from the bank.
Fran goes for the gate! Let’s hope she doesnt pull herself out!
Our hero! Putting it to us straight :)
The New girls getting some pointers
…then laying it down!
That evening was spent in the pub having a lovely dinner, can you imagine us cooking for 11 people? Nothing would get decided on and we would all get so hangry (hungry anger) that we would end up having a massive fight! As it was, the pub was so busy and some of the girls waited about an hour for their dinner.
There wasn’t a photo of us in the pub… but this is us thinking about food, hopefully this sets the scene…serious stuff!
Day 2 we were joined by both our Coach Dave and Etienne! Double Whammy. Once again working on Slalom in the morning. But the big session was our Head to Head training in the afternoon. Dave set us a one gate course which we had to race down repeatedly, GB boat verses the New Girls, and it shows we invited along some of the right people because we didn’t always win!(clearly I’m not going to show you photographic evidence of that!) We had some awesome battles and the gate certainly made it anyone’s race.
Everybody loves a good battle!!
Not bad, Newbies, not bad!
Showing why we do put in all that training!
The weekend was a great success, and although we now won’t see the Newbies until after the worlds, they have had a taste of what it is to train hard for the title of GB Ladies.
A great weekend, some familiar faces and some new ones!
Double Drop at the Start of the race course on the Ayasse
This year’s edition of the Italian Eporedia Active Days in the beginning of June took place in the Ayasse valley and on the artificial race course in Ivrea. The newly found race course on a steep and demanding section of the Ayasse river offered enough water and so the competition went through with some interesting lines and even some swims. Compared to the former years less competitors took part but they got rewarded with a way better organisation of the event, an awesome dinner up in the small village Pontboset and four days of great summer weather in between the rainy European spring and early summer 2013.
Ayasse race course in Pontboset – “Corner Drop” in the back
During the day before the race on the Ayasse almost all the competitors showed up and went down the race section together to check out the lines. The competitors merged together to an awesome crew on the river, paddling together and working out the lines during the training. So in contrast to the usual individual training before a white water competition where everybody is just doing his own laps down the race course this time the training day turned into a fun paddling day on the river with a big group of some of worlds best kayakers.
happy to get a fast line through the first Double Drop
The individual- and team-race race course started with a technical Double Drop in the beginning, followed by some class III. Next difficulty was the “Corner Drop” with a sticky hole in the end, which claimed most of the swims during the competition followed by a 3 meter drop also with a sticky hole at the bottom. Next few hundred meters offered some easier white water before the last beautiful drop under a romaine bridge leaded into the finish pool. The King of the Falls section involved a difficult entry rapid and ended with a 70m long slide, so spectators were well entertained.
King of the Falls – Final Slide
Summing up the race-course on the Ayasse was definitely the hardest race-course I have ever competed on.
right after the start, entering the first drop of the “Double Drop”
But once the competition side moved from the Ayasse valley to the town of Ivrea it didn´t get much easier. Spectators got to see some hard battles. During the slalom race only 8 competitors managed to pass all the gates in both runs and in the end the fight in the Boater X decided about the overall win.
Slalom Race – town of Ivrea in the back
After four incredible days with the best competitors crew ever, no injuries (except the Russian who ended as a victim in our international rugby game the other night and got a stitched eyebrow) the new King of the Falls (Sam Sutton), Kayak Freeride World championships by Nations (New Zealand) and the overall winners (Jamie Sutton and myself) have been honoured in the “Stadio della Canoa” in the Piedmont town of Ivrea.
girls team checking the line on the entry double drop
Check back for all results here: http://www.eporediaactivedays.com/en/sports/kayak/results
It is exactly 21 days until the 2013 World Championships begins.
I arrived a few days ago and have been rapidly getting my freestyle mojo back.
The hole isn’t by any means the most spectacular feature, but it offers up every trick in the book and almost any combo you can think of.
The competition is going to be fierce with the usual big names on top of their game and serval up and comers looking set to dominate.
We have plenty of time to polish of individual moves/ rides before the event begins but the line up is going to be stacked after the next week.
Currently I am training 3 times a day and fighting the temptation to go run the Green. However, the Demshitz boys roll into town on thursday which will make it even harder to stay off the creeks and stick it out in the line up …
