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!
A trip out to Rost ,the southern most chain of islands in Lofoten , i had been here once before on an open crossing of 6 hours ,but never had a chance to explore.A magical place full of peace and wildlife and very different from the other islands and rarely visited by kayakers
Well worth a visit
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 …
The Sjoa River Festival is a fun kayakers event organised by Simon Westgarth and hosted by Gene17, Strie Strommer, Palm, and Sweet Protection. The week long festival has races and activities ranging from guided beginner trips down more mellow sections of river to races down sections with a bit more gradient.
Kiwi boys Sam, Jamie, and Brendan taking out first place in the teams race.
Due to some spray deck issues Team VRS came in a long way behind first place.
With the American freestyle circuit over it was time to step back from meticulously practicing rides in small features, strap on our manly dangly parts and head to Washington.
This was my first time on a creek boating mission and I was lucky enough to be travelling with a sick crew. The Demshitz boys have been running some of the best runs in the states for years.
We had a sick trip firing of a couple of sweet drops such as Log Choke, Silver falls, Exit and Hamma Hamma.
I learn’t lots quickly with the boys, had a pretty bad crash on my first attempt at Hamma Hamma but nailed it on my second attempt, Huge thanks to Dave Fusilli for saving my ass on the first attempt, Footage coming soon.
After 6 weeks of solid creek boating it was time to wind down and head to Outdoor Retailer, The show has one more day to go before I head out to North Carolina to practice for the upcoming world championships.
Situated in Egmont,Bc. Skookumcuck is a series of tidal rapids that form on certain tides to produce what is probably the glassiest wave in the world. It’s been my dream from an early age to surf skook and this year I finally got the chance.
The waves form when the tide flows rapidly over a seemingly flat piece of water, as both the water speed and volume of water increase a reef is revealed and the wave starts to form. The first wave is the main event but much fun can be had wrestling with the boils, whirlpools and crashing waves downstream.
I’ve been working hard to progress my wave freestyle over the past few years. Check out the video I made of me and the Demshitz boys throwing down in Canada.
I have never paddled a wave that is as smooth or as nice and can’t wait to head back.
We’ve spent the last week paddling, training and enjoying Salt in Catalonia. After the Natural Games we didn’t know where best to go to to train for the next week. Quim Fontane Maso (European Champion) suggested to come to his home spot in the city of Salt.
The hole which Quim and his Dad built themselves has been perfect for training – not too easy, some tricky aspects but gives some good pop and good competion practice. Also paddling with Quim & Nuria in their home spot really pushed us and was good fun too.
The area has been stunning from the medievel village Besalu where we stayed to, the sights of Girona and Barcelona. We’ve seen buildings by Gaudi, paintings by Dali and Picasso and bridges from Eiffel but I think what I liked best of the area was the crystal clear water and deserted beaches…rest days were not hard to fill here! With such good kayaking, company & scenary it’s been a joy to train here.
Quim, Nuria ,Teresa (mum) & Dad (Joaquim) were amazing to us – I’ve never had such good hospitality – from housing us, to showing us all the best bits of the area to inviting us to particpate in there floodlight night session and mass river descent the next day. They were fantastic.
Now it’s time for us to leave and head to Sort where we have the next competition looming, sorry to leave what’s been my favourite spot of the year but looking forward to getting another chance to compete.
Hopefully it’s a good omen of things to come in 14 days time….
Simon demonstrating the throwbag olympics
Kayakers and raft guides unleashed!
