World Rafting Championships Results

Rosie Cripps, our girl in the jungle, sent through this little round up from the World Rafting Championships in Costa Rica. The Palm sponsored GB ladies got fifth overall, a result they know only to well having manged it twice before. It sounds like the racing has been tough and the challenges of getting to and from the river even tougher – read on!

World Rafting Championships, Pacuare River Costa Rica, 2011

Sorry for the delay in posting updates on the competition – internet has been hard to get to and we became seperated from the person with the photographs!

The first day of competition went really well with us taking home a silver medal in the sprint discipline. This put us into a good place for the next days racing, giving us lane choice for the head to head. Our first race was against the home nation, Costa Rica which was a bit of a crowd pleaser! We got fast off the start and stayed ahead all the way to the finish with a good lead. Our time wasn’t fast enough however to give us lane choice against our old rivals Canada. In the last world championships we beat them to win gold however this time without lane choice we had to fight harder out of the eddy and ended up coming out just behind them, overtaking was tough and we were on their tail the whole way down. I think it was one of the best battles as the noise from the crowd was overwhelming! Well done to Canada for beating us, and to Japanese ladies for taking the win. After an exhauting day of racing we all hiked out from the river in the dark, for over an hour up a steep muddy trail. Tractors were the only vehicles capable of making their way halfway down the trail to pick up the ill and wounded, due to an intense tropical downpour.

Slalom was the next days challenge – and the Costa Rican’s certainly know how to set a tough one. The course was the hardest any of us had seen, and with limited time to scout everyone’s first run involved a bit of trial and error. There were some spectacular flips, especially from the Columbian mens team who finished an incredible run with a flip through the last gate. Unfortunately the course favoured those who strategically missed some gates due to its difficulty – not ususally the way we roll! However it was great to see all of the teams so challenged, and we were all fully exhausted by the end of 2 runs. We came in 7th out of 19 ladies teams. This was followed by another mud entrenched hike out of the river to the buses waiting high above the river. In case we weren’t tired enough, the evenings entertainment consisted of being chased around a rodeo ring by a variety of small energetic bulls! For those brave enough to take on the challenge a few horns were received to various limbs, the rest of us stayed well behind the bars and watched the chaos ensue.

Endurance was the final race of the competition. There had been a rolling debate as to how long it should be, with opinion divided between one hour 30 minutes vs a 40 minute stretch. In the end the finish line was moved to make an hour long race along one of the most spectacular sections of canyon in Costa Rica. Massive boulder gardens provided an awesome opportunity for us to overtake the USA, in one of the most daring moves of the day, mid class 4+rapid we battled for the central line through a boulder pinch and boofed a big hole whilst USA were fighting for the right line. We had a super fast exit from the hole and came out in the lead, just metres in front of them. We gained more and more ground from them over the next 30 minutes and finished 5th, only 12 seconds from the medal place over an hour long race. One of the most surreal moments of the endurance came as we rounded a corner deep in the jungle clad gorge and a helicopter swooped round in front of us with a couple of camera men hanging out of the doors rambo style, only 10 metres of so off the water. Amazing!

The final party was completely insane. There was more bull riding, this time with anyone and everyone having a free for all riding this massive muscled bull with huge horns bucking and bronking around the ring. Then Chino, one of the safety kayakers would appear on his Appaloosa stallion galloping into the ring (making Rosie and Georgie weak at the knees!) to lasoo the bull and return him to the pen for the next willling victim. Only in Costa Rica!

Overall the competition was very well organised, especially in such a remote location with very difficult logistics. The section of river they used was stunning, its setting deep in the jungle and incredible whitewater gave us all an experience we would never forget. The entertainment was second to none and atmosphere throughout the competition was brilliant. One of the best things about the whole operation was the way the safety was organised. Each day a team of over 20 safety kayakers and rafts set off to the river, set up pully systems, throw lines and safety boats to keep us safe. They all knew the river well, covered all of the danger spots and rescued numerous swimmers. They worked tirelessly all day, and still gave us a smile and cheer everytime we made a good line (or bad one!). Thankyou safety kayakers (we love you!) and to all of those who helped make the event possible. Pura Vida. We will be back.

To keep up-to date with rafting around the world take a look at the International rafting web site here.

World Raft Championships: The Build Up

We have just completed our final day of training before the competition starts. We spent the day running the main gorge section of the Pacuare that the endurance will be held on, perfecting our lines and trying alternatives. Around 30 teams from all over the world were on the river, and the atmosphere was fantastic. We also discovered that spending some time speaking to the safety kayakers )a team of at least 20 strong, positioned at key points along the gorge) was most definately worth it to find out which teams were taking the fastest lines, where the most flips and swims were happening, and getting some local knowledge of how the lines would change with different water levels. I think we spent around 7 hours on the river today!

Tomorrow is the opening cermony for the competition and a rest day. The afternoon will be spent with our fantastic osteopath who arrived on site today and has scheduled in a couple of hours of treament or us all just in time to balance us all our before the competition starts.

Rosie Cripps (6th October)

Palm Sponsor Senior Women’s GB Rafting Team

We’ve got 7 new exciting additions to the Palm fold this autumn in the form of the Senior Women’s GB Rafting Team and they’ve just arrived in Costa Rica for the World Rafting Championships. With nearly 80 years experience between them they’re strong contenders for the gold medal. Stay tuned here for updates during the competition.

For now though, here’s long time Palm paddler Rosie Cripps with a run down of the team and the competition.

We have arrived in Costa Rica – Pura Vida!

As a team of 7 from Wales, England and Scotland together we make up the GB ladies whitewater rafting team. Having been rafting or kayaking for most of our lives we are passionate about rivers and paddlesports, and have travelled to Costa Rica to compete in the World Rafting Championships. We’re proud to be sponsored by Palm, who have been incredible in kitting us out at short notice in matching kit just before we flew out – most importantly a set of super comfortable Helix PFDs, grippy neoprene Cartwheel Pants (don’t want to slip out of the raft!) and throwlines which are most definitely a must on the Pacuare river where the competition will be held.

We’ve already been here a week and have spent 5 days on the river, training and acclimatising to the intense heat and humidity before the competition begins. Over 30 countries will compete over three days and 3 disciplines for the title of World Champions.

Getting to the river is an endurance test in itself – and very exciting! Every day we leave camp around 7.30am for the first stage; a half hour bus ride through where we are deposited high above the Pacuare, just about able to glimpse its glistening brown form snaking though the dense jungle clad gorge below. An hour’s trek down to the river follows with discarded spider skins and bright green and red poison frogs underfoot. Yesterday there was an enormous tarantula on the track; it must have been special as even the local Tico’s stopped to look at this one.

Once at the river we’re surrounded by an intricate system of cables, pulleys and zip lines that criss-cross the river to transport the rafts upstream to the top of the sprint and slalom course. The rafts are loaded up onto the zip lines and fly across the river. We then clip it onto a series of other cables and hoist it a further around a km upriver through the jungle to the top of the sprint and slalom course. I think the first day it took us around 3.5 hours to get from the camp to on the water.

Once on the water the river is awesome! Huge boulder gardens in a tropical jungle set the scene with lanky vines and spider webs hanging overhead. Tight lines and numerous horizon lines maintain a super focussed and powerful boat. Never thought we would get so much boofing practise in a 16 foot raft. Ah well, Pura Vida as they say! The gorge section is big 4+ water, which will easily become class 5 with a bit more rain. And in Costa Rica it appears to rain like few other places on earth!

Return to the bull ring/camp where we’re staying after a full day on the river takes around 40minutes. Most of the teams taking part in the competition are staying at the camp, the Tico’s are super friendly and amazing hosts. Last night we were all treated to a bull riding show/rodeo. The skill and bravery of the cowboys, whilst riding incredibly well muscled bulls with enormous horns, along with their horsemanship was incredible to watch. Mike the owner of the bull ring was able to, without fail, lasso a full sized bull right around the horns whilst galloping at top speed past it on his Appoloosa stallion. Impressive indeed!

Finishing a day usually ends with a wildlife show starring the cleaner of the ladies loos at the camp – the top three items extracted from the toilets so far have been:
1. Enormous puffed up toad/frog as big as two fists that spits a milky substance into your eyes which may blind you
2. Huge beetle that looked very like a stag beetle but was around the size of a can of baked beans
3. Giant grasshopper/stick insect, masquerading very well as a leaf.

We’ll be posting more updates from training and the competition as much as we can, although rather like getting to the river, getting to the internet is more complicated than it first appears!

Hasta Luego! Rosie.