The European Championships 2012 opened yesterday in Lienz, Austria. They held a Opening Ceremony in a 14th century Castle (museum) with free drinks, speeches and a drum performance (just using 2 kayaks).
Lienz is the only place in the World where they would let kayakers into a museum with as many free drinks as they want
Today the competition started from OC1, Junior Men, Womens and C1 Prelims.
The level is a bit different to what people are used to, so its proving quite challenging. (and it’s a pretty tough feature to begin with But the beautiful surroundings, hot sun, mountains, lakes, swimming pools make up for the harshness of the feature.
Junior Mens was dominated by the British team getting the first four places (see results below in photos). Palm Paddler Bren Orton put himself in 1st position a long way ahead with over a 1000 points, getting a first ride that would likely see him in a similar place in the mens.
Womens current European Champion Marlene from France is currently in first place followed by Claire O’Hara from GB. Palms Anne Huebner got through to the semi finals and Katya finished 11th just missing the cut.
C1 prelims were won by GB’s Adam Ramadan ahead of the current European Champions Lukas Cervinka from Czech.
So far you can definitely say that Team GB have dominating the competition, especially taking into account the results in OC1 & Squirt Boats.
Tomorrow the most exciting part coming (hopefully with a K1 men where I’ll get to compete to make the cut to the top 20.
Just back from my trip out to the Teva Games in Colorado it was time to get the van loaded and head off to Austria.
Palms Bren Orton and myself drove straight out to begin training at the site of the 2012 European Championships in Lienz. A beautiful town in the Austrian Alps with a sick play hole in the bottom of the valley surrounded by towering mountains and stunning scenery.
The hole is a really tricky powerful feature that takes time to get used to but also gives you lots of air when you do get the moves. Everyday our paddling is getting better and despite the difficulties of the feature is one of the most fun to paddle.
Aside from the paddling the area is also great for exploring the outdoors. On my rest day I decided to take a trek up the towering mountain nearest the campsite it took a while…and I didn’t quite make the last 20m to the summit but the view was amazing out over the valley with Buzzards flying over-head and black squirrels in the trees I loved it.
One of the challenges here is the fluctuating water level meaning that 1 min its perfect and 20 minutes later your on rocks. The bonus of this however has been plenty time in the Swimming pool opposite the hole to perfect our diving and some good adventures nearby…last night we drove up to 2067m of another mountain, so high in fact that we parked next to a snow mobile
Anyhow 1 more week till the comp begins, hopefully Katya will be here soon too so will report back with more updates as the event progresses.
Last Monday evening I arrived in Vail, Colorado the site of the Teva Mountain Games to find barely any water here…I mean literally none!
With the lack of a playspot I spent the first couple of days practicing on the Homestake Creek which although very manky and rocky was actually quite good fun. There was talk of cancelling the Freestyle so I’d thought I better find something to compete in having come all this way
Creeking not really being my forte and only being able to borrow other peoples boats I was pretty scrappy the first 2 runs i did, the last 3 i had though felt better and better, so was feeling I could do an alright run in the race.
To my relief however Clay Wright and the rest of the Jackson crew spent 8 hours dropping in plywood and all sorts to try and make a useable feature and succeeded, allowing the Freestyle event to go ahead after all.
Its very brutal and shallow still but you can do some good moves if you avoid the rocks. Considering when I got here there was only a 1cm deep little hole that looked like you might be able to spin in if you got lucky, I’d call their work a big success.
Thursday I decided not to do the Creek Race and instead stayed and paddled a bunch in the play hole, trying to decide whether to use carbon (very traumatic) or plastic.
The sound of me smashing the bottom in my Carbon GuiGui could be heard back in the hotel…Thankfully Dagger let me borrow a plastic boat to use which is a lot less stressful and actually paddles really well. As much as I enjoyed the stress free paddling of the plastic Dagger prototype I ended up going with my carbon in the end. its what i’m used to and felt most comfortable using with only a little amount of time to practice.
Friday was the day of the Kayak Freestyle Qualifiers the hole was still brutally shallow it is possible to get some sweet rides as long as you manage to keep off the rocks.
The qualifier cut the field to the top 10, with each paddler getting two 1 minute rides both of which counted. For non locals here one of the main challenges of this event is the altitude.
I’d never felt the effects of altitude before coming here but it really does make it hard to breathe. I’d get 3 or 4 moves into a run and be panting hard!
Even with the challenges of altitude and low water though, the comp gave some sick rides. I had pretty good rides, missing quite a few moves from flushing a bit to low down when I tapped the rock but got enough moves stuck in the hole to come in 4th. The only other European in the mens Mat Dumoulin from France had such a sick smooth 1st run then an ok 2nd run to take 3rd with Stephen Wright in top spot followed by Dane in 2nd.
In the Womens Uk’s Claire O’Hara cleaned up with awesome rides with Fonix’s & Mc’Nasties and a bunch of other stuff, very cool to see her doing well over here.
Yesterday brought semi finals in the morning and finals in the afternoon. For semis the top 10 would have looked just as legitimate the other way up, a very tough field of paddlers to get in the top 5 of.
Myself, I had a pretty good 1st ride that would have been enough but I flushed just a bit too far back on a few moves for them to score. I was either smashing the rock or landing too far back in the hole not to flush a bit. Was a bit frustrating for me but theirs always next year. I ended up in joint 8th with fellow euro Mat who also didn’t get that lucky either bit of a weird level that just didn’t seem to work for us.
However it didn’t seem to stop the others throwing some awesome rides. Stephen, Dane & Dustin were all on top form in the hole and in my eyes any one of them could have won, but as the finals came around Stephen was the most consistant at getting a good mix of hard technical moves and big air and even hit a 5 move combo (no easy accomplishment in this hole) to take the Win, 2nd was Dane, 3rd was Dustin.
In the Womens Claire had a sick 1st ride scoring 610 (beating mine and Mat’s score in Semis!) and took the win straight away, 2nd was Haley Mills and 3rd Courtney Kerin from NZ.
Today is the 8 Ball Kayak Race where we race 4 at a time over a short distance with other paddlers paddling at you in body armour trying to stop/ destroy you, qualifiers just been and I made the cut Finals later.
It’s a good time here and nice to get into competing for this season/ meet up with friends I haven’t seen for a while. Bit frustrated to not show my best but some good fire to get me training harder as we have European Champs in Lienz, Austria in just a few weeks.
I fly home tomorrow and drive straight out to Lienz so really looking forward to getting to work on my paddling there.
We’re now back home from our Winter in Uganda. We spent the last 3 months there paddling the White Nile river, now one of the most popular winter destinations particularly for us freestyle paddlers.
It turned out to be my favourite visit there and one of the most enjoyable trips of my life! I really loved it!
Every day we’d wake up pretty leisurely, most of the time it wasn’t the best levels in the morning so we’d read, relax, look at the animals; basically just enjoying life in tropical paradise. Then when the levels were perfect it was time to kit up and surf some of the best waves in the World.
If you want to read about the waves or the condition of the river check my last blog but aside from the paddling here there was one other aspect of living in Uganda that made this trip so special…
I set out at the beginning of our time there mostly thinking of what moves I was working on, but aside from our paddling what gave me the biggest joy was having the time to think and observing the wildlife that was thriving and living all around us.
I never noticed it as much in the past, but this time a whole new world opened itself to my eyes, every day was like a wildlife film. I noticed more and more of the life that was going on all around us and it was truly a pleasure to observe. I feel that it’s so much we can learn from the natural World.
My favourite of the animals we saw were the bright blue Malachite Kingfishers that sat in the trees by the eddy, a Hornbill family with two clumsy youngsters that liked to spend their evenings stomping around in the tree branches, a thriving Monitor Lizard population with one particularly brave Lizard that liked my kayak and paddling shoes ;-)The beautiful green and red Sunbirds that came every morning from their nests to drink the nectar from the flowers, the Turaco bird with its bright red underside and distinctive call…it’s actually too many to name that were my favourites
For me it was a whole new side to Uganda that I hadn’t appreciated before. I think I spend so much of my time at home rushing around, paddling, driving, facebooking, watching youtube, emailing… that I often forget to stop and enjoy what’s around me in the real world. Going to Uganda this time really brought about an appreciation of the simple joys in my life and grew my love of nature immeasurably.
Paddling-wise we got a whole range of levels, from high Malalu to foamy low Nile Special with everything else in-between.
My goal for the trip was to get my wave paddling to the same level as my hole paddling, I learnt and understood so much on this trip, i’m not quite there yet but I left feeling satisfied with my progress and really fired up to keep on working on it.
It’s such an enjoyable & often frustrating process fine tuning moves, learning new ones and figuring out how to go bigger or do things better, but that process all together is what culminates to give the feelings that have kept me in love with Freestyle and have always provided the drive to seek perfection.
Here was no different you crash and crash trying to figure something out then the moment that you get it, it just clicks and all the frustration fades…you just feel so good. It’s why I love doing what I do.
It’s strange being back in the UK, for one Katya is in Russia so i’m on my own again now but mainly having constant power, fast internet, Tv and a food processor all at arms reach I was really looking forward too, but now I have it, the novelty has worn off after an hour. Its nice but i’m not sure I like it in the way that I used to
Being next to a great river with fantastic waves to surf on with fresh delicious tropical fruit in plentiful supply surrounded by beautiful wildlife is an experience that I think is hard to rival.
The trip really gave me a lot of time to think and ponder and I realise my biggest loves are Kayaking, the Natural World & Wildlife & being with Katya. Its fortunate that they all combine very well.
Where I want to go with these loves I’m not sure yet, but I love the natural way of life and focusing on my dreams, life seems to get brighter and brighter as the years go by and I think that kayaking or any outdoor sport makes a big difference to peoples lives. That connection to enjoying yourself in the outdoors in its various forms that kayaking allows is quite remarkable.
When they told me at School “These are the best years of your life…” I knew they were talking bulls@$t
Anyhow go paddle and enjoy yourself! Now i’m looking forward to competition season and its time to get in shape in holes, so I’d better get to work sorting this video from the trip out so I can get to Nottingham bye for now.
Since my first trip to Uganda in 2005 i’ve been out here every Winter and Katya likewise, it really is a playboaters dream Winter playground.
Last Winter we decided to take a break from uganda and headed for a month in Galicia/ Portugal instead.
So in the two years since we were last here a lot has changed on the river with the finishing of the Silverback dam. Undeterred however, me, Katya and Bren Orton decided to escape the cold and dryness of the UK and the harsh Siberian winter.
For myself and Katya we really just wanted to get on warm, perfect waves, relax in the tropical environment, watch the animals and nature thats so abundant here and feast on the many delicious fruits.
Here you can get the best banana’s, pineapples & passion fruit in the World and many other tasty fruits some unusual like Jack fruit and others more common like watermelon, all so fresh, ripe and tasty, perfect for our diet we (me & Katya) eat a raw diet of mostly fruits, so here is like a banquet for us.
The two waves we’ve spent our time on so far are Nile Special & Malalu.
Nile Special you’ve probably seen a 1000 times but at the right levels its really sick wave you can go huge on, its not the easiest wave in the World to surf as it can be a bit violent but when it greens out you get a perfect ramp to throw whatever you’d like off of.
When Special gets too foamy and the level starts to rise Malalu a big soft mostly green wave forms 40minutes paddle downstream. Very friendly and soft and in the evenings when it gets high and the wave gets steep and green it’s one of my favourite waves in the World.
Having spent the few weeks before I came here battling it out alongside Bren at a cold and deserted HolmePierrepont in Nottingham it’s so sweet to be out here with Katya on the waves I really love to paddle and best of all no thermals are necessary.
Between sessions we’ve been loving life on the second island at the Hairy Lemon campsite. It’s pretty special here as we are the only ones on this bit of the island and because of that the animals shelter there and enjoy the peace. Every day we are treated to the sight and sounds of the birds, monkeys & monitor lizards going about their daily routines. In the evenings across the little channel of river from us a rare African Finch Foot bird has been roosting! It’s a bit like being in a Wildlife documentary, I love it!
Bren, Palm’s junior star has been paddling so well out here too, he’s really getting the waves dialled in and his paddling is going pretty sick! i think he has 4 more weeks here and is pretty fired up to run some of the bigger rapids too having already been showing some of the other guys down Itanda so look out for more from him when he gets back to the UK.
Just before I came out here I drove down to Palm HQ to pick up some summer kit for the trip out here and they had a few new items to give to us to check out too;
The Paw Shoe and the Vortex Jacket
The Paw shoe is pretty much a dream for Playboaters, as lightweight and slimline as a neo sock but with a thin sole to protect your feet, we’ve been running around rough rocks everyday and squeezing into our boats and they’ve held up great to our abuse, pretty sick bit of kit for Playboaters like us.
The Vortex is a new lightweight cag that has been ideal out here to whack on over the top of my deck as it’s a bit too hot for my normal zenith shortie and I hate just paddling in a deck as too much water always gets in whatever I try (not fat enough to fill the gaps So the vortex has been an ideal lightweight solution for me and has so far kept the water out of my boat and not made me feel like i’m going to pass out in the heat every time I have a long ride.
Off to Jinja today to go get fast net and see some of our old friends at NIle River Explorers where I used to work and then paddling in paradise again tomorrow.
It’s also worth mentioning the rapids for paddlers wishing to head out here now the dam is in. Although there is no Silverback section now there is a cracking section of 50? km of river full of rapids and waves still here and with the constant high water now the big rapids like Dead Dutchman, Itanda, Hypoxia and Kalagala are at perfect levels and are getting ran very regularly by those who want to push themselves in that direction and of course there are plenty of nice grade 3 and 4 rapids and smaller waves as well as holes along the Day 2 stretch of river.
So me and Palm’s Bren Orton just finished making the Wrap Up Video of our time putting on the Kayak Display at the 2012 Tullett Prebon London Boat Show and all that was on during the show.
Our display was on for 15 minutes twice a day so this gave us plenty time to run around the show in-between demo’s to find all the activities you could try and cause a bit of chaos amongst the Yachting crowd It’s amazing what people will let you do when you have a Camera in hand.
Filmed by: James Bebbington, Bren Orton & David Bain
Edit by: James Bebbington RiverZoo.com
Last summer my buddy Palm’s junior ripper Bren Orton had the idea to shoot a little vid on Tryweryn, This was the first session we had on the Top Hole there.
For those who don’t know Tryweryn, it’s a fun dam released river, near Bala in North Wales. I started out kayaking on this river and did my 1st flat spins and cartwheels here.
It’s often over looked for play boating but is actually an awesome little river that’s fun to run down and has some sick little waves and holes surrounded by green lush, welsh countryside.
This last week we’ve been paddling hard on flatwater….It is for good reason though We’re at the London Boatshow at the Excel Centre.
Myself, Bren Orton, Claire O’hara, Mallory Franklin, Anton Lippek, & David Bain are putting on twice daily shows of freestyle & slalom on the watersports pool commentated by Ed Smith & Christian Stevenson along with our little video clips on the big screen.
Pretty weird surrounded by all these big yachts to be in a 1m deep pool showing off freestyle!
This year we don’t get to use the ramps & cable tow set up like last year but we have been doing daily talks on whitewater, freestyle & slalom to give the visitors the opportunity to fins out more on our sport, how they can get started and where it could take them.
Here is a clip from last years show by Bren:-
With 4 days left of the show we’re putting together some video interviews & other bits to check out daily, yesterday we shot Bren’s one, hold out until the end to see the outakes….
If you want to check out the display we’re on at 12:15 & 15:00 daily until the show finishes on Sunday 15th of Jan.
Anyway enough talking, here are some photos from around the show and a walk around Londons sights.
I met a Uk based reporter called Caroline Sandry at the Teva Mountain Games earlier this Year and she followed my progress through the event and caught up with me again just after Worlds to write this piece for the October Issue of Ultra Fit magazine:-
Our GBR team selection to pick the team to compete at next years European champs in Vienna is a 3 competition format with the best 2 results out of the 3 counting.
This weekends event at Hpp, Nottingham was the first 2 comps of the 3. One on the Saturday in the inlet gate and one on the Sunday in the Twin waves. 3 rides best 2 count.
For me I am away for the last comp of the 3 the Hurley Rodeo so I needed to do well to secure my place.
I’m not going to go into that much detail on my runs but I managed pretty sweet rides hit a few of my combos both days (2400 on Sat, 1600 on Sunday) to take the double win and give me a guaranteed spot on the team to compete at the Euros
Palm’s Bren Orton got two 2nd place finishes in the Juniors to get his place guaranteed and Palm’s Lowri Davies also made the team
The main thing about the weekend was the incredibly high standard, the level of kayaking here is phenomenal. To make the mens top 10 on Saturday you needed to score something like 1200 or more!! The Juniors and the ex juniors who have just moved to senior are killing it! Its a credit to the awesome setup of events such as the Youth Freestyle series and the great freestyle spots we have allover the UK.
All summer me, Bren Orton, James Benn’s, James Weight, Ryan Liqourish & David Wild have been paddling a lot together working on our moves and trying to develop new moves or combinations of merged moves. This event our whole group put on a sick showing nailing sweet rides as well as pretty much all of our combo’s we’ve invented.
The point we wanted to make by getting our combos in a comp environment was to illustrate the need for some additions or some changes to the current scoring. For example if you merge a Lunar Orbit with a Tricky Whu with a Loop it only gets scored a Trophy 3 (200) but if you were to do them seperately you would get 380… For hole kayaking we need to encourage people to learn these moves and go for them in comps so they need to be scored much higher in order to reward the risk/ skill involved to hit them.
Anyhow I had a real fun weekend and was super proud watching the standard of kayaking in all categories here. This last 3 years the standard and depth of talent here continues to explode, its so good to see.
Here is a video Jonny Williams put up of some of the action from Saturday:-
Pringle
All the results will be up soon on GB Freestyle website for those who want to see exact scores.
Photos by:- Simon Thorne, Chris Throne & Bren Orton
But the beautiful surroundings, hot sun, mountains, lakes, swimming pools make up for the harshness of the feature.
Finals later.
