This morning PaddleExpo 2012 opens here in the beautiful german city of Nuremberg.
This year we have 50 items of new or updated kit to show to the world over the next 3 days!
Today was our last day of set up, so below you can catch a glimpse of some of the gear and boats we have lined up…
Throughout the exhibition we’ll be uploading videos, photos and blogs so everyone can see and find out more about what will be coming to stores near you soon.
I personally have seen quite a few new things I’ve set my eyes on
This was the toughest day of the event for the men with both Quarterfinals and Semi finals in the same day.
It was tough to make top 10, the cut was about 1800 for 2 rides, which is much higher than Worlds was 1 year ago…but for the top 5 it was even harder. We have pretty much all the same competitors as in Worlds but now Dane and Quim are seniors too. Also Tomas Andrassy from Slovakia, Bartosz and Tomasz from Poland have all became a very strong competitors and are paddling on a top level too.
There are now more than 5 paddlers capable of pulling off an over 1000points ride here.
The hardest thing for me is balancing between scoring a good ride but not pushing too hard on my broken bone I came in 8th in the morning, feeling very pleased to make the semi finals. Peter just stole the top spot from Dane again closely followed by Quim.
In the Semi finals we all knew it was going to be a ride of over a 1000 needed at least to make Finals. This time Dane had one of the sickest rides I’ve ever seen (1350) to get 1st ahead of Peter who was 2nd, Quim 3rd, Stephen 4th and myself 5th with 1066points!!!
European contingent is looking strong, with 3 paddlers making the finals. Now its one day off to recover and rest before its time to really throw down properly on Saturday
In the Junior Men’s, Bren had rides in prelims that would have put him 3rd in the Men’s and almost two times ahead of the other Juniors… he looked on fire, getting two trophy moves in his ride even.
Today he was up again in the Semi’s and as expected easily won with 1053 in one ride with USA’s Hunter Katich going very big to get 700points and 2nd place. Also making the finals was GBR’s Brandon Hepburn in 4th place.
In the Women’s Prelims Katya did very good making the cut for the Semi finals. Claire O’Hara from GBR got 1st in the prelims followed by Ruth Gordon, Nina Csonkova and Emily Jackson.
Semi Finals was today and Claire O’hara was looking strong, taking the 1st place again! Katya did very good rides with Entry moves, Phonics and a Loops, everyone was pretty sure she would make the cut but judges thought differently so she ended up 7th missing the cut by 30 points.
We’re both happy with how we did today and ready for a rest day tomorrow, as it’s no water releasing. It’s such a good feature here, one of the best holes we’ve ever paddled, finals should be very interesting. I’m really hoping to recover a bit and be able to show my best.
During the London 2012 Olympics it’s not just been Slalom going on at the Lee Valley Whitewater centre…
Myself, Claire O’hara, Uganda’s Juma Kalikwani, Japan’s Motoko Ishida, New Zealand’s Courtney Kerin, and USA’s Dane Jackson have all been part of team putting on freestyle kayaking displays between the slalom races.
The aim to show freestyle to as many people as possible, get more kids into it and try to raise the sports profile as a whole (and have a good time doing it).
We were on each day in the break betweens finals and medals, or after the heats, so you might have heard or seen glimpses of us on the BBC footage. Unfortunately, I took myself out of the action with a broken collarbone after the 2nd day, having stacked it skateboarding back to the hotel after our show. Hoping to be back on the water for World Cups.
I was using the new Dagger Jitsu proto as my Guigui was deemed to colourful by the Officials, but the Jitsu even it was plastic was actually a joy to use here at Lee Valley, I’m certainly excited to see how the production one turns out, I think Dagger may well have created something quite special.
Been here at the Olympics has been exciting, fascinating and an overall great experience. We had such a fun time with our team. Watching the incredible performances of GB’s C2 crews, especially Tim and Etienne taking the Gold and Silver yesterday was unforgettable. I’ve never been so gripped by an event.
It didn’t matter what nation was racing when someone was on a winning time everyone began to cheer them on regardless! That is what was so great about the crowds here! and they seemed to love Freestyle!
Getting to see how all the various slalom athletes put themselves together trying to show their best, cheering them on and feeling the electric atmosphere has been amazing. The opening ceremony was like nothing I’ve ever been to, I was very impressed.
In my mind the Olympics is about working hard in pursuit of a goal or dream, trying to show the best of yourself and encouraging/ inspiring others with your actions. I think this is exactly what we saw there after you’ve stripped away all the official BS and commercialism at it’s core it’s still a celebration or humanity and how great the World is!
Anyway, here are some more photos of our time showing off Freestyle Kayaking and keep an eye out for the others this afternoon as they put on the last show.
Pringle
P.S. Thanks to Claire, Sportscene and Terry Best for the additional photos…
After the Europeans was finished we visited the lake one last time to play on the diving boards and then went off to Slovenia for a little holiday with my parents and a Whitewater Safety and Rescue course with Palm’s Tom Parker on the Soca River.
It turned out to be of the most beautiful places we’ve been to: steep mountains, clean air, crystal clear rivers and lakes that you can drink, tasty fruits from Italy and very steep roads for our not too powerful van
We would like to live there actually if we could find any decent playspot in the area…Please tell us if you know of any.
The river itself was pretty low but we managed to paddle most of it and the beauty made up for the portages; i’ve never paddled anywhere so beautiful, but then I do paddle in Nottingham most of the time…;-) Here you can see many big Trouts swimming under you and the colour of the river is an unreal blue!
Katya found the Slovenian language is very similar to Russian, so she could read and understand some of it, often laughing at how it sounded to her like very old country folk Russian.
Now we’re back in the UK, my beloved Nottingham course is flooded so we’ll sort our Van and then look for some different dirty playspots
Finals day started from Junior Girls. 1st place was almost guaranteed to go to Nuria Fontane from Spain and it did. Scoring about 200 points in every round of the competition she was always well ahead of the others. 2nd and 3rd place went to German girls Lisa Hasselwander and Jana Gross who managed to throw loops in the last rides.
Next was Junior Boys. Bren had so far won every round with James Benns always on his heels. Just as we were expecting GB’s James Benns made sure Bren wouldn’t get his title too easily. In the first ride James scored 660 points, setting a very high standard for the winning ride. Bren managed to put together a very good ride and just went ahead of James by 1.667points! Such a close fight they both deserved to win. However Bren became Junior Mens European Champion, James Benns got a Silver medal and Sam Stephenson got a well-deserved Bronze. All 3 medals went to the GB team.
In C1 Lukas Cervinka from Czech got the Gold, with Philip Hitzigrath of Germany in Silver and Aitor Goikoetxea of Spain in Bronze.
Women’s finals went smoothly with no surprises, Marlene of France was going bigger than anyone on her loops and space godzillas and reclaimed her European title with almost the same score as two years ago (about 300), Silver went to Nina Csonkova of Slovakia and Bronze to Maria Lindgren from Sweden.
Last in the day was the Mens Final, and this one didn’t go along with anyones predictions First to go in the final was GB’s James Weight who scored so far the highest ride of the competition in the previous rounds. His style is very interesting to watch – going big on all his moves, throwing backloop to mcnasty combos. Many was betting on him. This time though he didn’t manage to put all this together unfortunately and came away with 4th place.
Second to go was Joaquim Fontane from Spain, I didn’t see his run but after the commentator announced a huge score of 1170 the highest of the competition I knew it would take a magic ride to beat this.
Third to go was Sebastian Devred from France, the most consistent competitor of the event, he put together a very good rides but lacked the spark to get him in first but did get the Silver Medal.
Peter Csonka who had been fighting with his injury all week, still looked very capable of winning here. He so far had been paddling very well even through his pain but on the final day his injury seemed to get worse and he just wasn’t in a good enough physical shape to fight for the medal coming in fifth.
Having heard Joaquims sensational score I actually felt no pressure, I had to go all out to stand any chance of beating him so it was very enjoyable to try my hardest. Unfortunately I didn’t get enough magic in my rides to get Gold so fell a little short getting the Bronze Medal 30 points behind Sebastian.
This meant of course that Joaquim Fontane from Spain last Europeans Junior Champion in his first senior year became the Mens European Champion bringing the second Gold medal of the event to Spain!
It was the toughest final I ever competed in actually and despite not winning was one of the most fun to be a part of. The standard of the Europeans raised a lot since 2 years ago and its no longer a fight between me, Peter and Mathieu anymore its 5,6 or 7 paddlers who are all capable of winning. It does look like a real sport now, you have to be on top of your technical, mental and physical shape and have some magic going on in your ride to win now.
For me its a good enough result to be happy with but sh*t enough to get me motivated for taking my kayaking on a new level.
A great results for GB as a team, a big well done especially to Bren and the Junior boys!
The day started with the Men’s K1 Quarter Finals, cutting the field to 10 with three 45-second rides, best 2 counting.
The water was dirty from yesterday night’s thunderstorms but the level seemed to be lower making the feature tougher and harder work to get the moves in.
In the Quarters, everyone was expecting higher scores as we had one ride to throw away but in the end it was lower scores than yesterday, with paddlers getting to grips with the harder level.
The GBR team did very good with all 3 making the top 10, GB’s James Weight in 1st. He is consistently performing on a top level this event. He is the only paddler managing to hit any combo/ trophy moves (the back loop to mcnasty).
I got 5th with mediocre rides I wasn’t quite happy with my paddling so went away to the nearby lake to pull myself together to bring out my best for the semi finals later.
It is a very hot beautiful sunny weather here, but this also means the paddlers are boiling in their gear in the waiting eddy (water is still quite cold here, so many wearing long cags despite the sun).
Next up was the Junior Men’s Semi Final, cutting from 10 to the top 5 who go through to the Final tomorrow. Many boys were struggling with the lower water level.
Palm’s Bren Orton managed to put it together in his 2nd run to get 1st again with GB’s James Benns again on his heals in 2nd. The other GB paddler Sam Stephenson claimed 3rd to get his place to the finals too.
Bren has a very good chance here for the final and has been regularly hitting rides that would place him in the men’s final so I wish him good luck for the fight for the title tomorrow. James Benns the other very talented GB Junior who is very capable of doing a winning ride will probably be the only one who can be an equal competitor for Bren.
Women’s Semi Finals was next with a few surprises. The reigning World Champion GB’s Claire O’Hara unfortunately had a hard time with the lower level and finished 7th, missing the finals. Frenchie Marlene Devillez (reigning European Champion) looks like she’s going to keep her title this year with another 1st going into the finals. Palm’s Anne Huebner unfortunately also missed the final. What is good however is some new faces making the final, Norwegians Tora Heggem and Kari Olnes who just turned senior this year.
Then it was back on the water for me in the Men’s Semi Finals. Competing the second time in the same day in this hole was tough for all of us but actually the standard of rides did go up.
I finally got two rides I was happy with and came 1st with 930 points in my best ride. Just behind me by 14 points was reigning European Champion Peter Csonka, my most usual challenger who I very enjoy to paddle with and against.
He has been suffering quite a bad injury and almost didn’t practice at all in an effort to try and get healed up before the event. Through the pain however he is doing a very tough rides to beat.
3rd was Sebastian Devred from France with a very consistent rides as he usually does.
4th went to Spanish reigning Junior European Champion Joaquim Fontane. Who is performing in his first senior year at a very good level.
The last place in the finals went to GB’s James Weight who seemed to take a break from his high scoring domination to save himself for tomorrow
I think it will be one of the hardest finals I’ve ever been in, with scores similar to Worlds so far but on a much harder feature. I’m looking forward to trying to bring out my best against such good competition
Pringle
P.S. Results in the Gallery below (bit backwards order so check the corner to see whether its for Semi’s or Quarters…:-)
With alpine adventures under way and expedition season fast approaching, this months Coaching Dispatches looks at big waves.
Photo: Tim Burne | Location: Sweden
Posture is the key to everything, without it we would capsize. When dealing with big waves upper and lower body separation becomes even more important. As the boat rides up and over the wave we must be ready to let the boat pitch upwards and keep our centre of gravity over the front of the boat.
When riding through a long wave train, our vision might be limited, we might only be able to see on top of the peaks. If we then want to change the way we are facing to change river position, we must think tactically about when this can effectively be done. In tight smaller wave trains, we might not be able to turn effectively in the trough of the waves because of the resistant from the peaks around us. We can’t push the boat through a wall of water. On big tall waves we might not want to travel up the wave facing sideways, in order to maintain posture and boat speed for anything unexpected behind the wave.
Posture is Key. Photo: Adam D | Paddler: Matt Tidy | Location: Nepal
As we see a big wave approaching, the obvious reaction is to hit the power and charge. We get that shot of adrenaline, tense up (effecting posture) and stop thinking about our strokes. As you get more used to this environment you’ll find you generally need less speed than you think and you’ll then find you have more control.
Remember you can’t take a big stroke off the top of a wave because there isn’t much water about. Two common mistakes I see regularly, is to take a stroke at the peak and the last half of the stroke just fires through the air or reaching behind a wave. In both cases we are not anticipating the change in water level through the waves. Slow, even powered strokes. This is a great time to play with changing blade pressure.
Nick applies even blade pressure as he rides over a wave in Switzerland.
Don't forget to turn around and play on those waves! Photo: Tim Burne
Chris Eastabrook Coaching offers bespoke personal coaching covering a range of skills and mental preparation designed around your white water kayaking goals.
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.
I came in 8th in the morning, feeling very pleased to make the semi finals. Peter just stole the top spot from Dane again closely followed by Quim.
Finals later.
