During Paddle Expo, their were two clear favourites from Palm. The brand new FX PFD and the updated Fuse cag.
I used the Fuse as my cag of choice all last year. It looks stunning and for me I need a cag that’ll keep me dry, but also be lightweight, comfy and give me the best possible freedom of movement. That is the Fuse exactly.
This year Palm have updated the colours to the Aqua/ Lime and Aqua/Sherbet.
What I missed though was a PFD that would match the looks and performance of the Cag. Even the whole industry has lacked any really good looking progressive play/ freeride PFD’s for a long while.
Now that’s finally fixed with the updated FX. Available in Lime, Aqua and Red.
Covered with the same outer layer as the cags it just jumps out at you. You can choose the colours now to make it blend in as if your not wearing anything or stand out like a neon billboard (more my style
Function-wise it’s cut beautifully for freedom of movement, and a close fit for aggressive WW paddling. It has nice comfy soft foam to mould to your shape, quick easy adjustment straps and enough flotation to feel comfortable if you do end up in the water.
I literally can’t wait to get my hands on the Aqua/ Pink FX pfd…
Above Video: Cheesy gives us the details of the Beauties!
Palm's Designer Barney Caulfield shows his creation
Available in 3 colours: Aqua, Lime and for those who prefer the classics Red
Fuse available in Aqua/Sherbet and Aqua/Lime
For next season I picked the Aqua/ Lime for myself
The FX in Aqua/Pink is pretty much my dream PFD. Actually it's the best looking kit I've ever seen.
People were crowding around and taking photos of the FX all the time, it really was the winner of the show.
I’m back home in the Uk for the first time since February now so now i’ve got power and internet I had a chance to put together a little video clip from a couple sessions after Worlds in Plattling & a session on Rogers Wave in France earlier in the year.
For some reason the levels and weather in Plattling this last two years have been pretty wild, either 30degrees and no water for months at a time or the opposite; big storms & flooding all of a sudden.
So far we’ve avoided the floods at this event but it’s always looked like its on the cards since a few storms before the event brought the level upto a good high level just in time.
With the forecast of imminent flooding due this Friday the Worlds has been ran at a super tight schedule and after only 2.5 days of competition were pretty much done apart form finals.
Day One:- Tuesday 21st – Women’s, Squirt & C1 Prelims
Women’s kicked the competition off the field needed to be cut down to the top 20.
Prelims are always the toughest round mentally as you get 2 rides with both counting. The score you needed to make the cut was 233 which is quite high for the women’s quarter finals:- the top score was over 1000. Women really took a step up this Worlds!
Katya scored 520 with Loops, Felix’s and Mc’nasties & Palm’s Anna Hubner also made the cut with 288 & all the GB girls made it too.
Top 3 in Squirt were:- Jamie Austin 1st, Dane Jackson 2nd, Colin Kemp 3rd
Top 3 in C1 were:- Dane Jackson 1st, Philip Hitzigrath 2nd, Igor Juanikorena 3rd
Full Results for all classes:- http://icf-freestyle.de/results.php5
Day Two:- Wednesday 22nd – Mens & Juniors Prelims/ Men’s & Women’s Quarter Finals
Organizers managed to do the impossible schedule today starting at 7am with the mens Prelims of 81 men cut down to the top 25 by 12:30 in afternoon, then was Junior boys and girls prelims followed by Quarter Finals of Women at 18:30 then Mens Quarter finals began at 20:30 and finished in darkness at almost midnight.
As a competitor it was a full on mammoth of a day. In the prelims I managed to get pretty good rides scoring 1436 and placing 3rd with EJ in 2nd and Stephen Wright 1st. All the GB men made it too.
In the Junior Boys Palm’s Bren Orton has been paddling great in practice and managed to make the cut to 10 in 8th place along with GB’s James Benn’s in 9th.
In the Women’s Quarter final (cutting to 10) Katya did consistently good rides to place 5th with 656points! An the women’s scores in general were very high with 3 women getting over 1000. Palm’s Anna Huebner also made the cut in 10th. 1st was Ruth Gordon Ebens, 2nd Clairo O’hara & 3rd Emily Wall.
The Mens Quarter final started for me being in the last heat at 22:30! I had pretty good rides a bit better than in the prelims and bumped up to 2nd place with 1703, 3rd was Dustin Urban and 1st was Peter Csonka with 1763 who had just made the prelims cut in 25th place…! Pretty good jump back up. The big suprise was Ej getting knocked out in 11th.
Day Three:- Semi Finals Day
All semi finals today was finished by 1 in afternoon because in the evening flood was expected, but hasn’t come in just yet.
Palm’s Bren Orton made it into Junior Mens Final in 5th place. Boy has some real talent and I think if he shows his best in the final he has some good chances.
In Women’s Katya had a consistent ride but missed final by 17points…landing her last huge space godzilla just out of time. She finished up 7th. I feel she did well but still has a lot left to show everyone in competition. 1st was Emily Jackson, 2nd Claire O’hara, 3rd Ruth Gordon Ebens.
In the Mens I had great starts to my first ride then missed my fonix’s so for my second ride i felt quite a bit of pressure knowing i needed to score higher if i wanted to make it. I did better than the first ride but still a long way from my best. I managed to make 5th place with 733 points…very relieved. 1st was Peter Csonka, 2nd Nick Troutman, 3rd Stephen Wright.
For full results on all classes and the live video feed check out the event website:-http://icf-freestyle.de/
We now have friday off before finals on Saturday, wish me luck,
