Me & Katya have had our new Palm kit for a little while now, in all seriousness its the best gear i’ve ever used. Additionally Katya is an professional Artist so is very keen to push more beauty and style into the sport and as you might guess from my multi colored kayak I really want to stand out in my gear. The new Palm gear gives you the colours, cut and look to do that with all whilst functionally performing great too!
Below is a short video I made of Katya from one day after Worlds
Few photos of Katya in the Swirl (Purple) & Zenith (Lime)
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.
The World Championships for me had a pretty dream ending, taking home the Gold Medal in Mens K1!!!
Throughout the event i’d not really paddled at the level I knew I could. I knew I was being too relaxed, not aggressive enough. For the finals I focused on pumping myself up as hard as I could and getting ready to have the fight of my life.
First ride didn’t go my way but I was feeling more myself for sure. 2nd ride I just gave it everything I had and got 1020 pts. The leading score at that point but definately not unbeatable, so 3rd ride i went even harder. I didn’t go as big as my 2nd ride but squeezed in a few extra moves to get 1053 points.
Then i had to watch as 4 great kayakers, Gerd, Nick, Stephen and Peter all went and gave it their all trying to beat my score. They all paddled great and Peter, who is a deadly competitor and amazing kayaker, very nearly got me. Finally though, luck and timing went my way and I took the win!!!
I never felt so good as when the results came out and I could see everyones faces. All my friends, family, Katya and many of the people who helped and supported me over the years all around enjoying the moment. And then all the GB team piling on top of me and sinking me. Seeing how happy and emotional Terry Best (friend and supporter for years) was was so so nice. Then seeing Guigui’s face after finally one of his amazing designs the Easymix 2008 got to the top!
The whole experience was one of the best moments in my life!
Watch the video below to find out how James trained
his body and mind for the event – ed
Standing on the podium it was exactly how it looked when i visualized it
The whole event was such a fun time. Always something going on, great people, perfect water levels. Robson, the ICF and the judging team did a great job pulling it off!
Big props should also go out to GB’s Claire O’hara who won Gold in Squirt and Womens K1 and Palm’s Bren Orton who took the Bronze in the Junior Mens!
Below are the videos of my final rides:-
Photos of all the various Finals:-
On off day we had on Friday they had a some additional events like King of the Wave and an SUP race as well as the Teva Big air comp. Katya kills it in this and took the joint win with huge Airloops and Godzilla’s ahead of all the boys tied only to team Germany who did a loop with 3 Kayaks tied together all at once!!!! check the photos:-
The journey I took to this point is pretty unusual. I loved kayaking since i was 12 and loved to freestyle kayak almost as long. After competing for most of my junior years i’d had a few successes but lost my way a bit about 4 years ago when I got a bit distracted by the party scene. I had a great time then but forgot what it was that i really wanted to do with my life.
I was working as a video kayaker on the Nile with NRE working for Davey O’hara with my buddy Anton and I was having a great time there. On the river every day, partying every night but at the same time i felt not truly happy.
I was missing something. About 3 months after i moved to Uganda I met Katya and together we at first went harder than ever in the bar but she also was so fired up on Freestyle that I began to find my fire for it again. Gradually my focus went off the bar and back onto being in my boat; surfing, catching air and throwing tricks. At this point i saw how Peter Csonka was training hard and kicking ass and I really admired his focus and determination. It was then I decided I was going to be a World Champion one day.
So we left Uganda and started to compete and train hard. Over time we got more and more successful in our competing and this last two years have been amazing. A win at last year’s World Cup, 2nd in the Europeans and now the World Champs Gold. It really has been the best couple of years.
We train hard and have done lots of work to get to this point and Katya has been the best coach you could have.
She also introduced me to many new ideas and approaches to life, we eat only raw fruit and vegetables for a start, we hardly drink any more and we meditate daily. All these aspects she introduced me to have had a profound effect on my happiness and kayaking. Life is for enjoying and improving yourself, this is what makes it so fun.
My next goals are to keep improving as a person, get my wave kayaking to the same level as my hole kayaking, keep competing on the highest levels, help Katya to get her goals, see more new places and to keep pushing ourselves and our kayaking as far as we can!
I have so many people to thank for getting me to this point: Shep, Sneaky, Terry and the whole Best family, Pete Caterall, Hippy Dave, Tim Ward, Jacko, Pete Astles, Sam Ward and Dennis Newton, Matt Chadder and Dickie. Wigan Canoeing Groups Eric Bradbury, Bob Andrews and Will Potts. Elton, Tim, Simon and Sophie from Reaseheath College.
All the Uganda/ NRE crew particularly Davey and Timmy.
My friends who made this year so good and fun, Aniol and Gerd Serrasolses, Martin Koll, Emily Wall, Bartosz, Irish Tom, Mathieu, Sam Ward and Anton Immler & everyone who was at the WW GP event.
Guigui for making the best freestyle Kayaks out there!
EJ, Mathieu Dumoulin, Peter Csonka, Rush Sturges, Pat Camblin and all the Tribe athletes and GB / Palm’s Cheesy for giving me continued inspiration and ambition.
My Sponsors Mark Burch at Brookbank Canoe Stores, Cheesy and everyone at Palm Equipment for the amazing kit and Arnd and everyone at Teva Shoes. Thanks to them all for giving me the opportunity to train full time in pursuit of my goals!
The biggest thanks though go to my Mum, Dad & Katya. They’re the ones who have shaped my life the way it is and are my biggest supporters!
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,
In Plattling the site of the 2011 Freestyle Kayak World Champs things are really hotting up, it’s exciting as its now days away from the beginning on nation training and not long till the events prelims kick off!
The levels have risen to almost perfect levels, paddlers from all over the world are flying in with many new boat designs from plastic and carbon and many of the main contenders are honing in their comp rides. Its a pretty fun time to be here. You can feel the anticipation around the camp ground as people come and check out what everyone’s throwing, what boat people are using, what moves are working and what aren’t and of course the downside of all the paddlers coming in….long eddy queues!
For myself I have spent quite a lot of time here already and have a good idea of what my ride will be whatever the level so i’m just choosing the times when the hole is quiet to get on and make sure all my moves are still going how i want and work on some of my harder tricks to see if i can get something extra special to pull out if i need it.
One of the really cool things about this event is how people are really stepping their paddling up to new levels, the Americans generally have been really focusing on linking the moves together as much as possible whereas the Europeans have been focusing on going big and super straight on the big moves and on various trophy moves and the more fluid linked sequences.
The women have also taken a big jump up in their paddling and the top competitiors are throwing many of the high scoring moves in their rides and i expect the top girls scores will place highly in the mens too. Katya’s been getting really good rides lately hitting big Fonix’s, Mc’nasties, loops and Godzilla’s and i think if she keeps her current surge going she stands a great chance.
I mentioned earlier how paddlers are pulling out all stops here to win with many paddlers having spent at least the last half year doing focused training for this event and also about the huge variety of boats been used here, i’ll go into that a bit more;-
We have the Jackson Rockstar and All Stars in both plastic and Carbon being used by the majority of the paddlers, many are saying the perfer the plastic over the carbon addition which is a bit puzzling to me but does seem to be reflected in their paddling. Watch out for Gerd from Spain and of course Ej, Dane, Nick & Emily along with Dustin Urban/ Stephen Wright to go well in this design.
Then their is the new Robson Carbon boat which was designed by Martin Koll mainly for this event and is really strong for Mc’nasties and Fonix’s and looks like it can go very well especially in low water. Many of the German team will use this boat.
And of course the Composite Guigui-Prod Easymix 2008 and the newer 2010 edition. I use the 2008 model and think that its the best design hands down for any hole feature as long as your the right build for it. For the smaller paddlers the 2010 edition looks like a good contendor with a few of the Spainish and french looking good in it.
The Vajda composite boats are also out in force here with Peter Csonka, Bartosz from Poland and Katya all looking good and standing a good chance to do well in them.
Then from Wavesport their is the Project X which is looking like a very hot design but only available in plastic. Look out for Bryan Kirk and Simon Strohemier in these.
Finally their are a few home made and adapted composite boats here such as Joey Hitchens own creation and Seppi Strohmeier’s cut up and adapted Carbon Wavesport CX.
Its going to be really interesting to see which styles and designs come out on top here at Worlds. there has been a huge amount of creativity and development put into freestyle for this one competition and huge step up in skill levels around the World and around the disciplines. I really think the Europeans stand a great chance to take away a lot of the medals at this event!!!
Anyways, here’s a few photos of what’s been going on, check back soon for more on whats going on as the event kicks off!
Wish me and Katya some good luck for the next couple weeks!
We had such a great time in Galicia and Portugal, it was pretty hard to leave but as we got to the beginning of April came around we set off on the drive to Plattling in Germany.
This spot is where the World Championships will be held later in the year. Its a river wide weir with the best parts being the hole on the river left and two wavey sections in the middle and river right side. The level when we first arrived was super low and the weather baltic! But luckily for us that night the rains came in and brought the level up to ideal conditions for the holey section.
Having spent our time in Galicia enjoying the rivers & lifestyle aspect of kayaking along with surfing on the Frieira dam wave it was time to get into a more serious training mode in Plattling to get into shape to give the World Champs our best shot!
Its a good hole for sure but certainly not as easy as people generally think but it does give up some very good rides when you put the work into learnt the sweet spots. At higher levels you can get some ridiculous loops and lower levels you need to be careful to avoid the rocks but you can get really good rides still if your careful.
After 3 weeks paddling here together Katya flew back to Russia to compete in her team selections & apply for her Canadian visa in order to go to the Whitewater Grand Prix in Canada in May. This left me kind of alone living in the Van just paddling as much as I can until we fly out to Canada at the end of the month.
Thankfully their are a few others spending their time living in the carpark here and life in the van is one of my favourite aspects to the kayaking lifestyle. Looking in from the outside, being in a van all the time might seem a bit tough but in reality I love it, Kayak everyday, wake up next to the river, move on to the next spot without any hassle i really wouldn’t change anything.
I’ll be paddling here until the end of the month when both me & Katya fly out to Canada for the Whitewater Grand Prix event. Can’t wait
