BBC Live’N'Deadly & UK Freestyle League Win!

 

Live’N'Deadly

On Saturday morning myself and the GB Youth Rafting Team were guests on BBC2′s & CBBC’s Live’N’Deadly Tv show, a great show promoting Adventure, Nature & Wildlfie. Presented by Steve Backshall & Naomi Wilkinson.

Check out the show on the BBC I Player link below:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b014smh7/

It was actually really fun and so good to be able to get kayaking and rafting out there to one of the most popular kids Tv shows! I actually started kayaking after seeing it on TV so if it inspires some youngsters out there to give it a try i’ll be very very happy! Look put for the Palm Harlequin rocking it with the Crocs

Photos by:- Gavin Layton

Saturday Youth Freestyle

Straight after I was done with the Live’N'Deadly show I drove as quickly as i could back to Nottingham on Saturday afternoon to go help out at the finals of this years Youth Freestyle event and to compete in the League event on the Sunday.

The drive is meant to be about 3 hours from Lee Valley to HPP however after a very early morning to do two rehearsals before the show aired at 9 I had to stop for a little sleep…

I got their just in time to do a little filming for Bren, who’ll be putting together another event edit from the day and also to help out at the Prize Giving. The place was packed with young talented kayakers, the scene in the UK is growing so well!

The young paddlers were also lucky enough to have EJ there as well as the usual helpers he was their coaching and running an “impress Ej” contest along with dishing out the prizes with myself at the end of the day.

This was the last event of the series and its a real shame its come to an end for 2011. Each event i’ve been to this year has been bigger and better than the last and the real stars are all the young up and comers who keep coming along to each event! Come next year, spread the vids around to everyone and drag your friends too! Its a really fantastic series of coaching/ competitions so get involved!

Sunday Brit Champs/ League Event

The Sunday was the League Series Finale, the comp was divided into Novice, Open & Expert Categories. In the morning myself, Claire O’hara EJ & Palm’s Junior ripper Bren all ran a few little coaching sessions for the Novice classes and then went onto compete ourselves.

The hole used for the main event was ‘Twin Waves’ its such a sick little hole, I’ve spent the last few weeks sessioning the hole everyday till its got dark pretty much paddling with the next generation coming up to the top James Benn’s, Bren Orton, Ryan Liquorish, James Weight & David Wild. Their actually kicking ass! We’ve been getting a ton of new moves, not your little usual linked stuff but full on combo moves, we’ll be putting together a new Nottingham sessions vid later in the year to showcase some of what we’ve been working on  James Benn’s was even hitting tricky whu’s, mc’nasties and Tricky Loops without his paddle just using his hands today…incredible!

Now back to the event, i can’t remember full results but they’ll be up soon enough on the GB Freestyle Page The standard was super high with scores right up there! I was mostly impressed by all the young one’s rides:- James Benn’s won the Juniors with Palm’s Bren in 2nd & Matt Rodgers 3rd.

In the men I had an absolutely terrible 1st run  Thankfully I pulled together an alright 2nd & 3rd run to take the win, James Weight got 2nd with some very big mc’nasties and Alan Ward was 3rd.

In my eyes the the star of the show was Ryan Liquorish who has been ripping it this summer working on all our new moves that we’ve been playing with and was the only one in the event to nail one in the comp hitting a entry kickflip linked to “Trick Loop” into ends…Very sick!

Also was really great to see Sam Ward on the water competing, he really inspired me when i used to paddle with him in Uganda and was one of the main reasons I bought my 1st Guigui, he was so sick then but the last couple years he’s had some unlucky injuries and hasn’t been able to paddle too much himself and has devoted a lot of time to coaching and helping the GB team. So its about time and very nice to see him with a big grin hucking himself around in the hole, he had some pretty sweet rides so I can’t wait to see how he’s doing after a few months training in the top class holes in the UK…keep your eye on him!

Overall another good day on the water! with sick paddling, the standard is ridiculous here! as is the Cold wind…

Thanks to Bren for the Pics, if you’ve got any young paddlers in your area tell them all about the Youth Freestyle Series and bring them down next year! Check the videos on my video page for more…

bye for now,

Pringle

The ‘Walruss’ !!!