My year 2013

I started off my season 2013 while travelling in Chile. So I spent new years eve at the Rio Fuy – big water, carry out of the upper Fuy and paddling the lower section later on which was great fun at that level. Waking up my first time in 2013 at one of Chiles beautiful lakes “Lago Panguipulli” we started heading south. On the way we didn´t want to miss out to paddle the Michimahuida before we finally continued to the our next destination Futaleufu. After staying a couple days at Cara del Indio, lapping the Futa to get familiar with the big water in Patagonia we travelled further South to do the Baker once more before this lovely giant will get destroyed by some dam building project. So Chile was January adventure.

Rio Baker, January 2013, photo: Stefan Motz

Back home winter got me back and I went skiing in Tyrol a couple times, realizing that I have way more fun paddling than skiing so I started to look forward to the first snow melt in the Alps to get some good runs down the Brandenberger Ache (AUT). At the same time I started to prepare the annual kayak school trip to Corsica, which started mid of March.

Our first week in Corsica (FRA) was filled with building all the tents for the customer trips and paddling for ourselves to check all the rivers again. Due to the great snowpack this year in the mountains of the “Isle of beauty” and some recurring rain Corsica offered loads of good runs, new rivers for me and most important great to start the European paddling season 2013!

Rio Futaleufu, January 2013, photo: Stefan Motz

Back “home” end of April I had to do some Freestyle as our German tem trials and National were held beginning of May at the Plattling (GER) Eurocup. Being out of a Freestyle boat for the last couple months I did quite well at the event, even leading in semifinals and ending with a fifth place overall and in first position of all the Germans. As I realized that freestyle boating is a lot of fun as well I decided to take part in the 2013 Freestyle worlds at the NOC in North Carolina (USA) and do all the other Eurocups in Prague (CZE) and Cunovo (SVK) as well later in the season.

Plattling 2013, photo: Michael Sommerauer

In May I jumped back in my Veloc and went to Ticino (SUI) and Piedmont (ITA). I had an awesome time in beautiful Verzasca valley as well as on all the tiny little Creeks like the San Giovanni, the Cannobino, etc. Also, the Tyrolian kayak school season started and I had a lot of runs around Innsbruck. With a little stopover at the Soca river (SLO) time was running through my summer.

Verzasca 2013, photo: Michael Sommerauer

June was my racing month, so I jumped in my new red racing Raptor for the first time. I went to the “King of the Alps” in Merano (ITA) and the “Eporedia Active Days” which took place at the Ayasse river this year. Winning all competitions and taking home some prize money (and a crown :D) I felt being in a good shape and race mood my motivation to do more races this year increased a lot and I decided to go for the Sickline race later in the season as well.

Eporedia Active Days Ivrea 2013, photo: Alessio Avetta

Eporedia Active Days, Ayasse 2013, photo: Arnd Schaeftlein

In July and the Beginning of August I had to do some “real” work to earn enough money for my next few trips – so not much kayaking at all. I just spent a few days in Prague (CZE) for the Freestyle Eurocup. It took place in the last week of July and it was a week with about 40°C outside. So being in the water was the best thing to do and the whole event felt like having a big summer party. I ended up 4^th in the Freestyle competition and me and my racing Raptor kicked some guys asses coming third in the Boater X overall – even winning my first heat against some Czech slalom paddler

Boater X at Troja Freestyle Fest in Prag 2013, photo: Dobafotek.cz

Next stop was the NOC in North Carolina (USA) for Freestyle worlds. Getting my Veloc there I was able to do some “real” paddling in between the daily half an hour in the Freestyle whole. My highlight run was definitely the day on the Green followed by “The Cascades” release upstream of the NOC. In Freestyle worlds I managed to reach the finals and ended up in 4^th place just 2 points away from the podium. As I saw the other women paddling in trainings and I realised the huge rise of the standard I did not expect to even make semifinals so I was quite happy in the end with this result.

Freestyle Worlds at the NOC in North Carolina, photo: Olga Blokhina

Back home in September I did some kayak instructing again before I did a final Freestyle event in Munich (GER) and headed to Cunovo (SVK) to the last Eurocup of the season. The hole there was kind of shallow and not as fun as I expected it to be but seeing a lot of the German team members again made my stay there worth and I was able to claim the podium in my first Eurocup, ending up third and making the 2^nd place overall!

photo: Michael Sommerauer

October. I started to study again and time to jump back in a Creekboat and get ready for the Sickline race. Having only one day to train I concentrated on the qualification run knowing that for those who will make the cut will be another time for training on the main course the next day. I was happy with my lines and made fifth position in the qualification, only 0,12 seconds away from the third place. As the organiser of the event first wrote that we are five women going into the finals I felt clapped-out when he suddenly decided that there would only be three going through. So the losers party started right away before at dinner we finally were allowed to compete the next day in the finals – without any training then. So my first runs the next day have been miserable and unluckily I took a bath after the last drop in my first run. Due to the cold weather conditions on the final day I had hard times to find the motivation to step up again and do my second run. With a sweet line I was able to claim the second fastest time in the women competition that day – unluckily both runs counted in the female competition. So I stayed with my fifth place which was finally not too bad with all the Freestyle I did during the months before.

Adidas Sickline Race 2013, photo: Manuel Arnu

Doing a lot of studying since Sickline and some kayak courses on the weekends I was only able to do two short trips so far. One weekend I spend in Kuchl (AUT) to see if the wave there is still good to paddle and last weekend I went to the annual Hurley-Classic Freestyle event (UK).

Hurley Classic 2013, photo: Nouria Newman

As it is getting quite cold now in Europe and paddling outside is not one of the most fun activitys to imagine at the moment I figured that now would probably be the best time to work on my own homepage to start my own coaching business – et voilá! So sitting on my ass pretty much the whole day I really start looking forward to my this winters kayaking trip to Chile for Christmas holidays!

Rio Palguin, January 2013, photo: Stefan Motz

Big thanks to Palm Equipment for the for the excellent paddling kit with its perfect design which keeps me warm and dry while I am on the water!