Sickline The Extreme Kayak World Championship 2012

Early October held the fifth edition of the annual Adidas Sickline World Championship! Despite flooding the week before the water level was perfect during the race. The race kicked of on Friday with a brutal qualifier round with the 150 athletes culled to just 48 men and 3 chicks after two runs of the 75 sec qualifier course. This created tight racing with favorites and 2011 medalist Michelle Ramazza being knocked out.

The Sickline race uses a unique format not found in any other kayak event. After the qualifier there is a heat-to-heat on time, with the fastest racing the slowest, using the international ladder system. This cuts the field down to the top 15 for the super final Down the class V Wellerbrucke rapids.

The men final were super excited to watch. It is amazing Sam Sutton took the top spot three times in a row! And it was nice to see Dejan on the podium this year, as he just missing the podium by a spot for the last three years. Mike was the last one coming down in the finals and as he came down it looked like he got it, until he made a mistake at the bottom, screwing it up at the Champions killer, but still making it in third place.

For the first year there was a chicks final, with the top 3 chicks charging down the Wellerbrucke! I was super stoked we finally had this change and was keen to go hard. The whole week I have been paddling the top of the Wellerbrucke section, which leads in to the race section. The top section is super nice whitewater but really full-on. After a couple of laps I felt super confident running the top and the race section. I never screw up my lines and out of all my runs I never had a surf in ‘Champions Killer -1’, the new hole in the race course. (which I guess was pretty rare this year). I wasn’t nerves or scared for my race as my lines had been sweet and I was confident running the section. I have no clue what happened in my race, but basically everything went wrong!!

I was definitely a bit guttered after my race for a few sec… but in the end of the day it is just another race ;-). I had such a great week lapping the upper Wellerbrucke section with the boys and had a great time in Oetz. I’m also more motivated to come back and try again next year! Hopefully with better lines during the race :-).