World Cup - Thun (part two)

It’s been a sweet week of sunshine here in Switzerland; three days of competition are now over and there’s only one day left for the World Cup finale. The wave has proved tricky for some and just plain unlucky at times for others, scores have been much lower (in the majority of cases) than the previous two events.

 

From my point of view, I’ve really enjoyed paddling here despite the average number of people in the eddy queue being 20. I have to admit that I didn’t get on the water as much as some people (there were paddlers down there all times of the day and night), mostly because I’ve been resting a strained shoulder. I preferred to paddle in our team slots as we split ourselves into smaller groups, which limited the waiting. (It’s been noted that Team GB seemed to have longer nations’ training sessions; this did happen but only very slightly as a few paddlers who were initially registered didn’t then show up).

 

As the for competition itself, I had two good rides out of the available four with roundhouses and clean spins in there somewhere. I came 11^th place. I had a number of people attempt to commiserate with me that I had missed the cut to the semi final and that it was only by 3 points but I was stoked! I had improved ten places on the previous week and was happy with my performance.

 

Today’s seen the senior men’s quarter final and all the semi finals take place. Lee Pyke, who went through in 3^rd place in the C1 class to semi final round, put in a nice ride and is now 5^th for tomorrow’s final. David Bainbridge decided to add some intensity to the final by flushing on his first move, having gone through in 1^st place. His second ride, however, was amazing scoring 400+ points and he’s now in 1^st yet again. Fiona Jarvie had gone through to the senior women’s semi final in second place having done nice air blunts in the prelims. Unfortunately she just couldn’t quite do the same again today and just missed the cut to the final. It was super close between all the women and Flea’s been putting in awesome runs all weeks. In the men’s Ed Smith was GB’s highest finishing taking 12^th place.

 

In addition to the main competition there’s been various other activities, events and shows put on by the event organiser, Simon Hirter. It’s been a great week, with it’s success, the beautiful location and the plans that are already in place, next year’s World Championships looks set to be one to remember.

 

But before all that there’s the matter of the finals tomorrow and crowning the 2008 World Cup winners.

 

World Cup - Augsburg Round Up and Thun (part one)

I've not been able to post for a while due to the hazards of being on the road (flat batteries, no power, sporadic internet etc) and a lot's been going on since I last wrote. The second competition of the World Cup 2008 went off without a hitch and like Prague we saw some top class paddling with intense finals. I'm sure enough has already been said about it on other websites so I'll just post a few pictures.

So now we're all in Thun, Switzerland for the last event of the series. It's been six years since I was last here but it all still feels very familiar. I love this place; beautiful scenery, crystal blue water and a sweet wave. The feature has been fluctuating quite a lot, sometimes it's steep, sometimes with a nice pile and sometime nonexistent. I'm currently sat overlooking the wave watching the Swiss team train, we've been having nation's training slots for the past two days which makes things easier for everyone to practice. All the usual suspects are looking good again and this third competition promises to be just as exciting as the previous two. It all kicks off tomorrow with the preliminary rounds of every category except the senior men who go on Friday. We get four rides as it's unattainable feature so hopefully I'll be able to put something together to finish off better than the other events; fingers crossed!

World Cup - Augsburg (part two)

The second World Cup competition kicked off today here in Augsburg. The C1 class were first up; I'm not actually sure who place where but Lee Pyke of GBR made the cut in 8th. This was followed by the Junior Men's; Britain's hope there, Tom Turner, put in a solid performance to take 12th position. Right now the Senior Men's category is on the water. I'll aim to get more results up tomorrow morning after I've paddled; the senior women have been given the early slot again.

It's been birthday-tastic this week, with Tom's 17th, Pringle's 21st and Flic's 19th all on consecutive days. We had birthday barbecue a few days ago for the boys (much to the amazement of some American's who'd never seen a disposable bbq before) and Pringle celebrated with an 'Anything but clothes' themed party. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

World Cup - Augsburg (part one)

It's week two of the 2008 World Cup of Freestyle Kayaking and the circus has moved to Germany. The second event is being held on an artificial slalom course in the town of Augsburg, built in 1972 the site features several canals and is set amongst woodlands with cycle paths all around. It's actually a really pleasant place to be and again we're all camped right by the river. There's wireless from the main building and shops within walking distance making this a convenient competition venue. Unlike last week there's not been any organised training slots on the feature here. Although the eddies' are small it's surprisingly not been too crowded so far. Everyone is still frantically trying to practice in before the competition starts on Friday but there's a lot of sickness going around and the hole is pretty tiring. I haven't taken any photos of paddling yet, but I did catch the Jackson crew on their new modes of transport:

Me and Ed Smith looking suspiciously related (we're obviously not, he just wants to be like me) indulging in carpark culture and tarp-ology.

World Cup -Prague photos!

Peter Csonka

Flea looping to first

Jutta Kaiser

Ruth Gordon

World Cup - Prague (Results)

Last night saw the semi final round of the senior men's category of the first World Cup event take place under spectacular floodlighting here in Prague. It was absolutely awesome; the atmosphere was immense. Thankfully it had finally stopped raining so the crowds were out in force. The competition was fierce, but the top 5 remained the same going into today's final. Top Brit was Ed Smith who put in a solid performance to take 7th.

The sun shone again today for the finals. I'm going to post all the results as pictures rather than trying to remember them all. In the senior men's, Peter Csonka was just unstoppable with his 900+ point ride. He was nailing every move out of no where. Nick Troutman claimed second and Mathieu Dumoulin just got 3rd from EJ by 3 points. In the senior women's it was close between them all but Fiona Jarvie and Emily Jackson were again out ahead of the rest. Flea put in a stellar first ride of 303 points, Emily tied with her in her third and final ride but the tie broke in Flea's favour thanks to her consistency throughout the final. Flea had been landing sweet straight loops in every ride and it was awesome to see her win. With Emily really suffering with a chest infection, she still did amazing as well and it will be interesting to see what happens next week.

Right now we're off to Ausburg! I'll post some more picture from the finals soon.

World Cup - Prague (part three)

Since I last posted it has not stopped raining; this has to be the wettest competition I've ever been to. Despite the rain and the rising water levels the show must go on and now all the prelims have taken place.

First up this morning was the senior women. I was in the first heat and it didn't really go to plan. I managed to get my loops but not much else unfortunately and ended up in 19th place. I would've obviously liked to have finished higher up in the order but it was close between all the women (there were 5 ties) and I really had no idea how I'd do. I've got a lot to work on now before next week.

Now the semi finals are taking place; Fiona Jarvie and Emily Jackson were looking super strong again in the senior women's class. In British news, Lee Pyke made it through in the C1 class and Jon Best ended up in 19th after the men's quarter finals with Ed Smith making the cut in 8th to the top 10. The current top 5 senior men are Nick Troutman, Peter Csonka, Mathieu Dumoulin, Eric Jackson and Dustin Urban. Their semi final will take place later on tonight under the floodlights.

Just heard: Flea got 1st going into tomorrow's final!!

World Cup - Prague (part two)

Today is the first day of competition here in Prague and it's also the first day that the sun hasn't shined. It's been raining all day long but fortunately it hasn't done too much to dampen the mood and the banks have still been lined with spectators (just). This morning kicked off with the junior men's and right now the seniors are still competing. French junior, Maxime Renault, has taken the top spot into tomorrow's semi final. I didn't see the whole category, but I saw some sweet rides from Netherlands' Tom Van Kalmthout and USA's Jason Craig. Surprisingly, Dane Jackson, who's been looking great in training, didn't make the cut, neither did GBR's only junior, Tom Turner.

With 17 heats of 5 men at a time, the competition continues. In between sheltering in cafes and drinking coffee, I've seen strong rides from Eric Jackson (USA) and Mathieu Dumoulin (FRA) who are the current World and European Champions respectively, and also Ed Smith, Peter Csonka and Clay Wright. With the water levels rising and the feature starting to change it'll be interesting to see who comes out on top.

On a personal note, I've not had the best few days leading up to the competition. Wednesday night I was suffering from sickness that I think was cause by the river water. Not so much fun. I ended up missing out on training yesterday but I attempted to make up for it by getting up at 5.30am this morning for one more practice. Thankfully there was only one other paddler on the water; the quietest I've seen it all week. The senior ladies are up first thing tomorrow morning and I'm in the first heat that starts at 8am. I'll aim to post another update after that with all of today's results.

Jason Craig

The French supporters

Ed Smith going huge

EJ's entry

World Cup - Prague (part one)

It's week one of the World Cup tour 2008. Myself and Fiona 'Flea' Jarvie made it to Prague late on Sunday night after an epic drive in my van. Gradually more and more paddlers have been arriving from nations across the globe and it's been getting seriously busy on the water. The feature is on a man made slalom course just out of the main city; it's a fickle hole, it can be really retentive at times and tricky to land scoring moves. It's interesting to see what everyone is doing; some good stuff is going down but even the best paddlers look to be struggling at times.

We had our first official training slot yesterday; it worked out pretty well for us Brits as not all of us have arrived yet so those who are here got plenty of valuable time in the hole. After training, me, Flea and Ed Smith (Brit K1 men's - who's been looking awesome in practice) heading into Prague city centre for a break from the competition and to do the tourist thing.

There's not really much else to report as yet! There's one more day of training and then the competition kicks off on Friday. The women's competition isn't until Saturday morning (at 8am!) so I've got a bit more time. Here's a few shots from the past couple of days:

Time To Go Again

So I've emptied, stocked up and repacked my van over the past two days all in preparation for leaving tomorrow for the World Cup Series. It's pretty exciting to have so many top paddlers gathering together in Europe. The series takes us first to Prague in the Czech Republic, followed by Ausberg in Germany and then finishing off in Thun, Switzerland. I think it's going to be an entertaining few weeks. I'm hoping to be updating regularly while I'm away. The line up's been posted on the kayak session website and about 40 women are paddling in the competitions; by far the most I've ever competed against! I have no idea where I'll end up, I'm just looking forward to the experience.

I've finished up all my work in Nottingham now, it was strange to leave knowing that I have no intentions at all of living there again. I'll be back briefly after this Europe trip for the Festival of Freestyle which I've been helping to organising, then I'm done and it's time to head out to Uganda. The festival's looking like it's going turn out to be an awesome weekend, check it out at www.festivaloffreestyle.com. I've enjoyed the past few years living near the white water course and it's definitely a great training ground for all paddlers. Recently it's come to light that the course is under threat from massive transformations which could have a seriously negative impact on all but a select few. I'm usually all for change there as it keeps things interesting however the problem with these latest plans is the lack of consideration for other users of the whitewater course. For more about the changes and pledge your support please see http://hppconcern.wordpress.com/

One last thing before I leave; I've got a new helmet and I just wanted to thank my friend Mark for spray painting it for me. He did my last one as well and the new one's an improvement on that design. It's so awesome, Mark spends so much time over it, he's such a perfectionist. I really appreciate the effort and the end result is sweet.

Returning...

This week I spent some quality time back in my home county of Suffolk with my Dad. Now I'm older, I appreciate that I actually grew up in some pretty beautiful surroundings. When I lived in East Anglia, I would summarise it by stating it was flat, dry and had no whitewater. I couldn't wait to move away from there. It's been over 4 years since I did manage to escape and now I return with a different attitude and fond memories. This week took me to the coast and of course I took my camera out with me. Here's a few shots from around the seaside town of Southwold.