GB team selections
This year the GB team was only being selected for the European Championships (as opposed to Europeans and pre-worlds as it used to be), which are to take place in Nottingham in July 2006. There were 3 events, each on a different feature at Holme Pierrepont, with the best two placings out of 3 counting. The Europeans are proposed to be held in the looping pool (which has, from discussions on the various forums this week, proven to be an unpopular place for a competition) so I’m not sure why we had events on the Muncher and the Inlet gate. I can only hope the reasons for this are that either they will decide to hold the event in one of the latter features or they will be further improving the looping pool.
At the moment I, and many other GB-team paddlers, believe the looping pool is not consistent enough to hold a competition on (especially a high-profile international one) and it does not showcase the best moves – this was shown by the extremely low scores on this feature last weekend, compared to those in both the Muncher and the inlet gate. I believe the top 5 to 10 paddlers of a looping pool competition could be just as fairly positioned by pulling names out of a hat (perhaps I’m being a little cynical, but…). By contrast the inlet gate allows some big aerial manoeuvres to be performed, and is very consistent, but I actually find it quite dull, both to watch and compete in. There is no dynamicism (have I made that word up?!) to the feature, the water is too uniform, always so much the same, and so slow. An Inlet gate comp could even be comparable to a flat-water competition (but with air). I personally would vote for the European Championships to be held on the Muncher (at full release) which is both dynamic and allows some big moves with scope for variety, and of course, I always do well there J. Perhaps now I am on the freestyle committee I will be able to bring the subject up at a future committee meeting to see if we can come up with a decision that the paddlers and spectators alike will be happy with.
Getting vertical in the muncher.
Anyway, whatever….back to the selection event. The line-up in the ladies event was much the same as last year, and like last year I was concerned that I wouldn’t make one of the 3 spots on the team as I haven’t been boating much this summer (job, lack of Hurley and bored with Boulters) and everyone else seems to have been paddling lots, especially the Nottingham locals, who do of course have that home advantage. It was made easier though by Deb Pinniger not entering, and by Jenny Chrimes, who is now senior class (and becoming an increasing threat), being automatically selected due to her ‘Junior European Champion’ status.
Saturday morning we were told the first event would be held on the Inlet gate – this was a little bit frustrating as the publicised schedule had told us the looping pool and Muncher events would be on the Saturday and the Inlet gate on the Sunday. I had therefore spent Friday night paddling in the two features that were not the Inlet gate figuring I would leave the practice there until after Saturday’s competition. Thanks guys. Nevermind, as the Inlet gate is so consistent it doesn’t take much getting used to at each new Nottingham paddling session.
Ladies looking for action!
The Inlet gate event: Wow, what a long time this event took to get done. I think this was due to the ridiculous length of time the first few categories were spending on their practice rides (by the time the men came on they were hurrying things along a little bit) – note for organisers for next time: ‘must only allow 45 secs max for practice rides’. All of the ladies went for loops, but surprisingly few (I think) actually scored them – most came off a bit too wonky. I won the event with loops in each ride and a few left/right cartwheels/spins and cleans. Lowri came in second, her first ride was apparently a good one to watch, with a few big loops, air loop (although I don’t know if it was scored as air) and space Godzilla attempt. Lynsey was 3rd, unfortunately most of her loops were said wonky ones, but she made it up with consistent cartwheels both ways. Claire O’Hara got the biggest loop of the ladies competition but unfortunately flushed on landing. The new variety scoring system was a blessing on this feature, as last year all we saw was loop, loop, loop, loop, which gets as dull as cartwheel, cartwheel, cartwheel. So it was nice to see a variety of moves. However, a bigger emphasis is now on whether the loop is landed cleanly or not (in the ladies event anyway – where the loop is the big scoring move). But, I guess you just have to make sure that one move counts.
Nice looking loop, in the
muncher, but I landed wonky!
I’m not sure what the men did, but they got some huge scores – the runs I saw mainly consisted of loops/air loops back and front, space godzillas and the odd tricky woo/ McNasty / phonix monkey combo (that is, a combo in one ride, not a combo in one move). There was a big gap between men’s scores and ladies’. I was close to getting a back loop, but I’ve got a long way to go before I will be scoring the other moves that the guys were doing.
I forgot that I had the chance to go and paddle at the looping pool, as I was commandeered by the drug-testing gang. Well, I had been to the toilet 3 times just before the comp, so I spent the next ½ hour downing powerade to enable me to pee in pot – how pleasant. Good or bad, freestyle isn’t what it used to be - images of tequila-sponsored rodeo events come to mind. Still, I’m happy to see not all events have changed; I noticed the line up for the Nile river festival included downing a bottle of Nile Special as part of the downriver race. I believe drugs-testing over there means something slightly different!
The next event was the Looping Pool, at a fairly early hour on Sunday morning. I went into this event being paranoid of flushing, it is after all a flushy feature, and because of this I tensed up and did just that – a lot. A couple of my rides were mainly spent paddling up the eddy! The rides that the ladies did were mainly right hand cartwheels and a few clean spins/cartwheels. Lynsey got some nicely vertical left and right cartwheels in two of her rides (two out of 3 count). 'Old-timer' Lorna Williamson (who, with ‘Fast’ Edwin Cleator, had made a one-time out-of-retirement appearance. Lorna is pictured below cleaning in the muncher)
had a really nice 3rd ride with some vertical cartwheels and surprised herself with a joint 3rd place. The mens rides also consisted of lots of right hand cartwheels but with a few extra loops, back loops and tricky woos thrown in (they are certainly possible on this feature, just not consistently). Compared to the Inlet gate the scores were not too inspiring. Perhaps I’m bitter because I only just managed to get those cartwheels! So, name out of hat time, I ended up in 5th – not shameable, but could do better. With a 4th ride I could have easily ended up in 1st (…..or perhaps 10th)! Such is the way with this sport.
The Muncher. I floated down to the Muncher after my rides in the looping pool and instantly relaxed – so much nicer to not worry about flushing or catching the end uncontrollably. I have previously won a number of events in the Muncher and was confident that I could do well in this event, (that in itself probably made a huge difference to my performance compared to that in the looping pool), I also knew I didn’t have to get a really high place to maintain a team position.
When it came to it though, my first ride was not very good, I didn’t get very vertical and flushed off the back of the wave and didn’t stick my loop. I got my head together for my 2nd ride and stuck a loop on the buzzer. I went into my last ride completely relaxed and managed a number of clean/superclean ends/spins, a roundhouse (perhaps a blunt as well), left and right cartwheels and loop to finish with so ended up in first place with a very pleasing combined score of 543 points (350ish points ahead of second place). Lowri pulled off a big loop in her first ride which put her into 2nd place and giving her 3rd spot on the team. Lynsey, unfortunately, followed my example from the looping pool and flushed a few too many times meaning she came 5th in this event, but was 2nd overall providing her with a place on the team. I didn’t see many of the other categories competing (things to do, people to see and all that) but full results are on http://www.ukfreestyle.com/.
Richard Chrimes gets a spot-on entry move in the muncher.
I will hopefully putting some full size images onto my website during half term week (2 weeks), and updating the video page as well.
At the moment I, and many other GB-team paddlers, believe the looping pool is not consistent enough to hold a competition on (especially a high-profile international one) and it does not showcase the best moves – this was shown by the extremely low scores on this feature last weekend, compared to those in both the Muncher and the inlet gate. I believe the top 5 to 10 paddlers of a looping pool competition could be just as fairly positioned by pulling names out of a hat (perhaps I’m being a little cynical, but…). By contrast the inlet gate allows some big aerial manoeuvres to be performed, and is very consistent, but I actually find it quite dull, both to watch and compete in. There is no dynamicism (have I made that word up?!) to the feature, the water is too uniform, always so much the same, and so slow. An Inlet gate comp could even be comparable to a flat-water competition (but with air). I personally would vote for the European Championships to be held on the Muncher (at full release) which is both dynamic and allows some big moves with scope for variety, and of course, I always do well there J. Perhaps now I am on the freestyle committee I will be able to bring the subject up at a future committee meeting to see if we can come up with a decision that the paddlers and spectators alike will be happy with.
Getting vertical in the muncher.
Anyway, whatever….back to the selection event. The line-up in the ladies event was much the same as last year, and like last year I was concerned that I wouldn’t make one of the 3 spots on the team as I haven’t been boating much this summer (job, lack of Hurley and bored with Boulters) and everyone else seems to have been paddling lots, especially the Nottingham locals, who do of course have that home advantage. It was made easier though by Deb Pinniger not entering, and by Jenny Chrimes, who is now senior class (and becoming an increasing threat), being automatically selected due to her ‘Junior European Champion’ status.
Saturday morning we were told the first event would be held on the Inlet gate – this was a little bit frustrating as the publicised schedule had told us the looping pool and Muncher events would be on the Saturday and the Inlet gate on the Sunday. I had therefore spent Friday night paddling in the two features that were not the Inlet gate figuring I would leave the practice there until after Saturday’s competition. Thanks guys. Nevermind, as the Inlet gate is so consistent it doesn’t take much getting used to at each new Nottingham paddling session.
Ladies looking for action!
The Inlet gate event: Wow, what a long time this event took to get done. I think this was due to the ridiculous length of time the first few categories were spending on their practice rides (by the time the men came on they were hurrying things along a little bit) – note for organisers for next time: ‘must only allow 45 secs max for practice rides’. All of the ladies went for loops, but surprisingly few (I think) actually scored them – most came off a bit too wonky. I won the event with loops in each ride and a few left/right cartwheels/spins and cleans. Lowri came in second, her first ride was apparently a good one to watch, with a few big loops, air loop (although I don’t know if it was scored as air) and space Godzilla attempt. Lynsey was 3rd, unfortunately most of her loops were said wonky ones, but she made it up with consistent cartwheels both ways. Claire O’Hara got the biggest loop of the ladies competition but unfortunately flushed on landing. The new variety scoring system was a blessing on this feature, as last year all we saw was loop, loop, loop, loop, which gets as dull as cartwheel, cartwheel, cartwheel. So it was nice to see a variety of moves. However, a bigger emphasis is now on whether the loop is landed cleanly or not (in the ladies event anyway – where the loop is the big scoring move). But, I guess you just have to make sure that one move counts.
Nice looking loop, in the
muncher, but I landed wonky!
I’m not sure what the men did, but they got some huge scores – the runs I saw mainly consisted of loops/air loops back and front, space godzillas and the odd tricky woo/ McNasty / phonix monkey combo (that is, a combo in one ride, not a combo in one move). There was a big gap between men’s scores and ladies’. I was close to getting a back loop, but I’ve got a long way to go before I will be scoring the other moves that the guys were doing.
I forgot that I had the chance to go and paddle at the looping pool, as I was commandeered by the drug-testing gang. Well, I had been to the toilet 3 times just before the comp, so I spent the next ½ hour downing powerade to enable me to pee in pot – how pleasant. Good or bad, freestyle isn’t what it used to be - images of tequila-sponsored rodeo events come to mind. Still, I’m happy to see not all events have changed; I noticed the line up for the Nile river festival included downing a bottle of Nile Special as part of the downriver race. I believe drugs-testing over there means something slightly different!
The next event was the Looping Pool, at a fairly early hour on Sunday morning. I went into this event being paranoid of flushing, it is after all a flushy feature, and because of this I tensed up and did just that – a lot. A couple of my rides were mainly spent paddling up the eddy! The rides that the ladies did were mainly right hand cartwheels and a few clean spins/cartwheels. Lynsey got some nicely vertical left and right cartwheels in two of her rides (two out of 3 count). 'Old-timer' Lorna Williamson (who, with ‘Fast’ Edwin Cleator, had made a one-time out-of-retirement appearance. Lorna is pictured below cleaning in the muncher)
had a really nice 3rd ride with some vertical cartwheels and surprised herself with a joint 3rd place. The mens rides also consisted of lots of right hand cartwheels but with a few extra loops, back loops and tricky woos thrown in (they are certainly possible on this feature, just not consistently). Compared to the Inlet gate the scores were not too inspiring. Perhaps I’m bitter because I only just managed to get those cartwheels! So, name out of hat time, I ended up in 5th – not shameable, but could do better. With a 4th ride I could have easily ended up in 1st (…..or perhaps 10th)! Such is the way with this sport.The Muncher. I floated down to the Muncher after my rides in the looping pool and instantly relaxed – so much nicer to not worry about flushing or catching the end uncontrollably. I have previously won a number of events in the Muncher and was confident that I could do well in this event, (that in itself probably made a huge difference to my performance compared to that in the looping pool), I also knew I didn’t have to get a really high place to maintain a team position.
When it came to it though, my first ride was not very good, I didn’t get very vertical and flushed off the back of the wave and didn’t stick my loop. I got my head together for my 2nd ride and stuck a loop on the buzzer. I went into my last ride completely relaxed and managed a number of clean/superclean ends/spins, a roundhouse (perhaps a blunt as well), left and right cartwheels and loop to finish with so ended up in first place with a very pleasing combined score of 543 points (350ish points ahead of second place). Lowri pulled off a big loop in her first ride which put her into 2nd place and giving her 3rd spot on the team. Lynsey, unfortunately, followed my example from the looping pool and flushed a few too many times meaning she came 5th in this event, but was 2nd overall providing her with a place on the team. I didn’t see many of the other categories competing (things to do, people to see and all that) but full results are on http://www.ukfreestyle.com/.
Richard Chrimes gets a spot-on entry move in the muncher.
I will hopefully putting some full size images onto my website during half term week (2 weeks), and updating the video page as well.
posted by flea at 7:08 PM 0 comments 