European Freestyle Championships - Ladies heats

The Europeans are on this week. Thankfully the weather is fantastic, and the feature is not too bad - definitely an improvement from before. Pete has done a great job with the event so far.

The event started yesterday (see www.ukfreestyle.com for full GB write-up, and www.eurofreestylekayak.com).

The ladies heats were on today and I had a couple of nice rides. Unfortunately I didn't get my loop, but I got some nice cleans and super-cleans which earned me 1st place. Hopefully I'll be able to stick a loop or two tomorrow. There is strong competition from all of the ladies though, all of whom have been getting some great rides in practice with vertical cartwheels both ways, cleans, super cleans and loops.

Lyon River Festival - Great event, shame about the levels

Despite living only a relatively short distance away from Lyon, I had never actually been there to visit Hawaii Sur Rhone, the wave. But, I had heard good things: a big wave, with big air being a realistic possibility. So, especially with reports of a good season, I was looking forward to spending a few days out there before the 2006 Lyon River Festival. Amazingly I navigated myself through the whole of France and straight to the wave without getting lost – hooray (there were stories of others driving around Lyon for several hours, able to see the wave but unable to get there)!

Unfortunately, as with all good features I arrive at, the river level had recently dropped to a disappointingly low levelL. Thankfully though I had arrived on a bank holiday, and for the rest of the week the dam did release some water and the levels rose, although not to the huge green wave levels of the pictures, but, a nice green shoulder for some right-hand moves (not my speciality) and good enough for some big names to be pulling off some big moves. This was going to be a major event, with boaters flying in from America, Canada, Uganda and all over Europe. However, major events always mean major queues in the eddy, and towards the end of the week this was certainly happening. Forming queues in the middle of the river was fine when the water was at its lowest in the morning but, as it rose throughout the day, I was sure sitting in the eddy waiting for your turn was much more energy-efficient. I was unable to pass on this wisdom to anyone behind me though, as they were so intent on not loosing their place that they were all sweeping passed me to the middle of the river. I think we needed a few ‘Hurley queuing experts’ to have a rant and put things right.

The event was extremely well organised and there were a lot of local people, as well as TV crews, that came to observe the paddling and the other activities going on – come and try it sessions, manufacturers stands, bouncy castles, bands, beer and boozing. The organisers were extremely helpful, especially in showing us where the hospital was – a story for a different day (Pringle can tell you that one) and offering help when the car was being towed away by the breakdown people. The format of the competition was good as well – 30 seconds, 3 moves count, and even moves that flushed scored points, which therefore allowed the paddlers to take the risk to go big.

It was a shame then, that on Saturday, the day of the heats, there was a severe lack of water. Everybody was wishing they were the size of Dane Jackson, as he made the wave look 3 times bigger than it actually was. In the ladies heats the most popular move was the ‘flush’ followed by the ‘just about catch the wave to get through to the next round’ manoeuvre. Although, not wishing to be completely negative, 15 year old local girl Nouria, got an impressive back stab and a big blunt, which would have got her through near the top of the men’s pro! I was pleased to just catch the wave in one of my rides (which would have been enough to get me through), and was then afraid to do anything in case I fell off the back of the pile, so getting a blunt as well was a bonus! The ‘flush’ was popular amongst the men as well, although some managed to paddle back up the eddy to get back onto the wave. But, there were some more inspiring moves as well – helixes, pan-ams, donkey flips (although some of these definitely looked more like – to quote Wiggy – ‘Cow Tippers’, rather than full on donkey flips), and some of them even stuck!

The big air ramp was entertaining to watch and this pulled in the crowds as it was a lot easier to figure out than what was going on in the wave. And the air time, along with the rotations in the moves, was very impressive. Being a big girls blouse and not quite as bendy as I used to be, I decided to decline the ramp, I think Juma (from Uganda) wished he had given it a miss as well, after landing on his ear and not being able to hear anything for the rest of the weekend.

Some decided not to bother with kayaks on the ramp (until the ramp broke and it all ended in tears:))


The band, beer and boozing all got underway smoothly on Saturday night, and continued (perhaps less so smoothly) into the early (late?) hours of Sunday morning.

After a few beers on Saturday night and even lower water levels on Sunday morning I was not too enthusiastic about the semi-finals. When EJ doesn’t make semis you know the feature is pretty tough. As I approached the green tongue leading into the wave I really struggled to see the pile and that was not just because I didn’t have my contact lenses in, nor because I had drunk too much the night before. So, I flushed – twice, actually I flushed once and then decided to catch the wave from the bottom eddy, and failed to do that – twice. Ho hum. Once again it was a case of those who caught the wave (even slightly) got through to the next round; unfortunately (for the watching crowd) no moves were required.

So, to the finals: I have ranted before about how I don’t like knock-out finals, and I thought this format was particularly harsh for the flushy feature - too often it was down to who didn’t flush, rather than who got the best rides. This was particularly true in the ladies, where Nouria from France was clearly getting the biggest blunts and the most consistent rides. Unfortunately though, in her last ride she missed the wave, and first place went to Nina Hvoslef from Slovakia. Dane Jackson won the Juniors, he got a very nice huge air blunt, which was just slightly bigger than the fairly huge air blunt from Nick Troutman.

Big blunts were still possible:


In the men’s event Hurley regular Piers Bucknell (GB) had thrown down some very fast and retentive donkey flips to make it through to the final 5. In the end he came 4th – well done Piers. 1st place was fought out Australia (Anthony Yapp) vs France. In the final ride both men got a big blunt and a donkey flip, so they scored the same and had to go again. I think, by this stage, I had watched too many people paddling up the eddy and I honestly can’t remember what happened in the repeated final ride, but Anthony did something which earned him the most points – well done.

The French Alps were now calling so we didn’t stay around to watch the big air ramp final. Although, I think it was probably a good one. Apparently Logan (Canadian gymnast) got a nice back flip which earned him first place.



Despite my negativity about the feature, it was actually a very good event; paddlers were getting some good moves and there were big crowds. Well done to the organisers who, I’m sure, were even more frustrated about the lack of water than the paddlers. I heard a rumour that next year they may be able to hold the event during a weekday to ensure dam-release, or if not, lets hope they are luckier with the water levels.

Liquid Life Festival

We may live in a fairly small country but Scotland is a relatively long drive away, especially on a bank holiday weekend (still, probably just a wee trek down the road for anyone used to driving around Canada). 10 hours after leaving Reading we reached the muddy field that was base for the Liquid Life Festival. This event is now in its 3rd year, based around 4-at-a-time extreme racing, on the dam-released River Tummel. There aren’t very many dam-released rivers in Britain and I was looking forward to creek-boating in Britain in May (a rare occurrence). Well, it may as well have been November as it hammered down for the whole of Saturday, the muddy Marquee got muddier, the muddy field got muddier and most people(except me), sensibly, went into Pitlochry to buy some wellies. Thankfully the weather brightened up on Sunday and I was able to remove at least one of my three jackets, possibly on more than one occasion.

By the time we arrived on the Friday evening everyone was already in party/drinking mode (in fact some had already peaked too early and headed off to bed). The party in the Marquee was a bizarre cross between rodeo parties of old, and student parties at the Dee Tour. We decided to leave the drinking until Saturday night and left the men with their trousers round their ankles to it.

Unlike rodeos of old, on Saturday morning there was no waiting around recovering from hangovers from the Liquid Life team; they ran everything on time, to the second. Unfortunately, for you, if you weren’t on time for your heat that was tough, this worked well for most of Saturday and kept things moving well. However, it was a little unfair for the semis and finals when all the information was posted at the Marquee base, but the paddlers were at the top of the river, without time to get down to the Marquee, meaning some missed out as the relevant information was not passed on to them.

Thankfully I arrived at least 10 minutes before my heat – just enough time to pick a line on a river I had not seen before. There were 2 tricky (in racing terms) rapids. The ‘S bends rapid’ had a choice of routes – straight over the rocks in the middle, or round the s-bend but avoiding the pinning rocks on the right-hand side. There were 2 men suitably stood on the rocks ready for anyone who got the line slightly wrong and pinned – I think they were kept fairly busy over the weekend. The other rapid to get right was the double drop at the bottom of the course – too far left and you were on rocks at the bottom, too far right and you were slowed down by the rocks at the side and then heading for down-time if you missed the boof.



I line up for the final drop

The results of a lot of the heats came down to who messed up the line on the last drop. Those with the cleanest lines obviously got through. So, I was in the heat from hell: old rival and friend Lynsey Evans; a local paddler, Jude, who came 3rd last year; and another paddler, Emma, who came 5th last year. I was quite looking forward to some digging in elbows and bashing of boats and paddles. As planned, I let Lynsey take the lead and I settled not too far behind her so she could lead the way. Unfortunately near the top I had a slight issue with a shallow section and an eddy which I didn’t want to be in, which put me in 3rd place just before the s-bends. However, I was fairly close to 2nd placed Jude, and managed to overtake her on the flat section just after the rapid. Lynsey wasn’t all that far ahead and I started to put a bit of distance between myself and Jude. Unfortunately, my first time down the last drop was not all that successful, I wasn’t far enough left on the last part of the drop, so I missed the boof and went deep, this allowed Jude, who got a really nice line, to overtake me right in the last few metres of the race. That was it. Out of the competition! The race was really good fun, and I wanted to go again so I was annoyed with myself for not getting a better line on the final drop, and also frustrated that if I had been in a number of the other heats I would have got through even with messing up the line. (Some of the other ladies got some long upside down moments in the last drop and still got in the top 2 of their heats). It’s a shame they didn’t have a fastest loosers heat, because the next time I paddled down, I got a perfect line. But, that’s the luck of the draw, and the way competitions go. A similar ‘bad luck of the draw’ happened in some of the other categories as well, with several really fast paddlers in one heat and in other heats only one paddler turned up!
So, time for the drinking! Needless to say Saturday night was a flawless event with catching up with lots of familiar faces, drinking&dancing and more men and ladies with pants round their ankles. Interesting...

Sunday morning dawned a little too quickly for some people. The team event + semis and finals all happened on Sunday. I think the organisers must have been drinking late on Saturday as things, thankfully, didn’t run quite as quickly at the beginning of the day. Luckily the team event was an hour or so late, which was good as my team (Team Dagger/Palm) was also an hour or so late in getting together! When we finally got on the water it was a really good event. All 4 paddlers had to finish within 20 seconds of each other, but there were several obstacles on the way down which, if completed successfully, resulted in 20 seconds taken off the team time.

Team Palm/Dagger

We had a vague plan, which all changed at the last second… Tim downed the red bull, we faffed around a bit waiting for him to catch up, Danny hit the Palm banner with his boat on the way through. Both Jonny and I failed to put the paddles through the bottomless Pyranha boat and then we were both downstream of the Teva banner before we thought about rolling under it! Thankfully, Danny did the roll and then caught the micro-eddy (50 seconds off the time) halfway down the final drop, meanwhile Tim had steamed down (thanks to the red bull!) and successfully threw his paddles through the boat – it all ran like clockwork….hmmmm! Well, something must have worked as we finished second , just beating Team Pyranha. Not fast enough for the Welsh …. (I can’t remember the rest of their team name – but consisted of Bledd, Lynsey, Naomi and Daz) who sped down and had a proper plan – I think Bledd did everything except the red bull drinking!

Bledd gets a nice boof in the team event

The rest of the day was really entertaining to watch. There were lots of categories to get through – which was evident from the amount of time prize giving took! But there were several exciting finals. The Topo Duo was a good one, with the British pair just passing the South Africans at the last drop. The ladies GB Team won the rafting and the Welsh men won their rafting – each team going away with a few hundred quid of cash between them. The mens open was won by Gordon Ross.

The topo duo event: the Brits in the red boat, just passing the South Africans at the last drop.

The Ladies event was very exciting; Norwegian Mariann was probably odds-on favourite to win with all of her previous extreme racing experience. However, Welsh girl Lynsey is also very fast and a very good creek-boater (her and Bledd regularly do a 10 minute paddle down the fairy glen as a pre-work warm-up). As we had our viewing positions at the last drop we only saw the end of the race, but apparently there was a nice bit of elbowing and paddle-clashing at the start of the race, Lynsey left the other three to it though as she took the right hand line, which took her out in front. She was still in front by the last drop with Mariann fairly close behind, both of them got good lines through the last drop meaning there was no chance for Mariann to overtake and Lynsey went away with first place.

Lynsey, just ahead of Mariann, in the ladies final.

The Welsh were once again on top in the Mens as Matt Cooke (I’m not sure if he is actually Welsh, but, was paddling in the mens ‘welsh’ rafting team), took the win ahead of Mikey Abbot and Allan Ellard. Apparently, once again the order was decided at the start of the race, everyone jostled into their positions and, as no one made mistakes and all paddled really hard, there was no chance for anyone to overtake.

Despite my poor performance it was a really good weekend and I’m looking forward to next year’s event. Lots of people went away with some amazing prizes, not only the winners, but bibs were drawn out of the bag and plenty of prizes were given out – including a Giant Mountain Bike and a Dagger CFS. A Pyranha Burn was given to Dave G…(?) for the most spectacular carnage – a very interesting line down the final drop after failing to reach the micro-eddy in the team event. Rocks were landed on, and blood was spurting out from his face! He was OK though – merely a flesh wound!

I think Dave is still inside this boat as he lands upside down on the rocks - ouch!

More carnage in the team event

I have a busy few weeks ahead now: Youth Freestyle event on Saturday, then to Lyon for a week followed by a week in the French Alps, then it will be time for the European Championships in Nottingham. I'll update the website when I get chance!