GB Team Selections

The muncher, Nottingham - site of many a selection event

The GB team selections were held last weekend. Despite rain of biblical proportions, Hurley did not come up in time for the decision to be made for the event to be held there, and no one expected it would hold on 2 gates for the weekend. So, Nottingham it was.

A whole load of controversy as to whether we should be selecting for a wave event in a hole etc. etc. But, as a committee, we did what we could do, and as we have no reliable waves in this country we didn't have much choice. Unfortunately though, it did mean that those that had been paddling in Nottingham all summer (and some, particularly juniors, who perhaps have never paddled on a big wave - or any wave, and will get royally beaten on Buseater) had a distinct advantage over those of us who had been travelling and paddling on waves. But, that just meant we needed to try harder.

Saturdays event was on the inlet gate, which is a bizarre feature - the only place I know where loops are much easier than cartwheels and a place which mainly rewards those with the largest overthrusters. In the ladies event air loops were the big scorers (my small boat and relatively heavy self meant just standard loops for me). Landing a back loop or a couple of split wheels also took you into the top 3 positions. Unfortunately I didn't land any of the above and my clean ends were all a bit flat, meaning I ended up in 4th place (actually 6th place -but the other two were Jenny Chrimes (Junior World Champion) and Jutta Kaiser (German/World Champion), neither of whom needed to be selected).

In the mens event the moves to achieve a top 5 place were space godzillas both ways, air loop, loop and either a back loop or McNasty. Or, as in the case of Joe 'my thruster's bigger than yours' Kingston, just mahoosive air loops.

There were a few shockers as some of those who were expected to make the top positions were not in there after Saturdays event, including local boy Richard Chrimes, and renowned World-class paddler Deb Pinnegar. Also, a few Hurley-paddlers, such as Piers Bucknall who unfortunately never got the chance to show us his fantastic air screws, which obtained him 4th place in this years' Lyon Festival.

By the end of Saturday there were some obvious dissapointments, especially with the news that Hurley was still running on 2 gates. For some, it was too much and they took to the car, and a drive south, to forget about selections and get in a quick Hurley session so as not to waste a whole days boating!

Thankfully though, we still had another competition to go, in my favourite place on the course: The Muncher. At least this one is what I would term a 'proper' hole, which takes some work to stay in there, and is definitely hard to find the right spot to loop. However, all moves are possible. This is the place where I refined my cartwheel technique, and if I could cartwheel a Vertigo in there, I can definitely do the same with a small kingpin. So, whilst everyone else was dreading this competition for fear of flushing/not getting vertical enough/not being able to loop etc. etc. I was looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, as I had been paddling at Nottingham since Thursday this was just enough time for those 'Trent-Trots bugs' to have their effect. So, I spent most of Saturday night either hugging the toilet or sat on top of it. Not the best preparation for a competition. However, I think concentrating on not throwing up may have helped my paddling, as I had no time to get nervous! Thankfully, my cleans and supercleans with some left hand ends (which are quite difficult in this right-handed feature) were enough to give me a win, although without landing a loop my score was low on last year's.


Cleaning in the muncher, just like last year - or was it last year :)


Debs was paddling more like her usual self, but not until her last ride, so she took 2nd place, but was not enough to earn her a place on the team. Lynsey flushed early a few times, but still did enough to get 4th place in the muncher and 3rd place on the team. Local paddler Claire O'Hara was paddling well all weekend, her huge air loops earnt her a win on Saturday, and she took 1st spot on the team.

I didn't stay around to watch the mens event, so I have no idea what went on, but from looking at practice rides and scores I'm guessing the top guys got loops and McNasties.

So, regardless of what would have happened had selections been at Hurley, the team for the World Championships 2007 has been selected. Now all we have to do is find a wave to practice our moves on (a trip to Uganda in the winter for many). And, hope that Buseater will come into action at the right time in April next year.

Website changes

As you can probably tell (from the unprofessional style and bits that don't work) I designed and built my website all by myself (with just a little help from my friends!). I have no knowledge at all of these things so my friends started this blogger page for me and connected it to the rest (thanks Rew and Blokey). Recently though, I changed the design of the rest of the site, and was then faced with a whole bunch of widgery pokery code when I came to change this diary page. Well, I wasn't going to let a few letters and numbers beat me, so I'm finally figuring out what it all means and this page is now looking a bit more updated. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks it will be looking exactly the same as the rest of the site.

Last few weeks in US

Following the World Cup we hung out in Asheville, N.Carolina for a few days. I managed to get a run in on the Green, thanks to Andrew for taking me down and to Anna for the loan of the creek boat. Then we headed to West Virginia for some runs on the Gauley, New and Yough.

Unfortunately when Cam arrived for Gauley fest the weather turned to torrential rain (not enough to get the rivers going though), for just about 2 weeks, except for the 80 degree sunshine on the days we were driving. The number of movies we watched and meals eaten out were directly proportional to the amount of rain falling from the sky. Added to that our mission back to Asheville to run the Green again was greeted with work on the dam and no releases during our waking hours (apparently 6.30am was the time to catch it!).

But at least we got to see some mountains.



And the White House.