My day off...

Since Monday this week the official nations training is on it´s way. This means one hour for about 20 kayakers (sometimes it´s only one nation but more often there are a few nations together), which equals about 4-5 runs per kayaker. This does not sound that much - but it is quite exhausting. Additionally I´ve been paddling in the morning too (there´s about one hour left for free training) so I decided to take another day off.
So how could I spend this day resting and being productive at the same time?
What about taking a few pictures of (almost) every nation training today and focusing on the faces??
And here are the results (click the link):

--> Freestyle Faces <--

(Those are to many pictures to upload to the blog, sorry)

So here are some random pictures from today:

Paddling with Juuso again- feels like Uganda ;)

Claire O´hara

Katya Kulkova

Max Karlsson in his brandnew Dagger Jitsu Carbon

Max again

Maria Lindgren

Jez Jezz

Pigeon River

For the last 2 days I went to another river: the Pigeon River. There´s also an extremely nice playspot - really good to learn new moves!! I went there with friends from Poland, Zosia and Tomasz. The queues in the eddies at the Nantahala river were quite long so we decided to move over there for 2 days. It´s about 80 minutes of driving on the interstate through picturesque forests. And finally the sun really broke through! Also the water was a lot warmer than the Nantahala river. Tomasz and lots of other people said that it´s a perfect spot to learn new moves - so I decided to work on the McNasty - and on the 2nd day I managed to work it out!!!!! Thanks again to Zosia for the tip!!! ;)Later on the first day ruling Freestyle Worldchampion Claire O´hara and Jez came there to train. Now I just have to make it work on the other playspot over at NOC!!!! On the 2nd day over at the Pigeon River a part of the spanish team joined us: Nuria and Qim decided to flee the crowded shores of the Nantahala River. And I´ve had my first "wildlife experience": a small watersnake curled up on a uprooted tree above the water (Nuria was the first to see and pointed the snake ou to the other kayakers). No bears or racoons or other wildlife till now!

In these pics: Claire O´hara, Jez, Zosia, Tomasz, Quim Fontane Maso, Nuria Fontane Maso.

And here´s a pic of me (thanks for this to Tomasz and Zosia :D)

Training has started!

After 3 days of training I start to like the playspot here at the NOC. Training twice a day - but by now there are so many people that there´s a huge queue in the eddy. 2hours in the kayak with only 5 runs is kind of frustrating... And it´s going to get worse the more people arrive! Though just watching all the pro´s do their runs is just amazing! Well, they are the best of the best! :D Weather has been pretty bad for the last 3 days. Lots of rain but not to cold! Today was the first day with a little glimpse of the sun! Humidity is quite high - so nothings getting dry over night. Here are some pictures of today's training:

Finally arrived at the NOC

I arrived on the campsite in the middle of the night. Driving through a dark and foreign country was an interesting experience. Luckily my google navigation did work! I set up my tent with my headlight and unpacked just the necessary items. After almost 24 hours "on the road" I slept quite well - always in mind that there are raccoons and bears around... In the morning I went for a walk down to the NOC and watched other kayakers train - the playspot really looks very similiar to our austrian homespot, the "Helliwelli" at Wildalpen. In the afternoon I went for my first trainingsession - I really like the spot!!!! It looks not only similiar to the Helliwelli - it feels similiar too when paddling! There´s still a lot to do and learn - but with Peter Csonka as coach this shouldn´t be a problem ;)

Vienna Airport - boarding just started!!!

All baggage checked in - boarding starting this moment!!! Good bye Austria - hello USA :-)

Ready to go to the USA!

Everything packed and ready to leave!!!
Tomorrow morning my flight will leave from Vienna via Frankfurt to Atlanta. From there I´ll drive to the NOC http://www.freestylekayaking2013.com/ where the fun will start!!!!!!!!!!!!

See you soon...

Divoka Voda Festival, Cunovo

The last competition for me before going to the US was Cunovo. On the whitewater channel close to Bratislava there was a big sports-festival with a boatercross event on Saturday and a Kayak Freestyle Competition on Sunday. This beeing the playspot where Peter Csonka, World Cup Winner 2012, twice Vice Worldchampion trains, I had quite big expectations about that playspot. Which have been quite profoundly disappointed: the spot was shallow once again and pushing very hard to the right. Only after asking Peter to change the waterlevel a little bit, it got better. On Sunday the waterlevel was even higher - which changed the spot again - but only to the better!

In preliminaries we competed in session system - no classes, just 3 heats.

For the finals Peter had something special in mind: he would tell the 5 finalists which tricks to do and who could keep doing them correctly the longest would win! And Peter know´s exactly which moves those guys are not that comfortable with!

In the end Martin Koll took gold before Lukas Cervinka and Marcel Bloder!!!

Paddlers: Martin Koll, Lukas Cervinka, Marcel Bloder, Ondra Krivanek
Some more pictures

Eurocup Prague, Troja Freestyle Fest

On the last weekend of July the european freestyle kayakers met for the second competition of this years Freestyle Eurocup.

Although this years flooding wasn´t to long ago, the organisation was perfect! Big thanks to Stepan Vohradsky and all his helpers - you did a really amazing job!

During the week we only had a few hours of training time due to the slalom-kayakers who will have thir Worldchampionship in Prague in a few weeks! But from friday afternoon on the channel was reserved only for freestyle kayakers! The playspot was quite tricky and rather shallow and with a very short eddy - even the pro´s had some trouble at the beginning. All in all it was a really nice competition - next time I´ll not stay on the same campground as the party takes place - those czech parties for 3 nights in row robbed me of my sleep! My result didn´t really come up to my expectations, but competition practice was very important for me!

In the end team Germany was the strongest team with winning the K1Junior Women and Junior Men categories! In the K1 Men category Peter Csonka took gold before Tomasz Czaplicki - so he seems to be back from his injury at the right time!!

Paddlers: Zosia Tula, Anne Hübner, Yannick Münchow, Marcel Bloder, Tomasz Czaplicki, Peter Csonka, Thomas Hinkel, Bartosz Czauderna
More pictures here!

City of Prague: