Hurley!

So here I am in England preparing for the SAS Hurley Classic!

My plane arrived yesterday in the dark - here´s a nice view during the landing approach:

After getting the rental car I made my way over to Jacko´s house - only a few kilometers away.

I got a really warm welcome and in the morning I got to know the kids - they are really sweet!

Around noon I moved over to Hurley to meet with the other Austrian paddlers who brought my gear!

The area around there´s really nice, very rural and there´s a small church there.

The wave itself is quite special and needs some time getting used to!

I really like it though ad some moves were working quite ok!

Here´s one shot from my afternoon session - it´s getting dark pretty soon and there was an amazing sunset - unfortunately the camera was facing the wrong way to capture that ;)

And as usual - kayaking gear draped over the car - but there`s even been some sun!

And I´m stoked that there´s going to be a livestream for the whole event!

 Here are the links:

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

Provided by www.nicecreation.co.uk

Hellliwelli Wildwassershop 

Mitchell Blades Kayak Paddles

Bomber Gear Equipment

Ready for the SAS Hurley Classic!

After Elli, Christina, Julian and Marcel picked up my Kayak to bring it with them to the UK, everything is ready for my journey to London!

I can´t wait to take part in one of the oldest Freestyle Competitions in Europe and to visit London for the first time ever!

It´s going to be an amazing time - catch with friends I haven´t seen since the World Cup or the Europeans and be part of the 2014 SAS Hurley Classic!

SAS Hurley Classic

After getting my new GuiGui-Prod Helixir and a new set of Mitchell Blade paddles I´ve been paddling on the Kuchl wave quite often!

Unfortunately it´s not the famous and big Kuchl-Wave any more - some rocks shifted during one of the bigger floodings in the last years - but there´s still a nice smaller wave on top of the Kuchl-rapid!

So a big Thank You to my supporters:

Hellliwelli Wildwassershop 

Mitchell Blades Kayak Paddles

Bomber Gear Equipment

And  of course my coach Jacko Jacksonfor not only organising the whole event, but also offering me a place to stay during the competition!

KJO

And to Paula for offering me a base-camp, from where to explore London!

And here´s the latest vid from Kuchl!
Watch in HD!

KuchlAutumnSessions2014

Europeans Wrap Up

European Championship Wrap Up!

First thing I have to say: I had a blast at the 2014 Kayak Freestyle European Championships in Cunovo, Bratislava!

The Austrian team was quite big compared to the last events:we were 7 paddlers!

Corinna and Eli, Andi in the Junior Class and Marcel, Clemens, Philipp and myself.

We had quite good training sessions and felt all very confident about the competition – for everybody in the team except Marcel and myself it would be the first international freestyle event!

My heat was up on Thursday quite early and I was still feeling tired from the training sessions but had a good feeling when I got on the water!

But unfortunately I did not paddle as well as I hoped to, although I was really pleased with my second ride and even had a small hope to make Top 25 – but this hope was destroyed when I saw the scores: It was far from what I had hoped for!

Managed to put it aside quickly and carry on with the things happening!

Pete the headjudge and the organizers asked me to help with the commentating again and that´s what I did! Had a really good time there with 2 other kayakers doing the commentary again!

For Saturday I decided to get a second microphone so we could make the commentary better for the paddlers watching!

Unfortunately there were not as many people watching as we hoped for but the paddlers put on quite a big show!

We witnessed the highest ever officially scored 45 seconds ride by Peter Csonka: 1823 points!

That was amazing!

And the finals were intense too! I could sit back and watch them with Gabby and Paula because Bartosz – who dropped out in Semifinals - did the commentary!

It was amazing to see those guys paddle at this level!

Peter Csonka came first followed by Quim Fontané in second and James Pringle Bebbington in third!

Stoked especially for Quim to make the 2^nd place – he handed the Nr. 1 BIB to Peter Csonka after the Finals – showing his sportsmanship!

Agin a big thank you to all the organisers, volunteers and all the people who made this a very special event!

And of course a big thank you to my supporters!

Especially Helli Graf - you are awesome!

Helliwelli Wildwassershop

Mitchell Blades Whitewater Paddles

Bomber Gear Equipment

Here are some pictures from the trainings and the competition:

GB Freestyle Team training session:

 Pringle - finally back at his best paddling!

 Rob Crowe

 Team GB + coaches watching Pringle

 Gav Barker going huge in his GuiGuiProd Helixir

Gav again

 Hugo Scott

 Gabby Bates waiting to drop into the feature

Islay Crosbie looking for a Space Godzilla

 Hugo doing a McNasty

 Jonny Williams in a McNasty

 Islay going huge

 Puko on tour

 Gabby Bates during a huge Loop

And another one

Gabby again - she seemed to be really enjoying herself!

Emma Witherford

Teammate Marcel Bloder during training

Marcel again

Judges during the competition

 Abel Thevenet from France

 Quim Fontané with his unique style!

Quim again

 And one more...

And here´s the new European Champion in the Squirt Category:

Alex Edwards!!!

And of course the parties were awesome too! ;) 

European Champs in Cunovo/Bratislava

So finally the European Kayak Freestyle Championship is here!
Before coming here to Cunovo I stopped for a last training at Helliwelli in Wildalpen! Waterlevel was quite good for this time of the year and it was one of these beautiful sunny late summer days!

Here's a video I put together from the last 2 sessions:

I arrived in Cunovo today - and it's been raining all the way to Slovakia and it's still raining!

I also paddled once: tha playspot is quite shallow and people are saying the waterlevel is changing every day. And it definitely needs more time to get used to!

But there's still some time till the competition starts - but the eddy is really busy and you are waiting quite a long time for your turn.

Weather's supposed to be better tomorrow with some sunshine - so some pics will follow!!!

Plattling Training Session

Last week on Tuesday the 6th of August I went to Plattling with Claudia Beisl - the water level was quite high and the feature was a really nice wave - especially in the middle!

There were quite a lot of people there: Paddlers from Ukraine, lot´s of surfers, Lukas Cervinka and Jonas Künkel, whom I met in Uganda in March last year!

It was great meeting Jonas again and paddling with him too!!

Here are a few pictures - thanks to Claudia!

Amazing scenery here at Plattling!

Nice clean Blunt by Lukas

Myself going for a back Blunt

Taking off for a Blunt

An another one!

Soul surfing!

And thanks for that paddle Helli Graf - Helliwelli Wildwassershop!!!!!

Jonas and myself

Again...

Jonas doing a Loop

Sponsored by Helli Graf - Helliwelli Wildwassershop!!! :)

Support:

Helliwelli Wildwasser Shop

Mitchell Blades Kayak Paddles

Bomber Gear

Obervellach Freestyle 2014

The next Freestyle Competition in Austria was scheduled or the 2nd of August in Obervellach!

Just a year ago the local tourism group decided to build a slalom course on the local river, the Möll.

With input from Marcel Bloder the also included 2 playspots at the end of the course.

The first one quite a big hole, the 2nd one smaller and a little bit more like a wave hole.

The competition was actually supposed to be on the upper hole, but due to the waterlevel and maybe a rock which shifted in the top feature it took place at the lower wave!

Just one day ahead of the competition the locals built a nice platform for the judges-tent and set everything up for the event!

When I arrived at the playspot in the morning of the competition day, the waterlevel was really low. None the less I went for a paddle and it didn´t feel to bad!

For the competition we had a much higher level though - so nobody really had any training times on the playspot to get used to it!

We started the prelims in session mode and I really felt confident about the moves I did - so I was really disappointed when it turned out that I hadn´t scored a Space Godzilla!

So with coming 7th only over all and not being able to paddle in the Finals my chances to stay in the Top 3 of Austrian Freestyle Kayaking had vanished as I wasn´t able to compete in the last competition in Graz due to a compulsory emergency medicine training I had to take part in.

Clemens and Philipp really did a great job - those 2 are paddling on a really high level this year and are very consistent in the competitions too!

I still had a great time at the Wildwasserarena Mölltal and took over the microphone to do the announcing during the event!

Thanks very much to the organizers - especially the Wildwasserarena Mölltal, Paul Pristavec and MArcel Bloder for this great event!

Here are some pictures by Bernd Penker:

Matthias Zeiner in the playspot.

The timekeepers and the announcer ;)

Peter Csonka

Junior Class: Only German paddlers...

The Ladies podium

Mens podium

K1 Legends!!!!

Supporters:

Helliwelli Wildwasser Shop

Mitchell Blades Kayak Paddles

Bomber Gear

Helliwelli Kayak Freestyle 2014

Yesterday, Saturday the 19. of July the annual Kayak Freestyle competition took place in Wildalpen at the infamous Helliwelli!

The weather was perfect, the crowd was quite big and Helli Graf, the organizing team (Linda, Elvira, Alex) and all the volunteers did an awesome job to make the event a full success!

Only the river was a bit low - but´s that´s how it goes in summer...

I had a few training runs with my KCG-colleagues Clemens and Philipp - those 2 guys have been training hard in the last few months and I had a feeling that they could actually beat me on that day!

Philipp actually had great runs - he even made the Semifinals! His Phonics Monkeys are just insane!!!

I was and am still recovering from a gastroenteritis I got in Spain so I felt tired and slow.

The training was not too bad - the spot is quite shallow on the left side but OK on the right shoulder - but I managed to crack the stern of my kayak in one of the loops (there´s some work waiting for me now...).

In the competition itself I paddled far from what I hoped to do - there´s some serious training waiting for me before I go to the European Championships in Bratislava...

I just have to fit it between oncoming work and myself moving into a new apartment and so on...

Maybe the pressure helps ;)

Marcel, who´s has been to the World Cup too did a great job and managed to jump onto the podium in his last ride in the finals! Well done Marcel!

So Marcel took the title of Styrian Champ again, followed by Philipp Windischbacher and Clemens Gastgeber. Congratulations guys - good job!

So Matthias Zeiner and I have some work to do to catch up with those guys if we want to stay in 3rd and 2nd place of the Austrian Freestyle Championship!

Here are some pics from the Ladies and Mens K1 Finals:

Overview of the venue!

Lucie Spindlerova

Corinna Rebnegger

Elli Dirninger

Denis Rebnegger

Andrea Kaspers

Linda Künstl doing the Commenting and interviewing Philipp Windischbacher!

Mr. DJ Fabian Quassthoff

Marcel Bloder

Stepan Vorhadsky

Peter Csonka

Bartosz Czauderna

Jan Spindler

Now it´s Oli Hirsch on the microphone while Martin Koll´s watching the finals!