Training for Worlds

2015 Kayak Freestyle World Championship

This is the official homepage for the Words - there is also a link to the Livestream there!

I´ve now had a few training sessions in our team training slots - 60 minutes for about 22 paddlers - which means an average of 4-5 rides for every paddler. That´s not much but that´s all we got!

We are splitting the group in half so you actually spend less time sitting in the eddy but still get the same amount of rides. We share our slot with the Irish and the French. 

It´s possible to paddle before or after the official team training but then the queue in the eddy is even bigger and sometimes you wait for 20 minutes in between your rides.

Here´s a short Video of my better moves - slowly getting used to the wave and dialing the moves in!

 

When I´m not paddling I´m taking pictures of other teams - the weather has been changing hourly here - from hefty downpours to sunshine within the hour . but I managed to get some decent pictures!

Here are 2 albums from the last 2 days:

Team Training 25th

GB TeamTraining 26th

And of course a big Thank You to my supporters!

Helliwelli Wildwasser Shop

Mitchell Blades Kayak Paddles

Garberator

Here are some first impressions from Garberator!

Since Sunday there are team-training, which means that there are about about 24 people in each group (sometimes from different nations) who have 1 hour time-slots for training each day!

This definitely is an interesting wave - really fun to paddle but also hard to find the right setup and very unique. It´s quite powerful although the water is only about 50cm deep!

Helliwelli Wildwassershop

Mitchell Blades Kayak Paddles

Canada!!!

Canada delivers! 

Montreal is a beautiful city – it´s a shame I wont see much of it. The hotel where i stayed fo two nights is in the old part of town, close to the theaters and the port! Pubs and restaurants are lined up on the roads and it´s warm so can sit outside and enjoy your dinner.

The St. Laurent River flows through Montreal and there is a really nice wave there named after the adjacent modern building complex: the Habitat 67! It´s a smooth wave with a nice foam-pile but it turns really green and is perfect for surfers once the waterlevel drops.

This wave is the reason I stayed in montreal for 2 days, cause I hope there would be no line in the eddy and I definitely needed that time to get used to bigger waves again!

And it has been perfect: warm weather and water and only a few surfers and one other kayaker – good for long and exhausting practice rides! Here are some pictures from the wave and a few first impressions from the city!

First view of the Habitat 67 wave

And the modern housing complex of the same name: 

View over the port to downtown Montreal 

My gear and my car ;)

Older parts of Montreal

Modern art in the old part of the town

Montreal by night

And finally some pictures from todays action:

Tomorrowa I´ll do a morning session on this wave and then head to the Ottawa river for the first day of nation-training!

Helliwelli Wildwassershop

Mitchell Blades Kayak Paddles

EuroCup II Wildalpen, Preparations for Worlds

While almost everybody is training in Canada at the Garberator wave already I´m still at home training with what we have here - besides flatwater there´s only Kuchl running at the moment and it´s far from a perfect wave.

It´s a one move feature at the moment but I´m trying to make the best of it!

Here´s a screen capture from today's training

While most athletes have a already booked their flights and don´t have trouble with the visa, this is a huge problem for the Ugandan Kayak Freestyle Team! The submitted their Visa Apllication 2 times already and got rejected twice! I saw those guys training in Uganda earlier this year - you can find some pictures in this blog entry - they are really dedicated and there´s been a huge outcry in the freestyle community about the whole issue! 

Here´s a newspaper article in the Ottawa Citizenfor furhter erading!

Since my last blog entry quite a lot of things happened!

The Austrian Freestyle Championship has ended - with me sitting on 4th once again! It´s been 2 really good competitions, first one was supposed to be in Lienz but due to a destroyed wave we had to move it to the Mölltal Wildwasser Arena where we had one competition already last year.

The playspot is quite rowdy - especially on lower levels but it was a fun day!

The 2nd competition was also 2nd part of the Eurocup and was held in Wildalpen. I ended up as announcer once again - it was amazing to comment on those rides the pro-kayakers laid down - especially in the final! It was crazy to watch Quim Fontané and Tomasz Czaplicky throw down and push each other harder and harder!

Here are some pics by "Meisterphotograph" Mario Mulle

And as always big thank you to my supporters!

Helliwelli Wildwassershop

Mitchell Blades Kayak Paddles