Is was quite
happy with my result from the 1st World Cup in Millau and
felt confident that I could repeat the rides in Salt – maybe even
improve them a little!
Of what I´ve
heard from Quim Fontané the feature at Salt should be more to my
liking – looking a little bit like a small version of the playspot
on the Pidgeon River in the US where I trained during the Freestyle
World Championship last year.
When I
arrived in Salt I – like almost everybody else – I had some
trouble finding the event location.
When I
finally managed to get there it looked quite OK – maybe a little
bit flushy.
After a
little bit of paddling Quim arrived – he had rebuilt the hole just
a week ago after a flood had changed it – he said that there would
be a change to the waterlevel – it was still too high.
The next day
the level was fine and I started to get used to the feature – and I
really liked it!
I managed to
piece a run together that would get me more points than my runs at
Millau and I felt confident to pull them off during the competition.
When the
prelims started there where some insanely huge rides – the Pro´s
are taking Freestyle to a whole new level!
When my heat
was up I did my usual warm-up and got into my kayak to get to the
boat control. After this was finished there was a sudden announcement
of a short break – only 5 minutes.
But then it
turned out the reason for that break was that the judges ran out of
Coffee (!) and there was a Freudian slip – announced over the sound
system: “... can we get the coffee to the coffee-tent... ah judges
tent...”
The short
break stretched into long minutes and I tried to take it with humour
– but the wait and the whole incident unnerved me and I didn´t
manage to settle back into my competition state of mind.
My first run
turned out to be ok – even got a Phonics Monkey in just ahead of
the buzzer – unfortunately I flushed and so it didn´t count.
Till it was
my turn again I tried to find the right mindset to throw a good ride
– which I couldn´t – totally buggered my second ride (I only
scored 6 points) – which put me into 46th place – far
behind my expectations.
These kind of
incidents still really upset me – especially when seeing to what
level the actual paddling is going and then there are quite big
unprofessional mistakes in the organisation.
And there
were a few other things that I thought quite upsetting – like
changing the schedule – but only minutes ahead of the new time and
rushing paddlers into their kayaks way ahead of the time.
Still – the
whole organisation of the event done my so many volunteers was really
great!
The free
accommodation in a hostel in the heart of Girona was nice – just a
short walk from those amazing icecream shops and all those fancy
dinner places!
That opening
ceremony with the drummers and the dance performance was the best
I´ve seen so far.
And then
there was the paddling to witness at the Quarter- and Semifinals –
it was amazing!!
Quim Fontané,
Nick Troutman, Dane Jackson and Courtney Kerin did an awesome job on
the microphones and there was a big crowd on the stand almost all the
time so the atmosphere was great! And I seldom witnessed a Final with
more suspense! The guys did a really impressive job!
With the
livestream even people at home could follow the events.
1
1,493 1,493 1,430 1,296 2 JACKSON Dane USA
3 1,406 1,056 1,030 1,406 3 FONTANÉ Joaquim ESP
4 1,363 1,343 1,220 1,363 1 CSONKA Peter SVK
5 811 811 760 353 12 THEVENET Abel FRA
Here are a few impressions from prelims:
Bartosz Czauderna
Peter Csonka
Rob Crowe
One day we spent in the city of Girona which has a lovely historic center with an old cathedral.
And here are some pictures of the finals!!!
Junior Ladies:
Nuria Fontané
Emma Witherford
Senior Ladies
Emily Jackson
Nicky Beeby
Zosia Tula
Katya Kulkova
Adriene Levknecht
Adam Olesinksi cheering on his Team
Hitomi Takaku
Courtney Kerin
Senior Men
Rob Crowe
Brandon Hepburn
GB Team support
Jason Craig
Peter Csonka
Nick Troutman
Quim Fontané
Footprints of winners!
Alex Edwards going for a mystery move.
And that´s me - picture by Alex Edwards, thank you for the awesome shot!
WC 3 Sort
After
everything finished in Slat we moved on to Sort – into the middle
of the pyrenees just a little bit to the south-west of Andorra – to
Sort.
It was a nice
scenic drive into the mountains and Sort is a small city –
literally in the middle of nowhere, but:
It´s the
final Stage of the World Cup!
When I
arrived ad Sort I went straight to the playspot – and my worst
fears were confirmed: it was on low water and a nasty shallow whole
on surfers right and a trashy wave hole on surfers left.
During my
session I heard the people had already damaged their boats and two
of the juniors paddling in the same session hit their helmets on
rocks in the middle of the feature.
The officials
promised more water for the next day (there should be enough because
it had been raining quite a bit for the last week).
This morning
when I got up I walked the 3 steps to the river – and the water was
acutally about 15cms higher than the day before!
Till noon we
had open training session, meaning that everybody could get on the
wave and start getting used to it – and that´s what I did!
I only
paddled for about 30 minutes but the wave felt a lot better today.
In the
afternoon during the official training session the waterlevel was
even higher – the left side of the feature was more wave than
before!
So over all
this is a fun feature to play around – but definitely not a
competition feature!
I managed to
get a few decent rides – although I still find it hard to actually
find the setup to start my moves. One more day left for training –
that´s not much at all...
After what
we´ve seen in Salt this is going to be a sad ending for the World
Cup.
There will also be a livestream for the competition - here´s the link:
http://www.icfkayakfreestyleworldcup3-sort.com/streaming.html
And here's a picture of the feature with me doing a right blunt:
And as always: a big Thank You to my supporters!!!
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