Saturday, 23 August 2014

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!!!

Sunday, 10 August 2014

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


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!!!!