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! ;)