GB Team Selections

This weekend saw the GB Team selections take place at Hurley weir. Hurley was on a sweet green 3 gates which meant big wave moves like pan-ams and helix’s were going. I managed to make the top 5 which means I’m part of the British Team heading to Thun in Switzerland in the summer to complete in the world champs against the likes of EJ!

Full team: http://www.ukfreestyle.com/team.php

Me with a clean blunt (Photo: Emily Wall)

Somewhere Different - River Fowey

On Saturday with the Dart pretty low me and Will headed down to the River Fowey near Liskeard to try out a playspot that came highly recommended from Cornwall expert Denzil Pearce. As soon as we saw the river we were thinking it was going to be crap, as the river looked pretty small from the road. Whilst getting changed by neck seal ripped on my Cagdeck and Will realised he’d forgotten his lunch then the walk through the woods was a nightmare in partly bare feet - this trip was going to be the worst day ever. Once we got on the river though it was apparent there was quite a strong deep current and around the corner a large stream entered it. We got to the playspot and it looked quite nice but after a few flushy cartwheels I was undecided as to whether it was worth it. I started to get into it though and once I realised it was great for loops I was loving it. Apparently, its a lot sticker when its lower and when its higher which would make it excellent for learning new moves.

Early morning sessions at Hurley

Now I’m living up near Hurley I often get up early and have Hurley to myself before work. Getting changed is a bit of an effort and it usually takes me at least 10mins to get warmed up but once I’m into it it easily beats sitting in queues of an evening or at weekends. Last week I was up extra early so I took my video camera down. Here’s the footage:

British Championships 2008: Bronze (and a swim)

I’m happy to have taken 3rd place at this weekend’s British Champs. It didn’t start off that well though after I SWAM!!! in the prelims. Luckily it was on my last ride, my deck popped after landing a McNasty (most likely due to the power of it!), I noticed it had gone but went for a loop anyway. It wasn’t the greatest idea, I swam from the Muncher down to where the course re-enters the Trent (thanks to Chris Chapman for rescuing me). I qualified for the Semi’s (top 10) in 4th place. In the Semi’s my first ride was awful; I flushed after less than 10 seconds. The pressure was on my second ride but luckily I put in my best ride of the weekend to qualify for the final 5.

Results:
1st Ed Smith
2nd Alan Ward
3rd Me
4th Ben Brayfield
5th Jon Best

Below is a video of me doing a bit of practise before the competition.

The Mighty Nene Freestyle

This weekend was the Nene Freestyle. The feature for the freestyle was a very sticky pour-over that made it almost impossible to finish of moves like phonic’s and even loops. Saturday was the qualifying for the top 15, I struggled compared to the locals and qualified in eighth position. In the semi’s I paddled a bit better and qualified for the final in first place. The knock final was a great experience and I made it to the final two but was just beaten to first place by last year’s winner James Reeves. Full Results. I did a 2nd place double by coming 2nd in the Boater-Cross too (thanks to the King family for letting me borrow their creak boat).

Photos from Hurley

A few recent photos from Hurley (thanks to Dave Worthley).

European Freestyle Kayaking Championships - Ourense, Spain

At the Europeans each country can provide a maximum of 5 paddles to represent it. This lead to 50 of the top paddlers in Europe lining up for the Mens K1. Out of this lot I finished 18th and was the 2nd highest placest Brit. I also beat all the Irish which was a personal target so overall I was very pleased.

Me concentrating

Spainish kindly decide to actually build the feature

Team Photo

Brits take over the Island by the feature


Lining up for a Back Roundhouse

My Stunt-Double ClaireO