This weekend I hopped over to Czech to a small spot in the city of Pilzen for a fun, relaxed, freestyle competition.
It was really good to go to a competition and it have such a good atmosphere around it, friendly people and good weather!
The hole itself was very unusual and quite difficult to set up it, the Czech paddlers definitely have had to learn some unusual techniques to paddle here so it took quite a while for the paddlers who hadn’t been here before to get the hang of how to throw moves here at all
The event was more about socialising, (the punk music was a bit dubious though), playing around in the hole, pushing each other on and paddling for the fun of it. That said in the finals the gloves came off as we all had a good fight to the finish.
I thought either myself or Martin Koll won with Jan spindler somewhere near also. In such a tricky spot its hard to tell what the judges think, so we were all waiting hard to see the scores as it was always going to be close.
This time Jan Spindler won, Martin 2nd & me 3rd. Congrats to Jan!
Here is a short not very edited, selection of the best moves from the finals:
Thank you to all the paddlers, locals and organisers for putting on such a good event and making me feel so welcome to Czech!
Next event is the Lienz rodeo in Austria on the 8th of June, more from me then.
I had a ridiculous amount of messages from people wanting to see some video of the Dagger Kayaks Carbon Jitsu so I’ve uploaded a teaser for the teaser.
Just 4 moves from my session earlier today…terrible level but still sick! Standby for a full teaser when levels get better and a full promo when I have someone to film me
This last weekend the Plattling Eurocup Freestyle took place under some extremely stormy skies. Ever changing water levels and tough conditions meant lots of ups, downs, success’s and upsets for the competitors.
All together this made for an exciting and fun event to be a part of.
I was one of very few plastic boats competing in a sea of Carbon, so it really goes to show how good the Jitsu is that I ended up in 3rd place, ironically 1st was also won in a plastic boat by the new German Champion Paul Meylahn.
In the womens Palm’s Katya (my wife paddled really well to take 3rd spot also. Not much separated the top 5 paddlers in either mens, or womens, due to the tough water level. However GB’s Claire O’hara came out in 1st of the ladies.
Palm’s Anne Hübner was doing really well earlier in the comp, even winning Semi’s with an impressive score but just fell short in the finals.
Below are my day to day updates for more on how the event unfolded.
Friday Prelims:
Mens & Womens Prelims are all done. Weather has made for some challenging high & changing levels meaning a few upsets and surprises.Both me & Katya survived to reach Semi’s. I had a horrible first ride then a good 2nd one that saved me.My Dagger Jitsu was the only plastic boat to make the top 10…:-) Tomasz Czaplicki had great rides to place 1st in Mens, Nina Csonkova placed 1st in Womens.
Saturday Semi Finals:
It’s been long day here, rain, rain and more rain, hard water levels but girls kayaked very good…. Palm’s Katya Kulkova made Finals in 4th with a good score of 353, Palm’s Anne Hübner got an impressive 1st with 450, GB’s Claire O’hara also made it in 2nd with 390.
In mens we seemed to struggle more than girls Scores were lower than prelims, the best one was GB’s James Weight in 1st with 626, 2nd Ryan Liquorish with 610 and me in 3rd with 550. Bartosz Czauderna got 4th and Paul Meylahn 5th.
Many paddlers were very close to making the cut, there wasn’t much between us really, feel very lucky to be in the final with such inconsistant levels.
Sunday Finals:
The Plattling Eurocup is all over. incredibly tough water levels today made for a very tough final.
Mens was desevedly won with a great ride for the level of 600 points by Paul Meylahn from Germany, 2nd was Bartosz Czauderna 3rd was me Less than 100 points (one move) separated the top 3.
Womens was won by GB’s Claire O’hara with 276, 2nd was Nina Csonkova with 206, and 3rd my lovely wife Katya Kulkova with 190, all paddled very well considering the difficulty of the hole at this level.German paddlers did very well winning all but 2 categories…
Congrats all winners and those who came close and a big thanks to all the organisers!
What’s up next?
Now though it’s back to training hard, and luckily for me just after the event finished my secret weapon arrived from Dagger….a Carbon Jitsu!!! No more competing in plastic now.
I love the Jitsu shape and have been amazed how well the plastic version has paddled. Last night I took my Carbon one for it’s first spin.
It’s the best kayak I’ve ever used by a long way, I think it’s going to be winning a lot of medals this year, it;s simply incredible. Stand by for a little teaser and promo over the next month
This month i’m going to teach you how to do the McNasty.
It’s a great move, you can start it from many different positions and setups, it’s quick to do, impressive to see and is one of the highest scoring moves.
The technique I’m going to show you here is the most commonly used one and is the one I use nearly all the time.
Step 1: Get yourself into a nice stable side surf.
Step 2: Keep your upstream knee up, hold that edge on, then push off the back face of your paddle and sweep your boat into a back surf.
Step 3: Just before you reach a backsurf, lean forwards and drop your upstream paddle blade into the water and start pulling on the green water.
It’s important not to pause too long in a backsurf or drop your edge here, keep your momentum and keep that edge held on.
Step 4: As your pulling keep looking ahead of the boats rotation. If you have the correct amount of edge you’ll start to go vertical now.
Step 5: Now you should be in a normal looping position. Push down hard on your feet for added pop, jump up and then tuck hard forwards smashing both your paddle blades off the water to push you as high as you can.
Step 6: When your body has gone all the way to the front, snappily open out your body as aggressively as you can & kick your feet out in front of you.
Step 7: Once in a front surf again, do a few quick powerful forward strokes to retain the hole.
Top tips for learning this one:
-Play around with how fast you spin the boat, how much edge you hold on and how long you pause before the loop. Find what works best for your features, boat & style.
-Make sure you spot an upstream marker like a tree or a slalom pole before you throw the loop. This will help you to keep it straight and make it more likely to score.
It’s one of my favourite moves and one of the most fun to do, good luck & get out there and try it.
Come join me this Easter & Summer to get those Cartwheels flowing & Phonic’s snapping…
I love freestyle and it’s a real pleasure passing on the skills i’ve learnt. Join me on the water for my 5 days camps at Holme Pierrepont this Easter or Summer and I’ll help you boost your skills and give you the tools to teach yourself more effectively.
Freestyle Camps at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham – 5 Days – £250
My 5 day camps are limited to 4 people maximum. Water fees & camping fees are not included in the course fee. You must have a solid roll & be competent on grade 3 whitewater.
I aim to help you get the best from your paddling with maximum enjoyment along the way.
I will be on the water paddling with you at least one session of every day & filming the other one.
Details:
All camps are tailored to the individuals needs. For most paddlers this will involve teaching you 2 or 3 new moves, improving the consistency of ones you can already do & helping you put together competition rides and put them into action in our two mini comps.
Off the water i’ll also teach you how to warm up properly, how to train to your potential, how to learn moves on your own, how to use video to help your progression and will talk in-depth about mental preparation, visualisation, competition preparation and how to get the most from your play sessions.
All participants will get daily verbal feedback and video review along with an overall written feedback summary/ action plan at the end of the camp.
All video footage taken can be copied and taken away also provided you bring a hard drive to copy it onto.
Sample Camp Plan
First Day Note: Meet up at 10am in front of Slalom Reception and discuss what we all hope to learn/ get out of the week.
Day One & Two: Introduce warm up, see where we’re at and begin moves work. 2 sessions on the water with a break for lunch. Video Review at the end of the day and daily feedback session.
Day Three: Morning we’ll go over ride planning and then Session 1 will be to practice our rides. Session two will be a mini competition followed by continued moves work.
Video review at the end of the day and daily feedback session including scoring our rides/ deciding the winner!
Day Four: Session 1 on moves work. Session 2 practicing our comp rides.
Video review at the end of the day and daily feedback session.
Day Five: Morning competition & moves work, Session 2 fun session.
Video Review at the end of the day including scoring our rides/ deciding the overall winner (most improved score from the two comps)!
Individually at the end we’ll talk over my feedback for the whole camp, discussing everything covered & where to go next to continue progressing. This will also be emailed out to you as a written review & action plan.
Once following the signs for the National Watersports Centre, you’ll pass a campsite on the right, look out for a left turn & follow the signs towards Rafting/ Slalom.
Spaces available on my 30th July-3rd aug freestyle camp at HPP. 5days coaching for £250. All details riverzoo.com/coaching/ email me to book 1 week ago
One Sahara vid to finish off then it's out to Plattling on Friday for some serious paddling, oh + a little Carbon present to collect ;-) 1 month ago
