Four Days to go

With four days to go until the official start of the 2011 World Championships, Plattling has exploded with kayakers from all over the world. With the line in the eddy getting longer every day out here as everyone tries to get to grips with the feature it is getting harder and harder to get a decent session in. I was able to put my ride together before it got too busy here, which is standing to me as i am just fine tuning it at the moment. Depending on what level it will be on the day I will either drop or add certain tricks and mix up the order of it to best suit the way I am paddling.

Mens prelims begin on Wednesday the 22nd, with Squirt and C1 starting things off on Tuesday after the opening ceremony on Monday. Juniors Men and Women are the last of the prelims on Thursday with the second rounds taking place after that. The competition site is really starting to take shape out here with the grand stand now in place. In typical German efficiency it only took a couple of hours for it to go up with a team working around clock to have everything ready in time for the start.

With the line in the eddy being so long during the day we have been getting early morning sessions in at six am when its quiet, and relaxing during the day until it quietens off again in the evening. We are taking a few night sessions as well under the lights of Orky's car which have been great criac and a good way to beat the crowds. During the day we have been chilling out at the campsite and swimming pool with the latter proving to be the source of a bit of bad luck with the team taking some injuries on the water slide over the last two days. I think we will try avoid them for a few days at least.

That's about it for now. Ill throw up a link of streaming of the heats if they are doing that again this year. Here are a few more photos from Plattling.

 Eric Jackson getting used to low levels in Plattling

The grand stand and the feature from down stream

 A beat up carbon Rock Star

Nick Troutman

Stephen Wright dropping in

OC1 Rock Star

Plattling Video

About a week ago we got some heavy rain here in Plattling and since then levels have been perfect, ranging from 160 to 230 on the gauge. With a top up of rain two days ago and more forecast into next week levels should stay at ideal levels for some time. With a much deeper hole I was able to work on the rides I had been practicing back home in Clifden before I left. Here is a short video I put together of a few training sessions.

Tomorrow we head off to Lienz in Austria where the European Championships were held last year for a round of the Alpine Cup. It is sure to be a good weekend and will be our last competition before the Worlds. I will stick up a quick post about how it went next week.

Carbon Rock Stars have arrived

The Irish Camp

Another Carbon Rock Star

 

 

 

First Update From Plattling

I have been out in Plattling for almost a week now in preparation for the world championships taking place next month here. Levels have been on the low side making the feature a bit tricky but with heavy rain over night and more forecast today we should see perfect levels for a few days. At the moment there is a great group of people out here, with paddlers from seven different Countries.


First thing i noticed when i got out here was that nearly every boat was composite and most of the people with plastic boats are waiting for their composite boats to arrive. With the low levels of late, broken composite boats is common place with some one patching their boat every other day.Plastic is looking like the way to go for now unless there is rain when the competition comes around

Peter Csonka hitting a mcnasty

As for the feature at current levels of 140- 150 on the gauge there are some deep spots where you can knock out air loops but be warned there are a lot of rocks. I spend some time watching paddlers that have been here a while to see how they paddle the feature and where they plug which proved very helpful to finding the sweet spots. Levels can be checked via the online gauge here which updates constantly through out the day.

Robson's new playboat designed and paddled by Martin Koll

Its still not to busy over here with ques not getting bigger then four or five at peak times, but with everyone else still to arrive, Plattling is sure to start filling up soon. That's about it for now. Ill throw up a video of our training so far some time next week. Signing off from the local kebab shop....

 Orky in his new boat

 Plattling

Bartosz in his Vajda

Tom training in his Project X

Orky's new Gui Gui Prod

Composite Molan

Peter Csonka in his new Vagda Stelth

Katya Kulkova

Bren in his composite Molan

Tuam

Last week we got some water in the west which brought up Tuam hole. I tried to get out a good few times as i got a call up for the worlds this summer so its time to start doing some training. Here's a quick video i put together.

Second Team Trial's Event , Sluice

Last weekend was the second event of this years team trials which took place in Sluice. There was a good turn out on the day with with plenty hoping to make a spot on the team. I finished 3rd in the first event so was hoping to build on that and make the team.

I was drawn in the first heat along with Neil Gibson, Tom Dunphy and Bowsie from the men's expert class. Unfortunately, I didn't have the best of rides flushing on loops and spent a lot of time paddling back up the eddy. Tom put in some great rides with blunts, cartwheels and back stabs but it was Neil Gibson who who took took the win on the day storming back after his disappointing finish last weekend to take a place on the team.

In the second heat Dave o Sullivan and Moogie made it through over the two events to make the top five along with Tom, Neil and Bowsie.

Orky showed his improvement in the C1 class with some solid rides despite suffering from shoulder pain after milling himself on his bmx during the week. He put in a great run on his second ride sticking an Air loop, blunt and round house.

 So after the two events i finished 6th in the standing which leaves me being a reserve for the team. It has opened up my summer paddling plans a bit so in the next few weeks I am going to decide where to head to. I am thinking of heading to Canada for some play or heading out on the Continent for a road trip with the creak boat.  As well as that I will be competing in the Adidas Sick line World Championships at the end of September in Austria before heading back to Africa for few months to avoid the Irish winter. So the the rest of the year should be fairly interesting on the paddling front.

Next weekend the first round of the National Championships is taking place at Curragower wave in Limerick. Water levels for the event are a bit unsure at the moment but hopefully it will go ahead. That's about it for now. Will throw something up if National Championships go ahead next weekend.

Some more photos form Sluice below.

Team Trials Event 1 : Clifden

Last Saturday was the first team trials event for qualification for this years World Championships taking place in Plattling Germany. Twenty two competitors took part on the day to try get the chance to represent Ireland this summer.  I had been hoping that there would have been water for this event to take place in Tuam so I had been doing most of my training there. So when the forecast came through and it looked like there wasn't going to be any water I decided to head out the Friday before the competition to get some practice in. The tide wasn't that big on Friday so the hole ended up being pretty flushey for most of the session but it did pick up for about forty minutes around high tide which gave me a chance to get some good practice runs in.

The following day I headed back out to Clifden for the competition. It was divided into two heats of eleven paddlers, I was drawn in the first heat along with Moogie, Neil Gibson, Conor Bredin and Eoin Keys from the senior men's class. When it kicked off the hole was still a bit flushy, that with some nerves on my part left me with just a loop after my first ride. Before my second ride I loosened up with some flat water cartwheels, loops and felix's which helped me put together a much better ride. I managed an air loop, split wheel, cartwheels, felix and some spins,  I went for some space godzila's and mcnasty's too but didn't manage to score them.

The second heat started as soon as everyone from heat one was off the water to judge and scribe for the second heat. From senior men's there was Bowsie, Tom Dunphy, Ronnie and Dave O Sullivan. Tom put in two solid rides with some nice air loops and space Godzilla's with the others not far behind him.

As soon as the second heat was finished everyone jumped on the water and with the pressure being off, people started throwing out their best rides of the day. I definitely need to get more competition practice in as the two forty five second runs leaves no room for a slip up.

After the hole died off everyone gathered in the car park for results. I managed to finish 3rd with Tom taking the win and Bowsie second. Full results are below as I remember them. I will update them once the full results are published on Irish Freestyle if I have them wrong.

Next Weekend is the second team trials event in Sluice up in Dublin. Hopefully I can put in a decent performance and make the team again this year. Top five make the team so I have a little bit of breathing space but not much. Then the following weekend there is a Gower Event, think that could be the first round of the National Championships but not to sure on that.

Hopefully I will get out boating a few times this week before round two of team trials. Below are the results from Round one,a video Eoin Keys threw together and some more photos from the day.

Unfortunately I cant remember results from the juniors but I will add them once they are posted online.

All Photos courtesy of Eoin Keys

Results Team Trials Event 1 : Clifden

1. Tom Dunphy
2. Bowsie
3. Barry Loughnane
4. David O Sullivan
5. Ronnie 
6. Moogie
7. Neil Gibson
8.  Eoin Keys