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

Countdown to the Euro's

Less than 2 weeks to go until I'm off to Spain to represent Great Britain at the European Freestyle Kayaking Championships. I'm in the Mens K1 alongside Pringle, Jon Best, Richard Chrimes and Alan Ward. It's in Ourense in the Galicia region of Spain and no one really knows much about the feature. Not sure where I can realistically expect to come, I only found out I was going last week so I haven't had chance to train. Hopefully I can handle paddling in the heat, rumours are its over 100 degs there at the moment.

Alpkit Tryweryn Leg

Last weekend I headed up to the Tryweryn for the Alpkit challenge. The freestyle competition was held on Saturday on the NRA bridge wave, which is a really good playspot since it was improved a few years ago. In the prelims my first 2 rides were pretty poor but I managed to put in a decent final ride to qualify for the semi's in 5th place. My 2 rides in the semi's weren't very good either as I kept washing out on a frustratingly flushy wave.

I finished 7th in the semi's, not good enough to make the final cut of 5 which was won by Ed.

Saturday also saw the Pyranha Rev Big Move Challenge, the winner being the person who could throw the one-off biggest move in a Rev. I paddled the medium long Rev which felt a bit weird compared to my Jackson but was quite comfortable. To my surprise the Rev McNasty'd on the wave really nicely and I actually managed to stick a couple which was good enough for me to win the competition.

After the BBQ on Saturday night the sumo competition got underway. Not sure if there was an overall winner but it was a good laugh though.

Sunday was a boto cross race down bala mill falls and the rapids leading into it. I only managed to get my hands on a small ammo, which I had to take the footplate out of to get into. My first race was my first time paddling the falls. I came 1st in this race qualifying me for the cup competition. The next race was much harder work and I struggled to keep up in my shorter boat. I came 3rd / 5 meaning I didn't get through to the semi's. At least I didn't end up face sliding the falls like Arron from Square Rock below.

Chertsey Weir

Chertsey can be a really sticky pourover and dishes out plenty of beatings. I love it though and it works all summer long!

The point of Spot X

After having Spot X slagged off to me heres my best effort to over-glorify it showing why I bother with it...

(To be fair I hate it 90% of the time)

The Lunar Orbit to Front Loop Combo move.