Cardiff Freestyle Improvements

Cardiff International Whitewater course has recently had some modifications to it making it pretty good for freestyle.

New Feature – ‘Camera’

Its kind of a new feature, there was a little hole there before but it wasn’t particularly good. Apparently, its called Camera and its in the middle of the back straight. I paddled it on 8 and 10 cumics and at both levels it was a nice retentive hole. On 10 it becomes a bit steeper and stickier but is still fairly friendly. I wouldn’t say left or right moves go any better and even on 8 I wasn’t hitting the bottom so was pretty impressed with this new feature.

Modifications have also been made to the feature on the corner of the course by the centre. I had a few goes in it on 10 and it was definitely a lot better than when I’d previously paddled it on 8 or 12. It seemed more retentive and made it easy to get some big air on loops and godzillas. I didn’t paddle it on 8 but you could see from looking at it that it was more retentive and uniform without any waves kicking up in the middle of it.

GB Freestyle Team for 2012

This years Hurley rodeo had to be postponed until February due to low water levels so the GB team for next years European Championships has now been finalised despite not having a date for the Euro’s in Vienna. This years winners of the league series were crowned British Champions and were given automatic entry on the team. Everyone else competed for one less place per category on the team at HPP in Nottingham. Below is what I make the team to be:

Mens

Myself (BC)
James Bebbington
James Weight
Alan Ward
Gav Barker

Womens

Claire O’Hara (BC)
Emily Wall
Lowri Davies

Jr Men

James Benns (BC?)
Bren Orton
Sam Stephenson
Brandon Hepburn

Jr Women

Kim Aldred (BC)
Jennifer McGaley

C1

Paul King (BC)
Dave Bainbridge
Adam Ramadan

OC1

Paul King (BC)
Alan Ward

Dublin Sluice Rodeo

This year the sluice rodeo in Dublin was one of six competitions used to determine the British champion. Unfortunately, the sluice couldn’t run due to an issue with a repair to a bridge upstream so it was moved 40k north of Dublin to Stackallen – not great when you don’t have a car. Luckily a local kindly sorted us out with a lift. The feature was a tiny wave that you probably wouldn’t bother stopping to play on if at somewhere like Nottingham. But the event was still good fun and more laid back than most competitions. It was a jam session format with best 5 moves counting.

The UK did pretty well. Kim Aldred won the junior girls with some nice loops. Clairo won the womens landing a mcnasty in a really really flushy feature. Paul King came a close second in c1 and I won the Mens.

The league is your best 4 results from the 6 comps. I’ve won the Nene, Tryweryn, Cardiff and now Dublin so will be British Champion for the second time regardless of the Hurley result.

Thanks to Adrian Durrant for organizing the event.

Lee Valley Olympic Course

Last week I got to paddle the new Lee Valley whitewater course for the first time with the rest of the squarerock team as well as freestyle legend Eric Jackson.

I’d heard how clean the water was before going but didn’t release how nice paddling clean water that you could see the bottom in would be.

The Olympic course was really tiring with constant whitewater and fast eddy’s. There are a few good drops with fairly chunky holes at the bottom of them. There was lots of carnage at one particular drop as everyone tried to play on a wave directly behind the drops big hole that was also being played on. Under its current setup there weren’t many good playspots but it was definitely a lot of fun.

Cardiff British League Event

Last weekend saw the third of six British League Freestyle Kayaking events to determine this years British Champion. This stage was held at the newish whitewater course in Cardiff and it was the first uk freestyle competition to be held there.

Through the day the course was open to all on 8 cumics. At this level a nice hole is produced before the main bend in the course. The hole is quite friendly so is good for practicing moves on. The water is really clear so the bottom is easily visible and although the hole is shallow you don’t hit the bottom to much.

At 6pm the course was closed to the public and turned up to 12 cumics for the competition. At this level a much deeper more uniform hole is formed making for an excellent competition venue. One of the best things about Cardiff was that spectators could watch from the cafe when the really heavy rain hit.

Up first were OC1 with Alan Ward making his debut in this class making for a lively event. Paul King managed to stay focused through Alan’s swims to cartwheel his way to victory.

In the junior girls Rachel Bovill won with some snappy loops.

Matt Rogers won the junior boys with some big space godzillas and mcnasty’s. Local James Cooper got some impressive air in his small Rockstar and Sam Stephenson, who seems to be improving fast, came second.
In the mens Matty Nicholas kept flushing on his first two rides but had an awesome third ride to put him second. Alan had some really big moves in his rides and finished third. I chose the right moves to get three consistent scores in my rides and this was enough for me to take the win.Photos by Andy Aldred & Dale Mears

Tryweryn - British League pt 2

This weekend saw the second British League Event at the Tryweryn in the top hole above the chipper. Its quite hard to stick moves but I really like the hole. The rapids below are pretty rocky and there’s also a big rock in the middle of the hole that you need to watch out for but unlike everyone else I decided to use my carbon boat anyway. It meant I couldn’t plug hard so my loops and space godzilla’s weren’t as good but it was easier to retain mcnasty’s and phonix’s.

In the end my carbon boat only helped me score 50 points more than last year but my rides felt much easier. Results below:

Photos: Andy Aldred / Jack Gunter

End of 2010

2010’s been a great year for me kayaking with two main highlights, becoming British Champion for the first time and coming in the top 5 at the Europeans which was probably the most enjoyable competition I’ve had. The only down side of 2010 being the cold weather and Hurley hardly running. The main goal for 2011 is to do well at the Worlds in Plattling, Germany.