Ugandaaa #1

It's been already 2 weeks since we arrived, I've been staying at Hairy Lemon and in the Village already, enjoying great fresh fruits , local food and mostly - great big waves! Met alot of good friends here already adnd in last couple of days more people arrived, like Adam, Nina and other british guys, and there are still some more to come, looking forward to meet teammate Ondra along with Matjo and Milos!

Living at villige area is great experience, among local people experiencing the culture and habits. We get and prepare our own food and go to the wave twice everyday. The levels are pretty low, but it gives us great Club wave for half of day and Nile in afternnoons which gives provides us great times!

Now we are in Jinja again, taking a rest day and having some meat ;)

Stay in touch for more updates, next time alot more photos!

~Bartosz

Cracow spot, Nottingham & Uganda!

It’s been quite queitly  here lately, i had alot of things to do, mostly was fixing my university arrears. Also had some issues to think about. work and short rest  but now it’s back  on the way! But lets dont get too much ahead, lets start from beggining.

One of great and important news is that we have manage to build a playspot at Cracow Kayak Course! After so long time it was finally possible thanks to Cracow Canoe Club! It took us whole day, we put 60 cumics of concrete and formed bottom shape to create deep hole. It’s fast, demanding but deep and with two green arms for setting up, it still requiers some work but it has really big potential! From begininng of next year Im going to start work on it again, will keep you updated!

The other great adventure I ve had, was trip to Hurley for Hurley Rodeo! Thanks to kindness of head organiser Jacko who provided us everything that we needed we took cheap flights with Honza and Lucie and everything we needed we had there, We got to Hurley at wednesday where we met also Peter & Nina. We were there for first time and it was really amazing! It’s near beatiful park where the camp place is located. Playspot is dependent at water levels but we had 3 gates  which is said to be the best one so we were very lucky! On middle you had great wave and on sides there were two smaller holes. Whole event was really fun, it was split into two competitions, on Saturday was british league running with 3 rides where sum of two counted – without any other rounds. This one was mostly for british paddler who for winning whole league were being given place in British Freestyle Team. Main event was at Sunday, it was really big with alot of attendants. It was really great as there was session system with mixed categories, each heat had 15 minutes at wave and there was every class starting with each other. It was pretty fun but we find it really nice also as everybody gets as much of it as they can. There were also finals for Womens and Mens class. As there were really alot great paddlers coming finals looked great, first 3 places in Mens went for last 3 European Champions with Peter on the top, Quim 2nd and Matthieu 3rd! In Womens Nina took the lead also. We didnt get any serious scores but had a wonderful time, met alot of great people and got to know another great spot, definetly worth it! Only bad thing was that it was pretty freezing in nights :D. Thanks for Jacko, SquareRock, RiverZoo and Claire&Den for borrowing all gear we needed!

Currently Im sitting at airport with Peter and Marcel as we are on our way to Uganda, i left Poland yesterday with bus arrivning at Marcels place and at airport we met Peter starting the trip together. Lookin forward to get to the paradise again! And so many great people will be there, so happy !

Will keep you updated,

Bartosz!

Cunovo

On last weekend of September last event of Alpine Rivers Freestyle Cup  had place. It was in Cunovo – Slovakian kayak course near Bratislava. It’s common already that there’ve been alot of paddlers attending from alot of countries. This time we’ve had even French visitor – Alex Jakette.

Beside rodeo, event consisted of very popular kayak cross, fun slalom and big party. I took part in fun slalom and after few eddy spin bonuses which i thought should kick me out of game i came second.  As i’ve left my boat in America i had to borrow boat from others, which was good experience to try some other boats and sizes, it gave me conclusion that beast in every size even way too big is so easy to control!

All in all, in rodeo i came 3rd behind Peter and Tomo who both killed it in their local spot. In general classification i came  2nd behind Tomo, 3rd was Honza.

We thought it will be our closing event for our season but it turned out that we are going also to England for SAS Hurley classic competition at 17 November, pretty excited for this big event!

Here is bunch of photos from Cunovo

 

Youngster Camp Pirate-Production

At the weekend of 21-23.09.2012, we were holding the Youngsters camp at Prague kayak channel, Troja. It was hosted by Pirate-Production and suported by friends.  We had 29 participants, training in 3 main groups divided at smaller ones, from beginners through advanced ending up with experienced.   

We started at friday evening with first lecture led by Honza according equipment, which was followed by video evening. With good mood and positive mind sets we started next day early at 10am going with big warm up for everybody and spliting tasks between groups. Beginners starte dat flatwater gates, advanced went for small waves and eddy ridings and last group after waves went for hole riding. We were recording everything for our evening analyse. As performance of our groups was really good, we were really happy, noticing progresses already at second afternoon session. Also after it we’ve been holding fun slalom for beginners (which was gate riding at top of the channel) and kayak cross through channel for others! At evening we had second lectures led by Bartosz according rules which was followed by videocoaching.

At Sunday i heard from friend that he thought that we switched groups, but they just did so big step ahead! Everybody got familiar with channel already learning tricks with tips and getting good fun! After first session we had small rodeo event where everybody could try their strength in 45 second rides prelims. Rules were prepared specially for YOUNGSTERS so everybody got some good points ! For last session we did short lecture about safety and rescue and tried some of it at wild waters of kayak course.

It was great experience for me to participate in holding camp like this, as we love to teach others and share passion. We heard alot of positive comments and i think everybody was satisfied and it was that’s what it’s all about! We hope for next year to see more people attending to this great event!

Thank you very much to our sponsors, without them it wouldnt be possible ! For WRSI and HIKO who provided us great prizes! And for all who supported the event – Boulder v Siti, HG SPORT (For renting us camp and area!), HYDRO magazine, CNAWR, RISE UP production, Sandiline and GoPro. Also thank you very much to people who helped us with it – Stepan, Milos, Jarka, ygst cptn Zobak for preparing and mostly for all of you who joined us at it.

Thanks all and i hope to see you next year!

World Cup #3, Nantahala

The last event  of World Cup took place at Nantahala River, at NOC near Bryson City. Thanks to kindness of our friend Zack and his wife we stayed at his backyard so we didnt need to sleep in forest anymore! All week there were team trainings, we were having them together – Poland, Slovakia Austria and our Spanish and Irish friends. Thanks to Spanish coach who help us with timing at training we could train our runs all the time.

 Competition started at Friday,  i made it to quarterfinals from 7th place, Tomo was 11th and Peter again took 1st. Scores to make it to quarterfinals were sick again, you needed  1065pts for 20th place!  On the same day i had also squirt prelims – where i came 5th making it to finals on Sunday.  Saturday were quarterfinals with also really high bar, 1450 points for top 10! Peter and I made it through and after only 2 hours break we had another round. Unfortunetly i ended up at 9th place but Peter made it again staying on the lead. In evening we had really nice party from kokotat with some loterry and great band providing us alot of fun!

Sunday were finals, i started in squirts and missed medal by just a little bit ending u pat 4th place behind Tomasz Cz. Nina in her finals made it to 4th place, gold was taken by Claire O’hara with insane run of 668 pts! Great Job there! But the biggest entertainment was provided by Mens again, all rides were awesome,  Nick Troutman set bar really high with his first run to 970 but Peter respond was short and clear – 1246pts! He stayed in the lead till last run of Dane where he kick the bar to 1316pts! But when i seen Peters face i knew that he’s not giving away 3rd gold and his ride was just crazy! He did nearly every move possible scoring 1538 pts! Great performance of his was awarded wit 3rd win in World Cup making him overall champion! There was small ending ceremony afterwards. After  it most of people left home or for Gauley Festival.. We went back to our place to celebrate and chill with friends and prepare for leaving at Tuesday.

For some up of trip wait you have to wait one more week! In 2 weeks we will be holding youngster camp in Prague by Pirate-Production! Catch us there!

World Cup #2, Pigeon River

Pigeon River, Hartford, TN. The hole which was said to not be known before. Was being hidden by locals to world. Like El Dorado for Freestyle. And it definetly deserved this name! The hole is wonderful! Made of Stones collected from all the river. Created nice, friendly weak and easy hole to play which is perfect to learn! When i get back home i will do my best to make a hole like this!

The competition started at Tuesday! So you we had only one day of rest after Rock Island! What was even more untypical, the water there was running only 6 hours, Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday so competition time was pretty long! We started with our prelims on Tuesday and all of our Vajda team made it through, placing Peter 1st, Me 8th, Tomo 10th and Marcel 19th. Afterwards there were Womens and Nina made it on 3rd place to the next round! Insane thing there were scores! To make top 20 you had to go over 1000 pts! Wednesday was our day of after party and beer pong classes, in this day all other categories were having there qualifications. I did also squirt boating this time and made it to 3rd place behind Clay W. and Dane J. and next to Tomasz Cz. and Joaquim F.!

Thursday was quarterfinal. And again scores went just insane! To make through you had to score in two of three rides  atleast 1900! The show was awesome, competition even better.  I made it with Tomasz Cz. in second five and to top five was Tomo A. and Peter Csonka who killed it getting first place again! We had only 2.5 hour of break before semifinals, but before it Nina made it in her semifinal to next round getting 4th! After Womens was our time. Scores went huge and for top five you had to score over 1000 ! Unfortunetly only Peter made it, Tomo placed 10th and me 9th.  Top 5 was James B.,Steven W.,  Joaquim F,Peter Csonka and Dane Jackson!

Saturday, after one day of break was last clash. First we started with squirts, after womens where Claire O’hara dominated it as always came our turn. After really tight runs i got 3rd again scoring 545 points in last ride just next Tomasz and Joaquim, this time Dane won winning with Clay who had his arm damaged but still did a great job! After 2 more categories we had our finishing ceremony with flags and introduction which was really nice. I got really nice medal and great memories. But there was no time for celebrations as there was women class up! After great rides Nina came 3rd, after Emily J. and Claire O.

But the biggest show was about to come. We were expecting huge rides and we got them! Awesome performance of top guys gave us great show especially until last rounds when Dane was on the lead with sick score 1373 and Peter went for his last one scoring insane 1416 ! Emotions werent down until Danes last ride where he correct his score to 1380 but still Peter took the Gold! We were really happy for him but also for other guys, Joaquim who took 3rd, Steven 4th and James 5th! Great Job guys!

After Ceremony we had small party as most of people left already to NOC to train and in the morning after nice breakfeast with hosts we left to NOC for last event. Now we are here at Nanthala, having national trainings and looking forward for Fridays competition start of last world cup event!