Polish Championships & on the road again, Austria!

On 26-27th there were Polish Championships in Jelenia Gora. I was in there  since Monday, paddling as it was quite important competition for me. Whole event took place in same place as last year  - behind the power station at Bobr river. The hole was much better as they changed it’s place at dam a bit (there is kind of small dam through whole channel with possibility of opening one of 4 parts. This time it was more straight and the hole was nice – small but  deep and  pretty fast as for it’s size and just 3 cubics, very similiar to kadan playspot. The disadvantage of whole event is that the camp is located ~20km from the spot outside of the city so you gotta drive everytime. But except this it was pretty cool, Honza with Lucie and Hanka arrived at thursday so we were together again.

Everything has started at Saturday, with prelims of all categories and – finals of C1. Honza and me decided to go for it for fun aswell. So as we were only 4 in category we didnt have any qualifications just straight finals, it was as always alot of fun with only one paddle at the shaft. There were also squirt categories for mans and womens and both had pretty big interestment. The thing was everybody were in their  normal boats so actually there was linked flatwater paddling (which we are used to in Poland as we have 2 flatwater competitions every year)  with hole riding and some extra moves. Thought it seemed to be fun – it was a bit boring as there were live scores all the time which was big plus but becouse of this we had to wait for rides pretty long.  Same in other categories but it felt a bit smoother and typical. After quali, Tomasz Czaplicki was leading followed by me and Honza. Lucie was covering 3rd place in womens.  I was also leading in squirt category.

On the evening we had our traditional lake paddling at boats with some good fun and after this we joined the party. There was loads of free good food and polish beer. As party was going the guitars were turned on and  the fun began!

At Sunday we had finals, first going were womans, after pretty tight rides Zosia Tuła won, throwing air loop and space godzilla beatin Iza Fidzinska and Lucie Horka just by few points. Next one going was squirt category, i had really good first run gaining 890 points and decided as it was taking really long for scores to come up to take a break and miss the second ride  as head judge approved it. Thought not everybody were cool with it so to avoid the mess i quickly jumped in and thrown a sick ride doing carving with grabs on both sides gaining some nice applaus from the public. Later it made a small mess aswell but for the third run i was ready in case my score got beaten but thanks to  live scores after last rides of everybody i didnt need to stress as i knew i had the highest amount so i just made a fun ride performing  some artistic moves with switching and throwing a paddle. So i was first, followed by Tomasz Czaplicki and Michal Wrzal.

After this we’ve had a break for women squirts and then there was time for mens. First runs didnt went too big for us but at the second one i scored 840 pts which gave me the lead but still Tomek had two runs going and Honza one so till the end everything could change. Luckly for me they didnt manage to break this score and i’ve defended the title of Polish Champion. Silver went to Tomasz Czaplicki, bronze to Honza Spindler, 4th was Michal Wrzal and 5th Michal Kaminski.

All in all, the competition were pretty nice, the coolest thing was the live stream which you can check here:

It has made the event to look really professional and everybody that couldnt come – could watch this and see everything!  Really great thing which i really like about this competition is that there was all the time served food and drinks which was included in entry fee. Linked with nice atmosphere it made it a good time for us repaying extra driving and long waiting for the scores. On the end we got some nice prizes, this time i got really comfortable sleeping mat and bag for boat so i am really happy for them!

After Competition we went to Graz as we heard that water level in Lienz is not good and Graz wave is pretty nice and there were already Nina & Peter Csonka so we drove straight there. We slept under the city and went for morning wave session together, with Honza we were really keen to check how our beasts will work at the wave and gotta say there are awesome! Super fast and so easly going aerial, you should see Honzas brutal helixes he made and you just gotta try how easy is mcnasty at wave at this boat! It simply flies itself! Was really cool to ride there with Peter and Nina! Peters clean air blunts were so awesome and they looked so smoothly! Also his air screws looked even more insane in his new boat! . We could say the wave got beasted down ;)!

In the afternoon we splitted – Csonkas went home and we went to Lienz,  most of the time there is no water but sometimes it rises for an hour or two making nice hole we know, but we managed to learn when it works after day and then we had really good session. At low water level it’s rideable but only at one meter and it’s quite shallow. You can make only right side moves as most of the hole that’s on the left is closed. But when the water rised we had super aerial session riding our beasts!

Next day we went to obverfellach to support a course from Czech uni. When we arrived we figured out that people are still on the water so we went to check the river and found the little playwave. As we had loads of time we jumped to our boats and had some really great fun making nice blunts, stabs and even mcnastys on so tiny wave that barely hold you! That was pretty good day party at the evening when people from course arrived.

On the weekend we will be hitting Graz for competition and then back again to Lienz!

Stay in tune!

Warsaw Wisla Feast

Last weekend – 19-20 of May we’ve had an exhibition at Wisla Feast in Warsaw. We were supporting local club WAKK Habazie with promotion of kayaking. We started from Hradec  at Thursday evening with Lucie Horka, Tomas Burian, Hanka B. and the Pirates Honza and me.  At begininng we head to Cracow so i was really happy i could see my family. Even thought it was just a month yet. After having some great dinner and rest, next morning we’ve left to warsaw.  Everything was going smoothly until we hit the Lodz. There was a „HIGH” way which is supposed to be one of the basic roads for upcoming football Europeans 2012 in Poland.  But becouse it is not even half ready yet – it took us 3 hours to get through it standing 1 hour in traffic jam without nearly any move! 

So we have arrived to warsaw later then  we planned at the begining and there was big challenge waiting for us. To build a big air ramp. Thanks to materials from DOKA we had all materials waiting but even with our project prepared before by DOKA member  we had to rethink everything once again. There were 2 obstacles. First – the channel was looking so short ! Second – It was so shallow!  Like just 1,5 meter!

Finally we’ve changed our project pretty much making ramp bigger, longer and with bigger kicker ( i know it doesnt make sense after what i said – actually i just figured it out.) And after long day of work we finally finished it up. That was hard work even for 4 people but effect looked really good, but becouse of the obstacles nobody was keen to test it! Finaly I decided to do it myself as it was my idea. After 2 scary tries we’ve figured out it’s safe. So happly went to our sleeping place for Honzas b-day party and rest.

Next day we had our shows twice, we’ve been jumping from the ramp throwing some BIG AIR moves which was pretty good fun as the ramp wasnt actually that huge or vertical but had a long flight and the water there was a bit moving so the landing was almost painless which made this event even more fun for us! We had also an opening jumps for runoff event where participated 100 people! We were also linking the jumps with some flatwater exhibitions under the ramp to keep the show going and some extra ones at pool in the middle of the event! 

An awesome thing was that we were said by the organisator and aswell i think by the crowd the most spectacular event ! Which is a big thing for us as there were some bmx , ski jets and  hovercraft shows!  The only thing we regret is that we didnt manage to make a flying behind the ski jet show but surely we will manage it for the next time!

After show at sunday we’ve left  home as we had really long drive next to us. I’ve left the crew in Jelenia Góra where I’m preparing now for the Polish Championships which will take place at next weekend and I’m waiting for rest to join me at thursday! Looking forward for next cool event!

Stay in tune!

Bartosz

Kadan Beasted Down!

Another sweet weekend of paddling with great competition is behind! It was sick how many great paddlers came for first CNAWR rodeo competition which took place in small Czech city Kadan.

There wasnt that much people overall as always but it was event full of fun and great riding. As there were best riders not only from Czech but also from Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Poland which brought really cool atmosphere. We started at friday evening with small party as the weather wasn't nicest i didnt last for long as i felt a bit ill.

Unfortunetly saturday morning was pretty cold and didnt give us a good motivation for quiting the tents but registration deadline put us on our feet. There were 4 categories - C1, K1W, K1J and K1M. I took a part only in mens and had really good company in my heat - Peter, Marcel and Tomo - riding carbon Beasts and Honza at his ZET but waiting for a beast aswell! I had really good fun riding with them as everybody were throwing some cool stuff in the hole which was really good to look at! After quali i finished second behind Peter Csonka and followed by Honza Spindler, Tomasz Czaplicki and Tomas Andrassy.

For semi the sky got clear and we got some sweet warm sunshines! So with good attitude we jumped into boats for our runs! All of our 5 had great runs over 600 and after first rounds we knew that all will proceed so we decided to have some fun and made a secound round a combo challenge! All of us were throwing some great combos like splithweels to phoenix monkey, tricky woo to mc nasty or helix to lunar orbit and crowd simply loved it! We proceed in same team but we changed places, first was Peter followed by Honza, Tomasz, Tomo and me. We had also great fun and after this awesome session we deserved some good party time.

Luckly sunday had some nice weather - perfect for finals!  I was opening the heat and had the best hole ride so far scored by judges for 1003 points and one gave me 1150! Flying in my new beast is so cool! With this score I've won the whole event ! Peter came second and Honza 3rd! But it was really good fun riding with them as always!

Here is my final ride!

 

And few photos from from Hanka

Next weekend we will be in Warsaw leading the freestyle event - feast Wisla! If you will have some time come over !

Euro Trip #2, Unleash the beast

At the end of april I’ve started my road trip again. First stop this time was plattling. I was really excited to go there as few days before leaving i’ve got my new Vajda Beast thanks to shops kanokajaki.com and kajak.nl! But not only this was the reason for my excitment, mostly it was becouse of the life style that freestyle kayaking is based at. Spending all the time with your best mates and enjoying best moments with them. In winter i didnt really have too much opportunities for paddling as we dont have any spot to paddle at in Cracow so except Uganda - which actually only made my hunger for kayaking bigger – i was paddling only rarely at pool. So i was driving whole night hardly to get into the boat again.

Plattling always has it’s own awesome atmosphere and specific. It’s in my opinion the best place to train for all levels  and for alot of people at one time so it always baits alot of kayakers. Nearly every weekend from even march you will meet somebody there. And same it was this time – there were plenty of people from all around the europe – even guys from Spain and Russia!! Both eddys were busy whole day! But it was so great to see everybody again  and paddle together! Was so happy to catch up with pirate-production crew again!

So about the new Beast. AWESOME! I guess i should get a pilot license for this boat! Thanks to some extra volume behind nose It goes aerial so easly with every move! And becouse of new shorter back it’s so easy to land everything straight but anyway most of moves were finished FLAT. Also thanks to new even sharper carves at nose and back starting all wheeling moves comes without any problem and you feel like it’s keeping the balance itself! My best friend Honza Spindler after taking one ride in it put an order for his own beast!

I was slowly improving the outfiting and backbend setup to get a perfect shape for myself as i wanted to have it done really precisly. Now it’s like nearly finished and the boat feels as just another part of the body, reacting for everything you do!

As plattling was my first paddling at this season getting back to shape in new boat wasnt the easiest thing but surely it was most exciting! Every session i was getting back so many of skills and suddenly jumping everything even higher and landing it better then before! One day suddenly i simply started to make big matrixes on both sides and before making it even on one it was a problem for me! So from getting back to shape just after few sessions i started to get an awesome progress and all thanks to new beast!

At second weekend we had competition which i didnt feel very  comfortable about as i had some pretty bad cut at my hand which didnt allow me to hold the paddle properly and i still was retriving some moves but competing was always good fun for me and it’s always good experience and pleasure to paddle with great paddlers so without mumbling i jumped in especially as qualifiactions were in jam session system which is always good fun as you can show some cool stuff as you have alot of time! Finaly i jumped into semis at 7th place and missed later the finals in normal system with 100 points as i unfortunetly flushed twice. But with a big smile i cheered up for rest of people , the winner was Peter Csonka followed by my countrymate Tomasz Czaplicki and at 3rd place was Simon Strohmeier who is new deutsch master.

After finals we left with Honza Spindler, Lucie Horrka and hijacker Tomas Burian to Kadan where we spent nice few days paddling and on the weekend we having first CNAWR Rodeo tour competition!

Stay in tune, this time weekly!

Cheers,

Bartosz