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!