World Cup #1, Rock Island

We got to Rock Island at Tuesday evening so we went straight to camping which was reserved for kayakers by Jackson Kayak. Surprisingly we were almost first ones there but when we went to playspot we found out that alot of people were staying near there. As always it was really nice to catch up with everybody. Not only europeans but even nicer was to see other guys from States, Canada, Australia and so on, as we can meet only at international events like this!

For trainings it was super busy!  Water was there only for 3 hours and all 150 people wanted to have their training ride! In hour you could get two rides if you were lucky! On Thursday it was a bit better, as organisers decided to split us into 3 groups of people and each of that had one hour. Anyway it didnt give alot more but atleast you didnt have to wait there so long. Also this day we ha dan awesome trick to Jackson Kayak fabric! We could see how all of the boats are made and storaged. It was really nice experience we even got little smiling suvenires – sponges with Jackson logo!

Trainings and competitions were run at a lot lower water then we were paddling when we came there earlier. Wave was alot smaller and less retentive you could even say pretty flashy. But still you could go for all wave moves and some hole moves which provided pretty nice entertainment.

Mens had prelims at Thursday, and we all made it to quaterfinals! I had wonderful first run sticking 2mcnastys,2 air screws air loop and helix which put me at 4th place with 3rd best ride! After K1M went Womens and Nina made it to the next round aswell! We were pretty stocked up for next days quaterfinals!

Guys had pretty nice runs there giving them big chances for next round, I wanted to follow my rule – go big or go home and this time it turned out that i had to go home. Was trying to get my routine but flushed at every ride which didnt  let me to next round. I finished at 19th, and really unlucky was Marcel who came 11th after his great 3rd run. Tomo made it on tail at 10th place and Peter got 2nd. There were also squirts happening and Tomasz Czaplicki made it to 3rd place, well done there!

 At evening we had nice party at small local restaurant over the lake where we’ve got some typical American snacks, beers and alot of fun.

Sunday was day of semifinals and finals, Starting with Mens, to Final made it only Peter and Nina, so Mr& Mrs Csonkovie stayed in game! Nina after nice final ride came 2nd, only Emily Jackson could stop her and took gold with great style. Men finals were super exciting, there Joaquim from Spain, Adam Chappel from Canada, EJ, Dane and Peter. Quim set the bar really high scoring over six hundred points! Only Dane had better run in first and second runs. We were cheering for Peter really hard and in his last run he went crazy! Sticking wonderful aerial tricks he made 927 points! Huge emotions were with last run of Dane but he flushed in the middle of run and we were so happy for Peter to take gold!

Afterwards there was ending ceremony at restaurant with great dinner and big party! Now we are at Pigeons and from Tuesday there is second event starting!

Stay in Tune!

Photos by Tomo Andrassy