28.12.2013

How to eskimo roll with Bartosz Czauderna

Howdy!

Here is second video from my kayak school project inspired by kanokajaki.pl and supported by HIKO , Robson, Vajda, Liquid-lifestyle.at , WRSI & Freeway GoPro.

Last time we learned how to back deck roll, i hope the video was helpfull for you and you keep working on this move!

Unfortunetly becouse of lack of good enough internet signal i couldnt upload it earlier but it's up now , enjoy!

This time with Ondra Krivanek we prepared for you How to Eskimo Roll. In this chapter you will find in my opinion the easiest way to learn very fast and easy proper roll. Some of you might be wondering why those exercises - I've been working on best methodic for teaching the roll and by trying out alot of different exercises i found this set easiest - by performing properly those exercises you can teach somebody roll in few minutes! Try it out!





Like it? Share it! Got any comments, ideas, feedback? Let me know in comments!

26.12.2013

Poza Azul - waterfall for X-mass at Costa Rica #3!

The Caribean sea was incredible! We spent two nights at place named Rock J's which
looked as if it was designed specially for backpackers & surfers, you could sleep there in your
tent or rent a hammock for 6$ or get some other cheap rooms and it was just next to
the beach. Whole area where we stayed was placed along the road leading by the shore.
Views were amazing and as it was season for surfing now the waves were awesome!
Carribean Sea

Rock J's


We arrived at evening and went straight for swiming but although the beach was sandy -
at this part there were rocks and as i've found out there were sea-urchins
and i ended up with almost 20 horns in my feet. They were really hard to take out
- i had to make deep wounds to take those breaking horns out. But other day we went
to other place where the huge waves were where Peter, Ondra and Schnorchel went with kayaks.
It took them long time to get to the place where all surfers were. Though surfers were
friendly - they were surprised and asked if guys were trying to commit suicide. They
words turned out to be pretty close to truth as Peter & Ondra cought really big waves but
they broke very fast and beat them down hard. Peter even broke his Paddle and had to swim!
Luckly it came out without bigger injuries, just a hand scratch.

Ondra getting through the wave


Next day we went for another beach which was said to be better for surfing. We took playboats,
 rent surfboards and went surfing! We 've found perfect place great for surf and kayaking! Waves
were great as they were getting up smoothly and going for long time, then breaking far
from the shore.  We had a wonderful day there and chilled in evening afterwards.

Me Surfing!


On the way to Turrialba

Then we went back to Turrialba, we went for Orossi river but when we arrived after 1 hour
drive we found out that there was not enough water so we ended up planning rest of the trip.
We decided to move on to Norther Carribean slope as we hoped to catch last moments of good
water over there. From not that warm Turrialba we got again to warm area where we stayed
at nice cabbins thanks to our friend Oscar. On the way there we had two rivers - first was
Rio Torro - but it didnt have enough water so we went for next one which was nearby -
Rio Sucio. It was amazing river as it's coming from bottom of the Volcano and we predict
that it had some sulphur inside becouse of it's amazing orange colour. It turned out
to be quite stip & fast river with alot of rocks. Unfortunetly we didnt have perfect level and it was a little bit lower the we would love to but still it was nice fun!
Rio Sucio

At Rio Orossi



We met also Travis - who is renting boats to us and local guy Louis who was very friendly
and helpful to us and showed us uppper upper sarapiquie part which was named Pillas. It was
one of best runs in this area but again water was quite  low. Though it was fun run.
As we still had plenty of time left after this part - we went for famous Pozo Azul.
It's kind of park & drop waterfall, with pretty much easy entrance and deep pool.
Though in guide book it was said that becouse of those conditions - alot of people ignore
heigh of it - 27ft and get injuried. It was my first waterfall so i was super excited to
jump it. We parked at field of local guy - which cost us 1000 colones each (2$). Then it
was walk 15 minutes before you get there. The part up from this waterfall is said to be
best part of the area - but there wasnt enough water for that unfortunetly. ACtually it was
quite low even for running the waterfall but we all decided to go for it.

put in near Pozo Azul

Jumping Pozo Azul!

Recently i read article about jumping waterfalls - about "this feeling". I was smiling when
i read it - as i had no idea about it. This time i felt it, Even though i have really strong
height fear i wasnt afraid at all. I just wanted to jump it so hard. Schnorchel went first,
showing the perfect run, timing & position firing me up even more after this.
I went straight to my boat after that and went for put in. Had in mind all the tips,
big stone on the right, then in between, get a lil bit of speed, pass the edge, keep the
stroke in the water, straight it up and then drop to the front. POW! weeehe, so great fun!
I enjoyed it so much that i went there 3 times! Unfortunetly just before my last jump,
Matjo boofed the waterfall and lended flat realeasing the back muscles and damaging the
lower spine muscles. As walk up was really long and slippery, we choosed to go down the river
with him - Class I but with alot of stones, which made it long run for guys.

Matjo before his crash


 Thanks to help of Illaji who we met there - we know that they should go straight to San Jose as
the local clinics wont be able to help him if something is wrong. So they got to local
clinic and from there he got sent with Ambulance. After that
they drove to San Jose for X-ray. Costa Rica is said in most of the guides to have cheap
food and bad medical care.. SO Costa Rica has not cheap food for sure but clinic Biblia
in San Jose is amazing world class hospital! They did alot of research for Matjo and
 "Luckly" it turned out to be "only" lower back compression and torsion.. well hopefuly
he will regain as soon as possible! For now he had to give back his boat and rest.

Next Day we split, half of group went for Sarapiquie upper part which is run by rafts and Ondra, Matjo, Peter, Nina & Me went for chilll at local wave when i've been playboating little bit which was great fun again!


Some Rodeo fun

Well after those adventures it was x-mass time. We went for swimming in the morning and
after that started the preparations. We got 4kg of meat, 3kg of salads, 3kg of potatoes,
we made grill from shopping basket and spent wonderful evening in christmas atmosphere.

Preparing Salad

Work in progress
Our Grill

Cold Fires

X-mass dinner!



After this wonderful x-mass eve we went to Pacific area . Way was leading straight through the mountains which granted us amazing views! Though ate alot of fuel from our tank and in the middle of the way we run out of it nearly!  But we asked local guy who was really friendly and drove back with us to his home where he sold us fuel so we could reach our destination without problems! At evening we arrived to Dominical - our next headquarters just beside the ocean. Pacific Area, here we are!



Amazing views on the way to Pacific shore

Fun Fun Fun Car Crew!

17.12.2013

Costa Rica #2! Creeking began

We arrived to Turrialba at evening. We stayed at our friends place from Ace kayaking,
they are teaching how to kayak in Costa Rica, wonderful option! Our home now is nice small hut with nearby
kitchen and all we need at beatiful place at the top of the hill with wonderful views!


We woke up really early - just after 6 am, we thought it's becouse of Jet lag but we've been
getting up at similiar time next days also, so it's just different time zone and
we are probably just setting our day for Sun time. As we were up early we had some time to
enjoy our breakfest and prepare everything. It's so great to eat fruits with great taste
again! Bananas, Pineapple & Avocados are my favorite! We left for our first river - Pacuare. We are using chasing jaguar guide
where you can find really nice descriptions river, take outs, put ins and how to get there. For warm up we started with
lower section - which is said in guide to be class III. As the shuttle was really long we
used that time for puting stickers at our boats and repeating safety things.
The rivers here are really amazing as the landscape is different and we are surrended by jungle.

We had our first adventure as Jano had unlucky roll and his helmet got pulled down by water
and he hit the rock which result later with two stiches.



Run was nice and easy, though quite long - it had 23 km with some flat sections between.
Also the shuttle took over 1 hour and as we finished at 5 pm - we've been waiting later
 in darkness as it's getting dark around 5:30. While waiting for car we kept practicing
Z-drags.


For next day we got invited to join Costa Ricas Freestyle competiotion at Rio Revantazone.
We met with our friend from World Champs - Jonathan followed him to place of event. It was
happening near private coffee plantage but owner let us in without problems to get to our
playspot. We met there alot of great people  and had awesome fun playing together in nice
hole. We also had a pleasure to judge the event for guys ! After that we kept playing there
but water rised and i hadnt my spraydeck properly on and hole pulled it off when i did entry
move and i had to get out of the boat so it turned out quite funny. :)

Then we run the river down which was class III/IV with some really funny places!



At day 3 we went for Rio Pejibaye for second part of the event - kayak race. We also run the
course and afterwards we went for upper section. River was pretty much class III but we
got in at wrong place and we had to get through the jungle which made put in class V!


As we got familiar with our boats we decided to start with some more serious staff so we
got back to Pacaure river but for Upper section. The guys from America we met - Todd
and Brandon joined us and were our guides. It was 8 miles run of class IV/V , there been
some scouting and some jumps. I had also fun as i got some rodeo in boat doing some
orbits. But i managed to get out without bigger problems.

For next days we decided to go for rest days to Caribien sea.  So now when Im writing it
we are driving beside ocean, it's quite cloudly but warm and waves are looking wonderful!
We ofcourse got two playboats from our friend - Mario, so we will have some fun !
















12.12.2013

Costaa Ricaa! #1

Costa Ricaaaa!


First impression?  Warrm! But rainy. Short showers are kinda refreshing though. It kinda reminds of Uganda because of similar climate. Buut, from beginning. Let’s make the story full.
Introduction
Destination:  Costa Rica
Time: 10.12.13 – 10.01.14
Crew: 10 ppl, Peter Csonka, Nina Csonkova, Ondrej Krivanek, Lukas Cervinka, Milos Trnka, Peter Schoerfel, Matej Boda, Valer Metei, Jano Slancik  /tusim/ & me

We decided to go to Costa Rica on the beginning  of September when we met our friends from this country at World Championships , it was hard decision for me as I had to pick to either go with big group of friends for something new or to go to my beloved Uganda for Freestyle. Especially  as we know that there will be dam destroying all treasures of white nile. But I’ve decided to follow my friends and to visit new place also because it’s  lead also by idea to find new alternative for winter when Uganda will be gone. 
So. Let’s roll.

As our crew is mostly from Czech & Slovakia, and there are usually better flights deals from Vienna, we decided to fly from there.  Which means I had to get there somehow from Cracow. Our flight was  departuring at 6 in the morning  and closest connection I had was leaving at 11:40 am previous day.. after 13 hours in bus I had to wait another 4 hours until others got to the airport which was already kinda exhausting. But always meeting up with friends cheered me up and excited again for trip which was ahead of us. Jano & Valer were trying to bring their own boats with them but it wasn’t possible!  But we managed to send all our paddles for 70$ without any problems. We were flying with American airlines first to Milano (MXP) then to New York (JFK) and finally to San Jose (SJO). I got pretty disappointed as it was first time I took long flight and there weren’t any personal tv screens also food wasn’t as good as at Turkish airlines. Our flight to NY was longer then predicted and we had really short time at transfer to Costa Rica but security led us through without any problems. On last flight we had kinda big storm around Mexico and turbulence were quite big but we i was so exhausted that I didn’t care too much and slept most of the time.

We arrived at evening and we had only one car prereserved. We tried few rentals but all prices were around 4000$ which was very high. Luckly guy from local rental company found us and offer Mitsubishi Montero for 1800$ with full insurance.  Then we slept at nearby backpackers hostel.
Next day we got up pretty early as we are not used  to this time zone yet. We went to pick up boats – we got them for 400$ for whle month. I’ve got Jackson Rocker, Im really curious how is it going to work for me! Then we had to make roofrack which we remade to thule wooden prototype
J also we got chain for boats and bought machets so we are ready for jungle jams! 

Now we are on the way to turrialba, though it’s Only 70 kms from San Jose – the traffic is really heavy here at this time so we are still in capital city.. Oh well, cant wait to get on river tomorrow!  Stay in touch for more updates and photos! 











7.12.2013

How to Back Deck Roll with Bartosz Czauderna & Costa Rica!

Howdy!

Here is first video from my kayak school project inspired by kanokajaki.pl and supported by HIKO , Robson, Vajda, Liquid-lifestyle.at , WRSI & Freeway GoPro.

It's going to be series of videos about kayaking at pool, holes, waves, river and alot more! In future there will be also training plans and things like that so, be sure to follow it! My plan is to update it weekly, there will be alot of known people starring but also some new ones which you should keep an eye at in future!

Like it? Share it! Got any comments, ideas, feedback? Let me know in comments!







Also it's been almost a month from last update.. what i've been up to?

I started pool trainings again followed by running, free workouts and alot of gymnastics, winter time is important for proper season preparation.

What next?

COSTA RICA : )

We are leaving in 4 days with group of friends, we will do creeking and look for alternative for freestyle in winter!

Stay in touch, alot of updates, photos & videos will be coming !

24.10.2013

100% GoPro Hellhole video!

Howdy!

Check out another edit of me made by Tomasz Lebiedowicz  from kayaking at Hellhole at Ocoee river in USA !


Enjoy!

6.10.2013

Ending of the season & Video fromSpring Sessions

Howdy!

So the season has finished. Here is short recap and on the end after some pictures you can find short clip from Spring Sessions made by Tomasz Lebiedowicz ;)

After coming back from America and few days of rest Adam picked me up and we went straight for Polish Champs. I was feeling overtrained all the time but kept training anyway. Adam was very focused aswell as he had some serious goals set for this event. I've won the prelims and Adam also qualified for Finals which was already big succes for him as it's his 2nd season only. In finals i was slow and very tired, even though i was leading until the last run of Tomasz when he beat me by 46 points scoring . Funny thing that in Squirt where i also got second he beat me by the same amount of points ;) Well good job on that.
The score Im proud off is Adam's - he took his first medal taking bronze! Which was his goal for this season and he completed it, well done!

 breakfest

 Habazie preparing the tactic
 Yes, you ; )


On the way again!


After this we went  back to Cracow for few days as i got sick and on wednesday we left for Cunovo. We'd some practice and at thursday we're asked to join researches for Nina for her phd work. She is trying to find out what indicates skills and best results. If it's strength , speed, agillity or amount of fast joints in muscles.


 On the way to NSC 



 Peter during coordination test


 Measuring nimbleness

Strength time!

Adam & his first time in the gym ^^
Marcel chilling before test

Getting more serious

Marcel giving it all he's got
Staying focused is the key
So... after tests we were giving away blood to control amount of lactact..
Yes I'm afraid of needles!


The Crew

It was quite exhausting - but huge fun! We were resting afterwards and waiting for event to start. As it's been the last event of Eurocup there were alot of great paddles all over from Europe. There were 4 of us who could win whole Euro Cup series so it was really hard fight. On the end Peter took 1st, Tomasz 2nd, Me 3rd and Martin was 4th  - even though in whole event he was next to me but i had my place secured from first event where I came second. In womens Nina won whole cup and Yannick Munchow from Germany won the Juniors even though Max Karllson raped it in this event. I also had honor to be the head judge of the event.

On Sunday Just before the finals i also took part in kayak cross almost making it to Finals unfortunetly getting kicked out of the eddy which finished my creeking career for this event :) Was great fun though and i was surprised how well i did!

Now I've got two weeks of rest, then fun event at flatwater and afterward starting to train hard again :) My plans for winter got changed though - Im going to train to Costa Rica this year with our great crew, cant wait!

Soon the pool trainings will start together with my new project.. Stay in Tune! :) 

And on the end - Clip from Spring Sessions from Tomasz Lebiedowicz