Then I've spent over a week hope and was supposed to stay one more but i was asked to join an intermediate kayak trip to Czech. I've just checked my calendar and find out i would miss only a little bit of school, so not hestiating too much i decided to go! It's always better to spend a day on the river then sitting home!
The trip was very fun and new experience for me. We did some small creeking, just easy rivers which were aimed to teach the group members to take care of their own group and to be able to look after them. It fit my plans perfectly as it was few days before Kamienna creek race where i wanted to go for few years now but couldnt managed it earlier. This time levels looked promising so i put my equipment into creek boat and departured with my cousin - Bestia as second instructor and 6 more folks from AKTK Bystrze. On first day after we arrived, we found out that water was droping in the region.. while mumbling but chilling at sun at getting water pipe we 've had that crazy idea to call the dam at Kamenice and ask for a little bit more water. Sounds crazy but actually, why not? I'm always saying, in the worst case you can win. So we made a call and they said that we need to talk to director but after literally few minutes we noticed double release at dam! No idea whether it was our phone call, coincident or what but not wasting the time, we left for the river! Uppon arrival we've had no idea if it was higher or lower and while shuttling it didnt seem to change but as it looked runnable after chilling at slackline and playing with pojis we kicked off! River was beatiful and it felt so good to get out there to kayak for all day with bunch of friends so with nice sun and smile on the faces we've spent our day.
The next day we wanted to go for Mumlava but all of rivers rised a bit and we got luckly runnable water for Jizera so we dropped our Mumlava plans as we predicted it should be still on the next day and went for nice run at Jizera. It had one nice place unfortunetly full on blocked with the tree straight through the entry run. Anyway i was dedicated to do it so i smuggled myself between the strange line of the rocks and did a small drop. On the evening while coming back we were hooked up by our friend Topik and went for Kamienna - the race river. We've had nice water level which really impressed me. I didnt run that kind of river yet, was fast and narrow but very fun! We also did lower part with few nice places including the tiny canyon where we had our play with narrow pulling over hole. Was great end up of the day!
Waking up next morning was a thrill. The snow was behind the windows! But we didnt give up and went for Mumlava, playing with snowrolls and kayakslides at warm up. Althought the water level was quite low we had a blast. Maybe except one girl on our crew who's moved few rocks with her face.. but luckly she was easy on them and didnt change the trough too hard :)
So it came up to friday where my juniors arrived - Michal and Max. We did few runs to get to know the low water Kamienna (which really dropped low..) and chilled at evening. Saturday was competition day. 1 degree in the morning. Cold. I did morning lap but then rolled far start number so had a quite long break between runs so i looked after kayakers with throw bag.
The competition consists of prelims and finals and competitors are split to pro and amateur categories. I've won Pro category after prelims but overall had second time, cup down to Arek Białek for surpassing me! Great succes for me were my juniors starts where Max after getting stuck on the rocks managed to get 5th and Michal made it to 3rd place! Then we've thought it's done but surpirse was waiting for us. The organisers planned kayak cross! 3 of us ran at the same time against each other at such a low water. Was really crazy and probably quite dangerous, also was really hard to defend my first place becouse slalom paddler Jacek Sztuba who was 2nd was literally on my tail! He was damnly fast at flat sections but i managed to hold up my advantage and got the winning token :) Michal kept his 3rd place, great for 1st start and being 15! One more surprise was at afternoon closing ceremony where our team got 1st place overall :)
Sunday we woke up early as water been released at Kamienice. Michal and Max joined our fun crew and we went for last run together. It was great to see the progress that folks did through this few days! Their water reading skills and overall awarness rised a lot, it's always a great pleasure to see people open their wings after some tips ! Afternoon we went for dinner to say good bye and sum up the trip. They got this funny thing called rollterry (rolling lottery? ^^) each swim gets you 1pts, T-rescue 0,5pts and roll 0,25pts. Always fun to follow it :) After this we split, they went back home and we've changed profile of our trip from creeking to Playboating :)!
Here is write up from Maks from Kamienna on :)
First thing, which we did, when we had arrived to Plattling, was watching the great hole in the car-light. Then we set up the tents and cooked some sausage.
We ate sausage everyday, because after the creek race there been six kg of sausage leftovers! It was suitable thing as we've been in Bavaria. After long night we finally could try the nice play spot. As it was my first time there, i was really looking forward to go there and try out this crazy looking hole!
First we had to warm up, because it was the first time on a water in current season. It's always fun to get on the river but you should never forget about proper preparation. We were studying the hole and recalling everything from last year.
In my opinion, it is not the best place for cartwheels and splitwheels, but perfect for aerial tricks. I was really stocked as I made there my first Space Godzilla, and McNasty!!! It wasn't perfect, but I'm content... It felt great! As for our tradition to celebrate "the first times" - unfortunately, i had to buy a package of Milch-the most delicious sweets on the World (aviable only in Aldi,Germany). We weren't the only freestyle kayakers there.
People from the Umpa-Umpa crew arrived one day after us and next day also KKK Jelenia Góra members. The hole got quite busy as we were 20 people over there! But it was so amazing as it was first time, that so many freestyle kayakers from Poland gathered over there to paddle together! My coach Bartosz complained about water level as it was supposed to be quite high but as he said it probably got changed a little bit and was quite stony even at 180cm and he had to watch out for rocks to dont crack his new sweet carbon toy, but for me it was quite right. It was enough, that I saw the widest play spot in my life.
In the fourth day of our trip, we said goodbye to Germany and left to Prague. First training session was exhausting. In Plattling we used to have a lot of time after flush, because eddy was huge, and in Troja channel we had to paddle like satans to stay in the eddy near the hole. I had to go out from my boat at least ten times per training. Czech play spot is more demanding than German's. It is also stiper and stronger. However, after two sessions i've got used and it was great pleasure.
In between the trainings we were chilling around, analysing our trainings and hanging out with friends but our favorite part of the day except the paddling were dinners! We were eating fried cheese, drinking Malinovka (which turned out to be one of my favorite drinks! perfect mix of of water and raspberry juice! Too bad you can't get it in Poland)
As we should be in school now, we had to write tests based on our school program prepared by our coach. From the first one i got only 12,5% and Michal got 17%, so we were bullied by him after this and we had to study all the time. It was nice time.
The next place on our trip map was Jelenia Góra - the place of this year's last Euro Cup. We arrived there yesterday and took the first session in local hole. It's friendly for begginers and I hope to learn there some new tricks and practise a lot. Finally we are in Poland but unfortunately it means that our expedition will end soon, beacuse it's the last hole in the plan. Today we are having a rest day and luckly now we've improved at our tests passing them so we are again allowed to eat the sweets! Trip is on till the end of saturday when we will come back to Cracov and try to make there as sweet play spot as in Plattling!
For myself it's been sick 2 weeks already especially as I've got new boat from Agility - The Reaper!
It's already final version and it's SICK! very stable on ends, easy to throw around and do rotations and also it goes super big without nearly any effort! Loving the shape! I had pleasure to make that boat together with Michal Wrzal and I'm very proud of it! Actually i was a little bit afraid before Uganda if it's going to be good for wave, but it's super fast there. So then i was worried whether it will be good for hole while having so sick speed at wave but now i can proudly say it's ULTIMATE boat!
Also I gave a visit to Hiko HQ and picked up season gear, this year, red gets fashionable :)! Loving new materials and all the equipment, thanks for support!
Living the life!
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