World Championships kickoff!

Canadaa!

Every two years biggest event for Freestyle Kayakers is taking place. World Championships gather best kayakers from all around the world to compete for the title of the best kayaker in the World. This year the event is taking place at famous Ottawa river at Garburator. This year there are over 200 competitors from 29 countries who arrived to beatiful Ottawa valley.

I've arrived here two weeks ago and loved this place and area ever since. I got kindly invited to my friend's house who became my family for the time of the stay. Thanks Kennedys for great time ! With Kalem & Quinton we were training at every moment we could trying to hit the least busy time at the eddy. My favorite part were our night sessions with lights beside the bank and despite adventures like loosing a paddle and helmet it was definetly super fun and worth it! In days there were more and more people arriving so it was more busy and aswell to our crew joined Zach Zwanenburg & Andreu Oxly. Together we were training hard as much as we could. When the official trainings started we got split into country groups - we had our trainings with Spain, Argentina, South Korea, Slovakia & Finland. We've had an hour per around 20 kayakers which turned out to be around 5 rides each. If you had bad time of the day - then the rafting companies were getting through. Last day we had 5 of groups going through ! Anyway, it was time to put your rides together. For K1M I hope to get  my runs which would put me through to the next round. Although I'm not a wave paddler I really love the wave here and sometimes i got really solid rides. I'm also again competing in squirt category - which this time turned out to be crazy story! First i got to paddle 25 years old school boat which i borrowed from Kennedies, and then I've met Ian Thomson who actually borrowed me his new style boat which i could sink pretty well! So I'm really looking forward for the competition now! We will see how much of flatwater i can pull off in that sweetie. Anyway, This year I'm very chillde about starts and feeling good, I hope i can keep it that way and do my best at competition!

Today Opening ceremonies happened. It was nice parade through town of Beachburg followed by welcoming ceremony with alot of folklore entertainments and performances of locals.

So, to follow the worlds, here is link to schedule:

http://worldfreestylekayakchampionships.com/media/pdf/worlds_event_schedule.pdf?

All the squirts are happening tomorrow - on Monday, so I hope to be on all day. And K1M starts on Wednesday, keep your thumbs!

Here is link to livestreaming

https://www.worldfreestylekayakchampionships.com/event/watch-live/

Check out all the photos from training and hanging around!

making pizza with lads

Flash Back!

Air screw

Air screw

Night Pan am!

Looking for flash back!

Cleaning it up

Air screw at night session

Sunset at lake!

Going down the river in squirt boat, this thing is super fast and river is so beatiful!

He definetly likes my camera, thanks for videos bro!

Chillin with Lucas

music & proper gear changer!

Lovin night sessions with Lads!

Official mascot!

Morning session

Morning session!

Go Poland & Canada!

Squirtin session with Brittish, thanks Alex for help!

Valley above Garb!

Ninja!

Lads & Ladies! "we are athletes, that's a serious deal!"

Opening Ceremony

And for those who haven't seen that yet and managed to go through all the pictures - ky to raft bonus!

KY link raft bonus

June for fun, July for Wildalpen!

Missed an update by a month, but here it is! Hope that all the stories and photos will gratify the delay !

Soo, going back, Ondra & me got dropped by Adam to airport in Warsaw where we departured to Moscow. There after short flight we were picked up by Stas. Already while being over the Moscow – we were amazed of it’s size. It’s just hard to describe how huge city it is. Then it got even more breathtaking when we got out of the plane and drove to Stas place. Outcasts of Moscow already looked as big as center of big city. Then we went for loong sightseeing trip which was very amazing, thanks Stas ! We went by metro to the center and it was so huge and deep. And amount of people was crazy ! Even though it was just middle of the week and time that you shouldnt probably see that many people – it was so crowded! We went to see Red square, Krimlov, Lenin’s monument, street of the artist and plenty plenty of other beatiful things. But also he showed us the other side of the city – the one imporant for some Russian people, or the places they like to hang out and it’s extraordinary stories. My favorites were monument of sins and church which was turned into pool. I have to admit Moscow really impressed me positively! 

Sin monument

Japanese style at square

Moskwa

Piotr I Wielki

Me & Stas

Piotr I Wielki

Kreml

Lock tree

Lenin's monument

The next day We’ve picked up other members of the crew and started our trip to North. It was 1300km and we were so happy that we didnt decide to drive all the way from Poland there. Luckly travelling in Russian style car is super comfortable. You can lay all of the trip at comfortable materaces and do not care about anything. So even thought it was super long (took us nearly 22 hours!) it was fun and not so exhausting. As we were driving the scenery was changing little by little, getting really pictureous at far north. It was also big experience to see people living there and notice that they were a little bit different. But finally we got to Tivdia where already plenty of other people were there. We got really warm welcome from our old and new friends and went straight for paddling. Wave looked great from the bank and it was really cool as well! It is the middle size wave with nice right shoulder and middle part where you can throw some hole tricks. It was very fun to paddle there and I found it as good preparation for competitng at World’s at wave. We stayed at tent near property of one of kayakers where everybody were hanging out. Just next to the river was small shop with all basic Staff you needed. After first session we started to feel tired but we were feeling a little bit strange as it was all the time bright. Polar night turned out to be very beatiful but a little bit exhausting. Anyway after so long trip we took plenty of sleep and were ready paddle again! The coolest thing about it was that you could go paddling at pretty much any time you wanted! A little bit more about the playspot – it has two eddies, one short on left river side and long but narrow at right. It ha salso nice temperature as water comes from swamp. Above is small lake and everything is just below the bridge. Now it has prepared two tribunes and judging platform. You can also watch kayakers from the bridge which is very good for crowd and is bringing alot of spectacors! The event started on Friday and brought plenty of kayakers. There was freestyle and kayak cross contest. Event was streamed online so everybody could watch it. I think in future it can become world class competition! Also the hospitality of our friends was amazing, all the time we were eating “griczka” the special kind of wheat I guess? With different kinds of everything. From international paddlers there was also my friend James Bebbington and two Finish guys. Everybody had a great performance but especially in final runs did Russians. Except James, Ondra and me 5 of them qualified to the final rounds to keep it together as international event and Russian Championships. After big runs Andrey Pestereyev got 2nd , 3rd Vanya Rybnikov just a nose a head of  Dimitri Danilov and Ondrej Krivanek. after his great first run and I took the first place. The celebration was great with plenty of champagne. Afterwards we packed our staff and had to leave before big closing party as our flight was departing next day on evening.

Kayak House

Ondra sending back Pan am

Kayak Cross platform

Stabbing the wave

Winners of Tivdia 2015 Euroasia Championships

Getting on the wave 

 We went to Saint Petersburg. Arrived there in evening and went straight for sightseeing, thanks to our guides we went through all of it by feet and enjoyed I one of the most beautiful cities I have seen. Starting from bridges, whole riverside, and so many beautiful buildings which I can’t even name in order. Really funny thing was that most of them were based in some other masterships of architecture from the Europe. So just walking by we were noticing things from Venice, Paris, London etc. But having so many of them at one place is definitely making St Petersburg one of the most beautiful places which we really loved! Then in the morning we’ve left to Moscow to catch our plane. Unfortunately the traffic was so huge that we got late and missed our flight. All stressed and worried we were trying to fix it but without help of Stas Mom we wouldn’t be able to, thank you again! She’s helped us to get new tickets and fixed the visa issue! We had our visas just till day of our flight and if we wouldn’t extend them we wouldn’t be let on the board of the plane so we would miss one more flight! Luckily we literally just caught the embassy member in last moment and she had convinced him to renew our visa, which all with flight have had cost us quite a lot but thanks to it we could leave home. I’ve missed one exam but manage to fix everything on time afterwards. 

St Petersburg!

Lighthouse

View from Cathedral at 5 am

Need to take way around!

#selfie master

Bridges! 

Practicing reading from bigger letters 

After I got back I had dozen of exams in just few days so I was staying till morning every day and studying to fix all of them, in the meantime finishing my master’s degree work. Everything worked out well and on Friday I was flying to England this time for judging seminar.Judging seminar took place in Nottingham where I’ve flought to. It consisted of two days training and evaluation to pick the best judges for coming World Championships and World Cups. As I’m really interested into it, it was a great pleasure to be there but also required a lot of focus. Also the group is very good, consistent and better every time so it’s such a cool thing to be part of it! I was very stoked to pass the exam and getting great A! Then I had to plan to enjoy a time at the course and finally paddle famous inner gate hole but sadly I just got there at they that they had taken it down! I was so disappointed but still enjoyed playing at other playspots there. Later I met with my friend Islay wakeboarding which was so sick and cheered me up quite a bit! Thanks again! Then other day we went for a walk to see Nottingham, seen batman house, Robin Hood track and oldest pub in Nottingham with pin Ale. Was a great time but later I had to go back home for last exams.

-photos will be added when i get back my phone :(-

In between, there was also the Slalom Championships in Krakow, and we had our exhibition there with Maks & Michal

at exhibition

After taking all of the exams, Maks and Michal came to my place and we got picked by Adam and finally we’ve left to our beloved Wildalpen! Even though we got there on Thursday I was not so worried as this is the place I’m still calling my homespot as I’m spending there the most time training in the year. Also it was so great to be back to place which we love so much – surrounded by mountains by a beautiful river of Salza with so many friends there! But for now back to the event - water level was low again this year and competition was super loaded up as it was part of Euro Cup event. We got so many great paddlers there from over the Europe. From Spain, France, Germany, Austria & Poland. The competition took place in one day, so it was very exhausting. I had great runs in every run, taking highest score run in prelims of 1053, then taking the lead in semi. The finals were really tough as Quim, Tomasz & me we all had great runs and we had no idea who will take the win. On the end I came 2^nd behind Tomasz and next to Quim. Later that day we had great closing party and then we chilled a little bit on Sunday.

Waiting for the run in prelims!

Here is my final run:

Then we left in the morning for creeking as group of our friends was in Tirol. It was first creeking trip for Michal & Maks so we went for lower Ottztaler first at really high water level – which was great play run with sick wave after the passage where we definitely have to go back with our freestyle boats! We were planning to do Loffer but unfortunately other members of crew damaged his shoulder and other ribs so later that day we went for Inn which was also very nice and then gone to Lammer to run it other morning. After this we split from our friends and went for Laussa falls. It was amazing small waterfall between 6 to 7 meters with great smooth landing and easy start. Great for learning how to boof properly! I also did there my first back wheel, which was super cool! I hoped one day we will get more water there to come back with freestyle boats and try the loop and mcnasty but unfortunately we were not that lucky.

Adam settin up

  

  

Michal literally about to drop

Back wheeling Laussa

Also here is video done by Michal from our creek fun trip 

 Then we came back to our loved Salza valley and enjoyed our days there. We were training power, speed, endurance and few different parts daily, except this we were focusing on techniques in hole. In between everything I was teaching kayaking at Liquid-Lifestyle. After two weeks new member of our group arrived, Michal’s sister – Agata. She started kayaking at the end of May and I’m really looking forward for working with her as on the end of her stay she already did her first loop! That’s about the same time it took me to learn this move! Also the Maks & Michal made big step forward, they got solid results in competitions and improved they kayaking as well getting it to the level of harder tricks and links. Same like Adam who is working hard on his tricks. We were taking our free time resting, discussing about kayaking, hiking in mountains and once we even had a night game! Our favorite hike was to Gamz – the goat which is 15 minutes very stip hike just next to the camping. When I was in work kids were training with Adam at water or getting work outs with Hanka. Then Maks had to leave and so did Agata after few days even though they were supposed to go together but she loved it so much that she decided to stay. We spent one more week there and it was the time to leave our favorite place with friends, great evenings and wonderful river. We will miss it very hard but are already looking forward for coming back! So me & Michal left with Hanka while Adam stayed there for 10 more days. We will meet each other at next Euro Cup in Prague.

Agata getting air at rolls!

Junior team

Sitting already in car heading to Cracow from Prague to take few days off on on Saturday flying to Ottawa to face World Championships again! I’ve decided to go there that late as last World’s i stayed in NOC very long time before competition which was very exhausting to live under tent, train hard and stay focused for whole this time. This time even though the competition are at wave which isn’t my strongest side – I’m going to go there just for 2 weeks before to get used to wave and present at event all what I can. I think that just before the most important event it’s too late to study new tricks but it should be exhibition of your skill and ability to adaptation. Anyway now I’m lookin forward to see all of my friends there and paddle together at famous Garburator wave!

Stay in tune for updates!



Authors of photos: Adam Olesiński (Creek trip, Wildalpen), Hanka Bubnikova (Wildalpen), Mario Mulle (Wildalpen), Ondrej Krivanek (Russia), Wiesław Janowski (Kraków)