It is a time for recap of 2018
and bring couple of highlights. It has been crazy year for me and even more
full with adventures than any other with some life changing events. Hope you
enjoy the read!
Most important is that I
managed to keep on paddling with my friends for whole year - kayaking in
Austria, Czech, Greece, Georgia, Uganda, Zambia, Slovakia, Spain, Poland and
England ! Managing to visit three new kayaking destinations – Greece, Georgia
and my long-time dream destination – Zambia ! (Post about those adventures is
coming!)
It started off amazing in
Uganda by competing in Unleashed event in Uganda which completely changed my
approach to vision of how kayaking competition should be and what is most
important in them. I simply loved everything about it and being among the best
kayakers from all around the world helped me to push myself ahead in my head in
terms of kayaking.
It was followed directly by
Nile River Festival which was the biggest celebration of river and life around
it that I had ever been part of ! It was wonderful experience and I was so
happy to see whole river community – kayakers, rafters, local people and
tourist coming together to give tribute to the river in amazing events
including big air ramp, endurance race, technical freestyle and extreme race. It
is a great event that I would definitely recommend for everybody!
Here I would like to take a
deep breath and stop for special thanks to Jackson Kayak for taking me back
into the family. For me it was much more than just the boats. It was where it
all had started for me with getting my first Star 2007, falling in love with
the sport and then going to first major events and meeting there EJ and rest of
the family in 2008.
EJ was simply another cool guy in the
community. Super friendly, always smiling and obviously great in a hole. But I
was just a random kid, just starting my adventure and trying to do some tricks.
Then in Prague, before the World Cup, in the right eddy after trying to
McNasty, popping high and flushing after first attempt – EJ paddles over from
the other side – and says “Hi, I’m Eric – you are paddling great!”.
- 
I haven’t really watched any EJ’s famous
instructional videos before but since then I became fan of EJ – but not as a
paddler but just as a person observing him and learning that it is just about
sharing the passion for kayaking and having awesome ( 😉 ) time at the river together! I decided this is kind of a personality that
I’d like to become – and EJ became my idol. Next year first year in my senior
year I came 5th in World Cup with my All Start 2010. Never felt so
proud. Years have passed and I started to look for carbon boats trying
different brands – looking for my own style, staying for years with VAJDA, then
trying to build my own kayaks and eventually moving to Gui-Gui. I loved all of
them. Each of the boat made my style a little bit different adding a little bit
to it. What I really missed was having a plastic boat and simply having fun
around the river and outside of trainings! Also through those years I was
strongly focused on performance training and it was all that started to matter
for me. After having high hopes for Worlds in 2013 but getting sick and failing
to make it to quarterfinals I was in a lot of doubt what to do and where to go
next. There I took in my juniors that I started training and their energy and
emerging passion lit fire in me again and helped me to fall in love with
kayaking and training again. I set long-term goals for them and for myself for
Argentina 2017.
-
When the time came I was ready. I didn’t
manage to win or get a medal but I was happy with what I achieved and was able
to present in my kayaking and had a feeling of fulfilment. After the World
Champs I decided that I will rather just kayak and keep living it than focus on
training oriented kayaking. But last year I started paddling JK boat again and
I decided it was time to come back to the roots. It helped me to understand few
very important things like what kayaking meant to me. Why I started loving it.
What was important in it. I’ve found new source of power and motivation. Didn’t
really come back to training regime I used to lead but I just kept doing what I
loved which led me directly to getting silver in Squirt and making it to finals
at World Cup in Sort and then to medal at Europeans despite the fact it was the
only plastic boat in K1M final! That was the second proudest moment in my life
really finding this pride in achieving something.
It was also very difficult
year for everybody who had ever been to Uganda as in this year Nile Special got
flooded. 7th November was the
last day that Nile Special was there. I spent there 7 winters. This year to say
goodbye I planned to visit Uganda 3 times. It was tough, when I was there second
time in May. I’ve spent every possible moment shredding and soulsurfing it and
sharing important time with friends. I knew I will be back on the end of the
year but I had a feeling that it will be too late. Every afternoon was
difficult. Almost everyday there was somebody saying goodbye and we lived that
over and over and our old friend kept siting there green and silent or foamy
and roaring. It was there for us. It helped so many people to fall in love with
kayaking. Not only by surfing it but by meeting all the people that were part
of the community around it spending time at Hairy Lemon. When I was leaving I
spilled the last tear over it and said good-bye. You will always live in our
hearts. When I came back in December it was already gone. But the Nile was
still there. And it was like getting reborn again. Due to the fact that bottom
rapids were gone now – we started spending more and more time in the leftover
sections. I think that the fact that there were so many amazing and well
known-easy access playspots made people so focused on them that they forgot how
much beauty and high quality playspots are still left ! Just around superhole –
there are other spots like Real Deal Hole, Real Deal Wave and The Beautiful One. Also as flooding got
finished – there is a new-old wave that has been changed. The Phoenix wave
which is middle of the vengeance just next to Adrift island is new big wave
play feature at the Nile! Plenty of wonderful features been re-discovered and
showcased at Nile River Festival.. but that is for next pending post!
Another life changing decision for me and probably the most important one as it leads me into realizing my dream - of sharing the passion for kayaking – was joining Sam Ward on board of Love it Live it. LiLi is high performance coaching travel company that specializes in coaching in most amazing destinations around the world. Through LiLi I can take people to most amazing destinations around the world and help them to get better in what they already love. That's what I been working at for years starting with getting master in physical education at university and then coaching people on various levels for years while traveling to make my living. Now after teaming up in Love it Live it that is what will lead me through coming years. I can not wait to see what 2019 brings!
On side - during all this time I managed to keep studying, currently I'm on my third year of phd focusing on Value of Sustainability trying to explore very difficult for our community topic of dams and other hydro-related infrastructures and find more sustainable ways of management in regions in order to prevent loses that Dams create.
I'd like to say big thanks to
everybody who accompany me on my journey and craft me into who I'm. For my
family and for each of you who actually reads this long post till the end 😊 ! I can not wait for all the adventures that are about to come in 2019!
Check out my highlights from
2019!
