So the story starts with myself leaving Cardiff at the ass crack of dawn and picking up my Dad and Simon Wyndham in Ross-on-Wye, then heading straight to Dover for our ferry at midday. We then drove through the day and night taking 2 hour shifts. We smashed it out with 0 dramas and were in Oetz to watch the sunrise!
Water levels were lower this year which made the first walk up to the Wellerbrucke a lot less intimidating than it was last year! It all looked good to go and I was fired up to get some gear on and start training. We checked into our sweet apartment and headed to the river! We were really lucky all week with the weather having only 1 day of rain. Every morning on the lead up to the race I would walk up to the rapids, do a couple of laps of the qualification course then start lapping the full section, it was great fun and great training! I managed to get through the training period with only a couple of rolls and a surf in the TNT rapid.
Finally Thursday came around and it was time to register and have our first gathering for the event with awesome food and company! I went to bed early that night in anticipation of the next morning! It was a beautiful sunny day again and butterflies started to set in as we headed to the race course. The first group of people were doing their qualification run and it was my turn next. I started warming up and getting ready to go!
Peeling out of that eddy is always nerve racking, everybody just wants a clean line through champions killer, it can be so unpredictable! Luckily on this run I did get a nice line through it and steamed ahead to the finish line.
Unfortunately this summer I had little time to work on my endurance (or even get in a boat much) so although I was fit and strong for the event my muscles were struggling to maintain speed on the flat section and this showed in my time (1:33) which put my about middle of the field, not a bad time but not what I needed. This put the pressure on for my next run, it HAD to be faster. We had lunch thanks to Jackson Kayak and headed back up to the course.
On my second run I flew through champions killer and the whole run felt faster, but alas it ended up being exactly the same time to the 100th of a second (which I thought slightly odd). I finished in 61st place, 8 places ahead of last year and 13 places away from qualifying . It's always disappointing when events don't work out the way you wanted to but it showed me loud and clear where I was going wrong for next year.
Excepting my result I enjoyed the rest of the weekend with great weather and good times! I had a complimentary massage from the physio and the rest of the evenings and food were fantastic! The final was seriously exciting and it's awesome that Joe Morley managed to repeat and keep his title for GB.
I want to qualify next year, skill wise on the whitewater I believe I performed very well. Endurance wise and getting more power from my blades etc is what I need to work on for next year. The plan is to make more time and train with slalom/ sprint paddlers to gain the necessary techniques to be fast! Bring on next year and bring on the winter!
Thanks to Palm Equipment, Surflines and Beet-it for their support!
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