Jakub Nemec - freeride kayaker: September 2008

I just came from the Lipno event which is a big celebration for all kayakers and rafters. There was Czech slalom championship, Czech cup in down river, rafting competition and also DEVILS EXTREME RACE…

Lipno is situated in the south of the Czech Republic very near of the borders with Austria in direction Linz. We came on Thursday night and there was an opening party on. Next day we had to build the rest of ramp for competition. Our deadline was at 2 pm because that was the time when the dam opened water. We did few runs and then most of riders started coming to Devils X race. The campsite was a football ground where was also a bar, plenty of banners and the stage with a DJ…

DJz and party

On Saturday morning we had to build a race course for slalom (Touch the banner style) and hang the banners all around the course. Then the extreme slalom started. Men category first and then were women. I did a third place. Second was Lukas Horyna and the winner was experienced whitewater kayaker Eda Sluka. Out of women Lenka Borovickova was on the third place, second Betka Brabcova and Lunka Novotna won. After slalom event (at 11 am) was a free riding until 6 pm when the dam stopped the water. I enjoyed the rest of the day with riding down the Devils rapids behind the race course. It is probably one of the best parts to paddle in Czech. And you don’t need rain or snowmelt because of the dam. Around 5 pm I decided to do the first descent of the gate where water overflows the dam. It is like a big slide into 8 meters waterfall but on the edge of the slide are four concrete tables so only four places to go. (each like 1 meter wide). It was quite crazy to do but I had a good day full of paddling and I wanted to do something big in the end. ;) Lot of people had thought about this run for a long time so I thought it was a right time to do it. But it is pretty dangerous and I don’t want to do it again for long time.

Some of the best pictures from the dam

Then there was an afterparty on Saturday as usual with DJs, Czech beer and a lot of happy kayakers.. On Sunday morning kayakcross with the touch of banner started in the middle eddy. I was going good until quarterfinals. There I came to the eddy on the first place but I took a bad line too much upstream and the other guys bet me. Semifinals and finals were really nice to watch because there were a lot of fast kayakers. In finals were Honza Bubnik on fourth place, Tomas Cernohorsky on third, really good Swiss paddler Severin Haberling on second place and the winner was Viktor Legat. In women was on the third place Eliska Beranova, Lenka Borovickova on the second place and Lenka Novotna won again. The overall winner of the race is Viktor Legat in men and Lenka Novotna in women. After pricegiving on football ground most of people left home. Devils extreme race is behind us and we could speak about another event in this year.

Kayak cross

Main stage on camp site

Big thanks to main organizers Mira Kodada and Jirka Kopecny. Good job guys. See yah next year!

Photographers:

Martin Nykles, Karel Kubovy, Misa Hradkova - Thanks!

Here are some more pictures from the event. Stay tuned for a movie from the dam. Next weekend is a Czech championship in freestyle so I think I will try to post something from there...

On 6th of August (Wednesday) I have left Czech because of Boatercross masters event in Interlaken on the White Lutschine river. We came in Thursday morning after 10 hours of driving so we went to sleep for few hours. After that we did the race course couple of times and we also paddled the team race part behind the race course. On Friday came most of the kayakers and we enjoyed nice day on the river with them….

Competition started on Saturday morning with qualiruns for the boatercross. I tried to paddle the good line, without mistakes and full on which meant 4th place for me. I was quite happy for that because there were a lot of good kayakers. After qualification for boatercross there was qualification for Freewheel competition. I like freewheeling a lot so I decided to take a part in this event. We had two runs so I decided to do a switch freewheel and a kick flip for the second ride. The kickflip wasn’t so good and I ended up on the 3rd place. But really good idea to make competition like this because there is a lot of people who love freestyle on the rivers. Not only waves and holes, which is more waiting than kayaking. The Saturday schedule was finishing with team race. I paddled together with Honza Lasko and Honza Kolar from Czech and I am pretty happy that we did the first place. That was enough for competing. After nice day like this its good to make some party of course. Main organizer Simon Hirter managed the free entry to swimming pool where we spent like two hours with chilling, swimming and drinking little bit.. ;) After that there was a barbecue in Outdoor Interlaken place. Barbecue means little warm up party for the bigger one in streets of Interlaken..

On Sunday there were finals in kayakcross and freewheels. First two heats in kayakcross were successful for me and I went through to the semifinals. Before semifinals was the final run of freewheel competition with only one ride so I did a switch freewheel again. That was the second place for me behind Ron Fisher from Switzerland. He jumped from the wall up the waterfall backwards and right after landing he did the switchfreewheel from the drop. Respect to him. Kayakcross semifinals seemed good for me on the second place almost till the end where I took the back stream and it turned me around so I ended up on 4th place in this heat.. But I enjoyed all the runs and it was good kayaking. After price giving we went back to Prague where the first Freestyle World cup was starting and I had to work there. See you White Lutschine for now. Thanks a lot!

Since Monday till Wednesday we were working and preparing all the stuff for event. Picked up people from the Airport and so on.. On Thursday we finished all preparations included ramp, banners, info tents, sound technique, party tent, tent for judges and stage for speakers and DJs.. On Thursday evening there was an opening ceremony with concert and DJ. Friday was qualiday for men. In evening were concerts of three young groups from the south of Czech. That was really impressive to see these young guns rocking hard. After that was the right time for DJ and very nice. ;) Saturday means quaterfinals of men category and all the semifinals. All was going well and we could see some interesting rides from most of competitors. In evening there was semifinal for K1men. It had a nice atmosphere and people enjoyed it. Competitors were doing full on to make it into the finals but they enjoyed it too. After that was a DJ time again. Full party tent of drunk people who love the ragga praga music and have a good time. Sunday was a final day and it was nice to see the best freestyle paddlers on the whitewater course in Prague. Finals were really top of competing in Prague so after price giving and few hours break was the right time to be at the top of the parties. Afterparty was awesome. We could listen one of the Czech best ska group Fast food orchestra.. More info at

http://www.cnawr.cz/

Jan Spindler enjoying ramp in Prague

Dustin Urban loopin´

On Monday I had to work again because we had to return all the stuff and clean up the whitewater course.. After all the work was the right time to go to Augsburg for the second event of World cup. Waschmaschine was still crowded but you could still find some place to ride in national trainings. The event was organized well and during the weekend we tried to figure out where could be good water for some creeking.

Simon Strohmeier launching McNasty

Daniel Krumreich with his Switch entry loop

Peter Csonka finishing Phonics monkey with nice loop

Jirka Langer flying big!!

On Sunday night we left Augsburg with direction upper Lech and then upper Reuss. I was going with Jirka Kopecny and Jirka whos surname I don’t remember (sorry for that). We came to Ga-Pa at around midnight and we went to sleep. On Monday morning we woke up cooked a coffee and went to upper Lech.. We saw the waterlevel and it was less than the last time. But still enough. We did the both parts of it because we know it and we could enjoy nice canyon with class 4-4+(5) whitewater.. On evening we decided to visit our friend Florian who lives in Sonthofen which is on the way to Reuss. We talked, drank and smoked until 1 am when we decided to go to the bed. It was nice to sleep in the bed after few weeks. ;)

Next day we came to Reuss at afternoon and there was really good waterlevel. Because of time we decided to do easier part behind California section but there was still good class 5 kayaking with 8m slide, 4m drop and one another slide with landing between two rocks. And some parts between of course. Then was the right time to go to Thun where we saw overcrowded eddies around 10 pm. Uncredible. Since next day the national trainings were starting. Our one was at 6 pm so we decided to go to White Lutschine which is only 30 minutes from Thun. It was nice to do it again. It is not super hard but it is really good kayaking with nice drop for freewheels… Then I paddled wave on the training and also few hours in the night.

Tyler Curtis Donkey flip

me bluntin´

Jirka Kopecny helix

Winner of the World cup Peter Csonka and his clean blunt

Next days we were paddling the wave in night hours paddling the white Lutschine during the days and also competing. The whole world cup wasn’t successful for me and Thun wasn’t different – 21st place. On Saturday we left Thun and we went to Plattling wave for Sunday. From Plattling it is pretty close to Czech so we didn’t have so much driving for Sunday. After three and half weeks I came back home because I have to work in September. That sucks little bit but… I spent nice time on boatercross masters and then on World cup. I have met some new people. I met some old friends and definitely had a good time with paddling.. Now I am looking forward to next two weekends because there is Devils extreme race on Lipno and next weekend is Czech championship in freestyle in Sopotnice. Two weeks and then Sickline event in Oetz walley. After that one week off and I am leaving to Nepal on 12th of October. Stay tuned. ;)

Happy paddling

Jakub

PS: Sorry for missing more pictures from Lutschine, Reuss and Lech - I am still waiting for them