Devils extreme race and the FIRST DESCENT of Lipno dam

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...