Thun - Semis & Finals

A 4^th World Championship final was not to be for me as I just couldn’t get the points to make top 5 – I was fairly happy with my rides compared to how I had been paddling throughout the rest of the competition, but I was sure I could have been paddling better on the wave – my back blunts were fairly non-existant, I forgot my rails and couldn't find the airblunts that I was landing a couple of days before in training, I looked deep up my sleeves for a big move, but even the felixes I landed in a couple of practice sessions wouldn’t have been enough against the strong field of the top 5 competitors.

The competition in the ladies category has finally reached the stage, comparable to the men's event, where us part-time paddlers are finding it harder and harder to compete against some of the top paddlers, who are not only full-time/professional paddlers (whilst some may envy my 85 days on white-water (in the last 365) it is fairly insignificant when compared to some others' 200-300+ days of paddling), but paddle full-time with others who coach them. I have seen huge improvements in my own paddling following several coached on-water sessions with Kayakojacko and Sweetwater Coaching’s Dennis Newton and also video-feedback sessions on the Nile with Love it Live it coach Sam Ward and can only imagine what paddling full-time with someone who can offer regular feedback could do to the level of my paddling.

What a great finals to watch though! The standard in the ladies was amazing – Emily Jackson landed a huge helix in her 2^nd ride which helped her to score more points than many of the men were getting. Ruth Gordon was consistent with air and verticality and a donkey flip in her 2^nd ride upped her points score to give her 2^nd place. Tanya Faux was looking nervous in her 2^nd ride as she wasn’t getting her usual powerful, vertical moves, but she saved it until her last ride which gave her the points she needed for 3^rd place.

The men’s event was also great to watch – Nick Troutman’s first ride had just about every move possible one after the other, with no set up time in between – 1500 points in 45 seconds! Pretty much impossible to beat, though we watched in anticipation to see if the others had it in them to go one step further. EJ had a good try but was taking time to set up his moves, losing valuable seconds - he scored just under 1000 points which gave him 2nd place. Stephen Wright had some solid rides and although he couldn't match either EJ's or Nick's rides he looked pretty happy with 3rd place and threw a huge wave-monkey-type move after the buzzer to plenty of applause from the crowd.

Thun wave was certainly not the best feature to compete on - it was hard to get air, there were no shoulders, it was a 'flat' wave, (although you really wouldn't think so from looking at the finals rides!), but all in all this was a great event - despite being the only event where I have had to paddle at 2am to get extra wave-time (if only the wave was working from the Monday, instead of the Wednesday...), it was well organised and the sideline shows (rafting high-ender, big-air ramp, slackline), added to the main event, helped to make a great spectacle for the thousands of onlookers.

Back in England now and we have no down-time at all before the British Champs and the selection events for the Europeans in Lienz (June '10), thankfully as European Champion, I am already pre-selected.

I am unable to make the British Champs this year, so I'm going to let someone else take the British Championship title from me :)

A huge thanks to Marsport for sorting me out with a new boat in time for the Worlds :)