Tryweryn and the nene YF
tomthepaddleman | July 9, 2008My first competition this year took place on the NRA wave at the Tryweryn, after an endless drive on the Friday before, we finally arrived and i got some practice time on the NRA wave.
The Saturday was the freestyle comp and lucky me i was in the first heat! My first ride was ok and my second wasn’t good, but my third one wasn’t worth talking about; scoring only 13 points . Even so i came 12th and was 10pts away from making the cut for the semis. This wasn’t actually a bad thing as the rest of the day i ran the river with my friends and in the process managed to get through my second strutter in less than a year (they don’t make them how they used to!).
BBQ time ensued in the evening and then everybody’s favorite…. SUMO!!! I couldn’t fit in my sumo suit and kept tripping over it and falling on the floor, but i still managed to beat one person!
The Sunday was BotoX down Bala mill falls and amongst the mass of long boats in my heats i had no chance in my little star, But i led my heat for the first section of the race until Dave wild dumped me on a rock. The rest of the day was spent running the falls in between races and seeing how far you could get upstream. Thanks to Jim and his team for organising the event.
A few weeks later there was the Nene Youth freestyle. After registration we were split into two groups; one on the whitewater course and the other did bungee racing. I was in the group who was on the course first, we started off in the pump pool cartwheeling, super cleaning and the occasional tricky woo. as the morning progressed we eventually had to swap around to bungee racing. Bungee racing is when you race head to head in a boat, but with the back (or front!) grab attached to a length of bungee cord. Before and after my race i got to go swimming in the warmish water (thanks Gav!). Before long it was lunchtime. After lunch it was the freestyle comp, we got called down 5 at a time to pool A; a pour over style hole-great for cartwheels and vertical stuff but hard to do any of the bigger moves like loops. Whilst waiting to go down we were busy getting a trashing in one of the Nene’s most deadly and gnarly holes; the one after the top wave (that little thing is surprisingly sticky!). Finally it was my heat consisting of 10 other paddlers, most of all i knew pretty well. I was up first, making my ride up as i went along (thinking it was a practice run). I put down some cartwheels and tried to go for the tricky woo but was too far into the trough so it ended up as a powerflip! i was running out of time and decided to go for a bigger move. I plugged for a space godzilla and i didn’t know if i got it or not until someone came up to me and said “nice godzilla”. My second ride was pretty much the same but i put in some cartwheels on the left and attempted a phonix monkey which decided to pop out- resulting in just the pirouette. I decided again on going with the godzilla and then tried a Mc.Nasty to finish- which didn’t go. I felt both my rides weren’t as good as they could have been- so next time i will plan them out. After the competition it was squirt boating time! (for anyone who hasn’t been to a youth freestyle this is what it is all about). At one point there wasn’t anyone in the eddy who wasn’t swimming or sinking. The prize giving was next, Ad Cox third, me second and David wild first in the U15 boys. It was an awesome event thanks to all the guys behind it and next up is the alps and nottingham festival of freestyle!
Tom