OK- so the World Championships is coming in 1 week- I figure it is time to lay out what we are seeing here.
Most of the competitors are here and training, but a few are still to come. It will be a few days before we see Dane on the water, but he has the unique knack of picking up the nuances of a spot quickly and this hole should suit him well.
Who’s Hot:
- Team Great Britain for sure should be mentioned as a whole. There are clear super stars among the English team, but the strength of the team can’t be denied. This venue is home to most of the team and many of them learned to paddle here. Gavin in the men’s class can be para-quoted as saying, “I am playing golf most days, as I have had my routine ready for three years.” He is training daily of course, but the point is that the Brits are dialing in their rides, but this period of training isn’t about learning new moves in the hole.
- Women- Ottie- both in Kayak and C1. Watching her paddle is a pleasure as she shreds the hole throwing amazing tough combos, huge moves, and rarely missing them.
- Men- Uh- the whole men’s team. We’ll let them sort out for themselves who is paddling the best.
Team Ireland: The Irish have always had amazing paddlers. This is the strongest Irish Team I have seen in a long time. Anais in the women’s class is training hard and looks to be a strong challenge to Ottie. Great entry moves, McNasties, Phonix, huge loops, etc.. “Irish Tom”, the elder of the group is looking stronger than ever in the men’s class, but the rest of the men’s team seems to be taking their game to the next level “all of the sudden”. Remember that is has been three years since I competed in a World Freestyle Championships, so I missed their progression.
Poland: Tomasz Czaplicki- Whoa! What has this guy been doing? Programming his brain with perfect technique like in the Matrix? His moves tend to be huge, clean, and perfect. He cleans his Phonix Monkeys, as well as everything else- even Space Godzillas sometimes. If you want to see what it can look like, watch him. He is the single person I have seen so far that looks like he is setting the “gold standard”. Bartosz Czarderna – The only Rasta Mullet in the competition, Bartosz continues to improve and is strong, consistent, well trained here, and can’t be ruled out. While not going as huge or clean as Tomasz and some of the other paddlers, he has all of the moves and combos. Zofia Tula- Tomasz partner and training partner, she is a strong contender in the women’s class. While less consistent than Ottie right now, from what I am seeing, she can, and does put winning rides together.
Germany– there is a 16 year old kid- don’t know his name yet, but it will be listed in the top three and could easily be at the top, that is super fun to watch and reminds me of a 16 year old Dane. He would be competitive in the Men’s class, and I overheard two men talking and one asked, “How many more years is he a junior?” The other said, 2 or 3 I think, and the first one, “Whew, I am not looking forward to having to compete against him.” I’ll figure out his name today. Yellow boat, throwing the same moves and similar routines as the top guys and while not as consistent yet, he isn’t far off. Fabian Tausch is a new face to me. Young strong, with some strong finishes this year (such as 2nd to Tomasz in Graz), he is hungry and ready to play on the big stage. He was under my personal radar until I arrived here, but not anymore.
USA- Team USA is always strong in Freestyle and typically wins the most medals- This year’s competition will be the biggest challenge yet to the USA domination at the worlds, but we have strong competitors across all categories.
- Men’s Kayak- Dane is the current World Champion, and has won three titles in the Men’s class already. He was paddling extremely well in Colorado this summer and, while we haven’t seen him at the competition hole yet, well, we know what to expect. He will love this hole. Mason– current Junior Men’s World Champion- he has been here for weeks and is looking super sharp. Young, explosive, motivated, and skilled. He is still not as consistent as we see in some of those mentioned above, but he tends to perform well under pressure, something we haven’t discussed yet. Bennett Smith- I watched Bennett during his first session yesterday and he was already throwing sweet combos and clean moves. He looks like he needs some adjustment to this hole, but he has plenty of time to do that. A past junior medalist, he is ready for the big time now and paddles confident. Stay tuned on his progress this week.
- Women’s Kayak- We have Emily Jackson out there who is putting all of the big moves in her ride, but not the combos we are seeing a few of the others do. Her fast moving pace can put more points on the board with more big moves and less combos. It will be interesting to watch the two styles of competition in the finals, where I would expect to see her based on the level she has been paddling this week. Jessie Stone- for the elder statesmen out there, it is worth mentioning that Dr. Jessie Stone is, once again, on the USA Team, and the oldest woman competing (that I am aware of) and perhaps the only Doctor too. I have been great friends and paddling buddies with her since the mid 90’s where we paddled together in Costa Rica for some time. Olivia Mcginnis- She almost beat Emily at GoPro Games just last week and while has struggled here due to the airline losing all of her gear on the trip over, she should be reunited with her gear today and will not be seen using everyone else’s stuff. I don’t have a feel for how she is paddling here yet, but expect it to be good.
- C1- While I don’t spend a ton of time paying much attention to C1, when somebody paddles it really well, it is incredible to watch- Landon Miller- Also landing in England with his boat missing and being seen paddling in a kayak on his knees to get some practice, and rearrange his ankles, Landon now has his C1 and is crushing it. His style is fast and explosive, and is definitely the offspring of Brian Miller, former top C1 from USA in the 90’s who I competed in several world championships with. Landon has a Lunar Orbit style where he does a Porpoise (a move I created 20 years ago that never made the sheet- you dive your bow underwater in a front surf and then lean back hard to lift it up and your entire boat goes under, water goes over your head and then your bow porpoises back up into a front surf). Landon does that straight into an areal lunar orbit that is sick to watch. He also has the Jedi Flip dialed in and I expect that he will be the only athlete we’ll see stick them in any class on a regular basis. Dane and Jordan- they will be competing for the top spot as well, of course, but I haven’t seen either paddle here yet, so no feedback there.
Junior Women/Junior Men- I have seen a lot of good paddling, but not sure who is who, other than the German kid who seems to be way ahead of everyone else. I’ll pay more attention and try to sort out who stands out from the rest this week. Certainly keep your eye’s open for Abby Holcombe, who has been training hard here for weeks in the Junior Women’s class.
Squirt boating/OC1- there are competitors training in both here. I haven’t watched much squirt, but Clay Wright is competing and as a two time squirt world champion, he knows how to win this event, giving the USA a strong chance. In OC1- I have only seen 2 boats in the hole so far, no idea how many or how good they are. Hard to beat a great C1 paddler who jumps in an OC1, however. Is Dane, Jordan, etc. doing OC1, don’t know.
I haven’t mentioned every paddler by name who has a strong shot at a medal here, nor every country. Peter Czonka, etc. etc. I have spent some good time at the hole watching and paddling and am going 100% by memory with no notes. I do think I did the 80/20 rule pretty well, however, and got the majority of the who’s who.
There will be a Master’s class as well, FYI. I’ll be competing in that, as well as the senior Men’s, a benefit of being old enough for masters. Clay Wright will also be in the masters. That will be super fun as we use 4 features on this river instead of just 1.
