During the past week, I realised how important memories are. Nothing can happen twice, something similar may happen but time can not be reversed. Every man and his dog has a blog these days and I said I would never have one...but here I am. Blogs to me seem to be a resource for people trying to get noticed, get attention or share their life. And that's why I said I would never write a blog, who cares what I've been up to? People have their own lives to live. However, who says writing a blog is entirely for other people? What about yourself? This blog is being written with the purpose of preserving memories, the good times, and the things I never want to forget.
Over the last week I've had one of the best times of my life on a Love it Live it Freestyle Development Camp at HPP Nottingham. Sam Ward (who I have had coaching with before) is out in Uganda so the running of the camp was subbed out to James (Pringle) Bebbington, the current world champion. And what a week it became.
As you can imagine, when I arrived at 9:50am I was feeling exited but unsure of what to expect. It seemed weird to be meeting a top athlete that I had been watching on YouTube for so long. Also eagerly awaiting Pringles arrival was Harry, Harvey, Ian (who spoke little English) and Luke. After brief introductions we all continued to wonder what the new world champ would be like.
And then like any other normal person, Pringle appeared around the corner. Casually introducing himself to us all and sitting down on the creaky wooden bench. For the next half hour or so we all spoke about our experience, skill levels, what we wanted to get out of the week and other possibilities for the camp.
After changing into kit we all had a couple of rides on inlet gate, a chance to show off our skills and assess where we all were. The skill level of all the paddlers was pretty high and as a group we were sticking a variety of moves. Having just got my new Jackson Kayak Rockstar I was still working out how big it would go, the answer? HUGE.
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| Space Godzilla in the final day competition |
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| Looping big during one of my first few sessions in the boat. |
After a while down at Tardis it was time to go back to the top for lunch. We all had our food and ripped Prignle down for his diet of raw fruit and veg before looking through the video footage of the mornings session. Immediately Pringle helped me to understand where my Mc Nastys and other moves were going wrong and pointed out my good moves and techniques.
After we had all seen our footage and worked out what we needed to do to improve we had another session on the course, trying to work on what we had learnt. I had some success but was still working hard on my Mc Nastys and could see why they were worth so many points.
Over the next few days we followed the same sort of format. Paddling with video feedback with the occasional session paddling with Pringle. Paddling with the world champion was a thrilling experience, not only did it give me some perfect examples of what I should be doing but it took my breath away as he threw move after move with flawless technique and style. I was especially impressed with his Lunar Orbit - Cartwheel - Tricky Whu combo in the 2nd hole.
Thursday morning I had a break through moment as I watched some footage Pringle had of another guy doing Mc Nastys and everything became clear in my mind. From then on I managed to get the odd decent Mc Nasty and throughout the rest of the week they became more and more consistent. By Friday night they were going well but still not consistent, however I was very pleased that I managed to get 5 or 6 good ones in a day. A massive improvement from the start of the week!
Saturday morning was the last session of the week and involved watching the footage from the night before and then two competitions. My shoulders were playing up a lot on Saturday and was struggling to paddle even on the flat. After warming up as best I could I sat above inlet waiting for my practise run. Just to make things worse, my nose clip broke. Typical. After dropping in and doing one shoddy loop I realised how much I hate paddling without a nose clip. Luckily for me, a guy I met (I was giving his friend pointers for his loop) a few weeks back offered to lend me his for the duration of the competition. (Thanks a lot!!!). I had one more painful practise run that went okay before the competition.
The competition was going to be:
-2 rides in inlet
-1 ride in tardis
The best ride from inlet would be added to the points from the Tardis to give the total score for the serious competition.
This would then be followed by a less serious, fun competition.
My first ride in inlet went well, and I was pleased with it considering my shoulders were hurting. I scored Air Loop, Space Godzilla right, Space Godzilla left and Cartwheel right. I also tried a Splitwheel right but the 2nd end wasn't vertical enough to score. In the last 3 seconds I tried a Mc Nasty but was too knackered to make a decent job of it. My second ride in inlet was okay but not as good as the first, not scoring the left Godzilla.
Down in Tardis my shoulders were beginning to really hurt so I decided not to have a practise run. My competition run was okay but could have gone a lot better. Setting up on the feature was fast and smooth but I only scored a Spin, Air Loop and Ender (for my failed Space Godzillas).
After my ride it was time for the fun competition which was decided as King of the Wave. I really wanted to take part but thought it was more important to rest my shoulders to didn't participate. Ian destroyed the competition with a mix of amazing river skills and being able to put his deck back on after the others popped it but before they swamped his boat.
Back up at the top for prize giving it was announced that I won the serious event and Ian came in a close 2nd place. I was shocked to have won as Ian was paddling very well and seemed disappointed but gracious not to have won.
My prize for winning? A Mc Donalds chocolate muffin, do prizes get any better?!?! It was a great way to end a fantastic week. I'd like to thank Love it Live it, Pringle and my parents for making it all possible. Hopefully there will be a video to follow.
Chris
