Tuesday 19 October 2010

Sluice rodeo

Thus ends my last freestyle competition in Ireland for a considerable time. It will be at least a year before I am in the country for another one.
The sluice rodeo is quite a fun event, run very differently to normal competitions, it has an open heat of 4-6 paddlers and 15 minutes in which to attempt your moves rather than 2X45 second runs. This sees a lot of bigger moves thrown as paddlers are not afraid to go big and risk flushing. It is also a lot more friendly and much more fun to compete in. However it is an absolute nightmare to judge!

In the comp itself I didn't do particularly well, only managing roundhouses, the odd loop and dodgy cartwheels! I wasn't expecting to place much higher than I did though as in a flushy feature like the sluice it is very hard to initiate or land moves when you can't backpaddle!

In between heats we had the Old Skool rodeo and the boatercross events which are always fun to watch. I decided not to compete in either but had good fun watching them, then onto the party in the rough stuff factory. This was great craic and I would very happily go to a party there again!

Now I only have one more competition to go before I leave, the Crana weekend. Hopefully I will get some surfing in beforehand but we will see how we get on.