2003 World Freestyle Kayak Championships – Report 8, May 6

2003 World Championships Organizers

I thought that it would be appropriate to introduce the world to three Austrians with a vision of making the best World Freestyle Championships ever.

Rudi, Margaret, Jurgen- This is the three people who make the world’s happen. Margaret is the liason between the paddlers and the worlds. She is the local “mom” for all of the boaters looking for accommodations, transportation, etc. She is also a big organizer of the media and sponsors and does a great job with that. Rudi, he is the main man. Rudi has the to-do list from hell going on right now and has for some time. He is the brain child behind bringing the event to Austria in Graz. He organized over $500,000 to make the hole, and all of the money to make the event happen. He also answers to the International Freestyle Committee, which is made up of 7 representatives that cover the Globe. My wife, Kristine is the representative for North America, there is Northern and Southern Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa. The team leaders from each of the 35 nations participating in the worlds vote for their respective representatives. Kristine and Mike Birbeck (England) co-chair the IFC and they work closely with Rudi and Jurgen to assure that the event goes according to the rules of the IFC.
Jurgen is the technical expert who organizes the scoring, and tactical plans for the event. These three organizers work hard to make the best possible event, and do a good job. The unique thing about the IFC World Championships is that the local organizing body must organize everything themselves. The IFC just oversees the rules. The scheduling, and all of the hard part of the competition are set up by the local organizing body. For this reason, each World Championships will have a different feel and the learning curve of the organizers must be quite steep.

I will attempt to bring some consistency to events with the World Kayak Federation by bringing our expertise into the big events and work in conjunction with the local organizing bodies so that their job is local logistics, not to try to re-invent the wheel.
These organizers, Rudi, Margaret, and Jurgen, even had an official “worlds song” written and produced by a famous blues singer. It is quite cool and will blare over the sound system during the event, I am sure.

Good Job to these guys,
EJ

Margaret and Rudi, Working in their “Rodeoworlds” Office, next to the hole. They are handling the stress quite well. 33 teams from 33 countries will ascend on their town and office in no time!

Margaret working the phone.