There and Back Again: A Hobbit’s Tale

By Stephen Wright

It’s been a wild ride all the way across the ocean and back, and I’m now sitting in Jessica’s house in Reno—awake at 5:30 a.m. due to jet lag. Yesterday was a 25 1/2 hour travel day beginning in Frankfurt, Germany and ending in Reno, NV. The best things about being home are having the dogs back and drinking coffee inside on a couch.

I figured that I’d write-up a few memories from each World Cup event with some photos. The images were all shot by Jessica and me.

Prague:
-Prague is nne of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen. Wandering around the tourist district with Karen, Lindsay, Jessica, Clay, Jason, and others was really fun—for 2 hours.
-It’s poor planning to put the whitewater course just below where the sewage dumps-into the river. Many of our digestive systems took weeks to recover from the “Prague Plague”.
-4 days straight of rain makes me glad for a waterproof tent.
-chocolate crepes and Espresso for breakfast every day—BEAST!

Augsburg:
-It’s a country club for kayakers—what a beautiful park with TONS of paddling options!
-This is an epic hole for huge air loops…too bad the scoring system didn’t seem to want to reward huge clean air loops, clean space godzillas, or Dustin’s clean McNasties!
-There’s an incredible Italian restaurant about 10 minutes away which served us epic pizza for 4 euroes. Too bad that my continued battle with the Prague Plague didn’t allow me to enjoy it properly.

Thun:
-Life in Switzerland is expensive. Clay planned a “how to do Switzerland cheap” guide that started with, “Get over it….it isn’t cheap”. A bottle of green tea costs $6. The cheapest hotels are $110 per night and most of them are more like $220 per night.
-Thun is a beautiful city surrounded by epic mountains a picture-perfect lake.
-The wave here is medium-small and slower…it really showed who’s put-in the time to learn to play smaller waves. Even though it’s not buseater, it’s a great wave that’s super-fun!
-Simon, the organizer, is the man!
-boy, does it finally feel good to make the podium here…..I was starting to worry 🙂
Overall:
It was awesome to see how many other competitors have moved into the Star Series. After playing all over the world for more than a year and a half I can say that this is my favorite playboat ever. I’ve never paddled another boat that I couldn’t think of anything to complain about before the All Star. It’s just the best boat for every type of play.

Live from Reno, NV,
Stephen Wright