Thun Scene

August 28, 2008

By Clay Wright

Photos

There’s lots of results and lots of competition to come – and EJ’s probably going to be typing away right after he gets out of the water, so here’s some ‘Scene’ for ya.

We’re in a quiet little tourist town nestled between mountains on a beautiful blue-green lake. The outflow of this lake flows under a dam series built in either 1800 or 1300 depending on which channel you cross, but the water pours through and forms a beautiful 4′ wave right in the middle of the city.

I was going to write an article called ‘How to do Switzerland on a Budget’ – but you can’t! Pretty much everything you buy is expensive and while quality is good, the sticker shock is intense. With camping at 25$ a tent and 120$ a night hotel rooms with a bathroom down the hall no longer available, most of us are staying in the parking lot – or ‘carpark’ . Overnight it’s become a tent-city, and we have become refugees of Swiss prices, expended travel budgets, and a low US dollar.

What to eat? There’s a great Kabob place and a grocery right up the road, and I’ve discovered a croissant dipped in yogurt is one of my favorite breakfasts ever. Especially washed down with a 5$ coffee that’s half full of pure cream :-). For lunch there’s a 7$ pizza slice or 20$ pizzas anywhere in town, but we’ve all switched to a bagette with Nuttella or possibly today’s choice – a large croissant stuffed with peanut butter AND Nuttella! Then dinner the Kabobs run 8$ and while Adriene prefers the Chardonnay most us us re-fill OJ or coke bottles from the tap at the edge of the lot. But most Teams are cooking pasta as I type – and doing dishes in the bathhouse. It’s about a ghetto a scene as I’ve participated in but at least the weather is beautiful cause add mud and we would get 3rd world fast.

The highlight of the day was a run 2 ducklings had – in the dam! A family of ducks swam a bit too close and 2 of the ducklings got sucked right in. We watched for a few minutes and the mother whisked the rest of her family away as if she knew there was no hope of recovery. As I judged a few rides I noticed Japanese paddler ‘Moo-Moo’ was staring into the gates and we could just see the ducks pop up occasionally before getting sucked back in. Yuck. 10 minutes later we would still catch an occasional glimse of the ducks paddling franticly into the boil or against the wall but they would always get sucked back in the end. Soon I think the whole crowd was watching the ducks instead of the rodeo – because each time we thought the struggle was over one would just about make it out again. Thankfully, one of the Czech paddlers climbed out across the closed gates to the edge of the drowning machine and while he struggled to help them with his paddle, a neighbor showed up with a net and the ducks were saved. At least from drowning right in front of us anyway.

I think Jez caught the whole thing for the Skippy Films video he’s making about the 2008 World Cup . . stay tuned for more on that. I think he actually shot rodeo rides between his announcing duties… cool.

Hope Ej’s posting results, it was a good show.