Thun, Switzerland- Alpine Town- World Cup Final on a Wave

August 27, 2008

Thun, Switzerland is the best setting we have had for any event in terms of sheer beauty, and central location. Both Prague and Augsburg were both great sites as well, but Thun is quite special. I am sure that Vail, Colorado tried to model itself after this town, as we voted unanimously upon arriving that Thun looks like Vail. The difference, is, of course, that the buildings here are 1,000 years old in many cases, and this town wasn’t created to lure skiers.

The river is a wonderful blue color and flows casually through the downtown corridor in two channels. White and black swans glide gracefully up and down along the riverside cafés as if they are trying to assure that everyone gets a good look at them while enjoying an espresso in the morning, or a beer or wine at night. Two covered bridges, adorned with purple flowers and ancient wood beams are also the dams that control the flow to the wave. Simon the event organizer has the key to the dams and adjusts the wave as he sees fit, while the “carnies” move in to handle the volume of athletes and spectators arriving this weekend. By Carnies, I mean the vendors that sell beer, pretzels, red bull, and food under tents. VolksWagon is the primary sponsor for this event and it is looking quite professional already.

The athletes are spread among a few places. The primary camping location is the parking lot near the wave. For 10 CHF (that would be 10 Swiss Francs, or $10 USA) you can park your car or van in the lot. As many people that want to can sleep in the parking lot with their vehicles in a VERY urban area right on the street. There are about 50 tents (tents are supposed to be off limits there, but nobody has said anything yet) as well as another 100 people camping on the ground or in their cars. Dane, Jonathan, Clay, LP, and Jez are sleeping in our two FBI vans. Ruth and Devon are camping about 4 miles away in the campsite that was recommended by the organizers. In the parking lot is a “bike rental” location. The rentals are FREE! That is right, they have about 100 bikes, owned by the town, that you simply sign out and bring back. Devon and Ruth take the bikes each day to the campsite and back, perfect. Others are doing their best to find hotels. The city information center claims that the hotels are 100% booked. They are correct for the most part. Any rooms are found by being at the right place at the right time during a cancelation. I am in the Freienhof Hotel that my room overlooks the wave. It is fully booked for the next three weeks! I got lucky when enquiring.

This town is full of little shopping areas, restaurants, and art galleries. It is clearly a tourist town for Europeans. We are about 20 minutes from Interlaken, which is quite famous for its Swiss Alpine charm, skiing, and kayaking.

The wave is a very good feature for the World Cup Final and will be awesome for the World Championships next year. Unlike Buseater, it isn’t huge, just a nice, fun wave. Watching people train on it and prepare for the Prelims tomorrow you can see who is good on a wave and who isn’t. Some of the medal winners from the past two events look like a fish out of water here, while some look even better here. Many people have spent the past two or more years training in Africa on the bigger waves of the Nile or Zambezi. While that is good training for Buseater, it isn’t the best for Thun. Big wave training makes you sloppy, slow, and forgives bad technique. Anyone can get a big bounce on the Nile Special and throw a Pan Am or Clean Blunt, or Air Screw and land it. Get on a smaller wave that is a little bit tricky, and suddenly good technique, snappiness, and fast reflexes are mandatory to get and stick the same moves. I am glad I didn’t train in Africa this past winter for here. I am seeing some frustrated people who, before arriving here, felt like they were going to do well because it is a wave. Now they are blaming the feature already, and the competition hasn’t even started yet. I am also seeing some smiling faces on people who have just eeked out the past two events, and are fired up to compete here. Dane Jackson is certainly one of them. He is looking awesome in both his C1 and kayak on this wave and suddenly feels a new burst of confidence.

The official team training slots have been working out pretty well so far, but nothing is perfect. We have a huge clock tower overlooking the wave to use as our official swiss timepiece for determining when the team training time starts and finishes. Typically each country gets 1 hour, but somehow some of the countries are getting two or 1.5. Perhaps the USA isn’t lobbying hard enough for extra time? England got extra, Germany got extra, who knows. It is funny to watch as you have 20 people in the line up and the average ride is only 30 seconds so in one hour you get about 5 rides each. The USA splits into two groups for 30 minutes each and we get 5 rides in 30 minutes. We have a timer tell us at 30 seconds and 45 seconds so we get a feel for how long we have on the wave for the competition. There have been some serious line cutters here, but for the most part people have been really good about knowing their place in line and being courteous.

Tomorrow the competition starts with Prelims for Junior Men, Junior Women, C1, and Women. The men down compete until Friday all day for prelims. Because the wave is an “unattainable feature” meaning that if you flush off you are gone, the format for prelims is 4 rides, 2 count instead of 2 rides 2 both count. While this is more rides that take longer, when people flush the clock stops and the next person can go right away saving lots of time.

Most of the men and women who have made the finals so far are also paddling well here. Peter Czonka, Dustin Urban, EJ, Nick Troutman, Mathieu Domoulin, and Simon Strohmeier. There are many others who are also paddling well like Stephen Wright, Eddie Smith, etc. etc. The finals could change up this time, or not, well see. For Peter to win the overall world cup he only has to get top 3 to secure the win. With Dustin Urban and EJ on his tail, and knowing that winning the final event is almost required to take the entire world cup, look for big ride plans from them. Being conservative isn’t likely to be the game plan for them, or anyone else trying to put some spots between themselves and Peter who currently has the lead with a first and a second.

In the Women’s Class, Emily Jackson has the lead with a 1st and a 2nd and she is in a similar position as Peter. She must get lower than 3rd to lose it and only if Ruth Gordon, currently in 2nd, or Fiona Garvie win it. Emily is also looking really good on this wave so I don’t see her at any disadvantage.

In the junior men’s class, Sebastian from France has a 1st and a 2nd and is really looking good. The German, Jakob Ehrle, who won at Augsburg doesn’t look like he has much experience on a wave. LP is looking pretty good, as is Jason Craig. Maxime from France who has a 3rd place and an 11th place is also looking really good. Dane who has a 4th and an 11th is paddling really well here.

In the other classes, we’ll have to wait and see.

Look for some photos of the wave soon!