1st Spanish Cup in Millau: By Gerd

I got back from a great time in the USA on March 9th. Since then I’ve been catching up with family and friends, doing some work and getting back into paddling. After a few sessions in Sort we drove to Pau on the 19th and 20th of March fro the first French Cup of the season. The new slalom course there is great! You can read a full review of the event here!

http://adidas-sickline.com/index.php?id=54&L=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=54&cHash=b77b5ab4c76b4f19d533b28792e964e4

Just wanted to start form the beginning and share this great photos of the ‘apero’ offered by JK Europe, Abys and Roc Roi for all the competitors and spectators on Saturday afternoon! As you can see, another great use for the Rock Stars! Lots of people enjoyed the the great ‘ponche’ made by Ludo!
As well you can also watch a video of the Rock Stars in Pau! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SigfAdp2zw8

Last weekend (March 26th-27th) we had our first Spanish Freestyle Cup in Millau (France). As well it counts as the first out of two events for the Spanish Team Trials which will decide the Team attending to the Worlds in Plattling, Germany. However it’s a Spanish Cup, the reason why it was celebrated in France is because we don’t have many spots in Spain, and the few we have are not working at the moment. Millau is always a good option as it’s an artificial slalom course in the south of France and the drive for almost everyone isn’t too bad. We left Sort on Friday afternoon and after 5 long hours sitting on a tiny car we finally arrived. Caught up with some friends, tried to eat something and went to bed.

We woke up early on Saturday morning and had a few rides on the hole. The great thing about the course in Millau is that however it doesn’t have a lot of gradient or hard moves, you can adjust and move the obstacles so you can create your own perfect hole or course! The access is really easy, the water is not too cold and it works almost all year round… great! Apart from this the village is pretty nice and the people there is very friendly. We were lucky and it was really sunny and warm on Saturday, Sunday’s weather wasn’t that good but still ok till the afternoon. The hole on Saturday wasn’t really good compared to what we are used to have in Millau, so on Saturday’s afternoon we shut the water off and modified the hole hoping for a better hole on Sunday’s finals. As well we made another spot at the bottom of the course so all the non finalist and kids could paddle while the competition was on.

Finals started early on Sunday, but still managed to get a few practice runs on the new hole before the younger ones stared their final. The new hole was way better in my opinion, the shoulders were stronger and the foam pile a bit bigger. However it was a bit more shallow, the hole was more retentive and we could see way better rides from everyone on Sunday.

Last event of the day was the K1 SM final. I didn’t do any good on Saturday’s prelims so qualified for the final in third place. Luckily for me I was way better on Sunday and managed to win with my first ride. My second ride was pretty bad and third one was ok again… I was happy with my boating and excited about this first place in the first Spanish Freestyle Cup, but as well got a few good points to qualify for Plattling. Now looking forward to the next Spanish Cup which is going to be held in Sort (where I’m currently living) so expecting some good times, and as well probably the last team trials event so after that we’ll know the Team that will be attending Worlds from Spain!

The Rock Star got the first two spots on the podium followed by a carbon all star, so good times for JK! Video coming soon!
Good weather is coming and hopefully some snowmelt with it, creek boating pretty soon!

Thanks to the Salt-Ter club and the MJC Millau for the great organization of the event and the judges for their work!
Thanks for the photos to: Albert Aixas, Thomas Richard

Gerd from Spain