2012 World Cup for Freestyle Kayaking begins in 5 days- 6 Continents Represented!

Close to 20 countries will be competing in the 2012 World Cup, this year held in the Southeast USA.   It might be another 20 years before we see another World Cup here in my backyard, hard to say!    It has been 20 years since there was a World Championships in the USA (1993 Ocoee).    It really started feeling like the world has come to TN this week as I got home to TN from my Harley/GoPro trip to Sturgis and Peter Czonka was training with Nina (Slovakia) and some of the Polish and Austrian team members here at Rock Island.  I went to the Pigeon and the “Doctor” from Russia is here, as well as Team Japan showed up, while there were teams also at NOC training that I haven’t seen yet.

Team Japan liking the hole at the Pigeon

The schedule for the World Cup is next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday here at Rock Island, where the expected competition flows will be 1,900 cfs.    Then we  have Monday off and the water is not running on Monday at the Pigeon, and we start the competition at the Pigeon on Tuesday and then Wednesday.    The event at the Pigeon is in a “raft guide” made hole and it is awesome!!   Retentive, easy to throw moves, and big loops.    Training there was super fun and my only regret is that I don’t have more time to train there before I compete!

I am also super fired up because I got my new 2013 Star series finished in time for the World Cup (uh… that was the plan, of course, but stuff does happen).    Dane did his first hole surfing in the Star at the Pigeon and went huge!     Everyone that has tried it so far is fired up as it goes bigger and easier than they have ever gone before!    Nick made this promo video from the limited paddling we had done in the “preproduction All-Star” we had  [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czWQOt1INnM&feature=g-all-c[/youtube]

Look for some video by Dane on what the Pigeon Looks like.    We’ll cover the World Cup online here as well as with Facebook at Jackson Kayak and you can keep track of my thoughts at my personal fan page (Eric.EJ.Jackson)  and Twitter.   Follow on Twitter at #freestyleworldcupkayak    or just follow my personal Twitter at ejkayak.

I am super fired up to compete in this event!    It is the biggest event for freestyle kayaking in 2012!

Here is a short video Dane made from the Pigeon (the only video I can find so far of the different moves there) (the end is Garberator wave, so not the Pigeon there :))

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDyoVFgyA8U&list=UUL9oIFoVMW0h5hE_dSQ7pJA&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]

🙂

EJ