Lowri Davies

As the WCA’s Freestyle Development Officer I am putting on a series of development weekends with demo freestyle boats, free coaching and a fun competition. If you or someone you know in Wales is wanting to get into freestyle, then there’s never been a better time to try it. We’re also looking for budding rodeo stars to make up a squad which will compete at freestyle events nationwide. Check out the flyer below:

Llandysul: meet 10am @ Llandysul Paddlers - DIRECTIONS
If you need any more info, just drop me an email. Spread the word!

Updates on what I’ve been up to in the past month coming soon, but suffice to say I’ve been pretty busy…

This week saw Europe´s best freestyle paddles take to the water in Ourense, Spain to battle for the title of European Champion 2008. The wave had recieved a lot of abuse prior to the event, but once levels were right and kept stable it was a nice feature, if lacking a little speed for the more dynamic moves (unless you are David Bainbridge).

Setting up for the backstab on the slow shoulder Photo: Peter Isaacs

For me, it was the first time I would be going into an International event as “defending champion” which I guess was a little weird. I made it through both the heats and the semi-finals comfortably placed in 3rd. After the semi-finals, I had been inspired by Tom Turner´s huge airloops on the surfer´s left and got on to try them myself (prior to seeing him nail them with such ease I had been looping on the right). I was soon feeling the thwack of the green water hitting my hull as I retained loops more reliably than I´d seen any other females, even Nina (SLO) who´d scored one in both heats and semis. 

Tom Turner getting some air (and teaching me an important lesson about the wave)

The finals were done in a knockout style (i.e. each paddler takes one ride and the lowest scoring is eliminated). My practice ride went perfectly and I got every move I wanted including backstab and loop… but when it came to my ride I caught an edge and flushed after only 10 seconds and the spin, clean-spin combo I´d scored was never going to be enough to get me through to the next round with the high standard of the other Ladies sat in the eddy!

I cursed as I capsized, took a deep breath as I rolled up and by the time I made it up the eddy was over it. It´s a knockout final and that happens. You win some, you lose some. Cést la Vie. My practice ride showed me that I was good enough to win and for the first time in my life I actually felt like a contendor for “best in Europe”. When I won last time, I somehow didn´t believe that the medal around my neck actually qualified me as “the best”, yet despite what is on the results board this time, I am far more proud of my level of paddling. I paddle for myself and yesterday I had something to be proud of.

Deep in thought before the finals Photo: Peter Isaacs

Perhaps if it wasn´t a knockout format, the results would be different and I am very happy to see that it is the last time finals will be done in that way at an international competition. The new ICF rules where each competitor takes 3 rides and their best ride counts, are far more likely to ensure a true represntation of a paddler´s ability without the luck element of knockouts.

All that said, I´m stoaked that it was another Brit that took the ladies title this time and for Fiona Jarvie it´s been a long time coming, so congrats to her!

Fiona Jarvie on her way to Gold

As for the rest of the event, the Brits did us proud on and off the water. We had 13 people in the finals and took 7 medals, including 3 gold!

The British Freestyle Team 2008

British results that I can remember (sorry if I miss you, just want to make sure the ones I state are correct!):

Ladies:
1st Flea Jarvie
5th Lowri Davies
8th Jenny Chrimes

Mens:
7th Alan Ward
19th James Bebbington

C1:
1st Dave Bainbridge (totally amazing aerial clean back panams in the final!)

Junior Men:
3rd Joe Bradley
5th Tom Turner
10th Seb Allinson

Junior Ladies:
2nd Poppy Layton
4th Islay Crosby

Squirt Unisex:
1st James Reeves
2nd Pete Cornes
3rd Claire O´Hara
4th Emma Rumican
6th Mike Scott

OC1:
5th Paul King

Joe Bradley styling his way to a bronze medal (and tears of pride on the podium:-) )

Off the water, the support this year was awesome from family and friends of all involved - throughout everyone´s competitions, every day, through scorching heat and occasional rain! But the hardest work put in for us has to be from the managing and coaching team, who give up their annual leave to sort out all manner of stressy issues for us so that we can concentrate on the competition. Absolutely massive thanks to Pete Catterall, ´Disco Dave´ Newport, Ross Montandon, Terry Best and Ben White. Also, head judge Sneaky Pete and all the judges, time keepers, commentators and organisors, without whom we´d have no event.

GB Team coaches in action

Lastly, I´d like to thank everyone who has helped me to attend this Europeans. My family, Tom and my friends for their support in the lead up to the event. And of course my sponsors who have made it all possible: Plain Lazy, Netcase, Palm Equipment, Square Rock, Performance Kayaks and the WCA.

I´ve put up a few of the photos I managed to take between everything I was doing. Click here! More will appear online soon and in all the kayaking magazines over the next few months.

And now, back to France…

I generally try not to think of paddling as training, but I suppose that is exactly what I’ve been doing this week with the European Championships looming only a week away! I’ve been doing combined wave and hole training with mornings at Sault Brenaz whitewater course and afternoons at Hawaii-sur-Rhone in Lyon.

 
Bouncy backstabs. Photo: Chris Georgiou

Happy and smiley (sporting sexy neo-socks). Photos: Chris G

Chris Georgiou styling the wave. Photo: Lowri Davies

As always, it’s people that make a place enjoyable and I’d like to big up the Crosby and McDonald families for a cool few days at Sault Brenaz before Chris G flew out to meet me. The star of the show had to be Morgan the dog, who went for ride after ride in their ducky - despite being capsized in the hole countless times. Legendary!

Thanks also to Chris for coming out, bringing supplies and keeping me company. There’s more pics from this week in Lyon here - CLICK!

News from Spain is that the river is now at the level that the competition will be held on and an eddy has just been dug out with JCBs! The wave seems fairly flushy but blunts, backstabs and other wave moves can be stuck… I fly across on Saturday - so I guess I’ll see for myself then!

Final works to the eddy in Ourense, Spain. Photo: Clarie O’Hara

I’ll leave you with a moonlit Hawaii-sur-Rhone:

Photo: Lowri Davies

I’ve just had the very exciting news that I’ve landed a sponsorship deal with Plain Lady and their sister company Lazy Lady. As a company I’ve admired for years, for both cool clothes and commendable ethics, I am totally stoked!

Check out www.plainlazy.com and www.lazylady.co.uk for more info!

I’ve just finished 4 weeks of coaching and guiding in the French Alps for Canoe Control. I met some lovely people, paddled some great rivers and generally had a lot of fun. Here’s a few photos:

Jon Warwick paddling the Fournel with a back brace on. Gnarly.

 
Nick Pearce and I on his virgin mission into Chatau Q. Photo: John the open boater

Nick immerging from Chatau Q with a big grin!

A week with Leeds and Regents Canoe Clubs

The CC bus overheating on the Col de Var

Surfing at St Clement. Photo: Willam

More photos from the last month can be found here. Thanks to everyone I’ve hung out with and paddled with this month

During the six weeks I have been in the French Alps, I have seen an awful lot of carnage. At first it was the usual Uni groups with lost kit and hospital trips gallore - particularly with the high water levels. But there seems to have been a second wave of carnage now that the levels have dropped. Perhaps people aren’t giving enough thought to the changes that the floods have caused - or perhaps it’s the usual case of people being unprepared for the speed and technicality of some rivers here. Whatever it is - it’s been entertaining. Here are some photos of a few mangled boats we have retrieved:

This belonged to Cambridge Uni and was one of the many Gyronde casualties

 
This fortnight old Jefe was forming a nice boof ledge of the exit rapid of Durance Gorge

We pulled it out and found the contents of the drybag to be still dry, including the condoms and throwline(?!)

Half a Mystic on the banks of the Durance Gorge, which was littered with boat bits!

On a more serious note, there have been some tragic accidents on the rivers here this season - kayakers, rafters (including a guide) and canyoners have all been involved. Thoughts go out to anyone who has been involved or affected by these accidents this year.

Have fun and get out there - but please take care.

Did you know that if you lose the red key to a P-reg Fiat Ducato in a lake in the French Alps, you have no option but to spend 1226 euros to get all locks, ignition and immobiliser replaced?

Waving goodbye to my van!

That was a damn expensive slip up!

Some helpful hindsight advice given to me in the past week:

1. Why don’t you have a spare key?!
2. You should have got a spare key and kept the red key in a safe place
3. Close your buoyancy aid pocket next time
4. Clip your key into your BA
5. Get one of those floating keyrings

We tried all sorts including searching by boat and with snorkels, offering a 500 euro reward for its return, using a magnet to fish for it, calling Fiat UK for a new key, calling the previous owner for any old keys, seeing if we could bypass the immobiliser and getting quotes from various garages in France and the UK, but I was left with two options: abandon her or effectively “re-buy” her.

Many thanks to anyone who gave up their time to search for the key or help in any way. I’d particularly like to thank Kate Bankes who has been very kind and helpful in dealing with the French Fiat dealership.

I get the van back tomorrow.

Since the last update, I had a few more days with AUCC - trying out our inflatables and coaching the beginners before the paddling ban and continued rain resulted in them upping sticks and heading to Slovenia. It was a tearful fairwell; but I was cheered up by the sight of many other friends arriving and a day on a chunky Ubaye Racecourse with Simon Westgarth and a gang of local guides.

By Wednesday the ban had lifted, the sun was out and Tom had arrived It was time to don the lotion and get on the Sunshine Run.

Mounty fun

Matt Morrisey practicing for Slopejam

Friday meant Slopejam - an invite-only event where competitors throw tricks and stunts in their kayaks off drops and grind rails made of tree trunks to impress the judges and wow the crowds. There had been some doubt over whether the event would go ahead with such high water levels, but we were blessed that the mountian stream dropped off quickly enough.

Tim Trew styling the tree grind. Photo: Palm

The whole thing was laid back and utter hilarious making it a lot of fun for all involved. I made it through to the finals against some of the World’s best male boaters and with the standard of competition being through the roof, I was really proud that my brother and I were sat alongside them for a two run final. I was also pretty happy to be one of the only competitors who didn’t at some point get nailed in a hole and/or swim! There was definitely a lot to entertain the spectators! The standard was so high, with Tim Trew throwing back hammers in a Dagger Green, Matt Tidy throwing effortless pan-ams and Jon Davies doing some big donkey flips, that a winner could not be decided! Instead, all finalists were awarded “Victory Honey” presented by the Slopejam Honeys. Tasty.

Hammer time in practice

The top section of the Fournel. Photos: Little Danny

When Saturday rolled around I provided a group of Bath Uni students with free FlowFree coaching on flatwater cartwheels followed by a FlowFree freestyle coaching session for other coaches. By 5.30pm over a hundred students had gathered at the slalom course in l’Argentiere for the 3rd Student Boater-x. There were five events: Advanced, Intermediate and Beginner students, the “Bloater x” (old boys / non-students) and the Inflatey-x. It included everything you’d ever want from such an event: free beer, carnage, controversy and inflatable mushrooms. I was proud again to be just behind the podium positioned guys and the first female by a fair margin in the Expert category. Who knows what I could have achieved if I’d not wettied out of “Skin to Win”?!

 
Dagger branded beer!

Dagger branded boys!

Lots of fantastic photos will filter the web and magazines soon - there were loads of expensive cameras being waved about - but I was too busy floating about to take any!

No student event would be complete without an ambulance and as the sunset one arrived, showing the results of cheap beer and “vin dans une boîte”. After BBQs and Pizzas, it was time to gather round a bonfire and tell extravagant lies about the past few days of paddling; although with the amount of lost kit and hospital trips in the last week, it was probably all true!

More updates to follow soon, to include carnage and dilemas of the highest order… stay tuned!

I’m now in the French Alps which are still very rainy and wet. Levels have gone down a lot, a couple of sections of river have had their ban lifted and there is hope of all rivers being open by Monday… but it’s still raining and the forecast isn’t looking good…

Anyhow, I had two days of coaching an intro to big wave surfing at Hawaii-sur-Rhone in Lyon on my way down. Here’s a few photos:

Jon Soper-Dyer looking shocked as he gets his first big wave surf!

Me going for the air blunt. Photo: Andy Calland

Seppi Strohmeier going big

Last Tuesday I completed my last exam of my third year, deeming me “free for the summer”. Only one more year of Uni, then I can claim my status as a MEng-er.

In four days time, I head out to the French Alps (via the big wave in Lyon) with my University Canoe Club - an annual tradition. Usually we get lovely sunshine and low-to-medium river levels, but this year there has been a lot of snow and a lot of recent rain. Reports from those already out there, including my brother, are that the rivers are super high and brown… which should make for an exciting trip!

After two weeks with the club, it will be time to style it up in the first ever invite-only SlopeJam contest on the Fournel and party hard at the Student Boater-x - where I will also be providing free FlowFree coaching clinics for a day.

As the students recover and start to make their way home, I will head a couple of miles up the road to start work with Canoe Control for a month. During this time, I will also be training for the European Freestyle Championships, which I fly to in mid-July.

Sponsorship update:
After my last post regarding sponsorship, I have recieved a lot of interested and would like to thank anyone that has done anything to help - whether it resulted in sponsorship or not. I want to particularly thank:

• Netcase for financial contributions and support
• Sam Lumb @ Aberystwyth Guild of Students
• The Welsh Canoeing Association
• Ruth Jones, my landlord, who reduced my rent for June by way of sponsorship!
• The guys on sv650.org for all their help and support
• Olympus for a shiny waterproof camera
• SquareRock for continuing playboat support
• Palm Equipment Europe for continuing kit support

I am featured in the next issue of Planet Magazine, thanks to Dilwyn Roberts-Young.

Should everything that has been promised come through, I should be on my way to the Europeans without any stresses about financing it, for which I am massively grateful.

And now, to the packing… A parting shot…

Photo taken by Tom Laws