Winter is here!

The winter season is here, the white water course in Slovakia stop to work at 15 november and its really cold to kayak somewhere close in Europe. For us it definitely doesn't mean free time, be honest I have even less time as few week ago... We started to prepare for next season in Gyms , Gymnastics gyms , Running in the forest, paddling on the flat water or on the paddling machines inside when its too cold. So basically now we are spending lot of time on the sport facilities mostly 2 times a day. Personally I kind of hate to have this brake and not to use my new kayak which we build for me for next season. Its like pain in my ass to have it in garage without kayaking it! For me every time I get a new prototype and of course it must be a good one it kicks me so much to the front in trainings because I am not focusing on trainings but on the boating with it and its not boring anymore. I love that new boat really, I cant wait to kayak it in Uganda again. Nina will also have one specially made for her! 

Except the training we have also the film festival season where we are presenting our movies. After the really great time on the film festival Hory Zonty where we got some nice prices, we got an offer to take a part on the film festival in middle of Slovakia called Hory objektivom. This time the quest was Nina. Nina was taking part on our last journeys so she was a perfect lady quest in between all the guys. Except the interactive show and the story telling she was also asked to make the raffle :) The Cinema was really full with people and they really was curios about what we are doing and asking many questions and it had really nice atmosphere. 

For next few weeks we have to train hard and wait till the 11th january for the sunny nice Africa.

See you

Peter  

ARF cup Pilsen video

FILM FESTIVAL HORYZONTY

by Nina Halasova

Last week we were invited to a film festival in Trencin, where Peter had two movies, from Zambia and Norway. It is a festival about nature, outdoor sports and traveling. We were pleasantly surprised with hall full of people.

There was a small talk show insert after the movie from Zambia. We talked about this trip, about our experience, troubles, funny times. It was nice to see people being so interested in our stories and we got lots of questions from them. We saw many good movies from climbers, bikers, and travelers. In one group they pooled professional movies and in a second group all amateur movies. We were competing in the latter.

After the screening there was a final ceremony during which the judges declared the best movie. And Peter won first prize! We were very surprised and very happy. It was a wonderful weekend. We met lots of great people, heard interesting stories, saw awesome movies and had good times with friends.

A few days later the organisers announced the results of the spectator voting for the best film. And guess what... Peter won 1st and 2nd place for his movies! We were thrilled! I think this success will encourage Peter to film and edit even more.

See you
Nina

Go Pro HD Hero

Here is a short video made just with gopro camera in past season.

A NOTE FROM NINA

Kayaking season is almost over.

The season is almost over, so now we have more time to relax... Not! This was the plan but actually with this life style it is not possible.

Our last freestyle event was ARF Cup and Slovakian championships in Cunovo, Slovakia. We were a co-organizers of this event so it was a very busy weekend for us. I am so happy that everything went well and we had a nice event with good party, raffle, free drinks and with so many people joining us. It was an international event so we hosted kayakers from Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Czech, Poland and Slovakia. I was quite nervous during my rides, because it is strange feeling to be in your home spot and to be watched by your parents and all your friends but after all I ended up on first place with very good ride. Freestyle wasn’t the only event, we had a side events for all kayakers like a fun slalom and kayak cross. I didn’t take a part in it because I was too busy that weekend.

After this we went to Oetztal valley for legendary adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Campionships. I really like this event. I think it is the best organized event ever. It feels like being on holiday even if you need to compete. Ok, it is maybe because I am not a guy :) I agree they have a big competition and especially this year it was really tough. Guys were very strong and well-prepared so not only the final was awesome to watch. It was nice to paddle with the girls and I need to say some of them were paddling better than some of the guys.

Peter & me stayed in a pretty cool apartment (as last years) and adidas was taking very good care of us. First day we had a short meeting and such a good BBQ. Steaks, sausages, salads, beers and a good time with our team buddies. Some of them we hadn’t seen for a longer time so it was nice to chat together again.

On the other days we had dinner with all the other participants. We had a movie night, were we saw many interesting movies like stuff from Olaf and Jared.

We were very lucky and had good water level and weather. I just love that part of Austria and to have a competition in such pretty nature is awesome. The Wellerbrücke is very good river section to race. It is not easy to have the fastest run but once again our adidas mate Sam Sutton did the best and won his second gold in a row.

So the events are over and we don’t need to focus on this again until the next year. We should relax but our whitewater course is still running so we are still paddling. It seems it will run on at least till december so we still have more than month on the water. It is quite hard to stay motivated to paddle in this cold weather at the end of season, but if I stay home I feel strange. I think I am addicted! So we still keep training on the water plus we go to gym and do some other activities as biking, running, climbing. I love to stay outdoors. I am happy that we have this opportunity to have a perfect gear for sport. If it is kayaking, biking, climbing or running we can stay warm and dry. So I would like to say thank to adidas for taking care of us and supporting us in what we do.

Thanks for the pictures made by Manuel Arnu ADIDAS-Sickline , Hanka Bubnikova ARF cup

Best regards,

Nina

5th ARFcup / Slovakian championship

This was our last freestyle event of this year where we took a part. Cunovo White water course have really much to offer for organizing a event. There is everything what you can wish for, course with awesome white water, very nice area for relaxing, Hotel, restaurant, many option for sport and so on. This year we organized Slovakian championship again together with ARFcup. I would really like to thanks to all the organizers- Bryan for all the results, organization, band... Nina for helping by organizing the freestyle event, Capko for funslalom, Tomas for the kayak cross and also a huge thanks for our sponsors The rafting union of Slovakia, Hotel Divoka voda, Sandiline equipment, Paddler shop, Vodak shop, Champ gear shop, Redbull, Vajda for make it all happened.

We had 2 days of competition and one day of free trainings. We wanted to organize this event for everybody and not just for pro kayakers so we prepared a side events like funslalom and kayak cross. This “fun” events are for kayakers who aren't interested for the freestyle event but want to take a part too. Together for all disciplines there were more than 100 competitors from Slovakia, Czech, Poland, Austria, Germany.

At saturday morning we started with funslalom. Capko was in lead by organizing this part of our event. I must say it was really fun to watch all the people doing the rolls on gate 4, or taking a tube across some other gate. The best was trowing the paddle over a gate in the middle of stream. Here are the final results from funslalom http://www.kayak.sk/download/Cunovo_2011/Fun_Slalom_Results_Cunovo_2011.pdf

When funslalom was finished we start the main discipline kayak freestyle with the qualification in all the categories. In K1 men I took the lead second was Tomas Andrassy and third was Bartosz Cauderna and all of us were paddling the Vajda boats! In woman category Nina won on second was Eva Filova, third was Alexandra Cisarova.

During the night party with live band we had also raffle with nice gifts like the season tickets for our white water course.

On sunday we had kayak cross organized by Tomas at the morning. He manage to change the course for this event so nobody knows the lines. We had classics concept of cross competition where were starting 5 people at once. The winner was Pavel Andrassy from Slovakia. Here are other results http://www.kayak.sk/download/Cunovo_2011/Kayak_Cross_Men_Cunovo_2011.pdf

Straight after it were the freestyle finals. In old bastards the winner was Alexander Meindl (AUT), in Juniors take a medal Tomas Burian (CZE), women category won Nina Halasova (SVK) with super nice ride, in C1 was the winner Lukas Cervinka (CZE) and in K1 men with very nice ride won Tomas Andrassy (SVK). Results are here http://www.kayak.sk/download/Cunovo_2011/final_results_ARFC_cunovo_2011.pdf

So again I would like to thanks to all the sponsors and also to the competitors for nice time spent during this event in Cunovo.

Pilsen - 4th ARF Cup

From Lipno we went to Plattling for few days even though we are a bit sick of Plattling since we spend too much time there already. So we didn’t go home and returned back to the Czech Rep. for the freestyle ARF cup in Pilsen.

The event went well for us. During the qualification on Saturday Nina became second even with not such good rides. I finished first in the quali and also first in the semi finals.

On Sunday the freestyle finals took place. Nina managed place 1, which means she won the whole Czech Cnawr Cup. I also finished on first place. It was a super organized event with really good prices.

After 3 weeks on the road we went home to have get some rest and to start preparing for the next events. The World Championships in Slalom were organized on our white water course at home, so we could just paddle on flat water, working out in the gym, biking etc. but it was cool to take a rest from freestyle paddling.

Results

K1 men

Peter Csonka SVK
Tomas Andrassy SVK
Bartosz Czauderna POL

K1woman

Nina Halasova SVK
Lucie Horka CZE
Mila Martinkova CZE

C1

Lukas Cervinka CZE
Jakub Micka CZE
Philipp Hitzigrath DE

Full results here.

See you at the Cunovo Final ARF Cup.

Peter

SOPAC SOMER FEST

There is a play spot in Sopotnica, which is very different to others. This one is probably the only one of its kind because it is all mechanical.

Few years ago the Spindler Family realized they needed a spot for training so the only chance was to build one. I am not going to tell you the history but still it is an awesome story how they managed to build that monster machine for making a nice training spot in the middle of some kind of pool.

Because I had to teach a kayak lesson and we would have liked to take part in two festivals, however, we decided to go for this competition instead of the one in Prague.

We went there from Wednesday onwards because our white water course was closed (still is) for the upcoming slalom worlds.

I need to say, that the organizers were very friendly and tried to make the best of this event. Party every evening, good mood - just awesome.

Paddling the hole was quite difficult because it was a bit flashy. During the competition we did well, in the qualification Nina ended up on place 1 and I won the qualification as well. In the evening there was also a big ramp and a slope-style contest and after that there was an extreme swimming contest to the hole upstream, where the winner won a composite boat!

Feel free to check out the video by Jan Spindler.

On the next day after a nice party the finals took place. Nina had some troubles with sticking some moves so she ended up on a good 2nd place. I won the men’s category because my second best ride was scored better than the one from Jan Spindler and Bartosz Czauderna from Poland made it on the 3rd place. In the C1 category local ambassador and current European Champion Lukas Cervinka won the title.

We had a really nice weekend and we are now ready to roll for some more.


See you,

Peter






Many thanks Jan Spindler for the pictures and the small video of the event.

ARF cup Cunovo

English version

Program:

Friday 23.9.2011

free trainings in afternoon from 4 pm (maybe also sooner ) for paddlers registered over Facebook or registracia@kayak.sk

registration possible till 19pm

Saturday 24.9.

7.30 registration
8.30 Fun Slalom competition ( entry if you don't want to compete in other competition will be 6 eur )
11.00 Freestyle quali + semi / free paddling!
20.00 Awesome party organized by Paddler for also non kayakers with band “Con Spirito”

Sunday, 25.9.2011
8.30 Kayak Cross + Freestyle finals
14.00 price giving
free whitewater course paddling till 19.00

Entry fee:
15 EUR – ARFC Freestyle, Fun, Cross, Party and camping
6 EUR – Fun, Cross, Party and camping
Party 0 EUR
Paddling on the course will be possible just with bib number , deposit for number will be 10 eur.

Party with action for free!

More info at

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126214564112496

Slovakian version

Predbežný program s orientačnými časmi:

Piatok, 23.9.2011
8.00 voľné tréningu už od rána pre tých, čo sa zaregistrujú včas cez facebook alebo na registrácia@kayak.sk
15.00 registrácia a voľné tréningy.
19.00 prerušenie registrácie a koniec tréningov

Sobota, 24.9.2011
7.30 registrácia
8.30 Fun Slalom pretek
11.00 Freestyle kvalifikácie a semifinále, možné voľné jazdenie na kanáli!!!
20.00 Párty pre priateľov a kajakárov s koncertom “Con Spirito”

Nedeľa, 25.9.2011
8.30 Kayak Cross pretek a Freestyle finále
14.00 vyhlásenie výsledkov
voľné jazdenie možné až do 19.00

Štartovné:
15 EUR – ARFC Freestyle, Fun, Cross, Party and camping
6 EUR – Fun, Cross, Party and camping
Party 0 EUR
Jazdenie na kanáli bude možné iba so štartovým číslom, ktoré dostanete pri registrácii. Záloha za štartovné číslo je 10 EUR.

Párty s akciami a nápojmi zdarma!

Viac info pripravujeme.

Pozri http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126214564112496

DEVILS EXTREME RACE – LIPNO

The region around Lipno’s dam is well known as a Czech holiday destination. It offers plenty of activities such as biking, swimming, hiking, canoeing and it is close to the Austrian border so you can go whitewater rafting or canoeing to the Inn River. But not so many people know that Lipno is the best Czech whitewater river. The dam is holding the water so most of the year this river is dry. Once a year when it’s possible to kayak the dam releases water. It is the biggest Czech whitewater festival and you can meet there everyone who has a raft, kayak or canoe at home. You can just relax and enjoy the river or you can take part in events like whitewater slalom, rafting or extreme kayaking.

Peter and me participated in the Devils Extreme Race this year. My first time on this awesome river was last year and I was really looking forward to kayaking there again.

It was as good as I remembered it from 2010. We ran it a few times on Friday. Saturday we spent the day at the race course. There we met our team mates and friends, Sam Sutton and Markus Hummel. It was quite a big and international event so you could meet many excellent paddlers from all around the world. The race started from the ramp and the course was segmented the following way: 500m for slalom and kayak cross, 1000m for sprint and 5000m for team race.

Girls only had to paddle 500m so it was much easier for us than for men. This competition is not like the others, there are many kayakers all the way down so you need to paddle between them. It happens sometimes that they paddle into you or you can’t get into the eddy, where the banner is to touch because it is full of paddlers.

This can sometimes drive you crazy, especially when you lose your leading position because of this, but on the other hand this is what it’s all about.

The river flows just 3 days a year so everyone wants to be there and enjoy this awesome river so you can’t be angry about it. You can feel the good vibrations from the smiling paddlers and it makes you happy, too. So it doesn’t matter whether you succeed in the race or you miss the gates, you are smiling anyway.

Sunday was the last day. Peter had a team race with two other Slovakian guys. It took about 12 minutes to paddle the whole course that went through the rapid “Bloody Hands”, which we used for portage. It is not very difficult but it is so narrow that if you can’t follow the proper line you’ll injure your hands very easily.

I think our Slovakian Team ended up just 4 seconds behind the New Zealand Team that finished as 3rd.

This was like a warm up before the adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championship, which we are really looking forward to.

Check out the video by Peter Kaspar.

So see you,

Nina

Film z Norska

Ahoj tu je film z Nórska v HD kvalite.

Tak isto ďakujeme Ta3 tv za odvysielanie nášho filmiku.

http://www.ta3.com/sk/playlist/reportaze/183397

TWO WEEKS IN NORWAY

First time we went to Norway two years ago. We trained on the Skjak Wave for the Worlds 2009. We had a great time there, but we didn’t see much from the country. This time we planned to discover more. We took creek boats and freestyle boats and started our trip.

Our way to Norway started from Friedrichshafen, where we were on the Outdoor Show. By the way the show was really good! It was even bigger than last year. We had a barbecue party at the adidas booth and met many friends.

But back to our Norway trip. We had over 2000 km ahead us when our car started to do strange noises. After few hundred kilometers, close to the Denmark border it started to be serious so we had to find a car service. It was a Saturday morning and there was just a small chance that we find an open service, where they have what we need. We were very lucky because after a few shops, where they told us, that would we need to wait four days, we found one where they were able to repair in a few hours. It was something with the tire.

After a few hours delay we were able to continue our journey. We went through Denmark over a few bridges. The view was amazing, but the strong wind on the bridges was scary.

Sunday evening we finally got to the Sjoa. We met up with our Slovakian friends and the next morning we started our creeking mission. We are not use to creek much so I was quite nervous and wasn’t sure about my skills especially because the first river in our plan was Jori, which is class V. We did just two first rapids of it because it had not enough water to continue. I really liked that river so I hoped that I have the opportunity to run it again sometim.

Then we moved to Rauma. It is a nice river with one waterfall called Litle Huka. After the two rivers I started to feel more confidence in my long boat. The guys did also the lower Rauma, which I think is a very difficult part. I saw some rapids from the side and it seemed really crazy to me to paddle it down.

From Rauma we moved through Trollstigen, which is the most amazing way, I ever seen. We did a few more rivers but one of the best was a Landelselva. It was a big surprise for me. It looked any special from the road. I didn’t go and was waiting for the guys. Once they arrived they smiled and told me that I have to go, too. This river lies down in a narrow canyon and it has many drops and slides. I enjoyed it so much even I crashed on the last rapid. Don’t worry nothing seriously happened.

When we got back to Sjoa the water was very high. We tried Jori again and we were lucky – enough water. We paddled the Upper Jori and the rest of the river, where we haven’t been able to paddle the first time, it was as good as the first two rapids I liked so much.

The day before our departure the water in Sjoa dropped and so we could have a freestyle session on the Sjoa Wave. I can say that it was a great ending of our Norway trip. That wave is one of the best waves in Europe and we were really happy, that we could paddle the best level of it.

Now we are home and thinking where we will go next. But I think we will have a rest from traveling at least one week and train in our spot. But in middle of August we are planning to go for some Czech freestyle competitions and extreme races and for sure the adidas Sickline! This is what we are looking forward to.

Thanks to photographers : Matej Fabianek, Vladimir Cako , Tomas Andrassy

See you,
Nina

Chillout after Worlds

It was very hard job to keep train for Worlds. We were on the water every day almost 365 days a year! We were really looking forward to have it over. It is not easy to go for holiday for us because we just can’t lie on the beach. So we decided to go to Soča. We took our “long” boats instead freestyle kayaks. Soča is beautiful place and well know in between kayakers. We spent there few day and had a beautiful weather. Did some sections like Srpenica, Slalom course, Otona and even we went hiking to Kanin. We took a lift up there. The view there is awesome and you have a few options where you can go. We choose to look for Oko, which looks like window in the rock. I think it is about 2000meter so it was quite cold there. I guess it was just about 12 degrees and down in the valley it was about 25! Big difference :) Peter, like the most skilled one, took our non kayaker friend to Topo Duo kayak. It was a big fun! The only difficult think was to portage it down to the river. It was very heavy and long. Last day we went for quick run but it took for us more than we expected. We went just with one car so Peter drove it down and tried to hitch-hike. We were waiting in the put-in. I was worried because it took him quite long and after half and hour, when he showed up, I couldn’t believe that nobody took him. He run 12 km just in flip-flops and people, most of them were kayakers, ignored him! After his run he sprint down to gorge to river with kayak on the shoulder. I don’t know how he did this but me and our friend Capko, we barely walk (after the day before) and next day we had the biggest soreness ever...except Peter :)