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