The Global Paddling Community

The first big European freestyle event in 2003 took place at the famous "Hawaii sur Rhone" wave, probably the biggest river wave in Europe. Simon Hirter reports.

The event was organized by Kayak Session, the folks that used to bring us the famous "Rabioux River Festival". Since the Rabioux Wave is slowly disappearing, but also because of the demand for big wave shows, Philippe and Toon of Kayak Session had the idea to organize an event at Hawaii sur Rhone in Lyon and set the date one weekend before the "Freestyle World Championships" in Graz. Beside of inviting big names such as Corran Addison, Steve Fisher, Olli Grau and paddlers coming to celebrate their sport on the most powerful wave in Europe there have been also familiar faces like Simon Westgarth, Ed Cornfield, Cheesy Roberston, Sebastian Striebel and many others.

The site is perfect to hold such an event. Next to the wave is a big grass field, with enough space for camping, a car park and all the manufacturers’ stands. It was supposed to be an "Urban Outdoor Festival", and beside kayaking and rafting, people also had the opportunity to show off on the climbing wall or the half pipe. On Saturday afternoon there was a band playing before the quarterfinals and everybody, no matter if kayaker, skater, pedestrian, family-father or priest was enjoying the good atmosphere on the site. Braun was found as a main sponsor, and they brought Europe’s biggest screen on wheels with them to give an impressive view of the paddlers fighting on the wave for pride and respect and sometimes getting some full on power-flips ;)

The event was supposed to start on Friday but the actual prelims started on Saturday with a strong field of about 120 competitors in total. The spot was selective and powerful and that was maybe the reason why there weren't as many people as one might have been expected. Nevertheless there were enough people to make the event a huge success and a promising demonstration of today’s freestyle kayaking.

The scoring-system used in this event was different from the official rules of this year and enabled/pushed people to go for the big moves. Out of 2 rides, only the better one counted and within this ride the 3 best and highest moves were scored. Spins, shuvits, cartwheels, blunts etc. didn'count, only airial moves would earn some really good points.

Saturday's prelims brought a few surprises. Big names didn't make the cut, and on the other hand there were people getting into the next round that no one would have expected. Men were cut down from about 90 to 40 and in the next round to 25 for Sunday's semifinals. Patrick Chamblin from Canada flew himself in the semifinals, as did David Arnaud, Michael Hyla, Corran Addison and many others. Michael Hyla, a strong French paddler and obviously pretty much used to the wave, had brilliant runs spiced up with donkey flips, big Pan Ams and air blunts. In the women’s department, Germany's Jutta Kaiser and Great Britain’s Deb Pinninger seemed to have applied for a flight permit. Norway’s Mariann Saether had bad luck and didn’t make it to the next round. Like many others, she had excellent rides the 2 days before, but couldn’t transform it into the competition.

Sunday, the day of the finals...: The water had dropped a bit, the wave got smaller, but a bit more retentive and catching the wave was committing. The long slide just upstream of the feature added lots of speed and it was essential to put your stroke in at the right moment at the right time, otherwise you would flush through the wave. Maybe it was the lower water, or maybe the interesting night before with its unique party in a nightclub in Lyon, but Sunday’s spectators saw a lot of world-class paddlers struggling to catch the wave.

More cool pictures of the event are available on the Canoe Kayak Magazine web site.

It was Canada's Patrick Chamblin, Michael Hyla (FR), David Arnaud (FR), Steve Fisher (RSA) and Andy Phillips (GBR) who made the final cut, as well as Jutta Kaiser, Deb Pinniger and Polly Green (USA) at the ladies’. Michael Hyla, a natural talent living in this area and obviously pretty familiar with the wave showed excellent runs throughout the whole weekend. Andy Phillips was the first paddler saying "good-bye" to the other finalists, followed by Steve Fisher who couldn't catch the wave. David Arnaud came 3rd in the end followed by Michael "Mr. consistent" Hyla, and Patrick "fly-high" Chamblin.

Results

• K1 Men
1. Camblin Patrick, CAN
2. Hyla Mika, FRA
3. Arnaud David, FRA
4. Fisher Steve, RSA
5. Phillips Andy, GBR
• K1 Women
1. Kaiser Jutta, GER
2. Pinninger Debby, UK
3. Green Polly, USA
• K1 Juniors
1. Durand Benjamin, FRA
2. Dumoulin Mathieu, FRA
3. Arnaud Sylvain, FRA
• C1 Men
1. Lacroix Xavier, FRA
2. Baldwin Brookx, USA
3. Paetsch Stefan, GER

Conclusion

It was the first time this event was held and it’s definitely the way to go. All the competitors and spectators enjoyed the well organized and unique format of the event and lots of them said that they would love to see it continued. The size of the feature mixed up with the excellent work of the organizers and all the world class paddlers showing up and playing with really big air gave rise to the suspicion that some people would rather stay in Lyon and have the world title fought out there, than moving on to Graz and having to fight with an enormous pour-over.

I've got to go; time to move on to Graz and see how things progress there. PLAYAK will keep you updated and will report from Graz as soon as the qualifications start. Live from Lyon for PLAYAK: Simon Hirter

[Editor’s note] This tour to the biggest events of the European summer is made possible by Simon’s sponsors: Dagger Kayaks, Sweet, Nookie Xtreme Sports Equip., Kober Paddel, Reef, Dainese Protection, PLAYAK and Oakley.