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Joint interview with French paddlers Nico Chassing and David Arnaud (respectively 4th and 5th at the latest freestyle worlds). Nico and David spend some time telling us why France should become a big nation in freestyle ...

Editor: This whole interview has been done by Jérôme Bazin (SKRT). Jérôme contacted us a while ago asking us if he could help a bit with PLAYAK and he ended up with this ! Thanks a lot Jérôme!

French top freestylers, recent progress or were you hiding in the woods ?

David: I would say both. I always thought France had a great potential. And during the last two years, I had paddling opportunities that allowed me to turn this potyential into real progress ! I mean my participation to the Asian WW Festival, the high water levels we had for 2 months in Hawaii sur Rhone last spring, and so on... It went the same for the others, Hervé Amalbert, Alex Dimitriou... Nico is maybe the exception. While we were wondering how to perform a cartwheel during the 97' Worlds on the Ottawa river, he was already one of the top freestyle boaters !

Nico: France is already one of the best Freestyle nation, by exploiting only 5% of its paddlers reservoir. There are tons of boaters in france !!! But the frenchies are weird. It is the country with the most paddlers, the biggest club structure, a big federation, but freestyle is only just appearing here. In France, most of the paddlers minds are turned towards slalom and downriver, to a point where it becomes a tradition. Some of the teachers have been doing the same thing for years and are pretty much against new school boating. There was a federation meeting were someone criticised a picture published in a big French sport magazine of a paddler running a waterfall in a Riot Trickster, and wearing a Shred ready freestyle helmet. It was a very basic waterfall, no rocks, big pool. The guy complained of safety problems if pictures like that are published. You don't jump of the 5 meter high diving board at the swimming pool wearing a motorcycle helmet, do you ? It is ignorance, the guys haven't paddled bigger stuff than grade 3 for years, so they don't know anymore. Some clubs in France don't even allow the kids to paddle freestyle boats !!! But Freestyle and new school paddling are slowly moving into the mentalities. France has the capacity of becoming the best Freestyle nation. It's coming, just a question of time...

The worlds, a victory of 'newschool' ? (loops, tricky woos)

David: Above all, the victory of Eric Jackson ! In my opinion, he was the only one to mix perfectly the new moves with the "classical" ones. Some big names didn't perform well at the Worlds because they focused only on the new moves. They forgot that in most cases, a good splitwheel is far better than two failed loop attempts, for the points AND for the show ! Those new moves were quite new for me, so I prefered focusing on what I knew perfectly how to do during the competition. And it worked quite good for me ! Even if I still regret not being able to paddle the finals because of my rib injury during the semis...

Nico: Just an expected evolution of the moves. Freestyle is a new sport, it's growing very quickly, so are the moves, the boat designs, the strength of the paddlers, the materials, etc... The 2001 worlds were a mix of old and new moves. I was in the same position as David, having paddle most of the season by myself, I discovered those new moves at the worlds, so I had to concentrate on the old classic stuff. I know that in the future, splitwheels and cartwheel won' t be worth any point, just like spins and shuvit have disappeared of the judging variety sheet. At the worlds I finished 4th by only doing splits, cartwheels and a blunt or a clean. The Gold and the silver were only accessible by doing a few "new school" moves. At the next Worlds there'll be more new and less old... I always wonder what' s next ??? It started flat, became vertical, then clean and vertical, now aerial. The future will probably be clean, vertical, and aerial... then super hot with spicy ends ... and extra cheese !

Do you have to be a professional kayaker to reach the top 5 ?

David: I don't think there are any professional kayakers in France, so I would answer no ! As a student, last season I could hardly paddle more than once a week, sometimes two, a little bit more during holidays, and that's all ! That's nothing compared to some US pro-boaters who paddle as much as they want. But on the other hand, that's why I enjoy every session so much ! And when you have fun, you paddle well... I also visualize moves a lot, which allows me to learn new moves quickly. But for sure I will find more time for paddling now, and I really need it after a 6 month break because of my injury at the Worlds ! And I also want to do more rivers, and less pure park'n'play.

Nico: Not yet, but it's coming. Freestyle is a very technical sport. With the sponsors and the money getting involved in the sport, some paddlers will soon become real professionals, and get all the free time they want to paddle. The top spots will be then a lot harder to get. Unlike David, I paddle more, if I kayak less than three or four times a week, I get maaaddddddd !!!

The night before the finals, do you party or rest ?

David: As I said before, when you have fun you paddle well. So for me, a few beers with friends before the finals is not so bad, you can evacuate pressure and have fun. It's always better than going to bed at 8:00, forcing yourself to sleep and accumulating pressure that can make you fail the day after...

Nico: If you party all the time, don't change your habits the day before the competition. If you party once a year, don't go on a "huge bender", or a "F.U.C.K meeting" as we used to call them on the Zambezi, just before the race, or you'll probably feel terrible the day after. Also, freestyle is a sport were training is a pleasure, it's just great to go surf a wave... so the competitions you do aren't the only goal of the season. But same story, with more sponsors and money involved, the pressure before the race will be higher and less and less paddlers will party before the race. Instead they'll party harder after !!!

How do you see the future of kayaking ?

David: The future of kayaking ? A new generation of paddlers is coming, that began kayaking with freestyle, and never paddled a long boat. And I don't think it's bad. Personally I won't go back to long boats, and I don't miss them. I frequently hear things like :"This guy is good at freestyle because he's a former slalom paddler." Of course ! Almost all today's top paddlers began kayaking with slalom, since it was maybe the only interesting form of whitewater competition until freestyle appeared. My little brother Sylvain, along with his friends of the same age, almost never paddled a slalom boat. But at 16, they can already blunt, clean cartwheel, split, and even loop with a very fine technique, while I was 17 when I first heard of rodeo ! They are the future of kayaking. Let's wait and see what they will invent !

Nico: Yes, I nearly had my ass kicked today by one of David's little brother's friend. You don't need to have paddled Slalom for years to be a good Freestyle boater. Freestyle uses totally different techniques. All I use now in freestyle from my slalom and downriver backgroung is putting my spraydeck on and off. Even putting in is different. In my freestyle boat I seal launch on rocks, on a downriver and slalom boat you make sure you don't scratch your boat ! In Slalom you paddle with your boat flat, in Freestyle you try not to keep it flat !!! Keeping a boat vertical involves paddling strokes that have been created by the Freestyle generation. Kayaking is starting to become like surfing. A minority of paddlers competing, and the majority paddling for fun... This is how I see the future, loads of people paddling for fun on the week end and holydays. Loads of magazines, videos, TV time, expeditions, but not much competiting. Just the elite of the sport will compete. White Water Warriors, and other people proposing kayaking holidays at the same place that their expeditions have it all right, this is the future of paddling !!! (shameless plug: I am on my side offering fully inclusive, organised Zambezi trips during fall 2002)

What do you think about new competitions formats like big air or head to head?

David: We will see more and more of these new formats. I think they are very interesting, both as a competitor and a spectator, especially head to head races on difficult rivers. They may well represent the future of our sport, at least for the media recognition. On the other hand, I think it's very important to keep a freestyle part in all these new events, so that they don't turn into downriver race, which almost only reward physical abilities. That way, the most versatile paddler wins. Another format of event I'd like to see more in the future is the "freestyle through a rapid". It requires more creativity, and more various paddling skills than simply linking ends in a hole. And it can be very spectacular too.

Nico: After about 10 years of freestyle competitions we realise that a World freestyle or other big rodeos are pretty boring to watch, for the spectators as well as the competitors themselves. We'll enjoy watching semis or finals, but watching all day long 75 paddlers going into a tiny hole and doing the same tricks can be a little annoying... So the new format competitions with a different event each day, brings in some variety. Simple rules, easy to understand, spectacular and great for the medias, it is the winning formula !!! I think we' ll keep the World freestyle champs , as one event in a hole, but most of the other events will be challenges such as head to head, extreme slalom, etc.

What is the next step to develop freestyle kayaking in France ?

Nico: At the present moment, we have a good bunch of people involved into the Freestyle scene. We have a great paddling magazine "CKM" showing a lot of playboating. But we're missing a lot on organisation, like french people say: "C'est la merde putain !". The federation employed someone last year to coordinate the freestyle scene and create a tour of events called the "Free kayak Tour" (well free after you've paid your entry fee!). It worked really well, but this year the person has left and the federation doesn't seem in a hurry to replace him for 2002. So this year, things seems very slooowwww...and we can hardly organise selections for the Pre World !!! Myself, I really think Playboating and Freestyle (and Sea kayaking, and touring) are the future of kayaking. Today people seem to be turning an eye of pure performances and really serious competition. People want to run rivers, have fun, play and enjoy the scenery. Like they go mountain biking on sunday, play golf, go rollerblading, I want them to go paddling !!! So if we can get a little organised, get all the old long, see-trough fiberglass boats out of the way and we show kayaking as a fun sport, we'll be huge !

David: For sure, we have to change the image of the sport and show what it's all about, having fun on rivers ! Changing mentalities can take time. We must explain that short boats are safe. We must explain that it's relevant to use short boats for beginners. We must share all the fun we're having ! Hopefully the FROGS video we did with Pierre Villecourt, which features all the best french paddlers, will help the french federation dinosaurs understand what we do, and why. And show them that freestyle/freeride is not a fashion, and that it's not just an american thing !

Interview by Jérôme Bazin for PLAYAK.COM, March 2002.

You will see more of David, Nico and David's little bro in the review of the french video "FROGS" coming very soon on PLAYAK.COM. If you are interested in the Zambezi courses with Nico, please contact [mail address protected from spambots with javascript] . David and Nico are supported by Riot, Wonderland and PEAK UK.