European Freestyle Championships 2012

This year the European Championships were held in Lienz, Austria on June 25 - 30. More than 150 kayakers from 20 countries arrived at Lienz to compete. Lienz is a beautiful city surrounded by the Alps and Dolomites and a short train ride away from Italy. Well worth a visit.

The opening ceremony took place at the Castle “Schloss Bruck” above the city. The organizers provided excellent local beverage in the form of locally brewed beer and a percussion group playing pyrana plastic kayaks entertained us between the speeches. After the two days of training the preliminaries of K1JM, K1W, C1M started on Wednesday, June 27.

On Thursday there were preliminaries of K1M and K1JW. All the semifinals and men’s quarterfinal were on Friday June 28. Only the top five from each category progressed to the Saturday’s finals. On the first day of the competition I paddled in three categories. In my first competition I was leading the OC1 and through to the semi finals. I won a bronze medal in OCI just missing my challenge for gold when I hit the a rock on riverbed setting up my loop. I was pleased with my 8th place in my first squirt competition, but a disappointing 12th in C1. After each final there was the flower ceremony right at the venue. The official prize giving

ceremony was on Saturday evening in the center of Lienz and the GB flag was raised no less than 7 times as the team had won 7 medals The competition was held in vibrant and friendly atmosphere.All in all it was a fantastic trip with lots of great paddling done by all. I am now training for my next comp.

By Paul King

Palm Zenith Cag Review

Hi a few months ago i wanted to upgrade my new summer cag to better one and after trying lots on decided upon the new Palm Zenith Not a bit disappointed with my decision it’s a very comfy cag short sleeved for when its warmer and still double layered to pop your deck underneath Really comfy but tight sleeves and neck seal which are great for keeping the water out even though they are not latex or dry seals

This is easy to get on and off and long enough in the body to not ride up Overall like the colour mine is the saffron mist which is a lovely summery colour and shows up well on the river and also in my sea kayak so all good Would recommend to any paddler for white water or just messing about on the river would probably be a bit too good a quality and thick for standard touring on a sunny day where you were not expecting on getting wet but still a good price for one of the top quality brands at around £129.95 Sammy