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Hurley Classic 2008

A perfect 3 gates met us on a chilly Saturday morning at the Hurley Classic. I had a quick practice session before the KJO training session with Den and Tom kicked off. We had a quick chat about our aims for session. Halfway through by blunts clicked and I was soon going aerial. After a quick hot chocolate break Den decided I should have a go at helixes. I quickly found out that they are even harder than they look on the videos! When lunch was finished it was time for the ‘if it floats’. Tom and I got in 1/2 hour practice before hand. We were using an inflatable two man kayak. Our McNasties still need a bit off practice but we did manage to get across to gate two (taking out several other paddlers in the process)! For the actual 'if it floats' competition I had Sam and George as my team mates (or should I call them co-swimmers). We didn’t quite get our back clean pan am, instead I ended up in the water for 5 minuets stuck in the eddy, got cold and then went to get changed. Some of the other ideas were very original... 2 kayaks strapped together with a ping pong table on top comes to mind!

Sunday was the day of the main competition. A lot more paddlers turned up this day. The competition was going to be run in a jam session format... 8 paddlers in a heat that was 20 minutes long. This meant that you had about 7/8 goes in the hole. Due to the flooding in the West Country Hurley was on a high 4 gates, a big difference to Saturday. I was in heat 4 and I thought I did quite well. In the end I came 13th in the juniors which I was please with as I beet everybody I wanted to! I will definitely be going next year… a great event and a big thank you to the KJO team for organising it!

Josh

Posted by Josh Wedgwood