Few quick words about just finished event in Norway. One of the best whitewater event during the summer time in Europe is for sure Sjoa river festival. This year was really sweet water level everywhere around Sjoa. 

 

Ula extreme race had really cool flow and Sweet Rumble kayak cross had to be move from Amot section to slalom course. Anyway, for me sjoa festival start during time trial for kayak cross, where can go thru only 32 kayakers. There was pretty tricky eddie just before finish, I made a mistake there and lost valuable seconds, so finished 5th during time trial. Next day, Friday, Gene 17 Ula Extreme race. It was really solid water level, good show for everyone I guess. I made good first run and put it best time of the day, so I could go to final run from first position. Secon run wasn`t so good, but still best time from second runs from over all and I won Ula extreme race, super happy that I could won this race.

 

Saturday, Sweet rumble 2010, fight between four kayakers for legendary belt and some cash. I was felling really good this day and made it to final. Lots of favorits was kick out from kayak cross. I could choose a position in final, so it was good for me. Tyler Curtis was next to me all final, we were pretty close all the way during final and we made last eddy almost same time. I was lucky enough to touch finish banner first and  complete double glory in Sjoa festival. 

I've just got back form a few weeks on the road through out Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. 

First up was the Pre-World Championships in Bratislava Slovakia. It was a brutal race with over 121 Men making the journey across Europe to the artificial course in Curnovo just out from the city center. For many it was the first time to check out the new channel they have built for the Olympic qualification next season, and the only opportunity to race here before the world championships in 2011.  

In typical Slovak style, the course was built with obstacles made from wood, and put in places to make the best features after the last few months of testing. This will be the course for the world championships in 2012. And during the training and racing they were shifting around, one even came loose. Over the winter the Slovak's will concrete these in permanently. 

The strong field made it a battle over the entire race. With only 40 of the 121 starters progressing to the finals day. Qualification was a race amongst it's self. I finished right on the bubble in fact in 40th place but advancing through as the last qualifier for the finals day. The locals proved strong with Jan Sabidor taking the first seed into Sundays racing. 

Being the last qualifier meant I was first off for the final. I went hard. Picking up a small small costly time penalty in the bottom of the course pushing me down the ranks from 4th till 12th. Victory went to German Hannes Aigner, with Polish paddler Grzegorz POLACZYK  picking up 2nd. 

From here it was to Lipno, in the Czech republic. One of the most amazing places I've paddled. A huge dam starts the river, with a 20+ meter slide. I'm told Teva Life Agent Honza Lasko checked this out a few years ago, have a look at the footage from the river here. The racing was held just below the dam, and was host to the European Extreme Kayak Championships, Czech Slalom Nationals, Czech Wild-water Nationals, the Canoe Polo Championships, and a bunch of Europeans out to enjoy some of the class 3-4 whitewater here on the 2days that the dam releases per year. 1000's of people descend on this tourist town "Lipno" just 20min from the Austrian Border. 

The slalom race was fast and hard With the Czech's taking the victory on the first day. I finished in 8th, after qualifying in 2nd I was awarded a 50sec penalty for marginally missing one of the gates in the final.

From here it is time for the 2010 World Championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It's in 2weeks, so I'll be heading there next week. keep up to date here.. 

European Teva Athlete Markus Leppaenen checks in with his report about a Freestyle Kayak trip to Finnland & Sweden

How did we come up with this idea? Well to start from the beginning we have to go back to Uganda and the White Nile last winter where we met the very nice couple Kristiina Anttila aka Krisse and Tuomas Vaarala from Rovaniemi (Finland). And they both told us about the awesome waves in northern Finland and Sweden when the spring kicks in, the snow melts and hence the water level of the rivers rises immensely. As I´m half Finish myself I´ve always had the plan to go boating up there and as they invited us to visit them and to go boating with them we happily stated that we would try to arrange a trip this spring. One problem or rather challenge for a wave-trip up there is the quite small window for the perfect water levels for the different waves. As the perfect level can be in a few days when the spring flood is just before its peak and then again when it drops again (normally 2-3 weeks after the rise) for another few days. Therefore it is quite hard to plan the trip i.e. book the flights long beforehand if one wants to have the biggest chance to catch the best levels. Hence we waited really long before we booked our flights. After Tuomas told us that the water is starting to rise we booked the flights, filled in the holiday forms at our workplaces and started to get excited. When Tuomas sent us an email with pictures from his last paddle-weekend at peak flows we kept the fingers crossed that the water wouldn´t drop too fast so we would catch the right level for the waves on the way down of the levels to their normal state. So finally after one week of anguish waiting our plane took off from Munich to Helsinki where we changed to an inland flight which took us straight to Rovaniemi, the home of Santa Claus and placed right on the Polar-Circle. Boat, paddles and gear everything arrived with us sweet and snugly and Kristiina with Tuomas where there to greet us, just coming from their own afternoon paddle themselves. From the airport we drove straight to their flat had dinner and closed the evening with a mandatory Finish sauna ;-) - I like! The next morning two other Finish paddlers (Juho aka Juice the brother of Tuomas and Tapio Nykänen aka Tapsa) joined in and we drove straight to Torniojoki, the boarder-river between Finland and Sweden to check out “Mega-Wave”. At the put-in we teamed up with Mikael Lantto aka Miku, the number one wave-paddler in Finland at the moment and probably one of the best paddlers on small wave features, at least in my opinion, with the sickest pistol-flips I´ve seen which are just matched by the ones Yappa throws in terms of snappiness.

Anyhow, we got to the wave, which is situated in the first rapid after the put-in and thanks god the level has not dropped too much yet and even was still a little too high. Nevertheless it already was a superb wave, i.e. huge, fast, every move possible and with perfect eddy-service. The level still being a little too high for being perfect, causing the incoming water to be a little unsmooth and the foam at the top of the wave sometimes piled up quite big to give you a few free unintentional cartwheels. All in all, big fun! 

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