Teva launched its first ever free yoga event in London’s Covent Garden to celebrate the ‘yoga state of mind’ of its Mush style of flip flops. On Wednesday 30 September three al fresco yoga classes were led by famous Yogi Lara Baumann. Teaching her unique form of Quantum yoga, Lara did run mixed ability classes which promised to inspire and relax experienced and novice yoga enthusiasts alike. There was also be a chill-out zone where yoga participants and passing shoppers received complimentary foot massages courtesy of the London College of Beauty Therapy, to help them get into the ‘Mush state of mind’. Vouchers offering a 20% discount on Teva Mush from Covent Garden outdoor sports retailer Ellis Brigham were handed out in the Piazza throughout the day. The one-hour yoga sessions were free of charge and all participants did receive a complimentary pair of Teva Mush flip flops.

Europes biggest Paddling Industry Tradeshow was held last week in Nuernberg, Germany.  Teva presented some of the new shoes of their the Spring 2010 collection, which created a lot interest by the visiting kayak retailers from all over Europe.

Check out the daily video clips, shot and edited by Teva Athlete Simon Strohmeier and hosted by another Teva Tribe member Anthony Yap - well done !

For more information: http://www.kanumesse.de/index_en.html

Teva Tribe Member Felix Knopp reports from his latest Ultra Mountain & Trail Running race and realizes how important his family is !

Some days ago me and my mentor traveled to a region in France, that's called "La petite Suisse du Maconnais" - little Switzerland. An area with a lot of nice granite mountains and lots of pretty steep up and downs. We intended to participate at the mountain-, trail-run "Trail des lacs". A 50k track with a bit more than +2000 m of altitudinal fluctuation.

My wife Andrea and me thought it's too much driving for our little baby-girl and thus I traveled without my family. After all I have to admit, that this was a mistake. I was so sad without my "four females" by my side, that my stomach turned up side down.  I puked three times before the race and of course after the race as well. That fact made me even more angry about myself.

I need the energy in my legs and not on the bottom! The whole race was a torture for me because due to my bad stomach I wasn't able to pace as easy as I'm used to. All the way I felt sick and tired. Nevertheless I managed to make a good second place behind a gentle, young French runner. 

After this journey I vowed, never to travel without my family again. They always tend to keep me calm.

Cheers,

Felix Knopp 

We proudly announce...

Lynn our youngest Team Teva fan is born! 

Right now, our baby-girl Lynn is eight weeks old and thanks to Teva Germany she’s already provided with a pair of marvelous comfortable Tevas.

It’s the fifth name at our door bell, as you can see and we regularly use to train  all together. She enjoys the ride!

All the best,

Felix Knopp

Teva Tribe member Honza Lasko reports from the Devils Extreme Race 2009, before heading to the mighty Stikine River - good luck ! 

Probably one of the finest white water in Czech Republic is end of August. Every year here biggest dam release water for four days. So lots of action happend south of czech during this days. White water slalom, Down river race, raft race and of course Extreme race call Devils race`s. There is several sections and extreme race is held on lower one, the most difficult. 

This year was record number of racing. Over 100 kayaker from five country`s. All start with extreme slalom during Saturday morning and after that free paddling on Devils section. Lots of fun and heaps of run on nice white water with super hot water. I finally won extreme race and after all day paddling we move to party with live music. 

Sunday, kayak cross, I didn`t start here and start to train a bit for mine big mission to north of Canada to Grand canyon of Stikine. Anyway the ramp was big and four kayakers at same time had really interesting time in air. Last race is team race. One of the best race during weekend. Team of three members race all devils section. We won this one as well :), but it was epic for some teams. Lots of blood, brake paddles, few swimmers etc. I would say, that spectaculars got everything what they want here.

That`s was it. Really cool action, lots of friends around. I`m just sitting in plane to Canada and hope we will survive our missin on Stikine river. So we will see how goes.

Good day

Final Days ICF Kayak Freestyle World Championships 

Another blueberry day on Saturday was the perfect set up for the semi finals of all classes and some huge move during the Kayak Big Air Event with 38 paddlers throwing themselves over the special constructed ramp into the Aare river at night.

There were no mayor upsets at most semi finals except the K1 Men with Slovakian Peter Czonka, second at the last worlds, not making the cut into the Finals. Unfortunately Teva Athletes Kelsey Thompson and Casper van Kalmthout could not repeat heir incredible rides from the quarter finals to secure the ticket for the top 5 final on Sunday.

The finals on Sunday, with perfect conditions again, started off with the Open Canoe class.  In the end it was Jeremy Laucks from the US taking the Gold closely followed by former World Champion Stephan Paetsch from Germany and Odei Areta from Spain on third.

Next up the K1 Junior Women with Nouria Newman from France schooling he rest of the field with an unbelievable score of 400 points, followed by European Champion Sandrina Hornhardt from Germany on second and local favorite  Leoni Haeberling from Switzerland on third place. 

The K1 junior Men class also was dominated through all rounds by a 16 year old - Jason Craig from the US. Through the entire event the Teva supported Athlete was dominating his class, sometimes his score would have him put in the top 3 of the seniors. No surprise there that he took gold with 200 points ahead of his team mate Dane Jackson closely followed by French Junior Sebastien Devred - well done Jason !

The next final K1 Women and it was Emily Jackson from the US, at last Worlds winning the junior class, becoming World Champion in her first year with the seniors, beating current World Champion Ruth Gordon from Canada on second and Teva Athlete Tanya Faux from Australia on third. Tanya had a slow start in the finals and managed to pull some amazing moves in her third and final ride, flushing a little early, who knows what would have happen if not… well done Tanya ! Unfortunately for Mariann Saether form Norway, after winning the semi finals, she quite could not find her rhythm in the finals, putting her in fourth in he end.

The same for German C1 paddler Markus Hummel, ending behind the bronze medalist Alexandre Bessau from France on the unlucky fourth place, only to be beat with the very last ride. It was last years World Cup Final winner David Bainbridge from the UK showing that had the tricky wave in Thun dialed in the best, leaving the Favorite Guillaume LaRue from Canada the Silver Medal.

Last but not least the Finals of K1 Men. Similar to the C1 class, again it was last years World Cup Final winner Nick Troutman who shocked everyone with the highest score of the entire event in his first ride - 1510 points ! Only Eric Jackson, 4 times World champion from the US, was able to get somehow closer to this amazing score in his second ride with 958 points, enough to secure the second place. Stephen Wright another great athlete from the strong US team finished 3^rd, well ahead of Jules Gallais from France.

This World Championships were truly presenting Freestyle Kayaking at the best possible way, which certainly raised the bar for all future Championships to come. Among the 3000 spectators was the entire Board of the International Olympic Committee, including the President Jaques Rogge, who was very impressed after watching the finals - you never know, one day we might see Freestyle Kayak at the Olympics...

All pictures ©Seppi Strohmeier and Arnd Schaeftlein, Deckers Europe

Teva supported Surfkayaker Chris Harvey from the UK reports about his busy summer:

Hi all. Hope everyone's had a good summer and managed to get out and play.

I've just arrived back up in Yorkshire and back to work after a hectic summer. Rushed off my feat as usual but thought i'd touch base with you all.

July was largely spent in Portugal training and competing in the World Championships. With such a long flat spell before heading out there i hadn't managed to get the training i'd hoped so was aiming for a top 10 finish. However, as the event opened i found my form and in my opening heat put in the highest score of the event :) Stoked with that i was fully focussed through the rounds. I made it as far as the semis but unfortunately the conditions weren't great and i struggled to find the waves i needed, loosing out by only 1 point.

I should be pleased with finishing 5th in world but to be honest, by the time i reached the semi i was confident i could go all the way so was a little disappointed. However, my younger brother's coming very very nicely and it was one of the best experiences of my life watching him become junior world champion at 16yrs old....

All in all a fun event and another top result. My older brother Tim was also at the event taking photos: www.photof8.co.uk and images of me are in my gallery:  http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisharveyonline/Worlds2009Portugal#

Also if you visit my main site: www.chrisharveyonline.net you'll notice i'm giving it a makeover :-)

The BIG NEWS that i've now joined Watertech for kayak sponsorship. It's a Portuguese based company and the guys are great. The construction is the best i've seen and i'm really excited about getting more hands with the design-prototype process. I'm hoping to get out to Portugal in the Autumn to work on a new shape for next year. 

I'm continuing to write articles for various magazines and last month featured on the cover of Canoe & Kayak USA. I've started to upload archived articles to my website and will have a more complete list over the coming weeks. Work on the book continues at a steady pace...just wish i had more time...but hoping to be finished by next summer.

Tomorrow (Saturday) i'm running the re-run of the Cayton, coldwater event. check out the blog at www.coldwaterkayaksurf.co.uk for more info.

So it's all happening! ..no rest for the wicked!

Take it easy

Chris

www.chrisharveyonline.net