Recently, Teva Athletes Simon and Seppi Strohmeier went to Graz in Austria to compete at the annual Freestyle Kayak Event and Teva Cardboard Race.

Here the report, pictures and a short video - enjoy !

Thanks to Philipp Hitzigrath for putting the video together

80 athletes from Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Slovakia showed up at the Radetzky Wave right in the center of Austria second biggest city. Among the Germans the tension was high . After the canceled team selection in April, the Graz event would count 50% towards who will represent Germany at this years world championships in Switzerland. 

Simon Strohmeier on the way to the podium (©Seppi Strohmeier)

Seppi showing why he deserves a place on the German team (©Simon Strohmeier

The wave turned out to be very fair, the slightly low water level created a nice foam pile which allowed some high scoring wave and hole moves. Local hero Daniel Herzig put a little dent in the winning strait of Europe's best freestyler Peter Czonka by leaving him the second place after an incredible performance in the finals. Team Teva Athlete Simon Strohmeier finished with a solid performance on the third place. 

Building time (©Seppi&Simon Strohmeier)

Last year was the premiere of the Teva Cardboard Race in Graz with a few brave teams building all sorts of devices during the lunch break of the Freestyle event to try to survive floating through the wave. This year the little side event turned into a mayor attraction with triple amount of attending cardboard boats drawing lot of spectators. 

Teamwork is everything to survive the wave (©Seppi&Simon Strohmeier)

Cardboard can surf ! (©Seppi&Simon Strohmeier)

16 Teams with more or less success challenged the short and sweet rapid below the Radetzky bridge to the amusement for the spectators and plenty of cameras. Another great example how much fun you can have after playing with tape, scissor and plenty of cardboard :-)

Thanks to everyone in Graz to make it happen and to Tatonka for supplying all the cardboard !