The battle of the clubs began early Sunday morning, with briefing at 9am, and heats beginning shortly after. I wasn't on till the fourth heat so I had time to dry my kit from the previous night's Younguns Final.
Before my heats, I took part in the Cartwheel Cup and Big Trick event. This involved a one minute ride to do as many ends you could do as well as your biggest trick! As I was unsure what constituted a bid trick to the judges (highest scoring or biggest air), I went for both. I threw a few loops followed by a McNasty which was a little off straight before starting my ends. Unfortunately, my cartwheels were not great so as the whistle went for 10 seconds remaining, I decided to take a last minute risk of throwing a Phonics Monkey. I got all the way round on the pirouette and then with the shock of this, forgot to loop, so instead ending up on my head, trying to force the loop through, and finishing slightly wonky.
Then I dropped down to the eddy just above twin to wait for my heat.
Heats were 20 minute jam session with 8 paddlers per heat, but as our heat was only 5, we had 12 and a half minutes so it was fair. In my opinion, I preferred this as we weren't waiting in the eddy as long.
My first ride was poor, flushing after just a spin, but I slowly built on this throughout the time. I looped a few times to ensure one would score before trying a Space Godzilla (which actually went really well) and then cartwheels which I even managed to link to a split wheel. As the time began to run out, I also began to run out of moves so moved on to my less consistent moves.
This included a Phonics, which although I didn't manage to finish the loop, I did score a pirouette for it. After the heat, I continued to play with these, and was getting closer each time!
Then there was a short break as the judges swapped over so they could do their heats, which meant I had a go at scribing. Scribing for jam sessions I find harder as moves can only be scored once, there is no break for the 20 minutes, and you could be scoring up to 8 paddlers at a time. However, it is great fun, and a really good way to learn the score sheet and what judges look for.
After all the heats were done, it was the extreme slalom and boater-x, neither of which I was competing in, as I was in a squirt competition. My rides weren't great but it was still fun.
Soon it was the second super final of the weekend! This one included the top 3 senior men, top junior man, and top senior woman, in a knock out format where the lowest scoring paddler of that round was eliminated. And again, I was scribe.
There was some insane paddling with Rob Crowe beating the Nottingham record with a ride of 1610 in the penultimate round, junior male, Jake Norman reached the top 3, and Gav Barker eventually coming out top with only 50 points in it.
Thank you to GB Freestyle and Josh Wedgewood for organising such a great event.
More photos to follow
Photos: Jessica Dunn
Before my heats, I took part in the Cartwheel Cup and Big Trick event. This involved a one minute ride to do as many ends you could do as well as your biggest trick! As I was unsure what constituted a bid trick to the judges (highest scoring or biggest air), I went for both. I threw a few loops followed by a McNasty which was a little off straight before starting my ends. Unfortunately, my cartwheels were not great so as the whistle went for 10 seconds remaining, I decided to take a last minute risk of throwing a Phonics Monkey. I got all the way round on the pirouette and then with the shock of this, forgot to loop, so instead ending up on my head, trying to force the loop through, and finishing slightly wonky.
Then I dropped down to the eddy just above twin to wait for my heat.
Heats were 20 minute jam session with 8 paddlers per heat, but as our heat was only 5, we had 12 and a half minutes so it was fair. In my opinion, I preferred this as we weren't waiting in the eddy as long.
My first ride was poor, flushing after just a spin, but I slowly built on this throughout the time. I looped a few times to ensure one would score before trying a Space Godzilla (which actually went really well) and then cartwheels which I even managed to link to a split wheel. As the time began to run out, I also began to run out of moves so moved on to my less consistent moves.
This included a Phonics, which although I didn't manage to finish the loop, I did score a pirouette for it. After the heat, I continued to play with these, and was getting closer each time!
Then there was a short break as the judges swapped over so they could do their heats, which meant I had a go at scribing. Scribing for jam sessions I find harder as moves can only be scored once, there is no break for the 20 minutes, and you could be scoring up to 8 paddlers at a time. However, it is great fun, and a really good way to learn the score sheet and what judges look for.
After all the heats were done, it was the extreme slalom and boater-x, neither of which I was competing in, as I was in a squirt competition. My rides weren't great but it was still fun.
Soon it was the second super final of the weekend! This one included the top 3 senior men, top junior man, and top senior woman, in a knock out format where the lowest scoring paddler of that round was eliminated. And again, I was scribe.
There was some insane paddling with Rob Crowe beating the Nottingham record with a ride of 1610 in the penultimate round, junior male, Jake Norman reached the top 3, and Gav Barker eventually coming out top with only 50 points in it.
Thank you to GB Freestyle and Josh Wedgewood for organising such a great event.
More photos to follow
Photos: Jessica Dunn
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