Stop number two was a new feature for me, Makinito. Having never really even seen the feature before, and hearing it was a bit of a 'drainage ditch', we weren't holding out much hope. This was reinforced with struggles of finding both the feature and camp site in rural Southern France, with limited French and after having completed a 20 hour journey down from Plattling.
As like most the time, everything worked out fine, and with only a few hiccups of cows in our camp site and finding our way around.
When we reached the feature, it looked surprising like inlet gate, just a bit shallower and with a couple of shoulders. Formed by two old kayaks funnelling water through an irrigation, it turned out the feature was ace!! Once we found the deep spot, we were all away and flying. Cartwheels took a little longer as you had to provide a lot of the power, but after a few days I was beginning to try link sections of ends together.
Although it soon got busier, it was still possible to time eddy queues to quieter times, and maximise training. And before we knew it we were once again preparing for a competition. However, with the area on red alert for fires, the BoaterX had to be cancelled, but luckily the freestyle could continue.
In heats, I was really happy with my rides, managing to stay really chilled out and at my own tempo, I managed to smash out loops, cartwheels and split wheels and also both McNastys! Not knowing the French score system though, meant I just had to sit and wait, while watching the other Senior Women throw down awesome rides, for results. They were soon out, and I was sat in 4th place, with fellow GB Senior, Lowri, sat in 5th. We'd both made tomorrow's final!
French finals took place in Sunday morning, while the open finals for French and Internationals was in the afternoon. This meant it wasn't till 3pm that I would be on the water. After cheering on Brits Harry (JMK1) and Ibbo (C1), it was then my final. We had three rides with our best run counting as our final score. Again, I was most pleased at being able to stay chilled out and this paid of with my paddling with a huge score of 920 on my first ride! My other two rides also felt very good, but weren't quite as high scoring.
As results came out, I realised I was in 3rd, but didn't believe it till I saw it written down!!
Overall it was an epic event and sweet to land a podium spot, the feature is awesome and even logistics became a breeze. Definitely worth a trio in the future and well done to everyone else who competed.
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