The freestyle world cup is offically over.
A series of great events took place  across america over the course of three weeks.
Myself and Dave Wild flew out to take part in the series, we met some great people along the way and without the kindness and generosity shown by everyone we would most likely have been stranded, starving or eaten by local wild life.
The first event took place at Rock Island, Tennesse. I’ve grown up watching the videos of this place and so I was incredibly excited to paddle there. Set within a picturesque back drop of cascading waterfalls a small wave/hole forms, The feature was technically very challenging moves went well but sticking them was a completely different matter and a flush was likely to cost you at least 15 seconds at this spot – not ideal. Dave Wild finished well up the field in the mens category but unfortunately not quite high enough to advance to the next round.FIrst round went well for me and I came out in first with a 350 point lead unfortunately in the next stage of the competition I had 2 unlucky flushes which would put me just outside the final in 7th place, We were both pretty disappointed in our performance at this event but it provided us with some serious fire for the next event !
The second event took place at the Pidgeon river, a slow, deep and retentive hole that proved itself at this event to be one of the best holes in the world. Over the course off 5 days some of the worlds best padders threw down huge ride after huge ride. I redeemed myself after the first event and won every round, I even had the chance to throw some combos in their as well. Dave Wild finished well up the field again with some solid rides in the large Jed. Check out Paul Palmers video from the event below :
We had a few days off before the last event which gave us the chance to hang out with the Demshitz guys, After meeting the guys that work for Pyranha and borrowing boats from the warehouse we got the chance to run the Green river, I’ve been saying for a while now that I want to do more river running/creeking and this river definitely sold it on me !
After a great trip down the green river it was time to head over to the Noc site to start preparing for the 3rd and final world cup event. The Noc hole is fast, reasonably shallow and powerful, it definitely catered for the stronger paddlers and we saw more than a few beatings being dished out. I won every round once again in this event, Dave Wild threw down some awesome rides but unfortunately didn’t quite make it to the finals, However he was unanimously voted the winner of the party !
Unfortunately my two wins weren’t quite enough to grant me the title after my mess up in the first round and i finished the series in second place, big congrats to Hunter Katt for taking the overall win. It was an amazing trip and a huge learning experience, Thanks agin to everyone that made it possible.
See you on the water,
Bren
Check out the world cup website for more results and information on next years worlds -Â http://www.freestylekayaking2013.com/world-cup.html