After years of the Peak UK Challenge series Pete Astles has decided to take a break. Step up Jim from Alpkit and a slightly changed format and you get the Plastic Fantastic Alpkit Kayak Series. Round 1 was at the River Washburn in the UK and with a Boater X, Alpjam, Freestyle and a Pyranha Speeder Race, you were guaranteed a great event!!
First up was the Boater X. The format was to have 4 men or ladies going head to head down a section of river from a rolling start. As with most of the UKs small rivers, once someone has a lead it’s rarely beaten so to spice things up a little each paddler was given a colour pole to go round part way down the course with a disqualification if you missed the pole. There was the usual barging or boats and clashes of paddles and some very close races.
With low levels of C1 paddlers at events, the event is being run as simply men and ladies so the C1s had to go up against the kayakers. This was quite amusing in the Boater X and Jamie Burbeck even managed to beat a kayaker in his C1 Burn. Unfortunately he rammed a tree on the second run and got knocked out!! Richard Brooks did well progressing into the semi-finals.
After the Boater X was an Alpjam event. Basically this is a free for all freestyle run over 15 minutes with rules that encourage big moves and linked sequences. There were some big scores being thrown down with James Reeves eventually winning, Richard Brooks 2nd in his 4 Twenty and Jamie Burbeck 4th in his C1.
After a night of partying and injuries from playing musical statues, the main Freetsyle took place running to international rules. The feature for the freestyle was a very shallow river wide hole with bits of it being deep enough for cartwheels and a few lucky loops. James Bebbington threw some Phonix Monkeys which just defied belief to win overall. Jamie Burbeck just missed the finals coming in 6th with some good left hand super clean cartwheels and Richard just behind him in 7th.
Last but by no means least was the Pyranha Speeder Race. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to get pictures but there will be some on the event website soon I’m sure. Just go to:
These guys really put in some sterling efforts running the 2 mile course in under 10 minutes. I ran it in a Burn doing safety cover and it felt like a really long way.
The event was really well organised and I can’t wait until the next one in September. If your experienced or a novice, these events will appeal to you all. The atmosphere is great and you get loads of time on the water. I’d highly reccomend it.