Welcome to the Pyranha Team Tour 2014. Our first stop this year was the XXL Paddle Festival at the Kanu White Water Park in Markkleeberg, Germany between the 2 and 4th of May. (May the 4th be with you :-).
Main centre and terrace overlooking the course
This event really kick started out tour with over 500 kayakers and a total over 1500 people attending. The weather tried to break us but we all prevailed. The days were mild but quite windy and the nights sleeping in the van were at times, desperate.
Our journey out to XXL was broken up with a nice ferry cruise and a hook up with fellow kayaker and friend, Eric Walter. Eric is a German freestyler who is now residing with David Bain in Nottingham. On this occasion, Eric was staying at his hometown in Dusseldorf. We spent the night there before continuing our journey to Markkleeberg.
Lake at Markkleeberg
Our stand was situated in a prime location at the festival next to the white water along side Jutta Kaiser from HF and Ollie and Ingrid Grau from Werner / Sweet. We also had Haglofs father and daughter combo next to us who were quite friendly offering us sweets and warm jackets all weekend.
Trade stands alongside the white water
It was a real pleasure to see so many people enjoying paddle sport. I mean there were hundreds of people on and in the water doing one thing or another in boats ranging from modern day white water kayaks to some of the first kayaks ever made mixed with innovative inflatable kayak and raft designs.
White water fun on the intermediate course
We had a great time representing Pyranha demoing over 70 of our kayak fleet over the weekend and selling a fair few tee shirts and caps. We spent most of the time however providing the general public with information about our latest boats and giving advice on which boats they should be looking to try in 2014.
Future team members
This was a really fun event with lots going on. As well as the paddling and trade show their were events in boater x, freestyle and raft racing. On Saturday evening Olaf Obsommer made a nice talk and presentation on some of his recent kayaking adventures. All in all, a really well organised event that we will strive to be a part of again next year. If you are in the area, I would highly recommend a visit. For more information visit Paddelfestival Markkleeberg on facebook alternatively visit http://www.paddelfestival.de
Saturday night Boater X
After the event was drawn to a close on Sunday afternoon, we drove to Augsburg for a few days rest and to catch up on life. We stayed with fellow team paddler Thomas Funke and managed to get a nice paddle on the slalom course where we would be visiting again in a week’s time to provide an event. We are now cruising to Innsbruck, Austria for the S2S Kayak Festival over the weekend. Our next Update will be in a weeks time showing what we have been up to in Austria. Keep you eye out for the Team Van if your in the area and come say ‘hi’ and come try one of our new boats, they are selling like hot cakes! Until then, Ciao.
Pyranha Team Van 🙂
You can also check our progress on Facebook. Images : David Bain & Matt Cooke