The 2013 World Championships

The much anticipated 2013 World championships took place in Nantahalla gorge, North Carolina this past week.

The feature was created artificially and whilst being situated on a natural river the competition hole is created by a concrete “wave shaper”. This feature differs massively to that off the last worlds. Smaller, less powerful but far more retentive. The shallowness punished the stronger competitors who where forced not to plug hard for loops to avoid hitting the bottom and stalling out of the hole. However the retentiveness put many dream rides and combos into play which was fantastic to see.

The standard of paddling has once again grown and progressed. Along with the old school rodeo legends a new school generation of freestylers are moving up through the ranks and pushing hard for the top spots.

Matt Dumoulin had the most incredible ride I have ever seen in pre-lims but couldn’t quite replicate it in the semi finals and failed to make the cut to top 5, which just goes to show what a strange beast competition is and the that it is not necessarily the best paddlers that win. Junior team rider Brandon Hepburn had a similar scenario and finished in 11th place.

Team Pyranha represented well, Michael Patterson finished in a respectable 13th place. I finished in 9th place far from happy but content at my first worlds as a senior and keen to fire it up in Spain 2 years from now.

However, our junior rippers really shone, Local girl Rowan Stuart stood apart in the junior ladies category, by performing the hardest scoring moves ever seen in a junior ladies final, and took home a gold medal.

Thomas Richard. The junior french ripper, and in my opinion the next Matt Dumoulin, took a well deserved 2nd place with some flowing rides.

A huge congratulations to all the competitors but especially to my freestyle fish family and many thanks to Pyranha for making such an incredible boat.

Also to “coach” David Fusilli who spent many hours stood on the side of the river restraining himself from running the green daily.

See you on the water,
Bren