Behind the scenes of Euro Open 2024!

Euro Open, a freestyle kayaking focused event, took place here in Nottingham at the start of September. James ‘Ibbo’ Ibbotson first set up the event many years ago and it has long been a successful kayaking weekend which combined the British Freestyle Championships alongside some fun novice paddling events. This year, River Legacy took over the running of the event, alongside GB Freestyle . My lovely husband Tom is one of River Legacy’s more active volunteers and so ended up taking on most of the organisation of Euro Open. Naturally that meant I got signed up into running it as well!

This article is here to tell you all about how that went! I have written this blog from my perspective as someone who was involved in both running the event and participating in it. This is not as ‘official’ Euro Open blog account and so please accept my very biased account of Euro Open 2024!

Friday: Sign Ins

After months of organisation and weeks of our front living rooms being used as a storage centre for bibs, prizes and equipment – the weekend of Euro Open was finally here!

Friday was strangely hot and we arrived at Holme Pierrepont mid afternoon to start the process of signing in paddlers and giving out bibs. The course was very busy as paddlers made the most of the weather and the opportunity to practice their moves before Saturday. The slalom hut where we set up base for the weekend had a spectacular viewing spot of Troll Hole and we enjoyed watching people paddle as we sorted entries.

Myself and Tom were joined by our lovely friend Matt Stevenson and together we got into a good system of sorting out sign ins. With 150 paddlers signed up for the weekend, finding the correct bibs, t-shirts and taking a deposit for each paddler was much easier with 3 of us.

We signed in our final paddler for the evening before heading home to meet Mat and Ewan from Pyranha Kayaks who were crashing at our house for the weekend. Pyranha had brought a couple of their hot new freestyle boat – the Pyranha x GuiGui Helectron. I don’t think Mat was quite prepared for the sheer excitement and hype that brought along to the weekend! They were of course promptly mobbed by excitable kayaking teenagers almost as soon as they arrived!

Saturday: A day of freestyle

Myself, Tom and Matt were back at the course early on Saturday morning to continue with the paddler sign ins. As we got closer to the starting time, things began to get very busy! Sponsors and brands were setting up their stalls, paddlers were getting themselves sorted and volunteers were arriving! Unfortunately the wonderful hot weather we had had the day before was long gone and had been replaced with rain! No matter however – a nice thing about kayaking is that people are dressed to get wet!

We had an event briefing and then went straight into the freestyle heats for the day. Saturday was focused on the freestyle competition. Intermediate and Experts paddlers were competing in mixed heats in Troll Hole and the Novice heats were being run on Jaws. There were also a squirt competition running in Top Pool by the incredible Lawrence.

I was running the Novice heats and was joined by my co-judge Timmy Hill! Timmy is on the junior GB freestyle team (he is now 18 so is about to age out!) and is one of the nicest younger paddlers in the freestyle kayaking community. Timmy had reached out asking if he could help out at Euro Open and I called dibs on having him to help me!

There were 7 heats in total for the Novice category with a half hour in between each one. Novice freestyle is the most fun category of freestyle as it is all about rewarding those who are having the most fun! Points are awarded for moves such as ‘air guitar’ where you use your paddle as a pretend guitar and pretend to play it or ‘crowd pleasers’ which is any move which gets an excited response from the crowd!

We soon got into the swing of the heats and I was so happy to be there to judge the novice category! We had the MOST fun all morning. Highlights included paddlers standing up in their boat to do the ‘macarena’ before prompting being catapulting into the water, being thrown bars of chocolate from BAs whilst paddlers surfed (Timmy was especially pleased with this trick!) and the classic Harry Potter! (Wave your paddle around like a magic wand before throwing yourself upside down).

My absolute favourite moment was when junior paddler Ottilie unzipped her BA and brought out a hand made laminated sign. On one side she had drawn minions and on the other side it said ‘GIVE ME POINTS PLEASE’. Ottilie embraced the spirit of ‘fun freestyle’ immensely and every ride she had, ticked off more and more ‘fun moves’. I think by the end, we had awarded her every ‘fun’ trick on the scoresheet! Well done Ottilie for embracing the spirit of having fun on the water!

We wrapped up the Novice heats by 2pm and I had 10 minutes to rally people for the ‘Paddle with the Pros’, a Peak Paddlesports event which was also located on Jaws. Events like Euro Open are fantastic because they allow paddlers who have only just started on their paddling journey to share the water with paddlers who represent their country on an international stage. Paddle with the pros is an opportunity for paddlers from all backgrounds to share a wave together.

Luckily I had bumped into the lovely Sal Montgomery the weekend before in Wales and convinced her to be one of our star paddlers for the event. Sal is pure sunshine in human form and always keen to spread that love of kayaking with others. She was on the water whilst I rounded up the other pro paddlers and seemed to have started some absolute carnage party waves by the time I got to Jaws. At one point, Sal and at least 8 junior paddlers were sharing the wave! Ewan Murray, on Team Pyranha, was also there to share the joy!

A huge shout out to all the pro freestyle paddlers who joined for the paddle as well. Timmy kindly got on the water even though he was judging all morning, he was joined by Gav Barker, Math Cradock, the Bermingham boys and Sam Worgan to name a few. I know that the paddlers who came for that event were so pleased to share the wave with such elite paddlers and so a big thank you to them! It was wonderful to see Timmy or one of the other pros absolutely beast a move on Jaws and hear the ‘wows’ across the paddlers waiting in the eddy.

3pm passed and so paddle with the pros ended. 3pm was also when I was supposed to be competing in my own heat in Troll Hole and so I had to run to get changed! I made it just in time and got on the water for the final heat of the day. A huge shout out to all involved in running the intermediate and expert freestyle heats and finals. Judging elite freestyle paddlers is no mean feat and we were blessed to have such competent judges there to run the competition. Another shout out to Bethan and Lisette who were ‘organising’ the paddlers to ensure they were on time for their heats. I have never known a freestyle event to be so on time and I think that is thanks to these 2 super humans who were running a tight ship!

I was lucky to share my heat with some lovely paddlers including Timmy! I am certainly not a freestyle paddler and was feeling very rusty before getting on but approached it with the mindset that I would have some fun and give it a go! The heats were 20 minutes and run in a jam style format which meant we got as many gos as we could fit in! I did some great side surfing, power flipping, roll in the holing, plugging and generally some looking out of control moves. I didn’t score a single point but I really didn’t care. I was proud of myself for getting on and getting involved!

On my final run, just like all my other runs, I ended up upside down. This time however I did not roll up! Many failed roll attempts later and suddenly I was out of my boat! The safety team led by the lovely Zac promptly fished me out and helped me empty my boat! Zac and the team had been amazing all morning helping fish out paddlers, mostly from the Novice category. I had joked with Zac that he better be ready to fish me too in my intermediate heat but I am not sure he realised I was serious! Either way, he did a great job!

I got changed just in time to watch some of the finals. Many of my friends were in finals and I was so proud to watch them compete! Kayaking to me is something I do for fun but it is seriously impressive when people actually do really cool things in kayaks – like all of the freestyle moves! Watching friends smash out amazing rides and smiling all the way is just incredible!

I then headed over to the Rugby Club where the prize giving and party was taking place. More of the River Legacy volunteers were already there and setting up the bar for the night. I set up the prizes that we had kindly been donated by sponsors. NRS, Pyranha Kayaks, Dewerstone, Peak Paddlesports, Palm Equipment, SurfPlugs, OC1 Freestyle, Freefall Paddles, Aquapac and Flow Kayaks were all incredibly generous in donating prizes for this event.

Prize giving was a lovely event. Celebrating the hard work of individuals in their sport is always a nice thing to do! I won’t list all the recipients of the prizes but you can read them here. Despite swimming, I even got the silver medal for women’s intermediate! There were only two of us but I didn’t care! I’ll take it!

One award I will mention is for the kids who won the Peak Paddlesports custom BAs. These were kindly donated by Peak to reward kids who showed us that we they were having the most fun whilst also encouraging others on the water. Myself and Matt Stephenson had been on the look out throughout the day, especially during the paddle with the pros event. We decided on and selected Bella, George and Riley for this award. They embedded the ‘freestyle fun’ spirit throughout the day and made the event a better event for their presence. Well done you 3 for your amazing attitude and outlook!

There was also a special mention and toast to Bren Orton by Charlie Brackpool on behalf of the freestyle community. Many of the freestyle paddlers had been able to attend the Dee paddle the week before to celebrate Bren and it was important we felt to acknowledge him over the weekend. Euro Open is exactly the kind of event that Bren was all about – having fun on the water and connecting with people. You could feel his spirit in the paddlers there across the weekend and that in itself was special.

Once awards were done, the party began! It was nice to have the opportunity to catch up with some friends and relax after a day of rushing around! I didn’t stay late but I heard that it got quite lively as the night went on – I’m glad you all enjoyed yourselves!

Sunday: Kayak Cross, freestyle fun and inflatables

It was another early start on Sunday and unfortunately more rain! The focus of Sunday was on the Kayak Cross event. Representatives from Paddle UK had kindly agreed to set the course for this event and provided all the elements needed to make it happen. Kayak Cross is the latest paddling event to be added to the Olympics and so has become much more widely known. Essentially paddlers go head to head in a white water paddle which involved going around giant poles and going under the infamous roll gate.

Tom led a quick participant briefing which followed by me leading everyone down a course walk. The format was that everyone first raced in heats before going through to quarter finals, semi finals and then the finals! Heats saw the fastest 2 paddlers go through to the next round. None of us had seen the course layout before that morning so the course walk was as much for me as it was for the other participants!

Heats ran every 3 minutes and my heat was heat 3 which meant I ended up having to run to make my heat once again! I had grabbed a demo Ripper Evo for the race as it is the peak boat for Kayak Cross. My heat only had 3 of us and as we jumped on I had a quick chat with the other two women who were lovely. We get going and I managed to get a lead out in front! I have never actually taken the Evo out on white water before and was very impressed!

Suddenly the roll gate was upon me and so I threw myself upside down and promptly….. fell out of the kayak! In the busyness of the morning, I had not actually sat in this kayak. I had paddled it on flat water a few weeks previously and it had felt fine then so assumed it would be fine to go in again! Turns out, I should probably have moved the foot plate a little closer! Never mind! As Zac and his team fished me out for the second time that weekend, I felt a little sad that I wouldn’t get to go off the ramp in the next rounds but also relief that it meant I would now be free to completely dedicate myself to the organising and running of the rest of the day. Big shout out to the two women in my heat who went through to the next round!

I got changed and went back into my volunteer role. I was able to get some photos of the other kayak cross heats and also help with ‘pole judging’ which means ensuring that all paddlers go around each of the poles and don’t miss any gates.

Midday came and finally the rain stopped! This was just in time for ‘fun freestyle’. An hour’s session where paddlers have fun on a feature and show us their best moves! Originally this was meant to be in Inlet gate but Inlet has been a bit of an odd feature recently and so we moved in to Fairy Wave. I was joined by the lovely Sal for this event who did a great job in commentating and helping me to judge who was having the most fun!

This event was immediately followed by the best event of the whole weekend! This is the inflatable race and inflatable freestyle! Essentially paddlers don their favourite inflatable and race down the course before making their way back up to Fairy was an hour of surfing and fun! I did the briefing for this but then handed the reigns over to Charlie, David and Sal so that I could get on the water and join in!

My inflatable was my reliable ‘Myrtle the Turtle’ who has now seen me through 3 Euro Opens! This is the MOST fun event of the whole weekend and I was so grateful to Charlie for offering to take my judging place for this so that I was able to get on and join in with the fun! As I swam off Fairy Wave with Myrtle I floated once again past Zac and the safety team who directed me to the side and reflected that Zac really had been my unsung hero of the weekend!

The inflatables was followed by the semi finals and finals of the Kayak Cross. These are off a ramp start and make for quite a spectator sport! Once the races were over, myself, Tom and Sal completed the Sunday prize giving. This was done in beautiful sunshine and it was lovely to end the weekend in this way after all the rain!

Thank you & acknowledgements

Euro Open was an incredible team effort. There were so many people involved in helping to make the weekend the success and I wanted to make sure that they were acknowledged. Even with the best organiser in the world, an event like this could not happen without a team of incredible volunteers. So on behalf of myself, Tom and every person who attended Euro Open – thank you to the following groups.

Sponsors: There were a number of sponsors who supported this event through both the donation of prizes and also by being present over the weekend. The prizes went down extremely well but the presence of the stalls, experts, team paddlers, demo boats, shops and general support of these sponsors were incredible. A huge thank you to Flow Kayaks, Dewerstone, Pyranha Kayaks, NRS, SurfPlugs, Palm Equipment, Peak Paddlesports, Aquapac, OC1 Freestyle and Freefall paddles. It really is appreciated!

Judges and commentators: The freestyle side of this event could not happen without the incredible hard work of the freestyle community in terms of providing the judges, commentators and organisers to run the competition. Whilst myself and Timmy could handle running Novice freestyle, getting enough people to judge the expert and intermediate heats was a real challenge! A huge thank you to Tanya, Charlie, Meg, Ibbo, Theo, Becky, Matt, Rob, Sam W, Sam V, Kerry, Sarah, Ant, Pete, Hermione, Jan, Finn, Jake, Lisette, Bethan, Simon, Dean, Nick and Lawrence for making Saturday freestyle happen!

The safety team! Considering the amount they fished me out over the weekend, I probably should have started with them! Huge thank you to ensuring everyone stayed safe over the weekend and being the safety blanket to support those pushing themselves! Thank you to Zac, Dean, Nick, Jacob, Adam, Michael, Dylan, Isabelle, Emily, James and Steve for all your expert fishing and support!

General volunteers: They were a number of people who helped out in a variety of roles helping to run the events over the weekend and generally be extremely helpful! I’ve mentioned quite a few already but another mention to all of the Saturday night River Legacy volunteers, Amanda, Sal, David and anyone else who offered to help out and got roped into something over the weekend!

It was a true team effort and I thank everyone for their involvement and support over the weekend. If I have missed anyone in these shout outs – please just let me know so that I can correct that and make sure to include them!

Reflections and next year

Running Euro Open was an experience to say the least and on the whole it seemed to be a successful weekend. There are learning points for sure and Tom, myself and the team have already started discussions around those. Tom has seen out a feedback form for everyone so please do complete that if you have any suggestions. For now, Tom seems keen to run it again, so I suppose….. see you next year everyone!