By a happy surprise, I was able to attend the Palm and Pyranha Park Jam event in Hohenlimburg, Germany at the end of May. Having been part of the UK Park Jam events for the last 3 years, I was excited to join for the Germany event. The Park Jam at Hohenlimburg first ran in 2025 and I had heard from the rest of the day that it had been a fantastic day. Not only was this my first Germany Park Jam, but it was also the first of the 2026 Park Jam series.
We had a wonderful time in Hohenlimburg and I felt so happy to get a glimpse of the awesome kayaking community that exists within Germany. It was a really special day and I wanted to write an article to share some of the highlights with you all.
Last minute addition!
I became a last minute addition to the Park Jam team for two reasons.
Firstly I was kayaking in Valsesia (Italy) for the week and had become possibly stranded there due to car problems. Luckily my friend Chips (Andy Kettlewell) who I had been kayaking with said he could take me home to the UK – but via Germany for Park Jam.
Secondly, Adrian Mattern, who was due to attend Park Jam unfortunately had to pull out in the days before the event due to injury. Whilst neither being German not a Red Bull sponsored athlete, I became ‘Adrian 2.0’ for the day. I’d like to think the kids barely noticed the difference!
Whilst it was a last minute decision for me to come, I was very thrilled to be able to attend the Hohenlimburg Park Jam!
Arrival at Hohenlimburg
We arrived in beautiful sunshine – it was another hot summer’s day and everyone was eager to get on the water!
As this was my first time at Wildwasserpark Hohenlimburg, the white water course, I was excited to check it out. It is a gentle white water course, quite narrow and long with plenty of little features to keep you occupied. It reminded me very much of our UK course Northampton Active – which is a firm favourite spot of mine. A lovely place to have fun and introduce people to kayaking.
We met with the rest of the Palm and Pyranha team. There was Becky Green, Zach Flatt, Lars Ellersdorfer and Andy Kettlewell (Chips). Cheesy and Manuela were also there to support from Palm. The team got to work setting up flags and banners whilst Cheesy and Manuela sorted the Palm stall.
The Palm and Pyranha Park Jam at Hohenlimburg is jointly organised by Deutscher Kanu-Verband (DKV) which is Germany’s national canoe federation alongside Palm and Pyranha. Volunteers from the DKV and volunteers from the local canoe club in Hohenlimburg were busy setting up for the day. It was great to have a chat with everyone before the day started.
Germany’s kayaking scene seems to be very club orientated, especially in supporting younger paddlers. The canoe club from Hohenlimburg were a close group but this was reflective of many of the attendees for the day. Groups started to arrive and it was clear that most paddlers had attended as part of their canoe club. There were SO MANY teenagers and it was fantastic to see them all excited to be with each other and to see their friends from other clubs. The energy before we even got on the water was infectious!
One of the German freestyle team, Philip, had come along to say hi so I took him with me as I went around to chat with the groups that had arrived. Whilst the average German child’s English is one million percent better than the average English adult’s German, it was still useful to have a native German speaker with me to help with the language barrier!
It was really nice chatting to everyone and hearing about their backgrounds. There were so many groups from the different canoe clubs and so each group I asked for their team name. There were 4 boys who had called themselves ‘The Professionals’ which I felt was a fantastic name! I had a nice chat with their coach who couldn’t rave about them enough – they seemed to have a great attitude.
There was also quite a large group of older teenagers whom couldn’t decide on a name at first but came and found me later in the day to tell me that they had decided on ‘Team Drip’. I felt like I had insight into the ‘cool’ words used by the German youth. Chips later laughed at me as apparently ‘drip’ is a universally cool word and one that ‘even Cheesy knows!’. Well…. I learned it for the first time at Park Jam Germany so thank you to the teenagers of Team Drip for teaching me something new!
We gathered as a group for a welcome talk led by Lars and then it was time to rally to the water!
Joy on the water
It was such a wonderful and joyful day on the water. There was so much going on and there were happy teenagers in every eddy and on every feature. Myself and the rest of the Team did laps and laps and got to see and share so many happy moments. I want to share a few with you below.
The first feature was a little wave at the top of the course – perfect for learning to surf on and trying new things. I spent a lot of time on the first lap here as everyone was having so much fun on it. It is wonderful to watch some of the younger children learning how to surf whilst some of the more experienced paddlers trying new moves.
There were paddle spins, paddle tosses, actual spins, shudder rudders and more. It was fun to set the kids little challenges and see them give it a go. Big shout out to Jacob and Jonte who were in a duo and took me up on the challenge to get one off them standing up whilst surfing! It was really cool to watch and I was doubly impressed that they managed it without any capsizes or swims!
Meanwhile the Team Drip kids were throwing tomahawks of the concrete wall at the top and doing a pretty good job of it! The real star of the show was a dog called Fidel who sat on various paddlers laps and happily surfed every feature of the course as well. It was possibly the happiest dog in the water that I have ever met!
Further downstream there was a little hole in which everyone was having a good time surfing. Here I met another little group called ‘Team 6-7’. They all had the numbers ‘6-7’ on their helmets. If you don’t understand the relevance of 6-7 in the world of teenagers – google it. It was funny to see something that makes the UK teenagers giddy also have the same effect on German teenagers. The 6-7 group were awesome. They were all hand paddling and surfing the entirety of the course – like absolute legends.
I had a nice chat with Marie and Siri from their group who were having the most fun. I know Becky spent a lot of time with the 6-7 group working on some gentle freestyle as well which everyone seemed to enjoy. She gave them a special shout out at the end for such a great attitude across the group.
Killian also had embraced the hand paddling and was smashing out hand spins in the hole. I had met Killian and his brother Adrián in the morning and they had told me how much they had enjoyed Park Jam the year before. It was great to see that the event was able to welcome back so many returning paddlers who had clearly been making lots of progress in the year since.
Further downstream there was many paddlers working on their tailees. A lovely young man called Henrik took the time to explain to me his favourite tailee spots on the course. He also told me that in German, they call a tailee a Kerze which means candle. It was really nice to chat to lots of the kids throughout the day and learn a little bit about what it is like to learn to kayak in Germany. Zach and Lars I know were having a great time doing tailees with the kids down at the bottom.
There was one boy I spent a lot of time with called Justus. I had had a lovely chat with his mother in the morning about developing children’s kayaking. Justus had a really cool helmet covered in manga stickers and we had a little chat about that. He was a little nervous about paddling on the course but agreed to join me for some laps. We shared quite a few laps together and by the end, he was even going for some surfs and catching lots of eddies! It was really awesome to see. Being brave is not about never being scared but about being scared and giving it a go anyway! I had a great time paddling with him so thank you Justus for joining me on the water.
The day ended with one large group float down the course. It was really nice to get everyone together for this. As we descended, the friendly games began and there were many teenagers pulling decks and trying hard to get their friends to swim. Inspired by this, at the bottom I found my friends and did the same.
I went for Chips first and I am quite proud that I managed to make him swim before he made me swim. Of course, once he was out of his kayak, I didn’t stand much of a chance of staying in mine! When we were both out, we went for Zach who took two of us to get him out of his! Somehow Becky and Lars managed to escape us!
Lars then finished the day with some organised fun. Everybody was grouped up in a circle and trying things like getting a couple of (and then many) people to get out their boats and make it around the circle by standing on other’s kayaks. It was really funny and a good way to end the day!
Talks, Shout Outs & Prize Giving
Once everyone was off the water and changed, we collected as a group under the bridge for talks and prize giving. Chips gave the first talk followed by Becky and Zach sharing the second talk. They were short talks but both had pretty cool videos as part of them which I think the kids enjoyed.
We then did some shoutouts to kids for some of the special moments on the water, many of which I have talked about above. There were so many people in attendance and there were all fantastic. Not everyone could get a shout out but I felt genuinely inspired by what I saw on the water over the day. The kayaking scene for young people in Germany is clearly thriving. What I particularly loved is how they were all so excited to paddle with each other. It was a day where the focus was on the kids and that was epic.
After shout outs and prizes, we did poster signing. I always love this bit as you get to chat to the kids one last time. It was really cool to see them so excited and even asking us to sign their cags which is a first for me!
Team 6-7 also asked for a group photo which turned into a TikTok of us all doing the 6-7 hand gesture. I had to explain to Chips what to do which made me feel young, despite being surrounded by actual children.
Once everyone had left we finished packing up and said our goodbyes to Sonja and Manuela and then hit the road. Myself and Chips had a 12 hour drive/ferry back to the UK and we spent most of it buzzing about what an amazing day we had had at Park Jam.
So thank you Germany and especially those involved from Hohenlimburg canoe club and the DKV for a really special day. Thank you to all the clubs and the paddlers who attended and helping to show me what an incredible community of kayakers you have in Germany. It was an honour to be a part of the day and share the water with you all.
See you all at the next Palm and Pyranha Park Jam events in the UK in October! Dates below!
