Category: Freestyle

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Freestyle

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!

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Freestyle

The GB Freestyle Academy Camp – 2024!

Another Summer, another wonderful week here in Nottingham with the GB freestyle academy camp! 35 young paddlers aged 12-17 travelled from all over the country to spend a week at Holme Pierrepont white water course. They came to develop their freestyle kayaking under the guidance of 6 of the best freestyle coaches in the world! We had a really brilliant week and this article is here to tell you all about it!

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Freestyle Trips

Dee Fest 2024!

The river Dee is an absolute UK white water kayaking classic! The Dee is a North Wales river that flows all year round thanks to the fact it has water released into it. It is so good that some brilliant local paddlers decided that they wanted to organise a festival on the Dee and so was born Dee Fest! Dee Fest this year was held on the 13-14th April and it was brilliant! So here is a little account of Dee Fest 2024.

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Freestyle Trips

Euro Open 2023 – Making freestyle fun!

You might have seen the videos of scores of paddlers floating down Holme Pierrepont on inflatables and wondered what was going on. The answer to that is the Dewerstone European Open! Euro Open is a freestyle focused event that happens at the end of August every summer in Nottingham. It is one of my favourite events and one that I highly encourage people to attend. Here is my recount of Euro Open 2023.

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Freestyle Trips

GB Freestyle Academy Camp 2023

If you were in Nottingham at Holme Pierrepont white water course at the end of August, you might be wondering why every eddy and every feature seemed to be full of teenagers in playboats. The reason is because the GB Freestyle Academy Camp was happening! This was a camp aimed to improve and inspire young paddlers in freestyle kayaking and something I was lucky enough to be involved in. This article is here to tell you all about it – enjoy!

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Freestyle Guest posts ShePaddles

International Women’s Day 2023: Celebrating the introduction of women’s C1

In honour of International Women’s Day 2023, I want to showcase a massive development that has happened recently in the world of competitive paddling. This is the creation of a women’s C1 category in paddling competitions. Previously women have had to compete in an open category with men. This has happened in all disciplines of paddling but for the purpose of this article I am going to focus on the introduction of women’s C1 in freestyle kayaking.

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Freestyle General

The highs and lows of white water kayaking in 2022

I went for a run recently and started to reflect on the highs and lows of the year in terms of kayaking. Both for myself and for wider the kayaking community. I often take the time for reflection in this way around the new year. In recent years I have written a reflection blog to finish the year. This year I want to do it differently. In this blog I will not just be focusing on the highs of the year but also the lows, both for myself and for the wider kayaking community. I will be honest that you might find reading about the lows upsetting. I do not want to make anyone sad but I think it is important that they are acknowledged with the same gravitas as the highs.

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Freestyle

The 2022 freestyle kayaking world championships – a spectators perspective

Two weeks ago saw the opening ceremony for the 2022 freestyle kayaking world championships being held at Holme Pierrepont (HPP) in Nottingham, UK. Following the opening ceremony, there were 6 days of fierce competition, incredible performances and a whole lot of cheering!

As a local paddler to HPP, I was fortunate to be able to experience these world championships myself! I’ve never been to a kayaking competition on this scale before so was absolutely delighted to be able to attend a world championship in my home city of Nottingham! I am not an athlete or a coach instead I am just a very enthusiastic local who couldn’t believe she was lucky enough to experience a world championship right on her doorstep! This is my account.

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Freestyle Guest posts

ICF Nottingham freestyle development camp – building the freestyle family

Why do people take part in freestyle kayaking? Quite simply because it is fun. As the 2022 freestyle kayaking world championships are kicking off, there is a huge amount of excitement in the paddling world about freestyle kayaking right now. With such a strong focus on the championships and the talented athletes who are competing, it would be easy to forget that this is just one layer of the freestyle kayaking community. But freestyle kayaking is for everyone, no matter your ability. It is a sport for anyone who wants to have fun.

Prior to the start of the world championships, the International Canoe Federation (ICF) organise a development freestyle camp. This development camp is a fantastic 6-day camp aimed at developing aspiring freestyle paddlers. In this article, I want to share with you what happens during the development camp and why it is so important for the growth of freestyle kayaking in the wider community.

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Freestyle Guest posts

Freestyle kayaking – an Irish special!

Recently I have completed a trilogy of articles around the upcoming freestyle kayaking world championships in Nottingham. I chose to write these articles to help raise awareness of what the freestyle kayaking worlds are, what the different categories are and the profiles of some of the junior GB athletes competing.

Following these articles, Alex McClure, who is an Irish squirt paddler, got in contact with me. She wanted to know whether I would be keen to do a piece about the Irish team. Of course, with the Irish team being such an awesome group of lovely people and phenomenal paddlers, I said yes! With Alex’s help, I’ve recruited a few of the Irish paddlers to let them tell you about their team!

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