Whitewater Grand Prix: Time Trial: Petit Bostonnais ~ Tessin time

Playak Weekly Digest
The world's top paddling links in week 19, 2011.

News Watch Whitewater Grand Prix: Time Trial: Petit Bostonnais Jackson Kayak (Thursday 12th) **** - Yesterday I was able to be a part of probably one of, if not the gnarliest creek race EVER! The Race was held on the Petit Bostonnais, which is an amazing creek, and has had two previous races in 2008/09. Though this year there was record high water. This changed the name of the game. Though with a lot of help from the town of La Tuque they were able to hold the water back to lower the level for us to race. VIDEO: Gladiator Wave vs Top Kayakers - Guess who won? Rapid Magazine Blog (Friday 6th) **** - So here is the scene:  Twenty Five of the world's top kayakers on one of the largest river waves ever surfed for the opening freestyle event of the Whitewater Grand Prix.   Gladiator is a monster of a wave that is hard to catch, scary to surf, and dangerous to screw up.  Watch this v... Grand Prix Thus Far! Waves, Whitewater and Massive AIR! Jackson Kayak (Monday 9th) *** - Thus far the Whitewater Grand Prix has been epic. We have done 2 stages. The first stage was a big trick contest on the Gladiator wave. That was very interesting and super sweet. It was super beefy that day so lots of people missed the wave trying to avoid the pit. The only way to be sure to catch it was to just man up and drop in the meat. I caught it every time except once that day. Those who did catch it did some nice tricks. I did lots of airscrews and pan ams. Nick did some nice airscrews and pans ams as well. Rush Sturges did some nice stuff. Tino Spect did a huge pan amMarr did some huge pan ams... Dane Jackson Sizes Up the Competition at Grand Prix: Video Interview: HILARIOUS! Jackson Kayak (Monday 9th) ** - Here is what Dane thinks of his competition: MUST WATCH! Click here to view the embedded video.   Tessin time Teva Blog (Friday 13th) ** - We spend our spring time in Tessin and Piemont. This area is just perfect, when is snow melting and temperature get higher. We start our trip end of April. This year is not huge load of snow, so water levels are basically low all around central Europe. It was same here in Tessin,... Moroccan Bombs PeakUK (Monday 9th) ** - "No trip to morocco is complete without an evening in Marrakesh's main square". Some words of advice passed to us by a friend who has spent quite a bit of time in Morocco. So it was with trepidation that we set of from Northumberland and headed north to Edinburgh airport all packed up for our Ryan air flight to Marrakesh. Surf boats paddles and warm weather kit all squeezed into the baggage allowance and ... Pringle & Katya: Whitewater GP so far Palm Blogs (Wednesday 11th) ** - Me  &  Katya are now half way through the Whitewater grand prix event in Canada. The event comprises of 3 freestyle and 3 creek competitions on huge rapids and waves to determine the overall winner. We've now completed the first 3 and have 3 more to go. Return from the chile season Ian Garcia (Thursday 12th) ** - After spending 9 and a half months in Chile I have finally returned back home. It was a long season with an amazing amount of water accumulating to an amazing season of paddling. While there was a lot of time spent sitting around while the rain pounded outside, the sun did occasionally shine. ... 2011 Whitewater Grand Prix – Stage 2 Results worldkayak blogs (Monday 9th) ** - The Big Water Boatercross went down on the Rouge River in Quebec, Canada for Stage 2 of the 6 stage WWGP!  Check out the results First Time in Reno! Photos from Finals! Jackson Kayak (Thursday 12th) ** - So you already read the results and the play by play, but how about a few photos from finals? And maybe a few words about my first time in Reno. This was my first time to the Reno River Festival and it was a great way to kick off the season. The park offers three distinctly different, but all great, playspots. The competition was held in the third feature of the North channel. German Championships and selections for worlds in Plattling Teva Blog (Wednesday 11th) ** - It was a hot and sunny weekend in Plattling and though the water level was low all the German freestyle kayakers made their way to the famous playspot in Plattling to see who is dominating the German kayak freestyle scene and who is allowed to compete in the 2011 worlds. Due to the fact that this years worlds will take place in our own country it was a huge event with 80 competitors compared to the small Greman freestyle scene. So, during the week there were more and more kayakers arriving in Plattling and the parking place filled up with plenty of cars and tents and last but not least with a dutch caravan ;) Friday evening the camp area was crowded, so was the eddy and the hole. Liquid Fusion Kayaking: Stepping It Up PaddleBlogs (Monday 9th) ** - Sometimes you DO IT . . . You get into the zone and JUST DO IT . . . We didn't get much whitewater river kayaking in this winter, but somehow I stepped up my game from being a schizophrenic class II/III boater to confidently paddling some class IV. I'm not sure how this really happened but suspect that it had a lot to do with the time that we spent this winter in the surf zone... First Time on the Corang River padallen (Saturday 7th) ** - We had a group of six paddlers, none of who had paddled the Corang River before. We only knew about the river from reading a short 2 paragraph write up online. The Corang River flows into the Shoalhaven River towards the end of the powerlines section. Since all but one of our group had paddled this section multiple times before, it was an easy decision to try out something new. Our group consisted of Alex, Allen, Andrew, Jaimes, Josh and Tristan. Grand Prix Thus Far with Dane! Jackson Kayak (Monday 9th) ** - So far the Whitewater Grand Prix has been epic. We have done 2 stages. The first stage was a big trick contest on the Gladiator wave. That was very interesting and super sweet. It was super beefy that day so lots of people missed the wave trying to avoid the pit. The only way to be sure to catch it was to just man up and drop in the meat. Southampton Uni Hit Scotland Team Pyranha (Sunday 8th) ** - Winning 'The Spirit of PGL' award at this year's National Student Rodeo we bagged ourselves a year's sponsorship with Pyranha and six shiny new boats! So whilst the boats make their way to us, here's a splash of what we've been getting up to with a bit of classic Scotland...

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Today's News Editor(s): bartw, Tony Dyrsmid, Jean-Ellen M. Trapani, Allen.