Younguns Freestyle 2014 – Tryweryn
Last weekend was the first event of the Younguns Freestyle 2014 series in North Wales and also the first ever younguns sickline event. The Saturday was the sickline event held on the Tryweryn, the morning was an open format, a chance to have a play around or just run the river. I took the opportunity to run the full river in the Jackson Kayak Karma small to get used to paddling a real river again and a creek boat. After a lunch break it was time for the race, the format was two qualification runs, a semi-final and final run running from the raft get out point down to just below chapel falls. After the qualification runs were done they decided that the 30 fastest people would go through, even though only 29 had entered! For the semi-final run to make it slightly fairer the people paddling the creek boats had to touch a rubber duck hanging from NRA bridge then the top 10 fastest people would progress to the final which I managed to do. The final was a straight run down, fastest person wins and I managed to get the fastest run down and win the first sickline event and claiming the title belt!
Unfortunately on Sunday there was no water release at the Tryweryn so the event was moved over to Llangollen where the water there was also very shallow. The morning was practice and coaching where everyone got the chance to practice on the features that the competition would be held on. The competition was 4 45 second runs, 2 on the middle feature and 2 on the bottom feature. Even with the shallow features some big moves were being thrown such as mcnastys and a variety of ends. In the end I managed to finish 3rd in both the u16’s and overall which was a good result.
A big thanks to all the sponsors who donated all the prizes and all the people who helped to make the event possible and a big thanks to Squarerock for the use of the Jackson Kayak karma and 2014 Jackson Kayak Rockstar
By James Cooper
