06' Aussie National Freestyle Kayak Championships

Well it took a bit to organize but the 06’ Australian Freestyle National Champs were finally here. There’d been quite a bit of anticipation around this event since for the first time Sean and I had decided we’d take the Comp to the surf. Big Waves and Big Tricks, that was the vision. To give competitors a wave they could really show their stuff on…

Located just off the coast of Melbourne, Phillip Island attracts some of the best and most reliable surf Victoria has to offer. If we were to ever trust an event as important as the Nationals to any ‘natural’ feature again, let it be on a river or at the surf, then Phillip Island, we figured, would be our safest bet.

Saturday 25th

Saturday started bright and early, well at least for Sean and I. We were both up before the crack of dawn scouting the beaches with the intention of finding the best break for the day’s competition. What we found instead was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!.

I couldn’t believe it but the entire ocean looked like a lake, flat as a pancake. Neither of us in the many summers we’d been down there had even seen anything like it at Phillip Island.

So to cut a very long first day short… we postponed the day’s events until Sunday on account that the surf was simply not there. But there was no way a set back like this was going to spoil the weekend. Instead all the competitors settled in for a sweet day relaxing on the beach, listening to music, swimming, playing beach footy, the whole bit.

We even got to witness T Faux with her new state of the art proto-type. Check it out, I recon this thing would rip at Bussy.

: Judging tent.

By evening word had gotten around and everyone made their way back to the campsite to check out the festival vendors. Kayak4Play, Feed The Rat, Electric Water, and Fluid Kayaks all had stands and were pimping their gear as hard as they could. Leigh from Kayak4Play especially, throwing down some great deals for the competitors and putting up a great display of some of the new gear out there. Electric Water also provided I neat stand showing off the new range of 2006 Bliss-Stick boats, and then unveiled for the first time seen in Australia the new Mystic Creeker.

As the sun went down the tunes went up, along with the silver screen, and before long we were into the premiers. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get our hands on LVM 18 due to some obvious reasons. But instead Tanya Faux introduced for us LVM 17 dedicated to the late Daniel De La Vergne, its creator. A moments silence out of respect and then the festivities started.

The big finally for the night was the Dynasty Premier. Designed to get everyone fired up for the big night ahead it did exactly that. And after watching so many big moves on screen all the competitors were more then ready to go pull some big moves at the bar. I’m not sure exactly what happened after that… but we got home.

Sunday 26th

Sunday brought along a completely different turn of events. The winds and swells had shifted and now across the entire island were the cleanest 3-4 footers (with the occasional 6ft floating through) we could have ever asked for.

Due to the conditions and time restraints we had for running the comp in one day we kept the competition format to;

4 competitors in each heat
20 minutes on the water for each heat
And a maximum of 8 rides
All variety over the 20 minutes is added up, instead of after each ride.

Junior Men’s were the first up and because of the tide had the biggest swells of the day coming through. They wasted no time getting out there to show the crowd exactly what could be done on this sort of feature, and within the first heat the comp was labelled a success.

It was great to see some new names down here in the south like, Liam Core and James Rowlinson who came all the way down from NSW. But the big anticipated competition was between Australian team members Jake and Lachie and Penrith local Dave Toohey. These three boys had been battling it out in the junior class for the past few years and now it was time for the final show down before they all made the big move to mens.

Being the first category out there couldn’t have helped on the nerves but all the competitors had some really smooth rides and definitely made use of the big sets coming through throwing some huge air and more importantly were able to show an individual style.

Next up were the women. This was always going to be an interesting field. With the biggest group of female competitors I’d personally ever seen at an Australian event and with T Faux (pre-worlds champ) coming back from shoulder surgery it was really anyone’s game out there.

The first heat started themselves right out at the back of the sets where the biggest waves were forming. Fluids new boater, Sandy Diciero threw down with some really nice rides getting both roundhouses and really searching for the variety. Anita who’s been competing for a few years now showed true experience and composure out there sticking pretty much all the moves she went for. The highlight though from this category was definitely Mel’s massive air blunt that proved that the ladies were going just as big as the boys on the day.

The men’s class was ruthless. Airs were being handed out left right and centre. I’d never seen anything like it in an Australian competition. Helixes, donkey flips, pan-ams…everything pretty much was being seen out there. The boys even had time for some sweet down river moves off the lips on the way out.

It was Russ Boza’s first year in senior men’s and you could see he’d been training at it through his set rides. Tim, one of the local favourites was also styling it up nailing a nice donkey flip right at the start of his rides. I was in a heat with Adrian (TAS), Hamish (WA), and Jake (NSW), and on a more personal note… “Good sharing the waves with you boys”. It was such a different experience paddling out and seeing other competitors’ donkey flipping and flip turning around you.

In the end the whole idea of holding this competition at the surf was to finally give the competitors the chance to ride waves that would allow them to show the judges what they could really do, and we’re really pleased to say that’s exactly what it did. With Toohey’s technically sound rides, Rusty’s huge Pan-Ams and the mens class seeing the first combo move done in an Aussie competition there was no doubt that competitors were pushing themselves further then ever with this format.

Apart from the actual surf format working damn well we were also really pleased by the new judging system. Everything was the same as the IFC rules with the only difference this year being that it was video judged. For about 2 hours a panel of 7 judges crammed themselves in one of the cabins to look through the competition tapes. Pause, stop, rewind, slow-mo, we analysed every move down to its finest points to weed out what was legit and what wasn’t. Also with 7 judges, all in different categories and all with different sponsors, there was no room for bias, just brutally honest judging.

The solid judging, a great off-water festival, and an all round great vibe throughout the whole paddling community made these Nationals one sick event.

Thanks again to all the sponsors of the event, and also just to EVERYONE who was there, it was a great atmosphere, a great comp, and we couldn’t have done it without ya’s.

Cheers, - Anthony Yap

PLACINGS:

OC1

1st Jeremy Blanchard

2nd Liam Corr

1st Jeremy Blanchard

2nd Grant Schuster

JR Mens

1st David Toohey

2nd Lachie Carracher

3rd Jake Farrager

Women

1st Melanie Morcom

2nd Anita Cowley

3rd Sandy Diciero

Mens

1st Anthony Yap

2nd Russell Bozza

3rd Tim Dangerfield