Blog

Our last freestyle event of the season took a part in Graz, Austria. For us it’s only about 3 hours of driving so on Friday morning we packed our camper and hit the road. Just me & Peter, our son Petko and two dogs stayed at home with grandma. So we had few days just for us and kayaking. We didn’t even have to worry about food as the guys from Graz prepared great meals for all athletes during these days. Hole in Graz is quite special. It is an artificial hole made by local kayak club. It’s situated in the…

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Our adventure in Chile with two kayaks and one child. Chile was on our “must to go” list already for a few years. We really wanted to visit this country and paddle that great rivers so when we were deciding where to go this winter Chile was a perfect choice. Chile is a large country and when you want to go to all this great places you have to be there at least four weeks. Because we are parents and didnt want to leave our son with grandma for too long we decided to take our four years old with us. …

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European Championships in freestyle kayaking are held every second year. This year we had a honor to held it in Slovakia in Cunovo which is our local spot. To have a competition at your home area can be a advantage but disadvantage at the same time. Everybody has a big expectations of you and you can feel under the pressure. But on the other hand you know that place very well and can enjoy the comfort of home.  Last time the Europeans were held in Slovakia was in 2014. Peter won the title of European champion and I took silver. This…

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This year we decided to make summer trip to Norway. We haven’t been there for seven years so we were pretty excited.  We loaded our camper with kayaks and bikes and started our adventure. First stop were at Friedrichshafen at Adidas summit and Outdoorshow. We had nice reunion with old friends and meet some new team members. Evening’s barbecue was great way how to make a new friendships. Next day we spent at Outdoorshow watching new products and meeting even more friends from the outdoor world. From there we started our way to Norway. We didn’t hurry as we were one…

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Trnava Xrace 2018 One of our most favorite whitewater course to paddle in is definitely Trnavka in Czech. It situated between Brno and Prague in small village called Zeliv. It’s nice, quite long artificial course with great gradient and big drop at the end. Local paddlers do every year extreme race for kayakers from all around. It’s not just Czech event but you can see there many Polish, Slovaks, Austrians or other nationalities. Water is released from the dam above at certain times. We came on Friday afternoon and did several laps on the course. One of the benefits of it…

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Back injury. This year doesn’t start happily for me. After few trainings on the water I had to stop to train because of big pain in my lower back. Lately it turned out to be two ejected and destroyed spine discs. It didn’t look well and doctor even suggested a surgery but it wasn’t an option for me. I couldn’t move much because this pain went through my whole left leg. Painkillers were on my daily diet but they didn’t help much. I was very nervous and angry from constantly pain and because I could do any sport. I have visited…

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After a month in Slovakia I already had a strong feeling that I had to go kayaking somewhere. The best option was to go for Galicia in Spain. I didn't take much to convince any of my friends to come long. We jumped into the van and hit the road. It was like 20 hours to France until our first stop. Millau is usually little warmer than Slovakia. Bu this year the cold weather hit the whole of Europe. Getting ready for kayaking in the morning with frozen boats and gear was not easy. Than you have to convince yourself to…

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I can honestly say that this year’s season was one of the longest one. After one and half month in Argentina we repacked our bags at home left our kiddo at grandma and flew to Zambia to kayak the mighty Zambezi river.  Our first time at Zambezi was at 2009. After we heard they are planning to dam it and all the amazing white water will turn into the lake we had to go there again to see it last more time.  I remembered the river and the rapids but still the first day on the river after 8 years was…

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5 weeks in Argentina run so fast and we are already back home. We went there to train and compete at World Championships in freestyle kayaking. The competition hole was situated in San Juan, the city in the middle of desert. Before we got there we didn’t have any special expectations but at the end I can say that this trip was one of the best adventure. It is funny to say as we aren’t happy with our final results at the event. We went there as a complete family - Me (Nina), my husband Peter and our little son Petko…

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This season is longer than others because of the late World Championships, which take a place in Argentina from end of November until the beginning of December. The small city San Juan hosted the World Cup in 2016 and now the World Championships will take place here. We traveled to San Juan four weeks in advance so we had time to train and get used to the water before the event starts. It took 36 hours to get there but we are finally here and enjoy the summer again. The playspot is surrounded by desert and the scenery is so beautiful.…

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Pragues is well know not just because of its beautiful city but for its good and successful slalom kayak paddlers as well. They have pretty good base at Troja in Prague. Troja whitewater center is situated just behind the corner of the Zoo-biggest one in Europe. Troja slalom course is medium difficulty artificial channel. Mostly all year around you can see there slalom paddlers or rafters from all over the world. Unfortunately they have just few freestyle kayakers despite the conditions are very good. In the second half of the course you can find hole which perfectly suites to freestyle kayaking.…

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Who doesn't know Lipno or Lipno Devils extreme race? It's one of the most famous kayak festival in Europe. The water in river is released from dam only few days a year. It use to be a last weekend of August. Kayakers and rafters from all around the world are coming to this small village in Czech Republic to run this beautiful wild river. From Friday till Sunday you can meet thousands of people on the water. This river is not easy and it is classified as a WW III - V. It's fast and steep with big trashy waves and…

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We are back home from Graz. We had five great weeks full of action, paddling and competing. Now we’ll stay home for two weeks to paddle on our whitewater course and enjoy our sweet home for a while. We have great facilities for paddling, cycling or swimming just few meters from our house. But back to Graz. It was the third event of the EuroCup. After weeks of training we were ready for competition. The hole was difficult but deep so after having paddled many shallow holes it was great change. Peter had nice runs in the finals and finished second. I also…

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This year freestyle competition season in Europe started quite late. Maybe because of it there were few events following each other. Our plan was to attend 6 events in six weeks. Straight after my successful PhD. title defense we packed all our gear into our home on the wheels and headed off to Germany. First stop was at Plattling to paddle for few days. Than we moved to Friedrichshafen for outdoor show and for Adidas team workshop and to meet our Adidas family. This is great event where you can see all new stuff for upcoming season and meet many great…

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Pilsen is Czech city well known because of its brewery and tasty beer named the same as city – Pilsen. Kayakers know it not only because of beer but because of their freestyle playspot which was build few years ago and is situated right after old mill. River is flowing thru narrow channel right from mill and at the end is hydraulic construction which is making hole. Water is falling from 1,5 high to pool and creating big and powerfull hole. Local kayakers organize freestyle event every year but we couldn’t make it there last three years because it always matched…

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Our first event of this year was Trnavka Xrace in Czech Republic. Trnavka is an artificial white water course known as most difficult one in Europe and it's quite long as well. This weekend we left our son with grandma at home so we had a bit of time just for ourselves and could paddle together. We arrived on Friday and went for evening session. It was my first time here and I was really surprised how good and funny it was. Many drops, eddies, fast lines and at the end of the course was one big drop falling into pool…

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