 | Eurocup 3 - Spain, Galicia
The third and final Euro cup of 2007 was due to take place in Galicia in the north western corner of Spain. 1,264 miles of road, the English Channel, many hundreds of French toll roads and Lyon separated us and the Mino River.
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Author Flic Meares
06-08-2007 |
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The third and final Euro cup of 2007 was due to take place in Galicia in the north western corner of Spain. 1,264 miles of road, the English Channel, many hundreds of French toll roads and Lyon separated us and the competition. Lyon was at a near perfect level, easy for huge aerial tricks and the summer sun shone for those who cared to sit and watch the wave.
A further 13 hour drive to Galicia was full of fun, driving through the spectacular Pyrenees Mountains, many hysterical games of charades later we rocked up at the campsite. Monday morning we drove to check out the site of the competition, a road bridge crossed high above the river Mino providing a spectacular view over the Frieira hole and a massive dam released a varying amount of water just upstream.
As competitors arrived from across Europe training began. The hole varied at different levels, sometimes it was easy to paddle onto, other times it was less effort just to get out and walk back up and drop in. It was often super retentive which allowed for some of the trickier moves to be risked, yet the usual cartwheels, splits and loops were thrown all over the scene.
After several meetings between the Spanish and team leaders the competition was agreed to be held over just Friday and Saturday. Friday saw the heats take place and Saturday morning hosted the men’s and junior men’s semi finals. Finals on Saturday afternoon kicked off after the siesta. Starting with the C1 finals there was some hot action as Jordi Domejo took the gold medal. In the women’s finals Maria Lindgren (SWE) showed the boys how to throw an entry move and Leike Servais (NL) worked her way to first place with her consistent rides. GBR paddler Joe Bradley made top spot in the junior men’s at his first ever Euro cup event. Pringle and Jon (GBR) breezed into the men’s finals with Jon throwing down some spectacular air loops and Pringles crazy mc nasty and Phonix monkeys won him the silver medal.
The useless Spanish organisation team failed to organise enough water for the junior Ladies, so they took the results from the heats with Flic Meares in 1st and Hana Vackova in 2nd Place.
The sun shone the whole week and the Spanish Tapas catered for the large number of hungry paddlers every night. The final party in Arbo took place at a Spanish rock festival with live music until the early hours of the morning.
Happy Days…
Jo and Maria
Jon Boy in Galicia
Pringle and Casper
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