Teva Extreme Outdoor Games 2010

The first half of June is becoming a traditional time for great and prestigious outdoor competition Teva Outdoor Games. That‘s why we filled our van with friends and kayaks and went off to Italian Piemont.

Chiusella, foto by Michal Kroupa

On the long way from Prague we stopped on Brandenberger Ache, which had a nicely huge 70 cm (the gauge is changed - 70 was about 95 on the old one). Than we moved to Swiss on Versasca, which had very nice higher water (about 25 cumecs), so we greatly enjoyed all the astonishingly bluish rapids and jumps. Finally, we arrived to the area of cozy Italian city Ivrea, ran nearby river Soanna and started practicing on Chiusella – the river chosen for the competition. The 72 competing men joined Matej Sottner, Jirka Srbek, Mira Kodada and Jirka Kopecny from our group and I registered among the 9 girls.

Versasca, foto by Matej Sottner

The two kilometer long racing part for sprints was the same for men, girls and teams. It included many nice jumps and rapids, few sifons, nice slide and an about 5m high rocky waterfall. There could have been seen quite nasty falls head down, backwards and even before the race a dislocated shoulder of our Slovenian friend, which prevented him from competing. Otherwise, the steep river hadn’t got much water, despite a horrible rainy weather, and therefore were all the runs rather stony.

Last drop on Chiusella, foto by Michal Kroupa.

The sprints were held on Thursday, starting with jump from a three meter high rock and with the system of one half of the competing field making the rescue, which was sometimes needed:o)

Chiusella, foto by Matej Sottner

First twenty top men from the sprints moved up to the waterfalls of the much more difficult part of the river for the King of the Falls competition. This race was very exciting, especially for the audience, thanks to a 6 meter high and very tricky waterfall. From our group qualified for the race Honza Lasko, who ended up on a wonderful 3rd place, Palo Andrassy and Jirka Kopečný, who went both pretty well too. Hero of that competitions was a french guy Eric Deguil who ran the first fall almost head first, broke the paddle, swam out and bravely finished the competition single-bladed, as he is french representative for slalom canu:o)

Upper Chiusella, foto by Honza Lasko

The team sprints took place on Friday and as far as I‘d noticed nothing special happened there, cause all the teams went really great. Interesting where four mixed teams, which were, however, out of competition.

The French team, foto by Michal Kroupa

After two days on the river the race moved right to the center of Ivrea, on a slalom course. The slalom course, however, didn‘t make the racing less hard core, even though the slalom paddlers had definitely a big advantage here. Despite no real sticky holes, many competitors were struggling with the powerful stream and the wildly circulating eddies could have been classified by level WW IV:o) About 30 cumecs run through the otherwise steep and considerably short course, and this was approximately the water level we had during Friday training runs.

Ivrea, foto by Honza Lasko

Unfortunately, the water rose to a flood rate until Saturday morning, so that the course shortened even more, the current was much more powerful than and the floating grown-up trees and trunks didn‘t really lowered the level of difficulty.


China race, foto by Honza Lasko

The two sprint runs were than in a rather strained spirits, especially in the girls category. Because it was pretty hard to eskimo roll in the tricky waters, we could have seen one swim. Also the Italian water rescue, unlike the Austrian one, didn‘t convinced anyone when they threw the throwbag from a rather unsuitable place right into the slalom weirs, so that the swimming girl was rescued by other competing girls.

Girls racing.., foto by Michal Kroupa

Further on, after a tasteful lunchbox, the individual and team slalom races started. Not many paddlers managed to pass all the poles thanks to the pretty unreadable streams and because it was nothing unusual to get washed out of the right eddy or, in some cases, even run the whole course head down ;o)

Kayak X, foto by Michal Kroupa

The bouldering finals were to be seen in the evening and they were followed by a nice party underlined by free red bull vodka drinks and Djs‘ under a Red bull tent. After a hard morning for some, the tough kayak-cross races of the first 28 men(from overall results) an all girls started. Many exciting actions were performed, for the fact that four riders were now hitting each other in a course where even individuals had problems. We can just guess why were the semifinals held, when the result didn‘t even counted, but what wouldn‘t we do for the audience:o)

Ivrea, foto by Honza Lasko

The results are as follows K1M 1. Mike Dawson (NZ), 2. Fabian Doerfler (D), 3.
Dejan Kralj (Slo)
K1Z 1.Anne Hubner (D), 2. Nouria Newman (Fr), 3. Jen Chrimes (VB)
TEAMS 1. New Zealand, 2. Slovenia, 3. Czech Republic
Our team, including Honza Lasko, Viktor Legat and Jirka Kopečný, bravely shined on the third place in team races. I ended up on the 5th place in the overall girls’ results. Quite sad was the division of the prize money when the first man won nine hundred Euros and the firs girl got just a pack of crisps and a backpack, but don’t let my judgment throw a bad shadow on the otherwise great competition. Finally, it suits to thank to all the organizers, especially Francesco, Carla and Michelle, for a great job and nice time spent during the competition.
Looking forward to next year!