This time, the journey to Ljubljana was a bit more adventurous for me. When I arrived to Alpin Action in Trnovo ob Soči where I was supposed to pick up a jeep with “a few boats” for renting in Tacen, my jaw just fell down. Briefly, to drive the monster for two and a half hour, repeatedly stopping to check the suspicious construction while raining like a hell, Friday evening traffic jams, water dripping on my arm through a hole in the door and radio not working...Pure joy! Drenched and exhausted like a three weeks old kitten I miraculously made it all the way to Tacen and the fun could have started:)
Saturday morning, the boys helped me to unload the boat horror, everyone registered, get a beautiful event t-shirt, baguette and free drink tickets and a great rodeo competition set off.
This year, thanks to a nice water level, boaters from all over Europe were allowed to compete in the lower hole, where it was possible to make also most of the wave tricks.
Guys and a few Slovene juniors were presenting an amazing rides full of the most complicated tricks, however, in the girl’s category the hole seemed to be too tricky and powerful. So after many huge side surfs, mystery flush outs and wild eskimos it ended up at “who makes a flat spin is the winner“:)
The Czech crew was obviously well prepared and finally, the winner of men category was Honza Špindler and women category won the prettier part of the couple Lucka Horká, who broke more than one Slovene heart with her confident rides:)
Slunce, Slunce, Slunďa:)
Among the juniors received the most points Jan Havelka and the best performance with only half of a paddle (C1 category) was the one of Jonas Savšek.
As the competition was also Slovene National Championship, there we can see an extraordinary picture of Andraž Krpič, Slovene “World“ Champion 2009, 2010, 2011 and ?2012?...:P
....followed by not less brave and skilled Janez Čižman....
...and Luka Štricelj, with his air loop astral journeys (unbelievably high loops;)
In the mean time, there were at disposal a cozy bar and comfortable spot by the fire where it was possible to practice your balance skills on Slack line.
Also two huge lambs were getting ready in the flames to be eaten.
Sunday evening was in the name of Big Air jumps by the sunset, followed all the time by hilarious comments of polish rasta Bartosz. There were some really great tricks to be seen, including exit-the-boat-in the air mystery move by Jonas Savšek and a great performance of the winner Matic Štrukelj.
The always smiling, calm and responsible director of the competition Jonas;)
Another entertainment not only for the spectators was the show made by the young Slovene kayakers, who were bravely trying to come as far as possible over the slalom course on Stand-up kayak. Especially at the steep entrance there could be seen nice crashes ;)
Beginning long time before the cool live concert, Saturday party was one of the best and surely wilder than ever. Here the pictures say more than most of us remember..:)
Sunday hangover morning surprisingly wasn’t the easiest one, the only recipe was one small breakfast beer and concentrating all the willpower on not to trow up all over your fellow competitors during the kayak cross rides:)
Despite the fact that girls where competing together with the muscular and intimidating junior paddlers, together with Veloc we had won the fight with my wild stomach and managed to get into the finals.
There I had to let the boys get ahead of me and enjoy their youth and strength :) The winner was Vid Marušič on Czech made Zet kayak:)
In the men category the Zet boats again showed their power, when Matic Štrukelj beat all the guys and almost managed to drink a coffee before all the others made it to the finish.
At the end the prices were handed, thanks to the sponsors Mormaii eyewear, Hikosport, Alpine Action, Sit Go and many others. Than the time for packing, wiping away tears and kissing goodbyes had come after all. The event was definitely one of the best, and everyone who missed it for other reason than death made a huge mistake.
Finally, just start my camera to work out from the pictures how to load back all the boats and cheerfully start other three hour drive with boats sticking out of the jeep and posing a real threat for cars driving in the opposite direction.
Photo courtesy of Andraž Krpič, Jure Šusterčič and Alpine Action.
