A couple of weeks ago, we had the Dutch Freestyle Championships and the 2004 Team Trials in Sault Brenaz, France. Why France? It was the DUTCH champs, eh? Well Flatland had no whitewater and to select a freestyle team on their flatwater cartwheel capabilities would be absolutely rediculous.. Therefor most of freestyle holland travelled to the French town of Sault Brenaz, to party, train, but most of all going for the gold! Fanatism was high this year, although in an atmosphere of joy and friendship. That's the way Freestyle should be; a bunch of friends, having fun in a wave. With a number of 40 competitors, the competition required a lot of time and preparation. EJ, Casa and some others spended lot's of time to make the event happen.
Saturday morning, the time was there to compete. After a week of preparing, good parties (Caspers 18th birthday) we could finally go for the ride. 8 o'clock in the morning, the briefing was planned and the sleepy heads rolled out of their tents. The women juniors were first to go. The judges could hardly recognise them, as their was a big fog hanging over the slalom course that morning. Nevertheless they were kickin hard for the title. Next were the junior men. A lot of new lads were in this year, as last years juniors had to compete in senior class now. Between all the rides, the OC1 could give it a try. This class was booming this year with 5 competitors! To bad, they all used one boat. The new Robson CU-Fly would have made more moves possible for some people.. After the juniors, the women were on. The battle was strong and the winners proud. Tineke won in the K1W totally unexpected, but well deserved.
Next up were the K1M. This class had most expectations, as last years juniors Cas, PJ and Remi, had to prove themselves worthy. The moves were big and the rides kicked ass. Remi showed of real wicked stuff and Vincent proved he was the best again. Also Roy made big progression and showed some real steady stuff. The judges had a difficult job...
Finally the results were on and they turned out to be rather "unexpected"! Remi became second, before Rene.. PJ beated EJ and Emiel, who was last years champion. Casper only ended up fourth, while most people expected him to be the winner... The complete list can be found at www.outsideplayer.nl/dft. That's all, enjoy the pix and check out the next story..
Greetz PJ
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