SOTA Trade Show - Kayak4play & Fluid kayaks

After my Breif visit to sydney for the Australian Freestyle Nationals i jumped on a plane and headed south to meet up with leigh (K4P) to help out on the both at the annual SOTA trade show.

There was HUGE amount of interest in the fluid kayaks range (http://www.fluidkayaks.com/) especially the "element", fluids new surf boat. It should be a huge hit over here in Australia with shops lining up to be part of the "user-friendly" surf kayak revolution!

The New Element surf kayak with the distinct "sexy lady k4p logo

As always the Immersion research, H2O paddle and Astral PFD Range, created strong interest. Their new product ranges bringing paddle comfort together with the normal bomb-proof quality products and affordable pricing which has kept them favorites for years now.

Leigh keeping a "Eye" on potential beer theivery...or comtemplating his own...

The Australian importer Leigh Wighton from kayak4play in Tasmanian was there to help out with technical advice on products and pricing while i was busy chatting up a storm at the fluid tent, However this was after spending the first morning trying to unlock the boats from his roof rack after screwing up a borrowed combination lock.....stupid.

...So much for "helping"....

Cheers BEERS and happy boating in the EXPD Solo

Adrian Kiernan

Fluid kayak and Kayak4play Athlete

Australian Freestyle Nationals 2008

Australian Mens Freestyle Champion: Adrian Kiernan warming up on the skippy feature.
Australian Junior Freestyle Champion: James Rolo charging to victory in the finals!

A great weekend was had by all with 28 competitors. It was great to see that half of these competitors were juniors. The junior men's was held on Jack's with James Rowlinson placing first followed by Declan Czajkowski in second and Morgan James in third.The junior women's event was held on the wave just above last drop (no name) and was won by Emily Kaar followed up by Avril Moore in second placing.By lunch time Saturday the seniors still did not have a suitable feature although we had been working on Fryer for the past couple of weeks we could not get it back to a good feature. Luckily there was a stopper just behind Fryer which was upsetting the rafts and they turned the water ... we immediately set to with some alterations to the bollards and when the water was turned back on we had a great feature to run the senior K1 events on. A good steep wave that we classed as unobtainable and so we set forth on the prelims for the rest of Saturday.Sunday started with finals of K1 with the following placings,

Men's

1st Adrian Kiernan
2nd Liam Corr
3rd Russ Boza

Adrian Kiernan throwing down in the finals.

Our only Women's K1 contender was Christine Haylock, a new arriver to our shores but willing competitor, who has flown off to Darwin with a gold to start her new job. Good luck Christine.C1 and OC1 were held on Jack's with a few trying the single paddle for the first time in comp.C1 placings were

1st Jez Blanchard
2nd James Rowlinson
3rd Liam Corr

OC1: 1st Liam Corr with the other places going to Jez Balnchard, James Rowlinson and Russ Boza to work out with their unique styles of competing.Even though the weather was a little cold, wet and windy a great time was had by all and we were pleased with the turnout.I would like to thank the following sponsors who donated to the prizes over the weekend.Feed the Rat, Cumec magazine, Wetspot, Enrtopy Gear, Dagger Kayaks, Lounge Kayaker & Wavemonkey.And a really big thank you for Jez Blanchard who took on the role a MC for most of the weekend and has been encouraging the junior development at Penrith along with Mark Hammer and Liam Corr as well as everyone else who helped in the organization and setting up for the event.We also had the NSW premier of Downunder the Horizonline on Saturday night which was a great night for all. (some were still feeling the effects on Sunday well into the comp)We should have some video up on Lounge Kayaker soon and some pics in Cumec mag sometime in the future so keep a lookout for them.Otherwise thanks to everyone for making it a great weekend and hopefully we can have some more events in the future.

Adrian maximizing the airtime on a bouncy "fryer" feature.

Thanks very much to Jim for the write up and Maggie Crocker for the pictures.

California 2008

For some reason this post wont go to the top of the page where it belongs.??!...oh well...

Pictures Tell 1,000 words....

A selection of lifestyle pictures by Maggie Crocker.

*Stay tuned for video update coming soon*

Featured Athletes: Jimmy Lohrey, Sean Boz, Ben Earl, Rush Sturges and Adrian Kiernan.