Hurley Classic

The Hurley Classic is one of the oldest events on the freestyle calender... it has been around since the sports birth and has always tried to keep in touch with the sports roots- the emphasis is on having a laugh!

This year it rained- a lot- and the river rose rapidly on the Saturday from an awesome steep green three in the morning to a pretty awful high holey three come Sunday morning, the day of the competition. This was soon remidied when the lockie opened up the final gate to give a big 4 gates for the comp- bring on the carnage!



This really levelled the playing field- it was going to take big moves and linked moves to score high- otherwise you would be scrapping it out in the middle of the pack. There was also plenty of scope for a few beatings- always a crowd pleaser :0)

The competitors were split into 8 heats with 7 or 8 in each heat. All the categories were mixed together, which made for a wide variety of skill levels in each heat- the idea being that the better paddlers helped out the less experienced ones. These heats would run in a jam style lasting 15 minutes with each paddler getting 30 seconds a time to rack up a decent score. The top 5 in each category then progressed to a super final run to international rules.

There was some great talent on view with the better paddlers linking some big moves- Alan Ward threw a massive mcnasty in my heat with Lee Pyke, Joe Bradley and others throwing big loops front and back.

As the competition progressed it was obvious who the top guys and girls were going to be but the rest of the paddlers were very close and the competition was fierce, but friendly.

For many this is their first taste of competition and despite some seemingly odd judging decisions I think everyone seemed to have a great time at a well organised event- must say a big thanks to Garry who kept us all in hot food and drink and to the Kayakojacko team for their organisation of another great event.

For the record I think I came about 13th in the mens Kayak With Alan Ward Coming out on top just beating Ed Smith, Finn was about 11th in the Juniors with Joe Bradley and Ben West topping the table, and Hugh in his first competition did real well, even going for (and in my humble opinion sticking) a Donkey Flip! For the full results go and check out www.tvfreestylers.co.uk .Be great to see a few more of you there next year :0)

Matt