Freestyle

Germans hope for top 10 finishes

Twenty-two of Germany’s most skilled kayakers bob patiently in their brightly colored boats in the eddy at the Isar Wave. Steps away from them on shore, festive sponsor banners flap in the breeze, circus sized tents are being erected, a small tent village has cropped up and a nervous energy palpably hangs in the air. Later tonight, the German team will join with more than 200 of their paddling brothers and sisters from 25 countries around the world to parade through town for the Opening Ceremony of the 2011 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships.

For the next five days, athletes will perform hydraulic-defying loops, spins, cartwheels and off-axis screws with crazy names like McNasty, Phonix Monkey, and Lunar Orbit. It’s like a snowboard or skate competition but the canoeists remain seated in their boats, trying to cram as many moves as they can into 45-second rides while a panel of judges looks on and awards points for each trick successfully executed to precise definitions. The paddlers who can consistently turn in the highest scoring rides will be the new World Champions by the end of the week.

Insiders are optimistic for Germany’s chances of getting a number of Top 10 results. The following are brief interviews with four of Germany’s medal hopefuls.

Sandrina Hornhardt, 18, Offenburg. The two-time European junior women’s champ finished with a Silver medal at the last World Championships two years ago in Thun, Switzerland. While able to enjoy a position as one of the world’s top-ranked junior women for the past few years, Plattling marks Hornhardt’s first competition as a senior. Hornhardt is reserved when asked about her goals. Recognizing the depth and experience of her fellow competitors, Hornhardt is putting the emphasis on having fun and seeing how her scores stack up to the likes of defending champ Emily Jackson (USA), former World Champion Ruth Gordon (CAN) and other high-profile female paddlers like Nouria Newman (FRA, 2009 Junior Women’s World Champion) and renowned expedition boater and creeker, Mariann Saether (NOR).

Markus Hummel, 27, Augsburg. Kayaking has been a family affair since Hummel was just a young boy. Shortly after achieving a career-high bronze in German championships, Hummel switched to Canoe class (C1), where paddlers kneel in their boats and use a single-bladed paddle as contrasted with kayak (K1) where they sit in boats and use double-bladed paddles. Since then, Hummel has been five-time C1 German champion, had a career-high third in the European championships and was barely edged off the podium, finishing fourth at the last Worlds. Highly focused on completing his university studies, Hummel still has his sights set firmly on the Finals. While happy to compete in his home waters of Germany, Hummel said he is looking forward to the next two years when international freestyle competitions will be held on a different continent, specifically, the USA.

Seppi Strohmeier, 27, Munich. Seppi and his brother and fellow teammate, Simon, have been honing their skills on waves they could bike to in downtown Munich since they were both young boys. Hoping to make the finals of what may be his last pro competition, Strohmeier, a 10-year veteran of the German team, said he hopes to follow some new directions in kayaking. He explained he hopes to be able to notably apply his newly minted degree in Business Administration to a career in the outdoor industry that allows him to still continue to pursue his interest in expedition kayaking. In fact, Strohmeier just returned from a well-documented trip to South America with Saether and Jakub Sedivy (CZH) where he recorded a number of first descents on rivers in remote, southern Patagonia including the Salto Grande, which features a powerful and photogenic 12-meter drop in Torres del Paine National Park.

Martin Koll, 24, Cologne. The two-time German Champion who took sixth at the European Championships last year is optimistic about his chances at this event. In an effort to up the odds of success, Koll was invited by Robert Sommer, of kayak manufacturer Robson, to design a kayak specifically for the anticipated low flows on the Isar; Robson is also head of the Organizing Committee for these championships. Flows were uncharacteristically low, until just a few days ago when somewhat unfortunately for Koll’s boat design, persistent rain drove the river levels upward forcing Koll and many other boaters to think twice about which boat to use for the competition: one that does well when the flow makes the competition feature shallow or another boat or even lightweight carbon boats that perform well at bigger flows. Koll’s picks for men to watch during these championships include Gerd Serrasoles (ESP), Dustin Urban (USA), James Bebbington (GBR) and Peter Csonka (SVK), the latter two of whom have spent considerable time training in Plattling. While he’s not certain boat design is a path he wants to continue, Koll is committed to competing professionally, living in his car so he can travel at a moment’s notice to wherever the rivers are flowing best in Europe and is eagerly looking forward to the upcoming years’ competitions in the US.