IrishFreestyle

Howdy folks,

The weekend just gone saw the passing of the squad selection event for this year's ICF World Freestyle Championships. The plan was to hold the event on Curragower wave in Limerick City, and following a phone call from the ESB on Friday afternoon confirming the requested water levels for the weekend everything was green for go.

On Saturday morning almost 50 paddlers showed up to strut their stuff and gain a place on this year's squad. Sadly we received a phone call from the ESB saying that due to near epic rain fall over the Shannon Basin that water was now flowing Ardnacrusha dam and they had to realise as much water as possible. This ment the Curragower wave would never form, however it did bring "little Gower" into play, the decision was made to wait until 14.00 to see what the suitability of "little Gower" for trials.

During this time phone calls were aplenty checking water levels and play spots around the country. As 14.00 arrived it was apparent that "little Gower" was not suitable for completion so the difficult decision was made to move the whole event to Tarmonbarry Wave, Only after receiving confirmed reports of epic water levels. This decision was received by the competitors far far better than was expected, as everyone understood that these were special circumstances. There were calls of last minute road trip and even reports of some people getting in some late evening practice that night.

As Sunday morning rolled around in Tarmonbarry it was a testament to the Freestyle community that we had almost 100% attendance from those who had showed up in Limerick the previous days. As the conditions were Baltic and the levels were very high it was decided that the Juniors did not have to compete but they were having none of it! The completion kicked off at 11.30 and confirmed Tarmonbarry as one of the premier play spots in Ireland.

After a hard fought event the results were as follows and announcing the 2009 Irish Freestyle Squad;

Senior Men

1st Mark Leonard

2nd Moogie

3rd Moe K

4th Bowsie

5th Neil Gibson

6th Tom O'D

7th Mickey b

8th Dave Crerar

8th Tom Dunphy

10th Ronnie Brennan

Junior men

1st Rory O'Reilly

2nd Tim Kiernan

2nd Rob Price

4th Coran king

5th Eoin Farrell

.

Senior Ladies

1st Kim Sikerman

2nd Frances O D

3rd Jenny Kilbride

4th Sinead O'D

5th Aisling Corky

6th Siobhan Mc G

Junior ladies

Niamh

Eimear

Caoimhe

( Can all those listed above please email your contact details email / phone with the "Worlds Squad" in the subject box to committee@irishfreestyle.com To the more "seasoned" people please dont asume we have your details )

On behalf of the committee I would like to say congratulations to those who have made the squad and all the competitors who supported this event and made it a success. A huge thanks has to all those who judged and scribed, without you these events are not possible. A pat on the back To Orky our Completions Officer who did very well despite this being his first big freestyle event to organise.

On a personal note a Huge shout out to the Junior lades who braved the elements and stepped up to what is quite an intimidating feature that even some of or more seasoned Seniors were apprehensive about. Also to Rory "the kid" O Reilly who put down some rides that would have placed him in the Senior men squad.

Thanks again to all who took part, and here is looking forward to a tuccesfull Worlds  later in the year.

Adrian

pro@irishfreestyle.com