Saar-Splash 2008 - Big Air Contest take two

Yesterday I came back from two days of big air competition in Saarbrücken where the second German Kanu-Freestyle-Big-Air-Championchips were held. The Saar-Splah is integrated every year into the Saarspektakel a really big town-festival with a dragon-boat-race, music and all kind of stuff. Over the period of three days there are around 350.000 thousand people visiting the event.
For me it was the first time ever going over a artificial ramp with a kayak. Therefore I started slowly and tried to get used to the height of the ramp. Additionally I found it not to easy to initiate the moves without an active edge change. But after a few tries I started to get the hang of it and made the final with Martin Koll and Tobias Hüther. Martin, who has been able to start training on the ramp one day earlier with Tobias who is one of the organizers of the big air contest and therefore even had some experience from last year pushed the moves to a really high level. And I think that even with the same amount of training I wouldn´t have been able to challenge them both this year as I was too hesitant to initiate the move on the edge of the ramp. But next year I know what to expect and I´ll be back for sure! ;-) In the end it was a really close desicion with the happy ending for Tobias who is the German Kanu Big Air Champion of 2008 leaving Martin with the Silver Medal and me with the Bronze-Medal.
Besides the competition Saarbrücken is a really nice city and has to offer a sweet night life which we had the pleasure to experience as Tobias showed us some bars and clubs. Thanks for that Tobias and the effort you always put in the event!
Here some impressions:

Getting ready on top of the ramp

Amphibian cars in different styles in the background

Martin Koll going for the back loop

Toby working the mike

Toby in mid air going for the title

Martin and Toby after the last jump

Toby receiving kisses at the prize-giving

The boys happy about their prizes
Third place: ipod nano 4 GB, Second place: ipod nano 8 GB and first place ipod touch

Nadine Krämer happy about her new Teva shoes which she got because she was the only girl brave enough going down the ramp with a snowboard

All pics but last one by Nadine Krämer

cu there next year!