PURE JEST FOR LIFE: Trenčín aka the wave hunt on the river Váh in Slovakia

After we´ve seen Peter Csonkas video last week from their sessions on the Trenčín wave our misson was clear. Skip the Soca testival for another year and pray that the waterlevel stays up enough on the Vah. We had three days holiday last weekend and after around 7 hours drive we arrived in Trenčín. But unfortunately the water has gone down around 1m during the last few hours before we got there and we just missed the perfect level of one of the waves. The only thing that calmed me down was that apparently the level was just perfect for maybe 15 minutes. So when we got there the level was around 400 cubics, i.e. the just mentioned wave is not any more in as it gets too hole-like and trashy (you can check out that wave below on the pics with the entry moves). So we waited a few hours the level fell another 10 cm or so, as the margin there is really small and then a smaller wave with a nice foam pile on the other side of the river kicked in . Besides the wave you see a really large hole in the middle which covers nearly half of the river but does not quite invite to get a beating in it and at the other end of the hole you find the "entry move-wave/hole".

During the next two days the level rose and fell again between those 10 centimeters and we had a lot of time for talking shop with our local guide Miloš Trnka ;-)

Well as said before the trashy wave was ideal for doing high out entry moves. Here a sequence.

On Monday our third and last day, suddenly the water rose and the wave started to open up and it really got superb. So I sticked this nice clean helix and it was generally nice and smooth to launch nice wave moves. But unfortunately the wave was in for maybe 2 Minutes, no kidding. As I walked up (oh yeah, all waves have to be catched on the fly) the wave was totally gone.

Just one minute ago there was a huge hole/wave at this spot! So now a really crazy thing happened and it was the first time for me to experience something like that. I.e. the weir-gates were opened up totally, the water rose around 1,5 meter in just a few minutes and we experienced all the different waves which are at offer. And I have to say those few minutes were worth it and I want to be back, when they are in for longer! After those few minutes the gates were closed again and the water dropped even further than before (i.e. below 300 cubics, which is too low to have decent waves) but it didn´t matter for us cause it was already time to head back home again. Check out the pics below and mind that nice castle in the background of the first pic. Trencin is a nice town with an old inner city and the Palatschinken are just delicious!

Here still with closed gates

You see the two middle gates are opened up and the water starts floating in

Even nice waves before the main hole/wave row come in so you have two sets of waves behind each other.

And this is the formerly small but wide hole. Now the hole rather resembles La Malate and the shoulder is an equivalent to the Wittelsbacher wave in Munich in the good old times at its best level.