Charnay Beach Contest 2009 

 The motto of this year: sleep during the day and paddle at night !!

A new successful edition of Charnay Beach Contest !! I think this freestyle kayak competition

 will stayed in every one’s mind. This event by night saw the biggest frequenting of his short history.

With the presence of  the best kayakers in france as Mathieu Dumoulin, Sebastien Devred and the nice coming of the two brand new world champion Nick Trouman and Emily Jackson, the show went on!

 

The last year, because the too high flood on the Saone river, I had to cancel the event. This year, the water levels were low but I was sure this wave would work for the competition, I just didn’t know when...

I checked the water level in the web site all the week and I can saw that the wave often worked the night and morning. So, I decided to make the first Charnay Beach Contest “By Night”.

The competitors arrived all the day long on friday. The wave was not working yet. Just the time for the organisers to confirm the registration and at 11 p.m. the water began to grow. The first paddlers could start training while the judges where preparing their eyes to obscurity and high scores. Around midnight, in the windy and cold atmosphere, fafa launched the first Free Kayak Tour  (French kayak freestyle championship) 2010…

Each participant came in a free order and controlled mess at the start and jumped from the ramp directly to the wave for their first ride. All this until 4 am… after few hours sleeping it was on for another session of qualification from 10h until 12h because the water was running out to form the wave.

So, An afternoon of rest was well deserved for everyone. Some people played football, other guys learned  slackline, the world champions  learned to play bowls (in french : Pétanque ;-)) while the others were having a nap.

At 9 p.m. the music band took place for a friendly and funny concert  in a  awesome atmosphere!

Once the concert ended, the water level went back, the contest could resume with the semi-finals and finals.

We've got a superb performance throughout the weekend, big aerials and combos, and some new moves like the wavemonkey!

 

A big thanks at the principal partners Adidas and Sandiline, the Comité départemental de bourgogne, Kayak sesion and the local cheese Hervé poulet  from Jura.

A big thanks as well at all the guys who helped me throughtout the week and the judges who

no cracked up face at the french mess ;-).

And a special thanks at Mr Dupond Vincent from Canada who motived me to redo the wooden sidewalls ;-) without whom we would not have such a nice holl with a small water level.

 

You can check some photos here

 See you soon

Have fun

Stefun

Event Infos

Registration : 15€  (with registration, camping and concert)

don't forget your meat !! some barbecue will be it's for disposal.

And test boats. 

Compulsory pre-registration

pre-registration, By e-mail: charnaybeachcontest@gmail.com

Information to be supplied:

Name:
first name:
category:

Programme

12th  September 2009:

8h - 10h : competitors reception.
10h30 - 16h : Qualifications
16h30 : semi final + final youngs.
22h : concert with vidéo projection.

13th  September 2009:

9h -12h : quarter de final + semi finale.
12h30 -14h : king of the wave
14h30 - 17h : Final kayak.
17h : results, prize giving, thanks to the differents partnerships.

Return in the CBC 2007

charnay beach contest 2007

This year Charnay les Chalon, a village ‘in the middle of nowhere’ in Saone et Loire (Eastern France), welcomed more than 80 riders at the well-known spot called ‘Charnay’. The Charnay Beach Contest usually takes place in June, but every year the wave is capricious and often flat. Thus we decided to postpone the contest to September to get a better water level. And bingo! All week long while we were preparing the event the wave worked perfectly. We kept our fingers crossed that the wave would be as good for the week-end. And it was.



The fun started with a cool and cold night session on Friday evening. While some paddlers let off steam in the wave others were warming up at the barbeque with a cool drink in their hand. On Saturday morning we opened the registration. More and more kayakers arrived and we almost ran out of start numbers. In the end we had more than 80 competitors. The atmosphere was relaxed and the guys thoroughly enjoyed our springboard which threw them directly into the wave. Eventually the start groups were set up, the judges were ready to go and the announcer kicked off the 2007 CBC. In the afternoon the wave lost a bit of its power, because the weir held back water for the canal. In order to fill the gap, speaker Mathieu Robert spontaneously launched a 20 minute “king of the wave” which was won by our friend Bilal.

On the wave became ridable again, we continued with the qualification as well as the semi finals and finals for the youngest competitors. At 8 p.m. we moved half mile up the river to the campsite for a video screening and live concert of “Mojoproject”. Only those who were there can join in a conversation …

On Sunday semi finals and finals took place in a relaxed and cool atmosphere and thanks to our judges and especially our head judge Lounis Malik they were held at good speed. We completed the CBC 2007 with an unusual award ceremony for freestyle kayak contests sitting on chairs in the sand to pay tribute to the beach. We had lots of fun and that’s what counts.
See you next year.Stefun



Results:

Kayak men:

1 Planchais Romain
2 Respaud Guillaume
3 Pereira Julien

Kayak women:

1 Heleye Marie
2 Vila Cecile
3 Bruet Amelie

just for your eyes see a little video off this event.