ICF Canoe Freestyle Committee activities Q1 2025

Preparations in full swing for Plattling

Following last year's ICF Canoe Freestyle World Cups, we have continued our preparations for this year's ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships in Plattling.  

Due to unforeseen circumstances Thomas Hinkel, who headed up last year's Host Organising Committee, has had to step down. Jonas Unterberg has stepped into Thomas’ place as a capable replacement. Jonas meets with the committee regularly to provide updates on event progress. I can report that Tanya and her team are putting together another exciting development camp bringing together paddlers of all ages and abilities. Thanks also needs to go to the organisers who are facilitating the project. The political changes in the German Government have caused some delay in receiving some of the funding promised for the World Championships. However, Jonas, the Committee and the German National Federation are working through this to bring you another great event. This year, we will have an official ICF masters competition along with a pre-runners side event which will be open to under 15’s. Plattling is one of the homes of Canoe Freestyle and as always will organise a paddler-focused event, this year's competition will be no exception.

Tribute to Bren Orton

Along with many of you, I went to the celebration of Bren’s life to pay tribute to a great guy. It was an amazing day and a real testament to the man that we know. Someone whose personality brought happiness to so many.

Changes to the Committee

The ICF Congress was in Antalya last November where we appointed a new Committee for the next four years. Matt and Ciaran have stepped down, although are still being roped into Committee tasks. Thanks needs to go to these guys who serve freestyle so selflessly. Mason Hargrove has joined the Committee along with Tanya from Great Britain. It’s great to have their experience, enthusiasm and energy as part of the team. Jez is back on the Committee. It’s great to have his expertise. I’m not sure how we managed without him. We still have Alex, Anne and Ned and of course me. I believe it’s a great team that will work hard to represent the Canoe Freestyle community.

Survey on squirt and OC1

Following our athlete meetings in Columbus, we polled the Canoe Freestyle community, or at least those on the WhatsApp group, about whether squirt and OC1 should remain as ICF competition classes. A healthy majority wanted squirt to stay. Unfortunately, the OC1 poll was skewed by a few people voting more than once and others sending the link to people outside the Canoe Freestyle community. Unfortunately, we didn’t feel that the OC1 poll was reliable, so it’s back to the drawing board on that one. 

Development Hub

In an exciting development, plans are coming together to create the ICF’s first centre of excellence for Canoe Freestyle. This will be in Columbus, Georgia and the project kicks off this spring. This is a completely new initiative that will see the rollout of a Development Hub offering numerous ongoing Canoe Freestyle opportunities for padders in the Americas.  Our ambition is to create similar hubs on other continents with a view to widen freestyle participation and provide a more stable structure for sustained freestyle development.

San Juan success

At the end of February, San Juan held the Argentinian Canoe Freestyle Open on the brilliant feature. This was an ICF level 4 event with Maxi and his club serving as the main organisers. They were ably assisted by Charlie Brackpool and Mason Hargrove on behalf of the ICF.  Whilst in San Juan, Charlie ran a judges’ seminar and Mason and Charlie helped organise and ran a development camp. Paddlers from a number of South American countries took part and we hope to be able to repeat the project again in the future. Initiatives like this one are what help bring paddling communities together.

Paddle Summit

Also, at the end of February, we saw the first ICF Paddle Summit take place in Hangzhou China. This was an opportunity for members of all the paddling committees to get together and share ideas. Whilst there, we visited the Fuyang Water Sports Centre in Hangzhou. The hope is that Canoe Freestyle will be part of this year's Super Cup event which will take place in Hangzhou in September. If this goes ahead it will provide an opportunity to introduce Canoe Freestyle to China and the wider Asian public.

Columbus Cup and more

In April, we have the Columbus Cup, another ICF level 4 event being put together by the folks down in Georgia, United States. This exciting annual event will be held on the World Championships feature and has some enticing prize money. The hope is that this will encourage paddlers from all countries to compete on what is sure to be the World  Championships feature in 2029. Also, the Rules Working Group put forward some appendix changes which were approved by the ICF Board of Directors, and we are slowly working our way through our technical deliverables to make it easier for organisers to apply for events. Thanks to Charlie, a programme of ongoing judges training is now taking shape, so watch this space for the next seminar in your region.

Next stop, Plattling and the World Championships. See you there. 

By Terry Best, Chair of the ICF Canoe Freestyle Committee