FlowState Issue 8

FREESTYLE
The inaugural Southeast Freestyle
Fest took place on August 15th.
This grassroots event, organised
by Southeast Freestyle and
friends, gathered over 50 paddlers to a blue
skied Suir Blueway in Clonmel for a
combination of Elite, intermediate, novice
and junior freestyle, boaterX and SUP.
Although there was a large representation of the Irish junior and
senior freestyle squad hungry for competition in this unusual year,
the vibe on the day was craic first results second.
Having said that the boater X races, which were run in
playboats on the slalom course, were ruthless, and hard-fought.
Before the Freestyle finals the gentle sport of SUP, used for
everything from sightseeing to yoga, was given a freestyle make
over with more shouting than meditation.
One of the special parts of the event was the large number
of Women and Junior participants, which can be attributed to the
number of and range of clinics run by Southeast freestyle in
Clonmel over the summer. Not only do we have enough juniors for
three Southeast freestyle squads when this pandemic is over, we
have more women involved in the sport in Ireland than we have
ever before.
The main event took place in the Fish boxes and did not
disappoint, the competition was fierce and the large number of
spectators, many of whom were locals watching freestyle for the
first time, were not disappointed.
The event borrowed an alternative format of competition
from the Salt Kayak Fest in Spain where they go through to a head
to head final. We put U12's up to elite classes in head to head
finals to battle it out for the titles. We had 10 classes compete in
this way with 1 run and only 35 seconds to win. One of our more
exciting finals came in the U12 class with local brothers Jack and
Tony O'Brien battling it out for bragging rights, Our junior girls final
was hard fought between Beibhin Butler and Brianna O’Loan, with
the local Beibhin taking the win on home waters. In the U'18's class
rising prodigy Mark Kearney took the win in what is to be his last
junior event before joining the men's division. In the women's
classes, UCC paddler Eilish Kennedy took naming rights over rival
UCC paddler Ali Hill. Aisling Brennan won the elite women's class,
narrowly defeating Aisling McCarthy. Reigning Irish champion Aoife
Hanrahan watched on feigning injury due to nerves. (Or maybe it
was actually some nerve damage, I don't remember). Anyway, the
highly coveted elite men's title was taken by David McClure,
narrowly defeating Irish legends Tom Dunphy and Len Kelleher in
the semi's and finals respectively. It might have helped that David
organised, judged and scored the rides, but fortunately no-one
questioned that at the time.
The event was a huge success that will become a permanent
fixture on the Irish freestyle calendar. The success was due to the
hard work of many people, Mick Butler first and foremost for letting
us use his town and his river to host the event. Sean Kearney,
James O'Connor. Stephen Happe and Aoife Hanrahan deserve a
special mention for their help in putting on this event. A moment of
appreciation to our supporters Tipperary sports Partnership, The
Canoe Centre, SurfEars, Immersion Research, Dewerstone and
Canoeing Ireland for helping us make sure the event was well
supported and turned out great.
Stay safe and we’ll see ye all next year.
Photographers : Anthony Hawkins, Nancy Geary
Written by David McClure
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