Posted on 08/01/12
After a phenomenal start to the week the team went from strength to strength, learning new moves previously unperformed by Irish Riders and pushing their riding towards getting further up the Podium in the upcoming events.
Each morning the team have been up and ready for action with a good breakfast before heading out for morning sets focused primarily on their contest runs before stepping up to the more advanced new moves.
David O’Caoimh was in unimaginable form from day one and started day two by throwing crazy lines without slipping. By the end of the day he had landed Whirlly 5’s, Slim 5’s, switch back mobes, and started working on getting his slurpys back. His consistency shone through and even when ‘exhausted’ by the end of day three and having to drop into the water as he supposedly had barely enough energy to do anything, he then got up and landed a backside 720 with ease !
On day two David Coates (DC) got back to the riding standard that won him the 2011 UK Pro Tour by hitting both passes he had used for the tour including his trademark whirlly 5. He then started out to replace his frontside 5 in his first pass with the much more difficult backside 540. This worked well right through and DC made the runs solid by hitting the back 5 in his run consistently from day two. On day four he started work to get his 720’s and Pete Rose back on form and ready to get them into his run as well.
Brian Deegan made a tentative return to the water after a knee scare but started in a positive way by working on his backside spins and wrapped landings which are getting very consistent. With his new brace in place he had no further worries as he started to rebuild his strength and worked on getting his all important basics dialed in.
Sian Hurst came out firing as she put away her contest run with her off axis 5 before stepping up her game and starting to grab her bigger inverts and spins. By the end of Day Two she already nailed solid grabs on her tantrums and stylish grabs on her 360’s. After a successful Day Two she really stepped up her game for Day Three attempting wrapped toeside roll to blinds and backside spins.
After a “rider of the day” performance on Day One, Lindsay Whelan went out on a mission to keep stepping up her game and after throwing her 360 in both runs learned to grab her toeside 180’s. She was narrowly pipped by Aisling Deegan on Day Two for “rider of the day” but regained her title on Day Three by becoming the first girl in Ireland and one of only 5 Irish riders to be able to land a toeside backside 180 wake to wake. Lindsey is really stepping up her game with the prospect of stepping up to Junior Ladies from Girls in the events following the South Africa Europe Africa Championships.
Aisling Deegan put in two “rider of the day” performances on Days Two and Three however Lindsay had to take top honors on Day Three for her new trick. Aisling killed it on Day Two by hitting a tantrum within the first five minutes of the day that no one on the day could keep up with on their own levels that day. Day Three rolled in with consistent grabs on all of her contest tricks before hitting a toeside backroll on the third try and almost going back to back on her two inverts. Hopefully her day off will give this talented young athlete the energy to get these high end moves in her run.
Day Four was the first full day off the water for the Irish Team. This wasn’t strictly down time as almost all of the team have exams and this recovery time gave the riders a chance to get their heads down to focus on their studies. Only DC and Brian took to the water with Andreas from Xtreme Gene as DC opted to take new years day off the water and Brian was catching up from missed sets earlier in the week. Despite this Brian still managed crazy amounts of study time and when not on the water was lost in his books.