Tourists in San Francisco Bay received the surprise of a lifetime Saturday when they witnessed a great white shark’s ambush attack on an unsuspecting seal.
The breaching attack occurred near Alcatraz and marked the first time … More
Gerd Serrasolses (ESP) and Mariann Saether (NOR) are the adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Champions 2015.
Now in its eighth year, the adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championship saw the largest number of competitors ever.
Over 175 of the world’s finest whitewater, slalom and freestyle paddlers from no less than 30 different countries met up in the picturesque town of Oetz to compete for world championship honours on the legendary Wellerbrücke rapids, a section of the glacier-fed Ötztaler Ache River that is considered to be one of the most difficult whitewater sections on the planet.
For the first time in the history of the race a female world champion title was awarded with a record number of 25 participating women.
The Wellerbrücke rapids are solid class 5 whitewater, both technically difficult and dangerous. Any mistakes paddlers may make have high consequences. The well known rapids on the course: Champions Killer (the final drop of the 280-metre long race course) and Champions Killer Minus 1 (the hole above Champions Killer) are both feared and endeared by extreme kayakers, all of whom respect the river as much as they want to conquer it.
After a weekend of intense racing on the legendary Wellerbrücke rapids in Austria’s Ötztal valley, 27-year old Gerd Serrasolses from Sort in Spain outpaddled a field of the world’s finest kayakers in every single round of the competition, claiming his first and well deserved adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Champion title, ahead of David Bain from Great Britain and triple World Champion Sam Sutton from New Zealand.
35-year old paddling queen Mariann Saether from Norway won the female title ahead of Great Britain’s Jennifer Chrimes and Alona Buslaieva from the Ukraine.
For the eighth time in a row, 150 of the world’s best whitewater kayakers from 27 different countries meet in Austria’s Ötztal between the 1st and 3rd of October to determine the adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Champion on the legendary “Wellerbrücke“ rapids.
A “sick line” is the perfect, smoothest and fastest line downriver. That’s what the competitors have to find when racing the so-called “Wellerbrücke” rapids, a famous section of the glacier-fed Ötztaler Ache River, peppered with loads of natural obstacles. The course has the reputation of being the Eiger Northwall of whitewater kayaking, thus it offers the perfect setting to crown the World Champion in extreme kayak racing.