Finishing Up

After a few savage weeks things are starting to wrap up here in Italy. Most of the people who were here for the festival have already left and we're getting ready to head away from here in the morning. The festival went really well. I came second in the Freeride competition and Neil qualified for the Sweet Rumble boatercross, really good going since the rest of the field was basically made up of pro's and Italian slalom paddlers! The party on Saturday night was pretty epic too, there was a big crew of Irish lads out for the weekend and as a nation we definatly won that event! Even the main prize of the competition, a creek boat that was raffeled off, went to Willie, one of the lads that came over from Wicklow for the week!

The last few days have mainly been spent hanging around with the lads from ULKC. I guided a group of their most advanced paddlers down the Egua the other day which was pretty stressfull since there was 10 of them and I was the only person on the water who knew the lines but it went really well in the end. Everyone paddled really well and we got down it with no drama at all. They all loved it too which is always good to see. I've done a few of the sections of the Sesia over the last few days with the full group which is always good craic. We had a little incident yesterday where one of the girls had to be evacuated off the river and brought to hospital with an injured shoulder but she's recovering from that now and apart from that it's all been plain sailing. Everyones having a great time and paddling really well so it's a pity that they have to head back home in the morning.

We're off to Austria in the morning to work for a few months to pay for this whole trip. Hopefully the drive will go smoothly and we'll get lots of work while we're there. Fingers crossed!