After making it all the way to the eastern part of Germany to the little town Markkleeberg close to Leipzig, we set up the Palm Equipment stand and lined up the shiny new fleet of Dagger demo boats.
After set-up, we got the chance to get some paddling done before the big crowd of paddlers from all over Germany and also some neighbouring countries made their way to the Kanupark Markkleeberg to plug up the artificial whitewater course.
Boat test, freestyle show, workshops + boater X
Day two seemed to start slowly in the Expo Area so I was allowed to join the Freestyle Show of the German freestyle team for half an hour. As the playspot of the whitewater park is located close to the food area where the show took place mid-days we had lots of spectators who marvelled at our stunning acrobatics! Some even got so excited about it that they joined the freestyle workshops later that day and in the next morning.
The day finished off with the first run of the German Boater X Cup organized by team Palm’s Malte Schröder. Malte not only organised the competition he also won the men’s division. Juniors class was won by Torsten Kronenberg, the senior class by Jörg Bollensen and in the ladies class, I was the lucky one who took home the gold medal.
Junior Trophy and Boat testing
Day three kicked off with the Palm Juniors Trophy as every year. While most guests of the Paddelfestival were still sleeping, the little ones fought their way through the heats of the boater X to crown the lucky winners of the competition!
Day three also seemed to be the boat-testing day for all the visitors. The stand got super busy throughout the day and we ran out of our Dagger fleet several times that day. The new Phantom was quite popular but the crowd also favoured the fresh RPM, the Mamba, the Nomad and all sizes of the Axiom!
– photos Anne Hübner, Falk Bruder, Fabian Kellner, Malte Schröder
