There are a couple events in the world which doesn’t need official rank like for example World Cup to host the best paddlers from Europe and also other continents. The first time I was at Makinito Contest was last year. It wasn’t a big event but it was already hosting strong group of French and international paddlers. From my first training session there in 2016, I felt that this is a good place to both paddle for fun to compete.
All locals were friendly and the organisers made a big effort to prepare the event. French judges had no problem with explaining how the FFCK scoring system works. Finally, I finished on the podium with bronze, so I really wanted to come back to paddle, have fun and to improve my runs.
This year Makinito Contest was much bigger, with more than a hundred competitors from nations such as France, Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Finland, New Zeland, Belgium, Poland and many more. The event was really big and the level of competition very high.
I was happy with my runs. Makinito is at the top of my list of favourite European playspots and I enjoyed all of my runs there. In the finals, in my first run, I’ve made my best score ever in FFCK scoring system with 2335 points, which is what gave me my first victory in France.
I’m very happy with the level of ladies freestyle and with Zosia winning first place. I remember a time when girls were trying to make 2-3 moves, such as Loop and Space Godzillas, in one run and that was all we expected. Now, that’s changing very quickly – ladies are now showing incredible moves such as Fonics, McNasties and difficult linked moves.
That makes the ladies finals during the Makinito Contest so spectacular and showed that top moves are not only reserved for men. In my opinion, ladies have a big chance to break the 1000-point barrier in one run during official ICF event this year. There are still a couple months till the World Championships in San Juan, but I’m already excited and can’t wait to see what ladies have in-store for us there.
Zosia won Makinito Contest, demonstrating nice McNasties, Space Godzillas, big loops, Fonics, and some linked sequences. I’m proud of her performance and am very happy with our big success.
That was our first golds in France and I’m very happy with how much we’ve improved since last year.
2017 Makinito Contest was a great event and I would like to thank the organizers, judges, volunteers, sponsors and all people involved in making the competition the success that it was.
