Fluid Kayaks Team

The famous English whitewater course Holme Pierremont was given an extreme make over and Fluid Kayaks was present at the official opening party combined with the notorious National Student Rodeo.

Fluid was represented by Lennart Bal and Rein Hagenaars from Fluid Kayaks Europe. We went for the long drive from the Netherlands. First mission was to catch the ferry in Calais on time (in the past we had a long list of all kinds of car/trailer bad luck that happened on the way down). But we made it on time. On the other side of the Channel we went up for Nottingham (after a short delay of a kayak surf session). With only a broken light cable (fixed with Duck Tape, what else?) we got at the course around midnight. Time for some beer!

Next day more than 500 paddlers showed up and we could provide them with a nice demo fleet of Fluid white water kayaks, and also the new Buddy (which turned out to be a very nice white water craft!). All boats were very popular and went from hand to hand! The atmosphere was good and the weather (for British conditions…) was excellent! Never attended such a well organized kayak event before.

There is one thing that our British friends can do very well, and that is party. The theme/dress code was Out of Space or Alien or something like that, but I got in as Mister Fluid, so that was Out of Space enough for the doorkeepers. Some really nice costumes showed up; together with a very good life band and gallons of beer the party was a success!

The hangover was also Out of Space, so first thing to do on Sunday was to get in a boat and go down the course. There were many swims along the way…

Also on Sunday lots of Fluids got a test drive by the students and the other paddlers. A lot of attention was attracted by Jessie and her Pink Solo S. There will be more orders for those beauties I’m sure!

We had to catch the ferry back, time was tight again, but we made it on time! Some extra Duck Tape on the cable to be sure…

Back in France we ran out of gas. We had to turn around for a gas station. I filled up the gas tank and saw some movement in the trailer…. A guy jumped out of the trailer and I tried to catch him, but behind me more than 20 people jumped out of the trailer… They were hoping to get illegally into the UK! What would have happened if we just started driving back and stopped in Rotterdam?

Well… at least we would have had some extra hands to unload the next Fluid container! :-)

Cheers! Rein and Lennart.