After a long cold Winter of drum & bass & injuries it was time for me and Dave to head to Switzerland again for the 2009 Summer addition of the Nissan Outdoor games. Was a quiet Winter really sport wise, even a severe dose of swine flu would'nt have stopped us going on this trip. The event is essentially a film contest involving a theme or story based around 5 extreme sports. 5 teams have a week to produce this film, all staying in the same hotel ( the mattenhof resort ) in Interlaken, the extreme sports capital of Switzerland.

Every year the event evolves, new ideas are brought to the table + this year was no exception. I hooked up with Crazy Dave in Bala on the eve of our departure for the games over 2000 kms away. We decided to have a wee drinkie to start our unforeseen adventure. As they do, one turned into 10 + all the boys joined us in the bull to see us off, this was it, we knew from there on in it would be none stop carnage for the next 2 weeks.

We headed out around 4pm the following day after an extremely late breakfast. In traditional style we packed up the van 30 mins before we set off then waved goodbye to chalky & Bala as we took a lap around town as it may have been the last time we saw the place. The plan was to ditch all maps, I have done this journey many times before, I had no issues about charging all the way there blind. Driving was fine until Reims then my eyelids became as heavy as lead. A quick nap in a truck stop turned into 6hrs deep sleep. Woke to the sun on my face and a big hairy german trucker asking me to move the van as I was blocking him in, thank god he was not wearing speedo's. We cracked on and burned down through France, ending up in Switzerland via Germany for some reason! We arrived with no maps strait into the first big Outdoor Interlaken party of the year around 22.30 greeted by Reyno, Timmy, Jezza and all the usual suspects and wasted no time in catching up eventually leaving balmers metro bar around 3 am. The next few days were fairly similar, a few recognizance missions setting up for the movies but a chilled few afternoons in the sun before the opening BBQ on the sat.

Saturday night, we got strait into filming the story that would link all of the sports. Our concept was a bums life. A skater who goes out on a bender, falls asleep in the street then dreams he is a homeless bum living on the streets who dreams of the things he could be doing with his life, in this case it was kayaking, climbing, base jumping, paragliding + biking. He then wakes to find it was all a dream of a dream, walks away then he sees the same bum he was dreaming of. It is a film about human accomplishments and possibilities, powerful & moving.

Sunday we had an early start filming the Kayaking segment. We were done filming in 4 hours and back to Interlaken for lunch. This is how I like to roll, in and out in one or two takes. The thing that took the time was getting all the camera equipment down into the gorge. Our climber Tatu set a static line running 70m down a steep almost vertical forrest terrain into to the Upper Aare flowing from the Grimsel pass. We knew where to go, it was just a case of getting there. We all got down to the river quicker than anticipated and started setting up, preparing for the technical section we had chosen. The rivers around Interlaken are mainly glacial milky water, very cold, very powerful & unforgiving. This section was much warmer, cleaner + after the rapid there was 100m of class 3 so if we messed up we had a exit strategy. Its a good job we had one as we were to need it later on. When the guys were ready, I did a test run for the cameras. Dave went next into his first bit of class 5 for 10 months, over rotated at the bottom of the first drop flipping in the worst place imaginable, all I could think when I saw the flip was wooooooooo s**t as I bolted to the bottom of the rapid. Being Dave, he hand rolled up after loosing his paddle then proceeded to run the next class 5 speeder biker backwards with a classic window shade move righting himself only to be capsized again flushing into a pour-over unpside down facing the wrong way. After a few minutes of that he decided enough was enough then bailed. I was now in a high speed pursuit with the jefe & werners as they were making their way towards the next class 5. I realized that running was too slow so I dived into the icy water and chased the gear. After the retrieval I was asked to go back up for some more runs of the same section. By this point it was becoming a mind game. Each time I got in my boat at the top I had to put all negative thoughts out of my head and just focus on getting down in one piece. Luckily, there were no more issues, Dave was slightly shaken but not stirred, the rest of the team were stoked. Instead of walking back up the hill with everyone else, we paddled out, unwinding whilst enjoying one of the most beautiful classic runs in the area.

Every day of the event are quite hectic, that same night we filmed the first part of the biking. Juha Matte, jumped out of a tiny door two stories up in the Alpin raft guide barn over the nissan x trail onto a ramp resting on the car strait into a wall ride against the hedge just 2 meters from the landing. We were filming until 2am gathering quite a crowd, Juha jumped around 8 times with only one crash as he left the doorway, the left handle of the bars caught the doorway and the bike flew out from under him crashing down on the nissan leaving Juha flying down the ramp without his bike. This didn't stop him from heading strait back upstairs for another jump.

Monday was no exception, we are all up early, out scouting for climbing locations. After the gondolier ride up to Ginnelwald, the first town on the route up to the Shilthorn, Tatu our climber with his long legs, wasted no time running up the mountain to a hidden crag. We lost him for a while as myself + Joonas were trailing 15 mins behind puffing and panting in the hot swiss sun and thin air. After a whole day of searching he decided to use a completely different section up another mountain so that meant more walking for all of us carrying all the gear! lost a few pounds that day for sure, an amazing place to be. Tuesday night we spent the day setting up a new jump for Juha in the makeshift bike area of the funny farm. We begged and borrowed as much wood as possible to build a 2.5 meter kicker and landing for the nissan. We finished around 8 but had to wait until after 10 until it got dark for full effect. After jumping out of the barn we had gathered another crowd drawn in by the random back flips visible from the swimming pool behind the hedge. We set up all the cameras, lit the flaming runway then waited for Juha to set off. I waited underneath the ramp with a mouth full of paraffin ready to let rip into Juha as he back flipped over me. The effect was explosive, after 4 more fire flips we called it a day then headed back to the pink bus for editing and beers.

We did nothing but drink shandies all day Wednesday as it was the paragliders turn to do their shoot and they diddnt need us. We hung out assisting a bit with the editing but mostly drinking beers, socializing with the other team members in the lobby bar of the Mattenhof.

The next day was an early start heading over an hour in the direction of Italy to a crag found in the guide book. We walked for a further 2 hrs up the mountain and once again Tatu was way ahead of us setting up. We were up there the whole day filming different angles, making a fire, waiting for the sun and just enjoying being up there, I have never seen so many wild birds flying so close to people. After 4 hrs waiting for the sun, it was time to head back down the mountain back to Interlaken with now just fumes in the vito for a well deserved shower & Thai banquet.

After doing some more little bits for the story we were almost finished with the filming and the editing was well on the way to being completed. This year, as a team we were much more organized which made the week more relaxed and less stressful, this allowed us to spend more time as a team tuning the finer details of the film. The transitions played a big part after we found one by accident when two different clips were on screen and fitted together just like a jigsaw piece. This was applied as a transition then we applied the same idea to all the others. It is a film with many hidden tricks that you will see each time you watch it.

Friday afternoon into evening was the first big party for all the guys laid on by the organizers, based in the Hotel Mattenhof for a BBQ then onto the Anchor pub in town for some live music and stress free team members letting loose. The night was long and messy but was still only a warm up for the Saturdays film showings, more live music from the blue van then the march back to the Mattenhof for the BIG after party.

The films were shown around 10 pm on the Sat after a base jump show out of helicopters + the blue van. The slideshow competition was first off. 5 photographers presented their selections and the outcome was Petri Kovelinian from team Golgoht who took home 5000 usd for an explosive presentation. Petri also took away 1000 bucks for the individual 'game of light' award for a single photo using natural light. All the films were all really good, watching them for the first time is really nerve racking, everytime I see a really good bit of footage or editing skill I think its all over for us but we watched them all and awaited the outcome. Team Golgoht were invited back up on stage, the crowd erupted as we were presented with the Golden Peak trophy for best film. We were all going bonkers, we must have all looked like the winners of some cheesy tv reality show, we were stoked. By the time we had finished up and headed over to the party it was 10 deep at the bar, the energy was mental, Golgoht, along with the other teams rocked up and took the party to a new level. The party came to a close around 7.30 in the morning only because the DJ was too tired to keep going. A small group of us headed to the breakfast room and greeted other random survivors and people just getting up for a few pints of fresh orange and coffee.

An overall summery would conclude another very successful Outdoor Games. Once again it was nice to see friends I had made other the yeas and watch the relationships grow and see new ones forming. This is my favorite thing about the games, it allows the athletes to all work together and sometimes even combine the different sports to make crazy new ones.

Press Release - August 2009

1 - 4 October 2009

Matt Cooke starts in Austria at adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championship

Between the 1st and 4th of October 2009, the best slalom kayakers on the globe will meet the world’s best whitewater kayakers to determine the adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Champion on Austria’s legendary “Wellerbrücke” river section in the Ötztal valley. Matt Cooke from Bala will be at the start representing Great Britain.

At the famous Wellerbrücke, Austria’s Ötztaler Ache River holds one of the most sophisticated whitewater sections on earth, thus the perfect setting to determine the world’s best extreme kayakers. The Wellerbrücke section has the reputation to be the ‘Eiger Northwall’ of whitewater kayaking. In total, only 100 competitors are admitted to the World Championship. The Top three of the previous year are automatically qualified for the finals at Wellerbrücke. In addition, 45 athletes can qualify on Friday, October 2nd to compete for world championship honours.

29 year old Cookie from Bala who has snatched one of the much sought-after race entries says about his goal for the adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championship. "To forge new relationships, push the boundaries + develop the sport of kayaking"

Only the best advance to the next round.
The 48 finalists who race at Wellerbrücke, will compete in a ‚head-to-head’ format, i.e. the fastest of the qualification will battle the 48th, the second fastest will compete against the 47th and so on. Last year’s medallists will be integrated in the racing grid based on a timed run on the qualifying course. The faster kayaker will advance to next round, respectively. Here the Top 24 compete once again in a dual mode. The 12 remaining athletes will then compete for world champion honours, together with three ‘lucky losers’, i.e. the three fastest of the eliminated finalists.

In the super final, the fastest time wins. Each of the top 15 kayakers has one try to secure a place on the podium. The kayaker with the slowest race time of the previous run will be the first to start. He will then climb the ‘hot seat’, the throne of the fastest athlete. His race time must now be beaten. If a kayaker is faster, he can dethrone the race leader. At the end, the athlete who is still sitting on the hot seat will be the well-deserved World Champion.