After an eventful day in white water on the lower Ötz River all thirteen T2N participants were tired but happy when they returned to Crazy Eddy’s Outdoor Camp in Silz (A). Even the judges were excited. “Today was a lot of fun and we are very satisfied with the performance of our T2N rookies”, they said. Reading the water, finding the best line, and the willingness to take over the responsibility for the group were amongst others the qualities the jury tested. In addition, judge Tim Weinmann instructed his group to only communicate in English to ensure that team member Mira Kodada from the Czech Republic could follow every conversation.

„In Norway there will no longer be a rookie bonus. For our expedition we are looking for a fully-fledged member of a functioning team”, Axel Burkhardt of adidas said. “Out of the remaining thirteen rookies, five did stick out today. Once the group entered white water it was very obvious, that these five had more experience, more knowledge, a better physical condition and above all better technical skills. Tomorrow we will monitor these five finalists in white water 5 on the Upper Ötz River in order to determine the winner of the Ticket2Norway. The victor will receive a one year sponsor contract with adidas; the runners-up will be awarded with adidas equipment worth 1500 and 1000 Euros respectively.” Finalists include Germans Christian ‚Sputnik’ Minkus and Stefan ‚Maus’ Haderer, the Swiss paddlers Florian Dillier and Julian Stocker as well as Czech Mira Kodada.

The organisers have dedicated the last day of the T2N Rookie Camp to safety. All thirteen candidates will jointly discuss the route on the Upper Ötz, assess what could possibly happen and where the best spots are to position oneself with a throwbag. Afterwards the group will simulate a worst case scenario. Apart from rescue operations in the stream they will train first aid and resuscitation measures together with helicopter rescuer Andreas Hamel. “It is important to also put the group under pressure in order to see how our rookies would react in a case of emergency”, Axel Burkhardt explained. “And if they make too many mistakes the first time we will run through the whole situation again, because we want our participants to learn something this weekend.”

I really wish I was good enough to do that. That sounds awsome. Is there any talk about adidas doing this in America?