Hello All! We are two Stanovsky brothers doing Kayak sports. We are training together with our father as a coach. For us it is not just sport but a passion. Canoe Slalom is truly dynamic and attractive sport for spectators. For us it is the most beautiful and challenging one. We love to get in the water and play with secrets of wild rivers. Sometimes even whole days. We are very keen on improving our skills and gaining new experiences. You cannot really get bored. However, high performance sport definitely is not easy and often it is about getting out of own comfort zone.
We do many kinds of kayak disciplines like slalom, creaking and cross. All our family has somehow been engaged with kayak for many years and that is why we have been kayaking since childhood. We are third generation of kayakers in our family. Thanks to kayak we have many great opportunities to visit stunning places. In Canoe Slalom it is very important to understand the water flow and gain many specific technique skills. Every slalom course in the world is different and each is different every second as the water is changing and pulsing all the time. That is why it is crucial for us to practice on as many slalom courses as possible.
This winter thanks to support of Evolveum we could spend February training camp on one of the most unique whitewater channels in the world. In Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. This slalom course was built 8 years ago literally in the desert. Whole venue looks like an oasis in the middle of desert. We have been here several times before and therefore we know almost every spot around. We are always curious about local cuisine so we try to enjoy as many kinds of local meals as possible. So, if you are planning a trip to Emirates some time in the future and want some good tips just let us know. 🙂 This time we were here for hard 5 weeks with 2-4 training sessions per day. Our trainings were based on various training sessions on whitewater and we had some strength&conditioning sessions out of whitewater as well. Every week we had just 1 day off when we did few trips to Dubai or Abu Dhabi to relax a bit.
We are so happy for such opportunity to paddle in these great and warm conditions while it was snowing in our home country and actually our river was half frozen. Canoe Slalom used to be summer sport and paddling during the winter in warm locations was just for few athletes. However, during the last years our sport has rapidly changed to year-round sport and this is only way how to keep up with elite.
We would like to thank Evolveum for their support in our adventures and dreams!