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I thought that it would be appropriate to introduce the world to
three Austrians with a vision of making the best World Freestyle
Championships ever.
Rudi, Margaret, Jurgen- This is the three people who make the world’s
happen. Margaret is the liason between the paddlers and the worlds.
She is the local “mom” for all of the boaters looking
for accommodations, transportation, etc. She is also a big organizer
of the media and sponsors and does a great job with that. Rudi,
he is the main man. Rudi has the to-do list from hell going on right
now and has for some time. He is the brain child behind bringing
the event to Austria in Graz. He organized over $500,000 to make
the hole, and all of the money to make the event happen. He also
answers to the International Freestyle Committee, which is made
up of 7 representatives that cover the Globe. My wife, Kristine
is the representative for North America, there is Northern and Southern
Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa. The team leaders
from each of the 35 nations participating in the worlds vote for
their respective representatives. Kristine and Mike Birbeck (England)
co-chair the IFC and they work closely with Rudi and Jurgen to assure
that the event goes according to the rules of the IFC.
Jurgen is the technical expert who organizes the scoring, and tactical
plans for the event. These three organizers work hard to make the
best possible event, and do a good job. The unique thing about the
IFC World Championships is that the local organizing body must organize
everything themselves. The IFC just oversees the rules. The scheduling,
and all of the hard part of the competition are set up by the local
organizing body. For this reason, each World Championships will
have a different feel and the learning curve of the organizers must
be quite steep.
I will attempt to bring some consistency to events with the World
Kayak Federation by bringing our expertise into the big events and
work in conjunction with the local organizing bodies so that their
job is local logistics, not to try to re-invent the wheel.
These organizers, Rudi, Margaret, and Jurgen, even had an official
“worlds song” written and produced by a famous blues
singer. It is quite cool and will blare over the sound system during
the event, I am sure.
Good Job to these guys,
EJ
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