Freestyle Feature at Broxbourne

[jamesreeves]

I have been asked to consider what the freestyle community would like in terms of a freestyle feature to be installed at Broxbourne after the Olympic games.

I have sent up a facebook group to get feedback from people and keep everyone informed. Join up:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/gro ... 4772546280

[GMetcalf]

Surely a Thun like wave or a Hurley like wave would be the best thing to go for... As they don't require MASSIVE amounts of water and allow for most of the fun wave moves!

Obviously a nice deep hole would probably be better since most freestyle moves are done in a hole and if you want it for competitions it's much easier to produce a reliable hole than a reliable wave!

[jamesreeves]

Unfortunately Hurley and Thu do require quite a lot of water, ok not as much as Buseater but more than can be pumped. Having said that a small wave might be possible. The question is, is a small wave better or worse than a good hole???

[GMetcalf]

Well it might be worth taking a look at the courses in the south of France, there are some very nice small, holey waves where quite a few moves are possible (even if the features are a bit flushy) but if you need it for competitions then a good hole would far outdo a small wave!

[Fraggle]

Seems to me that the feature needs to work with limited flow rate.

So you could try a funnel design to try to make a wave, but I guess a hole would be better.

The two features I would like to see replicated are, both on the Ottawa:

Push button: good hole for most standard tricks and not intimidating to learners. This would improve our standards against the Americans and lead to more use of UK features like gate 1 at Hurley, or holes on the Tryweryn.

Butterfly: Also quite a "low" flow rate wave. Seems to work due to a funnel in the base of the river and a rib down the left which causes the left shoulder to green and curl. This would be great for different wave moves to the "straight" behind you waves of Hurley, Shepperton et al.

Obviously something like Buseater, or 12b would be nice, but I am being realistic. I am not sure of the flow rates through the features themselves, but I doubt they are completely crazy, when they run.

Fraggle

[Dave or Scout]

The two features I would like to see replicated are, both on the Ottawa:

Push button: good hole for most standard tricks and not intimidating to learners. This would improve our standards against the Americans and lead to more use of UK features like gate 1 at Hurley, or holes on the Tryweryn.

Definetely agree with this having tried Push Button on the Ottawa it's almost perfect model for what we need from our olympic course, and actually realistic to achieve. Nice to surf and almost all moves go.