people here have a strong belief that
water is very dangerous
they know is something that we should be
respecting my father never won it back
because he thought I'll die
Uganda is an amazing country to live in
this is where I was born and raised
people live in quite a hard life but
they are living a really good life
Uganda is one of the best destination
for kayaking around the world but the
gardens are not well known to do it the
local community they thought I can work
for people like totally have no hope in
life I love kayaking is part of my life
it's just been a long journey trying to
push myself trying to be successful and
finally right now I've got a chance to
compete in the biggest most extreme
kayaking competitions in the whole world
and for the first time is happening in
Uganda all right guys welcome to
unleashed you guys were all selected
amongst hundreds of other athletes to be
here you're amongst the world's best
kayakers and you're going to be
competing on some of the biggest baddest
whitewater in the world the White Nile
is just unbelievable man I mean you have
absolutely monstrous Rapids there are
very few kayaking competitions that are
held on whitewater of this caliber we
created this event to find out who is
the world's best kayaker you need to be
good at racing good at freestyle it is
the hardest to win the scariest to
compete in but that's the way it is and
that's what we want it to be there are
four events to big wave freestyle events
and two races the competitor with the
best results throughout the series will
win the overall prize thanks so much for
coming here we go
[Applause]
it has been my dream to be able to
compete to eat the best sky guys in the
whole world we don't get many
opportunities for people to see us
unless they come here hoping to get the
best places as much as I can
that would put Uganda on the map
people get to know about it about me as
a kid I was always very quiet they
always just loved to do my own things to
be honest I just never wanted to be told
what to do I grew up very close to Reba
my dad never wanted me to go even close
it's just what I wanted and struck me
that would annoy me so much I think was
that one reason that pushed me to learn
how to swing
I just love to do my own things whenever
I saw people having there's no like
someone is telling them where to do
I told myself I really want to do that I
never had money to afford title lessons
I never lost hope and they came up with
our ideas are carrying people's packs
down the river he did really well those
are the people that kept on coming and
coming so I was just using the same
technique I still tried with one guy and
then he gave me a life jacket and helmet
you give me a couple minutes to ride
around just one day it's enough to get
addicted I would have met said our first
time on the river
he learned to kayak around bougie Galia
on the on the rapids before the dam here
and I started to notice him more and
more as having a high level of skill he
cemented his place near the top of the
Ugandan kayak scene went out of nowhere
he won one of the I turned erases and
that's a really big scary rapid and
beats mmm top-level international and
that was around the time where I was
noticing a few of these guys are saying
we've got to get these on the
international scene I've been on the
kalam team three times now three years
ago that was a fast and wide
championship I did I finished 56 in the
world it has been 3 hours been trained
more and more this is another big one I
know all the competitors have been
training hard in their own countries
most of them are world class as far as
top contenders for this event goes
Adrien Martin one of the most impressive
races and waterfall kayakers in the
world
Kayla Brady proven all
we aspire Ehis explosive and he's in
great shape
Kim Fontaine the current world champion
we're expecting huge things from him in
the Freestyle Dane Jackson is the Kelly
slate of kayaking nobody has won as many
events as this guy his skill level is
phenomenal but it's not hard to
understand why he got so good he's born
into a family of some of the best
competitive kayakers in the world he was
in a kayak before he could walk and
nobody has the talents and the skill and
the experience to rock up wherever he is
in the world and be a contender at every
single event I remember the first time I
saw him think he was a Levin when I say
him coming here with all his family and
he was running down through big Big
Rapids and I remember we're all running
on the Riverside to go look at that kid
going down a rapid and like how amazing
these watching him get me a really big
positive link to going to kayaking then
we finally right now got to compete with
him
[Music]
already people are giving me some
positive words this time is your chance
we know you guys can do it this wave is
a special case because it's in a mist
one of the biggest rapids on the river
it's a big dog dude it's rowdy and it's
gnarly we're gonna have the highs and
lows but it's gonna be sick so you're 29
athletes overall representing 12
countries the best biggest baddest three
tricks you can throw over the entirety
of your hour and 45 minutes are gonna
score it for today when I'm looking
forward to the modes and Jeff see people
going
I was a little very excited still trying
to tell myself whatever minded okay I'm
ready for this there's a reason why they
accepted me
[Music]
I had a little trouble trying to
the moves that I thought I could do I
couldn't do them
I was just over thinking about it which
was not good thing at all
only two times in the way but one didn't
go well one was like okay so wasn't that
much how they expected and maybe just
that kind of live a panics over the
competition oh I don't know just start
feeling a how that wow I'm competing
without all the sky cast who can put out
really huge twigs you start stressing
out I thought I wasn't good enough to
compete with these people
those nurses like it always gets to you
sometimes they don't wash away and they
just stick with you through the calm but
like I feel like they'll be able to pull
through at some point
overall I saw people throw some like
huge find blowing tricks it was like
super cool
I'd say Dame is gonna be pretty high up
there but Kim also threw down some
insane tricks so it could be pretty
tight between them but I think
when people say that they think I might
have one that's always honoring and
humbling but in the end there were a lot
of really good people out there I've
just stoked that out we made it through
today and just ready for more
competition but I'm fired up with how I
did
[Music]
was not my day that day he took me some
time to get it out of my mind
[Music]
just our feeling when you have too much
pressure that you want to do your best
do it your way very well
[Music]
you just have to hope that it is another
day again to make it better the most
amount of trouble you can get in in this
rapid tomorrow is out of your kayak even
at low water this rapid is incredibly
powerful
you do not want to have just your
lifejacket and nothing else
industrial it's probably the biggest
scariest rapid you could run six person
head-to-head race on
nobody took us seriously when they heard
the rumors that this was happening those
that did hoped that the rumors weren't
true the dead Dutchman is one of the
biggest baddest rapids in the world and
it has a legendary and an unfortunate
reputation the name came from a Dutch
guy who'd drown in that rapid another
you can guys try to send down and he
also never come up it doesn't matter who
you are can destroy you in a second
welcome to another day of violence today
competitors are going to be competing in
a motocross down this dead Dutchman
rapid one of the most infamous Rapids on
the white nine
be sure to tune into or it's going to be
a big boat across ever and we're just
about to run the rapid name dead Batman
a little bit nervous because I'm Dutch
we're scared there
forget about the last one this is a new
one just think about it differently
[Music]
then when we started we were just
arresting very very hard I can ask each
other alright cool
okay so everyone is really going very
hard to drop in the rapid even kept
going really super hard
we got half with rocket we are all
almost together at the same time
you go underwater you know coming up
at the beginning they almost lost hope
like oh I'm already out
I rolled up then I saw that I was so
really closely
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
I could not be any more stoked than when
I heard on the radio that Sadat has him
first
and by a long way he was racing the
world's best fastest kayakers and he won
by about a mile
[Applause]
[Music]
yeah I was just looking up into this
gray but was really really exciting
moment for me what an amazing day
firstly that he's come out and he's just
laid it down on his home River what a
special thing
[Music]
I've been waiting to be able to compete
with the best guy that around the world
so at the beginning of like I don't know
if I fit in this now competing with the
best cattle in the whole world to be
able to pull up position if I'm really
really proud of myself
for years I've known that these guys are
world-class hopefully they'll be
recognized internationally now and do
themselves better in their country plan
that would be a really big progress for
me and big progress for Uganda how do
you get to know that there's some
skilled Tigers in Uganda
[Music]
then when we started we were just
resting very very hard like an ass each
other all right cool okay so everyone is
really going very hard to drop you in a
rapid everyone kept going really super
hard