This Year’s Paddleride Took an Unusual Route: From Troja Back to Troja

It was supposed to be another relaxed paddle trip — from Troja to Kampa, accompanied by the familiar song about the goat in a red T-shirt, which, as every year, echoes through the Štvanice lock. Around seventy paddling enthusiasts of all ages joined the traditional Paddleride, an annual harbinger of the upcoming Canoe Slalom World Cup. This time, however, the weather did not allow them to reach the planned finish.

Although the forecast looked rather unforgiving, around thirty canoes and slalom boats set off from the Troja boathouse an hour after noon on the last Sunday in May, heading out for a paddling adventure. What began as an idyllic journey soon turned into a real challenge just before the Štvanice lock. Heavy rain and strong gusts of wind, which were difficult to fight from the boats, eventually split the group in two. One part landed and waited to be taken back to Troja, while the more adventurous paddlers decided to turn around and head back downstream to the boathouse.

“We were deciding whether to wait for a car or turn around and paddle back. It was raining really heavily and we were slowly starting to get cold, so in the end we decided to try making it back on the water, just to warm up by moving. We really had to work hard, and then we hurried to change into dry clothes and have some tea,” one of the regular Paddleride participants said with a smile.

And in the end, that was the best part of the adventurous trip - not even the wind and rain could take away the paddlers’ joy of sharing a ride on the Vltava River, even though they did not make it all the way to Kampa this time.

The UNIQA Paddleride unofficially opened the Canoe Slalom World Cup, which will take place in Troja from 5 to 7 June. The full Czech national team will be competing, including the recent medallists from the World Cup in Tacen: gold-winning canoeist Tereza Kneblová, silver medallist Václav Chaloupka, and double bronze medallist Jakub Krejčí, who earned his medals in kayak and the individual kayak cross time trial.