Report Red Bull Up Stream

It was definitively my pleasure to be invited to such a great event as it was last Saturday, Red Bull UpStream in Tacen, between Kranj and Ljubljana. Riders were riding against stream between rocks, using them as obstacles, but also including artificial ones made over the shore, right side slider, left rainbow box and on the end right kicker. 12 riders were invited from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium and Germany…

A friend picked me up after the work and in less than two hours we were somewhere in Ljubljana. She left me on a bus station and we were guessing where I am, but one good girl from Red Bull found me and in a short time we were at the spot “Tacen” where the riders were training for tomorrow’s big and cool competition.

The place looked really sick and it was one of the best positions for taking photos… the spot could even compete with Red Bull Iceberg session in Island few months ago.

Late in the afternoon riders had enough of the cold water and we decided to move slowly to the hotel, but before this it was a time for Slovenian pizzeria. Few of us came there, I could say more or less all of us, and we all used this moment to meet few people that we didn’t see for some time and to meet some new people like Emilio Epstein and Quentin Delefortrie, Red Bull boat rider.

Before going out we visited a hotel for a short, to take shower and we droved to Kranj, for a short drink. The youngest ones stayed in a hotel to have longer dream and we got out in a bar to check out Slovenian girls and boys (boys only for me haha).

In a midnight we were already in a bed to be ready and focused for the craziest wakeboard competition in this season…

12 invited riders from few countries around the Europe were competing who will make craziest trick in a white water course…

Everything was more or less normal except crazy landing of 270 in on a side right slider, landed into the water and ended up in a rock with hurt finger, by Quentin Delefortrie.
And yes, we shouldn’t forget Robi’s landing into 10.000 Euro equipment which was broken after…

I heard few stories from a people a side… The riders didn’t make anything extra special… And I have to announce for all who think like this, that the riders made something extra special. They were riding in a white water, against the stream between big and dangerous rocks and neither one of them wants to risk his year out of water for some extra crazy trick! This was enough spectacular for all… If it was for me, who was watching more or less all wakeboarding competitions this year, it was definitive the most spectacular one including two 13 year old kids, Jan from Slovenia and Marco from Germany!

Nico von Lerchenfeld took first place and showed that he is one of the most consistent rail riders in this season. Nosepressing over most of the obstacles was good enough to take over whole competition. He was followed by Balász Bakró, whose BS lipslide over left rainbow box was definitively clear enough for the second place. And we shouldn’t forget one of my favorite riders, Nicky Gührs. The rider who was riding first season as Pro Men and with 4 from 5 stops of WWA Wake Park World Series took 6th place in overall results. On this competition with nice switch FS 540 over the right kicker he ended up proudly on the third place. We also expected a lot from Emilio Epstein, Austrian riders. Lovro, Croatian riders said: “He didn’t show much on the World competition couple weeks ago, but here, here he is kilin’ it”. And I also expected a lot from Quentin too, he didn’t want to give up trying 270 in, but because of finger injury on training, he couldn’t show everything what he can in his qualifications run. Sebi was also preparing surprise for his qualifications run. He was trying to slide the big part of shore rocks, but in the moment that I thought he will succeed it, he crashed and ended up his run, sliding with his whole body over the rocks. Fortunately without injury ;)

Through short breaks we had some Slovenian hip-hopers who brought atmosphere up!

Everything finished while it was still sunny so most of us went to the hotel “Kanu” where we were waiting the time to go out on the after party that Red Bull prepared for us.

Unfortunately Germans, Sebi, Nicky, Marco and Nico had to go home, because having some obligations for Sunday, but the rest of us who stayed was enough to have funny evening.

German car went home with 1400 Eur (1000 for the 1st and 400 for the 3rd place) and Hungarians had party time with 700 Euros for the 2nd place).

Afterparty was in the “Room” (Soba) where the Red Bull took care that we enjoy in a mixture of their product… Most of us on the end went somewhere in a town, think that place was called “Ultra” where we had some dance… and when one of us couldn’t get into, we all went in front of that disco and talked few more hours, until we looked into the clock and saw that it was almost morning and time to catch Quentin’s plane and Lovro’s and my train at 6:30. It was our last chance to come to Krk for a “Ride 4 peace” event on time.

We made it… but only thing was that I didn’t manage to have some sleep from Saturday to Sunday, only one hour in a train to Rijeka, where Lovro’s dad picked us up and took us directly to the Cable Krk.

For me, this event was incredible happening to be on, so thank to Red Bull for inviting me there… The organization was perfect, from hotel to shuttle… obstacles were heavy, like they should be for this kind of competition… Always is a big problem with the winch, something is stopping it, but this time, no, everything went almost quick as cable or boat competition… And what to say more, think they managed to talk with the sky that we have even perfect weather through whole weekend. Hopefully, next year we will have even craziest competition in Slovenia and I am definitively looking forward to be part of it. So see ya next year.

It was awesome, something very different, special and creative. It will definitely help the sport to grow. For me, it was a great experience to ride on white water. The organization was good, we had enough training and the timetable was not too much delayed. The hotel was awesome, we had big rooms and were all accommodated in the same hotel. There was a big crowd of Slovenian people on the site, which were awesome as there still are not that many people who know wakeboarding.


1 Nico Lerchenfeld (GER)
2 Balász Bakró (HUN)
3 Dominik Gührs (GER)
4 Robert Pokovec (SLO)
5 Emilio Epstein (GER)
6 Norbert Vasko (HUN)
7 Quentin Delefortrie (BEL)
8 Sebastian Stare (GER)
9 Lovro Klepac (CRO)
10 Vukašin Čupić (SRB)
11 Marco Gradl (GER)
12 Jan Kralj (SLO)



Written by Nelly Mance, copyrights www.boardforce.net