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DEL CLARE

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Michael Karsten,
Dominic Wagner,
Paul Robertson,
Ana Jaén Nieto,
Becky Green &
Manuela

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Palm and Pyranha Park Jam goes to Hohenlimburg, Germany

By happy surprise, I attended the Palm and Pyranha Park Jam event in Hohenlimburg, Germany, at the end of May. Having joined UK Park Jam events for the last three years, I was excited to participate in the German Park Jam, which first ran in 2025 and has a fantastic reputation. This was both my first Germany Park Jam and the first event of the 2026 Park Jam series.

We had a wonderful time in Hohenlimburg, and I felt so happy to get a glimpse of the awesome kayaking community in Germany. It was a really special day, and I wanted to write an article to share some of the highlights with you all. Before diving into the details, I should mention how I became involved in the event.

I was added to the Park Jam team at the last minute for two reasons. Firstly, I was kayaking in Valsesia (Italy) for the week and had become stranded there due to car problems. Luckily, my friend Chips (Andy Kettlewell), whom I had been kayaking with, said he could take me home to the UK – but via Germany for Park Jam.

Secondly, Adrian Mattern, who was expected at Park Jam, had to withdraw due to injury shortly before the event. I took his place, even though I’m neither German nor a Red Bull-sponsored athlete, and embraced the role of ‘Adrian 2.0’ for the day. I’d like to think the kids hardly noticed the swap!

Despite the last-minute change, I was genuinely thrilled to attend Hohenlimburg Park Jam!

Arrival at Hohenlimburg
We arrived in beautiful sunshine – it was another hot summer’s day, and everyone was eager to get on the water!

As this was my first time at the Wildwasserpark Hohenlimburg, the whitewater course, I was excited to check it out. It is a gentle whitewater course, quite long and narrow, with plenty of small features to keep you occupied.

It reminded me very much of our UK course at Northampton Active, which is a firm favourite spot of mine. A lovely place to have fun and introduce people to kayaking.

We met the Palm and Pyranha team: Becky Green, Zach Flatt, Lars Ellersdorfer, and Andy Kettlewell (Chips), with Cheesy and Manuela from Palm supporting. Everyone jumped in to set up flags, banners, and the Palm stall.

The Palm and Pyranha Park Jam at Hohenlimburg is jointly organised by Deutscher Kanu-Verband (DKV),

Germany’s national canoe federation, along with Palm and Pyranha. Volunteers from DKV and the local canoe club in Hohenlimburg prepared for the day, giving us a chance to chat and connect before the start.

Germany’s kayaking scene seems to be very club-oriented, especially in supporting younger paddlers. The canoe club from Hohenlimburg was a close-knit group, but this was true of many of the attendees for the day. Groups started to arrive, and it was clear that most paddlers had attended as part of their canoe club. There were so many teenagers, and it was fantastic to see them all excited to be together and to see their friends from other clubs. The energy before we even got on the water was infectious!

One of the German freestyle team, Philip, had come along to say hi, so I took him with me as I went around to chat with the groups that had arrived. Whilst the average German child’s English is 1,000,000% better than the average English adult’s German, it was still useful to have a native German speaker with me to help with the language barrier!

It was really nice chatting with everyone and hearing about their backgrounds. There were so many groups from different canoe clubs, so I asked each group for its team name. There were four boys who had called themselves ‘The Professionals’, which I felt was a fantastic name!

I had a nice chat with their coach, who couldn’t rave about them enough – they seemed to have a great attitude.

There was also a large group of older teenagers who couldn’t decide on a name at first, but later came to find me to tell me they had decided on ‘Team Drip’. I felt like I had insight into the ‘cool’ words used by the German youth.

Chips later laughed at me as apparently ‘drip’ is a universally cool word and one that ‘even Cheesy knows!’. Well… I learned it for the first time at Park Jam Germany, so thank you to the teenagers of Team Drip for teaching me something new!

We gathered as a group for a welcome talk led by Lars, and then it was time to rally to the water!

Joy on the water
It was such a wonderful and joyful day on the water. There was so much going on, and happy teenagers were in every eddy and on every feature. The rest of the team and I did lap after lap and got to see and share so many happy moments. I want to share a few with you below.

The first feature was a little wave at the top of the course – perfect for learning to surf and trying new things. I spent a lot of time on the first lap here because everyone was having so much fun. It is wonderful to watch some of the younger children learning to surf whilst some of the more experienced paddlers try new moves.

There were paddle spins, paddle tosses, actual spins, shudder rudders and more. It was fun to set the kids little challenges and see them give it a go. Big shout out to Jacob and Jonte, who were in a duo and took me up on the challenge to get one off them standing up whilst surfing! It was really cool to watch, and I was doubly impressed that they managed it without any capsizes or swims!

Meanwhile, the Team Drip kids were throwing tomahawks at the concrete wall at the top and doing a pretty good job of it! The real star of the show was a dog called Fidel, who sat on various paddlers’ laps and happily surfed every feature of the course as well. He was possibly the happiest dog on the water that I have ever met!

Further downstream, there was a little hole in which everyone was having a good time surfing. Here I met another little group called ‘Team 6-7’. They all had the numbers ‘6-7’ on their helmets. If you don’t understand the relevance of 6-7 in the world of teenagers, Google it. It was funny to see something that makes the UK teenagers giddy also have the same effect on German teenagers. The 6-7 group were awesome. They were all hand paddling and surfing the entirety of the course – like absolute legends.

I had a nice chat with Marie and Siri from their group, who were having the most fun. I know Becky spent a lot of time with the 6-7 group working on some gentle freestyle as well, which everyone seemed to enjoy. She gave them a special shout-out at the end for such a great attitude across the group.

Killian had also embraced hand paddling and was smashing out hand spins in the hole. I had met Killian and his brother Adrián in the morning, and they had told me how much they had enjoyed Park Jam the year before. It was great to see the event welcome back so many returning paddlers who had clearly been making significant progress in the year since.

Further downstream, many paddlers were working on their tailees. A lovely young man called Henrik took the time to explain to me his favourite tailee spots on the course. He also told me that in German, they call a tailee a Kerze, which means candle. It was really nice to chat with lots of the kids throughout the day and learn a little bit about what it is like to learn to kayak in Germany. Zach and Lars, I know, were having a great time doing tailees with the kids down at the bottom.

There was one boy I spent a lot of time with called Justus. I had a lovely chat with his mother in the morning about developing children’s kayaking. Justus had a really cool helmet covered in manga stickers, and we had a little chat about that. He was a little nervous about paddling on the course, but agreed to join me for some laps. We shared quite a few laps together, and by the end, he was even going for some surfs and catching lots of eddies! It was really awesome to see. Being brave is not about never being scared but about being scared and giving it a go anyway! I had a great time paddling with him, so thank you, Justus, for joining me on the water.

The day ended with one large group floating down the course. It was really nice to get everyone together for this. As we descended, the friendly games began, and many teenagers pulled decks and tried hard to get their friends to swim. Inspired by this, I found my friends at the bottom and did the same.

I went for Chips first, and I am quite proud that I managed to make him swim before he made me swim. Of course, once he was out of his kayak, I didn’t stand much of a chance of staying in mine! When we were both out, we went for Zach, who took two of us to get him out of his!

Somehow, Becky and Lars managed to escape us!

Lars then finished the day with some organised fun. Everybody was grouped in a circle, trying things like getting a couple (and then many) people out of their boats and making it around the circle by standing on others’ kayaks. It was really funny and a good way to end the day!

Talks, shout-outs and prize-giving
Once everyone was off the water and changed, we gathered as a group under the bridge for talks and prize-giving. Chips gave the first talk, followed by Becky and Zach, who shared the second. They were short talks, but both included pretty cool videos, which I think the kids enjoyed.

We then did some shoutouts to kids for special moments on the water, many of which I discussed above. There were so many people in attendance, and they were all fantastic. Not everyone could get a shout-out, but I felt genuinely inspired by what I saw on the water over the day. The kayaking scene for young people in Germany is clearly thriving. What I particularly loved was how excited they all were to paddle together. It was a day where the focus was on the kids, and that was epic.

After shout-outs and prizes, we did a poster signing. I always love this bit as you get to chat to the kids one last time. It was really cool to see them so excited and even asking us to sign their caps, which is a first for me!

Team 6-7 also asked for a group photo, which turned into a TikTok of us all doing the 6-7 hand gesture. I had to explain to Chips what to do, which made me feel young, even though I was surrounded by actual children.

Once everyone had left, we finished packing, said our goodbyes to Sonja and Manuela, and then hit the road. Chips and I had a 12-hour drive/ferry back to the UK, and we spent most of it buzzing about what an amazing day we had at Park Jam.

So thank you, Germany, and especially those involved from Hohenlimburg canoe club and the DKV, for a really special day. Thank you to all the clubs and the paddlers who attended and helped to show me what an incredible community of kayakers you have in Germany. It was an honour to be a part of the day and share the water with you all.

See you all at the next Palm and Pyranha Park Jam events in the UK in October!