{"id":5629,"date":"2013-04-02T21:39:59","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T20:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unsponsored.co.uk:\/press\/?p=5629"},"modified":"2026-02-23T20:56:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:56:04","slug":"unsponsored-2013-qa-series-deb-pinniger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unsponsored.co.uk\/press\/unsponsored-2013-qa-series-deb-pinniger\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsponsored Q&A series – Deb Pinniger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Freestyle paddler, expedition guru and accomplished slalom paddler Deb Pinniger has been at the top of the game for over two decades. Deb has participated in many wilderness\/whitewater adventures across the globe and spends a great deal of time sharing her kayaking skills and knowledge with others. I was delighted when Deb agreed to take park in the Unsponsored 2013 Q&A series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Unsponsored
Unsponsored Q&A series – Deb Pinniger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a little a bit about you accomplishments in the canoeing\/kayaking world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was freestyle world champion in 1999 and twice world silver medalist 2001 and 2003, European champion and five times British champion. I guess had a pretty good run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was also lucky during the same time to participate in a number of expeditions, one of which was an attempt of source to sea of the Stikine, with Olaf Obsommer, Olli Grau and others in 2001, another highlight was running the Ivindo River in Gabon with Nico Chassing and Olaf Obsommer in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond competition and expeditions, I have been involved with coaching for a long time, which has been very rewarding and with its own highlights, some of which have been running youth trips to the Zambezi, Zanskar and Tara Rivers with young people. More recently I have been working at the 2012 Olympic kayak slalom venue Lee Valley and have headed up the kayak program there, which has been great fun to kick the program off from scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I published two books L\u2019eau Vive<\/a> and Extreme White Water Sports<\/a>, which were both really fun projects to work on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When and how did you first start paddling?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started paddling when I was eight years old and on a family holiday in Christchurch. I saw some people kayaking and wanted to try it and of course I couldn\u2019t, but there were sit on tops for hire where we were, so I would save my holiday pocket money for every other day and then use this saving to hire a sit on top. When we returned from holiday, I went down to the tourist information office in my home town and found out where the local kayak club was and got the contact details and joined up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n