This seasons tour is over, and what a great tour it was for me. It was probably the best season i have had yet, i think i paddled better than i ever have. Starting in NAWF, in Alabama, i won the freestyle off the waterfall competition, and i won juniors freestyle, i forgot to see whether or not i would have done well in mens, i won C-1 as well. And then it was Reno, i won Juniors and i would have placed in pro mens. Then it was Buena Vista CO, i did pretty well, i forget what place i got. Then it was team trials in Glenwood, i got second in Junior mens, and i got first in C-1. So i will be competing at worlds in C-1 and K-1. It is really cool that i would have made the senior team. Then it was Teva Mountain Games, i got sixth there, just missing finals, Dustin Urban knocked me out on his final ride. I was still happy. Then It was Durango, i got first in my class and i did pretty well in slalom. I was happy with that. Then it was FIBARK, Salida CO. I had an awesome time there. I won OC-1, C-1, K-1, i got second with Jason Craig in the Raft Rodeo, and me and some friends won the Hooligan race. I was super psyched with this years FIBARK. Then it was home for a few days, and we leave for Canada on Monday. I am really happy with how i paddled this year! Thanks for reading,

Dane

I am in the RV after the last day of FIBARK 2009, and how awesome it was! It was a pretty low flow on Tuesday, and everyday just like every year the water rose super fast. It got to nearly 3 grand on the weekend this weekend, just a bit lower than last year i was told. Every day it got harder for hole moves and more of a wave every day. My routine was: Re-entry, loop, both airwheels, back loop, both mcnastys, both tricky woos, both phonics monkeys, and lunar orbit. Than on friday i changed my routine to: Re-entry, loop, both airwheels, both mcnastys, back loop, back pan am, and then felix. I did that friday and saturday, but then on sunday it was the highest it was yet. And it was super difficult, i had to change my routine one more time: Re-entry, loop, both airwheels, both blunts, back pan am, felix, and then both mcnastys. That went well for me, i won C-1, OC-1, Junior mens, the Hooligan race with some friends, and i place second in the raft rodeo with jason craig. I won juniors mens with 630 points, C-1 with 765 points, and OC-1 with 140 points. We won the hooligan race with and inflatable raft. It worked really well for us. There was eight of us. The foamboat world championships was on saturday, my creekboat didn’t do too well on the creek race unfortunately, a kid i am not sure what his name was won that. but my playboat got third in the freestyle. JP griffith won that one. I think that wraps up my FIBARK week. Time to go home and get the new 2010 Star!!!!!! Thanks for reading,

Dane

This weekend was the Animus river days and today on monday we went and did the Vallecito run. It is about a 45 minute drive from Durango. We went with 4 Corners (4 corners is the river store in Durango) guys Tony and Drew, and another guy Erin. It is a fun drive, i got to drive there and back so of course it was fun. We drive up to an RV park where we start hiking. We have to hike up the creek, it is about 1.1 miles of uphill, near the top the view is beautiful. The water is cold and super clear, it was really pretty. It was pretty tight in the gorge, the run was manky and pretty steep. One of the first rapids was like a 12 foot drop, it was cool. There is a cave on the left that a few people have drowned in at high water. If you do go in there and you get out of the water in the cave, you have to take off all your gear and climb out of a hole in the cave. It looks like it would be pretty bad to go in at higher water for sure. There was a bunch more smaller manky rapids after that. Than we came to Fuzzy Bunny, it was like a 9 foot drop that lands in a slot like 6 foot wide. That was a really cool rapid, i liked it. Than from there out it was some more manky rapids that were really fun. That is basically what today was like, it was a fun day. Now we are headed to Salida for Fibark. Thanks for reading,

Dane

The animus river days are over and it was awesome. Yesterday was awesome with the slalom race and the boat parade. You can read about yesterday in my last update. Today was the down river race and the freestyle. My dad did the down river race witch was first. He wound up placing third. I did not race, but i did a practice session in the hole in the morning. The freestyle was good, i got 1st in the juniors, and my dad got 1st in the mens. Nicole Mansfield was first in the womens. It was a blast. I haven’t been here in a long time, around 3 years, and i am glad we did. That wraps up my updates for this weekend, thanks for reading,

Dane

We are done with Saturday of the Animus River Days. Today we had a slalom race and the boat parade. The slalom race went good. I had an ok first run and better second run. I never got my times or what place i got, but i still had fun. I also made an 2010 All Star foamboat and a Dynamic Duo foamboat today (If you don’t know what a foamboat is: It is a mini version of a kayak made of wood or foam, i make them in wood). The boat parade was a bunch of people on rafts, duckies, canoes, kayaks, etc., and most of them were dressed in costumes. We do a class 2 stretch down to the park where the events are held. It is about 5 or 6 miles. And we just paddle down having fun. There were hundreds of people watching from shore all the way down. It was cool. My dad and i were in the duo, and we were just doing boofs and a bunch of rock spins. We got probably the biggest rock spin in the history of the duo. We did a 1260 (that is 3 1/2 rotations) i think. We had another one that was probably a 900. It was a blast trying to rock spin the duo. That is how today went, it was awesome. Tune in tomorrow afternoon on how the Freestyle events goes. Thanks for reading,

Dane

I just got my password back for my Blog so now i can write some updates. This one is basically my update for the last few events. The Reno River fest was good, i won the Juniors Mens with Jason Craig in 2nd and Seth Stoener in 3rd. After that was team trials in Glenwood Springs CO. I made the team in both K1 Juniors and C1. I got Second in juniors with Michael “LP” Palmer in 3rd and Jason Craig in 1st. And in C1 i got 1st with Jordan Poffenberger in 2nd, and Jeremy Laucks in 3rd. After that was Teva Mountain Games in Vail CO. There is no Juniors there so i competed in Pro Mens. I got 6th, just missing the cut, Dustin Urban knocked me out on his last ride. I was still happy. And now we are in Salida and we go to Durango this weekend for the Animus River Days. It should be good. Thanks for reading and look for some more updates from me in the future now that i can. Thanks,

Dane