Just got back from the Reno River Festival. I was working in the CCK booth so I didn’t get as much chance to paddle or enjoy the festivities but it was still a great event. Over 30,000 people passed through over the weekend, and while most were not paddlers they still had questions and got the see what our sport is all about. I’m not a park n’ play kind of guy, but the park in Reno is pretty darn nice - I can totally see the appeal of being able to pull up, throw your boat out on the water and throw down, then head home all in couple hours after work.
I did enter the boatercross which was a new event for me. At the low flows we have it definitely rewarded strategy. I didn’t get the chance to do any practice runs or even get in my boat until the first round which was just a timed run - I got a little off line and it clearly cost me. The timed runs set up the seeding for the actual boatercross heats. For the heats the top two boaters advanced - it was suppose to be four boaters in each heat but only two heats had four - most had three and some only had two. I was unlucky enough to be in one of the four boat heats. It was a flying start so the most important thing was to get out early and stay out of the chaos. But that wasn’t as exciting for the audience. I ended up fighting my way down the whole course in second/third place and get edged out at the end. So my boatercross experience lasted a grand total of about a minute of paddling. But lessons learned for next year. EJ seemed to be trying a strategy of luring his competitors into false starts by charging at the starting line early and then pulling up. But it cost him in the second round when no one false started and he ended up behind everyone and couldn’t quite catch up. As I said - strategy is key.
Post a Comment