Tri-Cities Nolichucky Hometown Throwdown Event #4 Coverage & 2009 Series Wrap-up w/ Final Results

wildwildwes wrote 163 days ago:

The fourth and final event in our Hometown Throwdown series was our largest and most fun event this season. The August event was held at Big Rock in conjunction with the Noli Spash event!  The weather for the event started out with mostly cloudy skies and temps in the mid 70s.  With the lower than normal air temperature, the Nolichucky River water felt like bath water and we all enjoyed it!  The sun occasionally peaked out for us, but later in the afternoon we had to take about a 30 minute delay in the Men’s K-1A heats due to a torrential downpour!  After the shower passed, the rest of the evening was pleasant and we finished out the event with some great rides by the K-1A Men.  

The wave/hole feature at Big Rock was near perfect thanks to a small shower we received two days before that had the river level slowly dropping to the ideal level (+/-700 CFS) for freestyle tricks.  A great show was put on for our large crowd of spectators (30-40) along the river left bank and on the center rock island!  I was fortunate to have my mother and grandmother join us at the event to watch and they both said that they really enjoyed it!  I also learned from the Riverpark Campground owners that some of the campers on site had come to camp just to watch the event.  It was really great to hear that our freestyle series was growing a fan base! 

A total of 37 competitors came from near by & as far away as Charlotte, NC and Rock Island, TN to participate in the August event #4.  This event had the best rate of participation of any event the series!  All five of our divisions were filled with paddlers ready to strut their stuff!  Thanks to Kerry Porche, we had a PA system set-up beside the feature which added a fun, new aspect to this event.  A few of us took turns announcing competitors and adding some colorful commentary!  We also played some good tunes on the PA for a background soundtrack to the event.  Good times, good times!  

HTTD Event #4 Results:

Juniors’ K-1:

1.       Conner McSpadden (94)

2.       Nathan Kincheloe (68)

Women’s K-1:

1.       Crystal Gustin (118)

2.       Terri Adkins (104)

3.       Jennifer Bradley (60)

C-1:

1.       David Goodwin (95)

2.       Dan Pettingill (73)

Men’s K-1A:
1.       Michael Patterson (409)

2.       Tommy Hehnen (261)
3.       Brad Barker (246)

4.       Chris Wing (241)

5.       Josh Dalton (227)

6.       Dewey (218)

7.       Casey Jones (173)

8.       Kerry Porche – Hand Paddler (169)

9.       Brandon Dale (160)
10.     Will Rudisill (154)
11.     David Ledford (149)  

Men’s K-1B:
1.       Wesley R. Bradley (136)
2.       Justin Benton (118)

2.       Joseph Obenschain (118)

4.       Steve Moore (116)
5.       Tyler Jones (96)

6.       Eric Hoffman (94)

7.       Brian Pickett (93)     

8.       Stuart Everett (80)

9.       Jason Bordwine (78)
9.       Mike Dorsey (78)

11.     Nick Smith (77)

12.     Michael Bianchi (73)

13.     Jason Miller (62)

14.     Adam Gudger (60)

14.     Stacy Smith (60)     

16.     Randall Hunter (57)

17.     Michael Kincheloe (55)

18.     Travis Fleming (52)

19.     Jere Rudisill (48)

Congratulations to Connor, Crystal, David, & Michael as our event #4 winners!  I was also really happy to finally win an event myself in the Men’s K-1B class after two years of competition.  It’s now time for me to move up to K-1A now…  A big THANK YOU as always to all the competitors who came out to participate in this big day!  The event would not have been a success without each of you and I hope you will come back to join us next year for the 2010 Tri-Cities HTTD Series.

HTTD Event #4 competitor highlights:

- Mad Mike Patterson showed us once again that he is truly the Tri-Cites Freestyle Champion by racking up a +400 score for this event, which was a new personal best for him in this series!

- Brian Pickett debuted his new freestyle trick (the “Epileptic Dog”) that thoroughly entertained the crowd.  He also showed us in his final ride that you can throwdown in a creek boat too!

- We had two gentleman (Jere Rudisill & Mike Dorsey) compete in the Men’s K-1B class who were over 50 years young… that’s just awesome!

- Eric Hoffman gave the crowd some good entertainment with his water cannon and earned some style points with his recreational orange PFD.

- Despite having a broken hand, Kerri Porche still competed with one hand and used hand paddles!

- We had 2 swimmers during the event who went home with with the coveted River Gypsies “Everybody Swims” sticker.

As if HTTD Event #4 was not enough fun by itself, the Noli Splash event and the APE’s Annual Picnic added even more good times to the day!  The Noli Splash was a fund raiser for the First Descents Program.  The Noli Splash raised approximately $1,000 through a silent auction & $2 admission fee into the venue.  The money raised in this event will be used for a scholarship to send one young adult recovering from cancer to the First Descents Camp in Colorado.

A special thanks goes out to  for donating $50 to this cause and supporting our events!

The Noli Splash hosted some great live music from: Richard Banks, Lexus Shipley, The Rhythm Brewers, & The Tin Whiskers.  The Noli Splash also had tube & funyak rentals through the day.  We hosted a great Tri-Cities film premiere of “Hotel Charley 4 – At Your Own Risk” on Friday night as well after a nighttime play session in Big Rock by spot light!  A huge thank you goes out to Kerry & Catherine Porche for all their hard work and organization on the Noli Splash with the Hometown Throwdown Event #4!

The Ape’s Annual Picnic and river trips were a great success as part of the events also!  A few of our local more experienced paddlers met up with some newbies to run a lower section of the Noli (Class II) and another group took a group of 1^st timers down the Noli Gorge (Class III-IV).  I have heard some good reports from all the Noli river trips that day.  All the events culminated in the late afternoon with a BBQ picnic provided by the APE’s from the Firehouse.  It was tasty after a hard day of paddling and competing!  Thank you to Randy, Debbie, and Joe for organizing all of the APE’s activities during the day!

We had a great group of 7 volunteers who came out to assist in the HTTD event!  Jeff Weatherford was a great commentator on the PA for the event!  Erin Weatherford & Bob Peal served as our technical judges.  Tom Hehnen and Samantha Miller were excellent scribes for our judges.  Megan Dale, once again, kept everyone very alert with the air horn while serving as timekeeper.  Cheryl Killman was back on site as the event photographer shooting some great shots, as seen in this event coverage, of all the action.  A big thank you goes out to these guys and gals for all their help!

All of our competitors & volunteers went home with prizes provided by our good sponsors!  A big THANKS goes out to all of our program partners, listed in the banner above, and our local sponsors: Bonnie Kate Theater, Bonnie Kate Café, Risen Sun the movie, River Gypsies, Riverpark Campground & Rushing Waters Outfitters.  A special thanks goes out to Riverpark Campground for the use of their great venue to host the events.  We would not have had these events without their support.  Make sure you give Bruce and Nancy a personal thank you for all they do for our paddling community…

As always a big thank you to the World Kayak leadership: Colin Kemp and James McBeath for making these events possible with all their hard preparation work!

Cheryl Killman’s HTTD #4 Event Photos:

Album 1 – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29332&id=1074133134&l=44e918c30a

Album 2 – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29387&id=1074133134&l=970edebda0

Album 3 – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29399&id=1074133134&l=b93d675105

Wesley R. Bradley’s HTTD #4 & Series Champ Award Ceremony Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113365&id=552848204&l=fde651b4d1

Our 2009 Tri-Cities HTTD series came to a dramatic close this year after the BBQ picnic with a fun medal ceremony. A big thank you goes out to Dominion Carton  for sponsorship of the medals.  Our top 3 competitors in each class went home with a medal and certificate designed by yours truly.

2009 Men’s K-1A Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Michael Patterson

Silver Medalist – Will Rudisill

Bronze Medalist – Bradon Dale

Bronze Medalist – Brad Barker

2009 Men’s K-1B Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Wesley R. Bradley

Silver Medalist – Steve Moore

Bronze Medalist – Jason Bordwine

2009 Women’s K-1 Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Terri Adkins

Silver Medalist – Crystal Gustin

Bronze Medalist – Jennifer Bradley

2009 Juniors’ K-1 Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Nathan Kincheloe

Silver Medalist – Matt Wright

Bronze Medalist – Mason Farmer

2009 C-1 Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Dan Pettingill

Silver Medalist – David Goodwin

Congrats and thanks again to all for coming out and participating in one or all of these four great events in the series.  Thanks to for sponsoring all the top prizes that were given to the series champs!!  This brings our freestyle series to a close this year, but stay tuned to World Kayak for upcoming paddling events and news about our great sport.  Until the next Throwdown series, I hope to see you creekin’!

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Boise Hometown Throwdown #6

Gary Wilson wrote 193 days ago:

Boise’s final Hometown Throwdown of the year was a great finish to the series. We even had a special guest appearance by Reno Jackson paddler Sage Donnelly. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting this little gal, you are missing out – she is personality-plus!   (and a great little paddler!)

Seth Stoenner owned the hole with flurries of aerial moves – his smooth style makes paddling look so easy… We ran two hole runs and then a couple of Boater-x heats. We didn’t draw prizes until about an hour after the competition as everyone was having so much fun they wouldn’t get out of the water. We had the largest party-surf I have seen int the Gutter. Special thanks to Matt Donnelly for helping take pics!

Only the scent of dogs cooking on the grill wafting over the water could draw them out. We had a great visit while we ate and drew for the great prizes that our generous supporters have donated. Thanks locally to Alpenglow Mountainsport for their donations and providing demo boats at most of the events, and to Kieth at RiverRunner Gear as well. And of course to our international sponsors for supporting these events!

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ICF Freestyle World Championship Semifinal Results

wildwildwes wrote 195 days ago:

Congrats to the top 5 of the Jr. Women, Jr. Men & OC-1 who will advance onto Finals!

Women Semis start at 6:00PM. Men’s semis is under the lights tonight at 8:30PM. Live streaming video on http://worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown/2009-ifc-world-championships/

USA, USA, USA, Go USA!!!

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ICF Freestyle World Championship Quarter Final Results

wildwildwes wrote 196 days ago:

Congrats to the top 10 of both the Women & Men K-1 who will advance onto tomorrow’s Semi Finals!

Complete Quarter Final Results:

Men K-1 - http://www.jacksonkayak.com/pdf/2009WorldsResultsQuartersK1M.pdf

Women K-1 – http://www.jacksonkayak.com/pdf/2009WorldsResultsQuarterK1W.pdf

GO USA!!!

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Women’s K1 Prelims in #Thun

James McBeath wrote 198 days ago:

The late day sprinkles threatened to come early this fine morning, but the sun won out as the Women took to the wave in Thun.  Every heat list that was announced seemed like it was THE heat to beat.  All of them seemed to be dotted with stars and veterans of freestyle.  Some amazingly classic names like Marianne Saether, Jessie Stone, Tanya Faux etc. were all included in the mix with newcommers and rising stars making each round super competitive.  Everyone was paddling off of the energy and the shere competitive aura of the others in the eddy.  It was awesome!

The day started out with a tough wave.  At the start it truely didn’t look like the wave was being nice at all.  Runs under 100 left the first heat baffled when Fiona Jarvie of Wales (GBR) showed up with game face on!  A couple of rides later and a flurry of round houses and blunts she broke the 100 point ride mark and never looked back.  In the next heat Martina Wegman of NLD brought the air into play with a donkey flip… pushing towards a 200+ score.  Midway through the competition in stepped Marianne Saether.  Everyone twittering out there stopped to notice her rides … Marianne kicked in a solid ride including the most air of the day to date… Donkey Flip, Helix, huge blunts taking her combined total to 528… solidly ahead of all the rides so far.

The real drama began with good friends Ruth Gordon of Canada and Tanya Faux of Australia showing up in the eddy for warm up.  Ohhhhh baby, these ladies really work off of each other’s competitive energy… smiles all around they took the wave to even higher levels.  Tanya throwing the gauntlet down with her first ride of just under 300.  Along came Ruth with a tight combination of Donkey Flip, back stabs, spins and a huge blunt or two… 400 point ride.  ITS ON!  Ruth ended with 713 and Tanya at 500 in third behind Saether at this point in the comp… with A couple heats to come and Emily Jackson in the eddy for her warm up… you can SEE the US flags wavin’!

The anticipation of Emily’s rides was temporarily put on hold with a light first ride, but got the crowd on their feet with an amazing second ride of around the 400 area and a final ride that helped her into second spot for the day.  Jessie Stone, one of the sports TRUE ambassadors brought in a great story line as she chipped her way into 5th over all with solid performances… showing that she will ALWAYS be a threat.

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Mens Prelims – #Thun World Championships

James McBeath wrote 199 days ago:

Today’s prelims was highlighted by one of the biggest fields ever to grace a freestyle World Championships.  With 103 competitors from all corners of the globe, there was no end to the drama.  Early heats saw names like BIlly Harris of Canada, Stephen Wright of the US making immediate marks with combined scores of 1500 and 1400 respectively.  Mikael Lantto of Finland landed a spectacular Air Screw and came in with a score of 1360 and Simon Strihmeir of Germany scored an impressive 1110 allong side Casper Van Kalmthout… spreading the leaders all over the proverbial globe.

The entire field battled the often flushy wave.  Only those with the luck of River Gods and strength in clean delivery were able to keep their flurries on the wave till the horn.  The moves ranged from massive blunts to donkey flips, helix and a new kid on the block… the backwards Airscrew… er… that brings us to the next portion of the program…

Each heat had a good battle, flushes and bad  luck to epics of 900+ point rides between two or three riders.  Peter Csonka of Slovkia and Nick Troutman of Canada both stunned the crowds in their respective heats… with combined rides for Peter of 1613 showing his prowess in his WS Project.  But the brightest shine came from Canada’s Troutman with a stunningly controlled blasts best described by this Twitter post from Lee Hart of Brand amp: “nick troutman’s 2nd ride: air screws back blunt mcnasty pan am donkey flip and helix for . . . off the charts.”  Score… 2480!  For those math freaks… thats a full 800 points (the average combined ride score for most of them) ahead of the second placed Csonka!  OH FREAKIN CANADA (voluntary addition by this Canadian author).

Other notables off to the Quarters include Eric Jackson our raining (sp?) champ, Richard Grimes of GBR a main stay near the podium, Mathiew Dumoulin who came pretty close to upsetting them all at the World Cup in 2008, young Joel Kowalski on his first K1 men’s stage at the worlds Just a head of Anthony Yap and a crowd favorite in Tyler Curtis (now for Norway) slipping in amongst the 30 moving on.

Notable drops included Rush Sturges,  fellow American Cory Volt, Mario Vargus with a couple unlucky flushes among 70+ others. 

Tomorrow we hit the OC1, C1, and Jrs

MENS PRELIMS VIDEO – CARE OF NICK TROUTMAN!

 [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/LBP8W3OVvf0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Official results below…

Place  Bib Name        Points      Series Country

1 3 Troutman Nicholas 2.480,000 Prelim CAN
2 2 Csonka Peter 1.613,333 Prelim SVK
3 9 Harris Billy 1.516,667 Prelim CAN
4 64 Wright Stephen 1.410,000 Prelim USA
5 122 Lantto Mikael 1.360,000 Prelim FIN
6 124 Van Kalmthout Casper 1.271,667 Prelim NLD
7 139 Strohmeier Simon 1.110,000 Prelim GER
8 14 Thompson Kelsey 1.080,000 Prelim CAN
9 138 Strohmeier Seppi 991,667 Prelim GER
10 55 Kirk Bryan 928,333 Prelim USA
11 143 Chrimes Richard 905,000 Prelim GBR
12 1 Jackson Eric 891,667 Prelim USA
13 163 DUMOULIN Mathieu 825,000 Prelim FRA
14 165 COLDEBELLA Mathieu 765,000 Prelim FRA
15 85 Serrasolses Gerd 756,667 Prelim ESP
16 43 Meyers Jonny 751,667 Prelim USA
17 95 Kazuya Matsunaga 748,333 Prelim JPN
18 68 CARPENE Leo 738,333 Prelim FRA
19 117 Kuronen Tuomas 733,333 Prelim FIN
20 128 Spreiter Sandro 730,000 Prelim SUI
21 97 Shintaro Komori 721,667 Prelim JPN
22 144 Best Jon 681,667 Prelim GBR
23 166 Immler Anton 681,667 Prelim SWE
24 52 Kowalski Joel 680,000 Prelim CAN
25 191 Yap Anthony 676,667 Prelim AUS
26 220 HERZIG Daniel 625,000 Prelim AUT
27 74 GALLAIS Jules 611,667 Prelim FRA
28 60 TYLER CURTIS 556,667 Prelim NOR
29 17 Bergeron Proulx Francoi 541,667 Prelim CAN
30 201 Häberling Severin 541,667 Prelim SUI
31 145 Ward Alan 536,667 Prelim GBR
32 129 Dillier Florian 511,667 Prelim SUI
33 71 Sturges Rush 463,333 Prelim USA
34 147 BLODER Marcel 460,000 Prelim AUT
35 72 Corey Volt 450,000 Prelim USA
36 24 Magwmba Ibrahim 441,667 Prelim UGA
37 127 Zarn Andrea Marco 428,333 Prelim SUI
38 107 Akira Nakamura 410,000 Prelim JPN
39 34 Anderson Sam 410,000 Prelim GBR
40 225 ANDREA COLOMBO 408,333 Prelim ITA
41 183 Leonard Mark 408,333 Prelim IRE
42 209 MITAUT Maxime 406,667 Prelim FRA
43 89 Goikoetxea Gorka 406,667 Prelim ESP
44 40 Cooper Doug 395,000 Prelim GBR
45 142 Collenteur Raoul 378,333 Prelim NLD
46 108 Andrassy Tomas 375,000 Prelim SVK
47 175 Vasin Konstantin 370,000 Prelim RUS
48 213 O’Donoghue Tomas 361,667 Prelim IRE
49 126 Suokko Samuli 351,667 Prelim FIN
50 171 Rybnikov Ivan 345,000 Prelim RUS
51 200 Langner Nico 343,333 Prelim GER
52 104 Tatsuya Yagi 305,000 Prelim JPN

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2009 ICF Freestyle Kayak World Championships: Ones to Watch

James McBeath wrote 200 days ago:

Thun, Switzerland – Some 250 pf the world’s best kayakers, representing 35 countries, are fine-tuning their Pan Ams, Airscrews, and Helixes in the final days of practice heading into the start of the ICF Freestyle World Championships here next week.

Taking a closer look at this year’s field, the following is a synopsis, by division, of paddlers to watch as the Thun wave starts to boil from all the hot paddlers.

“Like any sport, World Championships brings out the very best in competitors, even more so for freestyle kayaking since we aren’t yet an Olympic event,” said ICF Freestyle Chairman Lluis Rabeneda. “Even casual spectators who might not know much about the sport will appreciate the complexity of the athletic moves and amazing amplitude the athletes can achieve.”

Men’s K1
Defending champ Eric “EJ” Jackson (USA) returns to try to win an unprecedented fifth world title. But Jackson, 45, faces stiff competition from his own family and teammates as well as other young guns eager to unseat the winningest kayaker in history. Heading the list are Jackson’s son-in-law, Canadian National Champion Nick Troutman and his fellow Canadian national teammate Billy Harris as well as reigning US National Champ Stephen Wright. Other serious threats to Jackson’s title include last year’s World Cup Champion, Peter Csonka (SK), French champion Matthieu Dumoulin (FR) and Anthony Yap (AU) who designed a new kayak specifically for the wave in Thun.

Women’s K1
Probably the biggest threat to defending Champ Ruth Gordon’s (CA) title is Team USA’s Emily Jackson. The 19-year-old daughter of Eric Jackson, Emily, won the junior women’s division of the last World Championship, won last year’s World Cup and is reigning US National Champ. Other women to watch include Norway’s Marianne Sather, Germany’s Jutta Kaiser and Emily Wall. Wall spent the past year training in Africa. Also a threat no matter what type of kayaking event she enters is Australia’s Tanya Faux, whose titles include 2006 World Cup champ, 2007 Australian Canoeist of the Year, World Championship silver medalist, and 2008 Australian Adventure of the Year for her first descent of the Moran and Mitchell Rivers in Kimberley, Australia.

Junior Men K1
Coming into Thun on fire this season is France’s Sebastien Devred, who won last year’s World Cup. So far this year, Devred has not only won every event he’s entered but he’s also done so with scores that would have seen him at the top of the senior men’s podium.
Aiming squarely at Devred are Team USA best friends, 16-year-old Dane Jackson (Eric’s middle child) and Jason Craig.

Junior Women K1
One of the few divisions wide open due to the absence of defending champs, the heavy favorite is Nouria Newman of France who won last year’s World Cup and is also a formidable slalom competitor. In fact, Newman will be arriving in Thun later than most competitors, and foregoing practice tine because she’ll be coming straight from a major slalom event. One freestyle insider described Newman as “55kg of pure talent.”

C1
Watch for a trio of western Europeans to battle it out including European champ David Bainbridge (UK), veteran competitor Marcus Hummel (DE), and Alexandre Bessau (FR) who won World Cup last year.

OC1
This division that uniquely features a high number of homemade boats sports defending champ Stephan Paetsch (DE), last year’s World Cup champ James Weir (UK) and another German, Toby Huther (DE), who will be paddling a low-volume, converted unique low-volume twin-tip boat which will put a lot of pressure on his opening moves.

Squirt
Brits are the primary force to be reckoned with in this division. Look for strong showings by James Reeves and Claire O’Hara.

The ICF Freestyle World Championships are scheduled Aug. 31 to Sept. 6. Other exciting paddling competitions during the event include the Jackson Kayak King of the Wave and Rafting High Ender competitions on Friday, Sept. 4, a Kayak Big Air competition on Saturday and a river surfing exhibition.

Categorized as:2009 World Freestyle Championships  •   Feature Story2009 World Freestyle Championships  •   Feature Story2009 World Freestyle Championships  •   Feature Story2009 World Freestyle Championships  •   Feature Story

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Freestyle grows up, World Championships highlight increasing professionalism

James McBeath wrote 200 days ago:

Thun, Switzerland – This year’s ICF Freestyle World Champoionships mark new milestones in the evolution of the youngest discipline in paddlesports.

The first milestone is marked by attendance at the event by VIPs from some of the most august international sports bodies. Headlining the list of dignitaries is International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge. Joining Rogge from the IOC will be Sports Director Christophe Dubin. Other VIPs planning to check out the freestyle kayak action in Thun include Hein Verbruggen, president of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), Denis Oswald, Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), International Canoe Federation (ICF) Secretary General Simon Toulson and Leta Joos from the ICF Court of Arbitration.

Lluis Rabaneda, Chair of the ICF Freestyle Committee, a veteran of freestyle competition organization and the paddlesports industry for more than a decade, said he is honored that so many high-ranking officials have chosen to come to Thun and believes it demonstrates that the sport has attained a critical level of professionalism.

A key component of that professionalism comes with formalizing judging standards and providing ICF training and accreditation. During the past year, cross continent exchanges between North American and European judges, funded by the ICF, were conducted by veteran judge Jasper Polak. Only the most highly trained judges, those who demonstrate the best knowledge and consistency of scoring, will judge the competitor in Thun.

In freestyle kayaking, competitors have a set amount of time, usually 45 seconds or 60 seconds to perform as many maneuvers as possible on a stationary river feature such as a standing wave or hole. In Thun, the time limit will be 45 seconds and the feature is a wave.

The skilled and athletic moves range from simple spins to complex aerial moves with such dynamic names as McNasty, Phonix Monkey, Tricky Woo and Air Screws. The more difficult the move the higher number of points awarded for it. Bonus points may be awarded if the move is particularly huge in aerial amplitude or for smoothly linking more two or three moves.

For example, an Air Screw is defined as a barrel roll performed above the surface, front surf to front surf. The boat must be aerial for at least 270 degrees of the roll and must land in a front surf within 45 horizontal angle range. Any deviation from this technical definition means the competitor doesn’t score any of the 160 points awarded for this move. Moves are only scored once, although some moves may be performed to the right and the left and thus may be scored as two different moves. During this year’s World Championships, look for scores upwards of 900 to be tallied in the senior men’s division.

ICF Freestyle World Championships, produced by Verein Wellen Events, are scheduled to be held Aug. 31 through Sept. 6. For more detailed event information, visit http;//www.ict-thun2009.ch.

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Seaway Valley Final Throwdown of 2009

Robert Zwanenburg wrote 207 days ago:

Sunday August 23rd – Riviere St-Charles, Salaberry-De-Valleyfield, Quebec.

All summer we have been fortunate to be able to host a series of Freestyle events for World Kayak here in the Seaway Valley. Each event turned up new paddlers willing to give competitive kayaking a chance and show what they could do on the features of the Riviere St-Charles. This Sunday was the best of the series!
23 paddlers joined us on the river for our last event of the season. 9 of the paddlers were kids under the age of 16 and 8 of the paddlers were girls (of all ages).

Registration took place at noon on what turned out to be a hot and humid sunny day. there were load of people on the water and many of them are still hesitate to participate. But that is OK too
At 1:00 PM we called an end to registration and rounded up the paddlers for the pre-competition chat. There were a lot of nervous paddlers particularly among the kids. We had 3 new paddlers who had not yet been on a wave to surf!! Sweet!
So the order of the day was Juniors and beginners first on Mini-wave, intermediate/advanced women on bob and then intermediate/advance men on Manic.

The kids:
What can we say, from new to seasoned we saw some great performances, smiles and courage!!!
Aaron, Alyssa (Both looking great in their pink Jackson boats) and Alex (Red Star) got on a wave for the first time ever and stood up to the stresses of trying a competition and surfing! Nicely done. And now your paddling experience will really turn up I expect to see some serious improvement from these 3 in the next months and through the winter. Pay attention and lets see how fast they improve for next season’s events!!!!
Andrew (Red Jackson Shooting Star) rocked it with great boat control, some old school paddle twirls and huge smiles!! Zachary and the others should watch for this kid next year.
Sam, in the black CReW Jackson Shooting star surfed and did spins. His improvement over the summer was incredible. Another one to watch!
Zachary Hakvoort, 13 years old and well over 6 feet in a my Jackson Super Star did a fine job at surfing and playing with the old school moves. Has a rockin’ hand roll too Well done Zachary.
Emily (my kid) is turning it up slowly and as she improves watch out. She rides and smiles and put an effort in there for some good points. Well done kiddo.
And then there is Maude: Maude got surfing and decided to sing us a song. The music form her voice and the smiles on her face got her a few extra points along with her excellent surfs.
Marika, our beginner paddler also put in good ride. Not sure if she was going to compete at first, she stepped up to the plate and got out for a couple good surfs and some huge smiles! well done.

All through their rides the parents, spectators, and judges yelled and encouraged the kids. A really excellent show of support.
Equally fun was the number of people who walked up to watch the next 2 events. The kids all came to cheer for their parents and friends while other local paddlers watched and encouraged too. we even saw some local folks from Williamstown, Ontario (CReW’s base) who had heard about the event). Thanks for cheering everyone on.

Intermediate/Advanced Women:
Cheryl, Sylvie and Patricia did a smoking job. Each paddling their own style and for their own reasons. Whether working to advance their skills, playing for fun and at times playing for the camera and judges, these ladies rocked!
Cheryl turned up the challenge with her first coordinated linking of moves. Awesome. Spin to a back deck (Zachary and her call it the spinning donkey ). Sylvie followed her lead stayed close behind her. Patrica was all about the smiles and the spins. She followed Maude’s lead and was singing to impress the judges. Nice.

Intermediate/Advanced Men:
The event was split into 2 heats and the competition was fun and exciting. (FYI: as I am getting older I start thinking that 1 ride per event might be easier than 2…)
Zachary rode first and wowed everyone with his aerial loop and back loop. He also pulled of a couple good cartwheels, spins and surfs. We call Zach a Junior but we make him work with the men. Alexandre (another junior did great spinning and throwing an end. Well done sir!
Francois impressed the crowd with his boat control in the C1. His boat is long and Manic likes to eat long boats but he kicked it and made everyone go “oohhhh”.
Aime-Jean gave us the best performance .He is a solid paddler who can stay in control and link his moves together. This guy is a local paddler who has been playing at this site since he was a kid. Well done A.J.Benoit, Jocelyn, Pierre-Luc, Alexandre, Gabriel, Jonathan and I did our best to push the rest of them and we got some good rides including a few loops, ends, cartwheels, a few good thrashings and some unexpected moves too.

After 3 hours of competition everyone was tired but smiling. The kids went back to swimming in the rapids while Sylvie and Cheryl counted the final points.
Here is how it ended:

Juniors:

Zachary Z.    99.5
Andrew    27
Alexandre L.    22
Samuel    20
Emily    11
Zach H.    10
Aaron    6
Maude    6
Alex   5
Alissa   4
Women:

Cheryl     25
Sylvie      24.5
Patrizia   20.5
Marika     7.5

Mens:

Aime-Jean   119
Francois      78.5
Benoit          45
Robert         40.5
Gabriel         38.5
Jocelyn         30
Alexandre     29
Pierre-Luc    17
Jonathan      16

Once the points were announced and thanks to the generosity of the World Kayak and Local Sponsors, we were able to hand out some awesome prizes for participation. As always the prizes were drawn by their peers and everyone walked away happy.

Loads of pictures and video clips for you to enjoy: CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES AND VIDEO CLIPS

The highlight for me was definitely having the privilege of standing in the water with the kids and helping them to experience the world of paddling.
This was followed closely by the joy of watching the families and friends cheer on their kids, siblings and buddies.

Thanks again to all the people who participated, World Kayak, World Kayak Sponsors and H2O Performance Paddles (our local sponsor) for making this possible for us. Thanks Cheryl for sticking it out with us all summer and helping us organize and manage the events (and providing superb competition for Sylvie).
And… also my wife, partner and best friend, Sylvie and our kids (Emily and Zachary) for supporting me and letting me share the passion with all of you. Could not do it without them

Hope to see you all on the Riviere St-Charles at one of our events in 2010.

Till then, See you on a river somewhere

Robert Zwanenburg.
www.cornwallwhitewater.com

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Midwest Freestyle Championships

colin wrote 207 days ago:

This year I was fortunate enough to be invited back to Wausau to coach the Midwest Freestyle Championships for the second year in a row.  Needless to say it was great to see a bunch of familiar faces.  This year’s trip had a few new twists to it that added a bunch to the experience.  The freestyle clinic was in enough demand that we had to add a third instructor to be able to handle everyone.  On the morning of the first day of the clinic I was interviewed on the morning show along with Dave Lemke, the Wisconsin World Kayak ambassador. http://www.waow.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=4039453&h1=Kayaking%20in%20Wausau&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=193833&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&rnd=49993621  Take a look at the anchor woman’s slippers when they pan down to show the boat!  Everyone at the TV studio was great, and they made both Dave and I feel at home for our first live TV interview. 

                Right after we got done with the TV folks we were off to get geared up and start the first clinic group.  We had a number of new faces that signed up for the clinic which was great, but for me as an instructor it was super cool to see the progress that so many of my repeat students had made since last year.  My two fellow instructors were Team JK member and Wisconsin native John McConville and Brian Tupper, the Sacramento/Coloma World Kayak ambassador.  Each of the instructors taught two groups of 5-7 students for 4 hours each.  After class we all got to get in as much play as possible for the remaining 1 hour of water time.  Needless to say we were all tired at the end of each day.

                Saturday brought the first rounds of competition.  All preliminary rounds were held for the expert men, intermediate men, women, and masters.  This year the organizers allowed the women to compete in the men’s event as well as the women’s event.   It was cool to see how many women jumped at the opportunity.  It was great to see a very full women’s class this year with 15+ women strutting their freestyle stuff.  I was fortunate enough to just edge out my fellow JK teammate John McConville for the men’s preliminary win.  After everyone had sufficiently tired themselves out we hosted a movie premier in the basement of the VFW.  After the movie we announced the teams for the team event.  The team event is something that I have not seen at any other freestyle competition.  The organizers put the names from each of the skill levels into three different hats, and they draw one expert boater, one intermediate boater, and one beginner boater at random and form teams of three.  Each team has 2 full minutes to rack up as many points as possible.  You can put two people in the hole at the same time if you would like to try to get more points faster.  The trick is to try to give everyone a list of moves that they are strong at so you can maximize the variety score.  After the teams were named everyone spilled out into the parking lot for a friendly game of 4 square.  In my mind this is Wausau!  The whole boating community gathering in the VFW parking lot after a long day of boating to keep on playing. 

                Sunday morning brought bad weather!  The organizers did a great job of working with what Mother Nature gave us.  First we had the boater cross.  We got to use the same awesome course that was created last year, but this year you were required to use the boat that you competed in during the freestyle event.  This was a great equalizer; however, there were a few boaters more focused on the boatercross than the freestyle so they surfed in their river running creek boats so that they could have the advantage with speed.  We ran heats of 5 boaters with the top boater advancing on to the next round.  We had well over 50 boaters race!  After two preliminary rounds I found myself in the start eddy with a significantly longer boat sitting next to me in my Mon-Star.  I had my work cut out for me to say the least.  Fortunately I got a good start and had the hole shot for the first dive gate.  Carnage ensued behind me and my long boat friend was taken out.  I was able to power my Mon-Star to the finish for the win.  Team runs were next and my team did not go until later on so we got to watch the show for a bit.  The team runs are so much fun to watch 3 people attempting to coordinate a very dynamic event.  We our time came our team just concentrated on having fun and attempted to do the moves that we assigned to ourselves.  I was fairly sure John’s team had edged us out for the win, but once the scores were posted we walked away with the win.  Thanks to my teammates for a great time.  Right after the team event wrapped up we went straight into individual finals.  The top 10 from preliminaries advanced on and we all got 1 ride, so you had to make it count.  Only the top three got one more ride to see who would come out on top.  At this point we were starting to see some very tired boaters!  Once again I was fortunate enough to win my semifinals round.  In the last ride for the final three I ran out of gas!  I went from scoring the highest ride of the competition n semis to dropping almost 100 points.  John McConville took advantage and walked away with the win.  Every competitor then helped with the breakdown of the event and the awards ceremony was held.  It was a spectacular event, and I need to thank Julie, Cole, Mike, Ashley, and Chad for making it happen.  I was ready to take a long nap by the time I got back to Reno.

For additional pictures of the event take a look at Nora Whitmore’s blog http://seaboopugs.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/WausauWhitewater

Later ; Colin

Team JK  

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