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Midwest Freestyle Championships

colin wrote 209 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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Slave River Paddle Fest, Northwest Territories

saskia wrote 223 days ago:

CBC News

After shelving the project more than 20 years ago, industry is once again looking at hydro development on the Slave River on the N.W.T.- Alberta border. Click here to read the article.

Slave River Paddle Fest – hosted on the August long weekend this event was one of the best ever! Warm water, gentle play features and lots of fun activities for kids, families and kayakers of all levels. Saturday began with a morning of kids games and activities aimed at children and youth ages 5-17 followed by an afternoon of more kayak games, down river races and a World Kayak Throwdown. (more)

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FIBArk Event Coverage

Christopher Wing wrote 277 days ago:

The 61st Annual FIBArK (First In Boating the Arkansas) Festival has already kicked off here in Salida, CO with live musics, movie premiers and feverish practicing from kayakers of all disciplines. Salida plays host this year to the USA Wildwater National Championships as well as a dozen other kayaking events.

Tomorrow starts the competition with Wildwater sprints and the Pine Creek Boater X which puts out its fair share of carnage in the infamous Pine Creek Rapid where a towering hole awaits racers mid-course. For those that have the skill to negotiate the course it should be a fairly uneventful race, however, as it usually does the squirrelly water upstream of the hole sends racers off course and plummeting into the guts of the hole.

I will have the HD camera courtesy of Rapid Transit Video set close to the hole to capture the grimmace of racers as they approach and hopefully smash into the turbulent whitewater. Competition footage will be posted during the weekend while other events will be broadcasted live via the web on WKTV. We will be covering the Prelims for all of the freestyle events on Friday starting at 2:00 PM EST. Event Coverage continues the next day with the Hooligan Race at 7:30 PM EST shortly followed by the freestyle finals under the lights in the famous Salida Hole.

The Hooligan Race is a crowd favorite as participants are encourage to wear extremely ridiculous costumes while paddling barely floatable homemade crafts down the river through the play hole. The freestyle, being the last major Colorado competition is anyone’s game as many of the favorites over the years have been being beat consistently all season long.

Thursday – Pine Creek Boater X, video to follow this weekend during broadcasts

Friday – Freestyle Prelims, live broadcast starts at 2:00 PM EST

Saturday – Hooligan Race and Freestyle Finals, live broadcast starts at 7:30 PM EST

Categorized as:Feature Story • Festival Coverage • WK Pro Event Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • WK Pro Event Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • WK Pro Event Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • WK Pro Event Coverage

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Payette & Boise River Revival Results

Gary Wilson wrote 280 days ago:

Last weekend we had a great time at the Payette & Boise River (PBR) Revival. Despite some threatening weather, even a little rain, the event was a blast! Jackson Kayak Regional Paddler Mark Cecchini wrote the following report of the weekends event and results are posted at the bottom:

The 2009 PBR Revival went off just as the Payette River system marked peak water levels for the season. The high water conditions created truly spectacular venues for the competitors throughout the weekend. The events kicked off on Friday, June 5, with a freestyle kayaking competition for a talented field of seven junior competitors under the age of 18. Despite the high water, the competitors voted to hold the competition on the world reknown Bladder Wave instead of a rather sticky hole in the Gutter. Their choice was vindicated during a half hour jam session on one of the biggest and best waves in the west. The jam session format allowed each competitor to get a feel for the giant wave without the pressure of timed rides while providing room for the competitors to experiment with more difficult and higher-scoring manuervers. In the end, Tyler Wilson captured third place with consistent flurries of spins, ends, and even a few paddle tosses. Second place finisher, Ethan McCleod pulled ahead by using the entire wave to generate more consistent vertical moves. But it was Seth Stoenner who stole the show with smooth style and rides that would leave many adult pros reluctant to leave the eddy. Regardless of the results, each competitor showed guts and poise by adapting to the last minute venue changing and excelling on one of the best features in the coutry.
The PBR’s marquee event, a three mile sprint down the lengendary North Fork Payette, took place on Sunday, June 7. While any race on the North Fork is a serious test of poise and stamina, the 2009 edition featured an extra juicy flow of 5,500 cubic feet per second rushing over every jagged rock on the course. The immense flow combined with rapids like Otter Slide, Juicer, and Crunch saw competitors flying over house-sized waves at the speed of traffic on Highway 55. A field of 18 expert paddlers assembled to see who would claim the title of Fastest Paddler on the Payette. True to form, Ketchum local, Ryan Casey, parlayed his nordic racing background and considerable wingspan advantage into yet another unbeatable time. PBR 2009 marks the thrid year in a row that Casey has dominated the North Fork race. North Fork locals Jared Alexander and Tristan McClaren took second and third, respectively. Special thanks is due to the team of safety kayakers, all worthy competitors, who selflessly volunteered to monitor various trouble spots along the course instead of racing themselves. That kind of selfless attitude that makes the PBR possible and shows that the paddling community is alive and well on the Payettes.

Thanks to the volunteers, competitors, spectators, and organizers for making the 2009 PBR an unforgettable weekend. Look for more excitement on the Payettes in 2010!

JR FREESTYLE:
1) Seth Stoener
2) Ethan McLeod
3) Tyler Wilson

MARATHON:
1) Ryan Casey 1) Melissa Newell
2) Fred Corriel 2) Stacey Thompson
3) Brett Gleason
4) Brian Ward
5) Aaron Wydra
6) Jesse Murphy
7) Marty Rood

DOWNRIVER:

1) Seth Stoenner    1) Jared Alexander     1) Jess Brown   1) ORT
2) Tanner Griffith    2) Brian Ward 2) Stacey T 2)J. Krakk
3) Conner McLeod     3) Mike McKee
4) Ethan McLeod       4) Jesse Murphy
5) Conner Jackson     5) Marty Rood
6) Michael Hayes

EXTREME:
1) Ryan Casey 14:30
2) Jared Alexander 14:54
3) Tristan McClaran 14:55
4) Brian Ward 15:00
5) Jesse Murphy 15:01
6) Mark Cecheni 15:15
7) Brett Gleason 15:16
7) Shane Trapp 15:16
Ian McClaran 15:17
9) Andrew Dunning 15:17
10) Seth Stoenner 15:27
11) Mike McKee 15:30
12) Jess Brown 15:33
13) James McLeod 15:42
14) Skip Armstrong 15:43
15) Ty Bequette 16:00
16) Aaron Schwisher 16:14

Categorized as:Festival Coverage Festival Coverage Festival Coverage Festival Coverage

Tagged with:Boise • idaho • payette • pbr

Live Coverage Continues at FIBArk, enjoy some Homestake

Christopher Wing wrote 282 days ago:

Event Coverage on WKTV will continue during the weekend of June 18-21 during the 61st Annual FIBArk River Festival. Until then… (more)

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TEVA Results and Photos

Christopher Wing wrote 287 days ago:

Men’s Freestyle Results

1. Stephen Wright

2. Nick Troutman

3. Dustin Urban

4. Casper VonKolmf

5. Andrew Holcombe

Women’s Freestyle Results

1. Emily Jackson

2. Tanya Faux

3. Ruth Gordon

4. Nicole Mansfield

5. Devon Barker

Categorized as:Feature Story • Festival Coverage • Pro Circuit Results • Reno River Festival • Teva Mountain Games • WK Pro Event Coverage • WK World Cup Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • Pro Circuit Results • Reno River Festival • Teva Mountain Games • WK Pro Event Coverage • WK World Cup Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • Pro Circuit Results • Reno River Festival • Teva Mountain Games • WK Pro Event Coverage • WK World Cup Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • Pro Circuit Results • Reno River Festival • Teva Mountain Games • WK Pro Event Coverage • WK World Cup Coverage

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Check ya later… TEVA makes huge cut

Christopher Wing wrote 289 days ago:

The preliminaries for the Pro Freestyle kicked off today around 1:00 PM with 44 competitors in the men class and 16 women. As with most preliminary competitions the majority of the rides were conservative where competitors were given 2 rides with their points from both combine to determine who moved on. The top 15 of the men and 10 of the women were honored to move on to the semi’s tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM, where WKTV will resume coverage.

I personally like to compare this competition to a test in lung tolerance, where many competitors question whether or not they want to throw that next trick or stay above water for air. A lesson in controlled drowning for sure. What was obvious were the competitors who train in the mountains at altitude vs those “flatlanders” that came from the east.

Tomorrow the competition will definitely turn up a notch when the cut will be down to 5 for each class in this highly contested competition. TEVA is for sure the most dominant among other competitions with their big cash purses, 1st place will walk away with $2000. WKTV broadcast will resume around 12:00 PM EST time and will take you through the drama of the semi’s and finals. Based on last years finals, you will not want to miss this.

TEVA PRELIM RESULTS

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2009 US Team for Worlds Decided

Christopher Wing wrote 294 days ago:

A few surprises occurred in the US Team Trials Semi and Finals today. Competition kicked off once again at 9:00 AM promptly, highly unlike kayakers. The top 5 men, top 3 women, top 3 jr men, top 2 jr women, top 2 OC-1 were decided through an amazingly close competition and included some major upsets as well.

The wave continued to be an extremely challenging feature to deal with as at times the wave would green out and flush the competitors off of the wave, however that did not keep all competitors from being conservative as the biggest air from the whole competition occurred today.

The city of Glenwood has to be thanked for putting together a well organized event for their first major competition. The event overall was pretty low key as the main focus was in establishing the US Team for the upcoming worlds in Thun, Switzerland.

After competition concluded, the competitors who advance on to world’s met for their first team meeting where they were fitted with their US team vests provided by Astral Buoyancy. It was a very exciting day of competition and the all of the competitors should be commended for their performance this weekend.

Team H2o Dreams will be travelling to Vail, Colorado next for the TEVA Mountain Games later this upcoming week. We will be broadcasting first from The Homestake Creek Race on Thursday live creekside, unless mother nature prooves to be difficult in which we will post footage after the race. The US team members are listed below and more pictures and footage will follow in the next day. Congrats to all!

usteam-sheet1

Categorized as:Feature Story • Festival Coverage • Pro Circuit Results • Team Trials • WK Pro Event Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • Pro Circuit Results • Team Trials • WK Pro Event Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • Pro Circuit Results • Team Trials • WK Pro Event Coverage Feature Story • Festival Coverage • Pro Circuit Results • Team Trials • WK Pro Event Coverage

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Success!! All Systems Go on Liftoff, launch of WKTV

Christopher Wing wrote 295 days ago:

I just checked Boatertalk and I believe the lack of comments deems it a success, The one comment of the nice video was very nice as well. We kicked of the official launch of World Kayak TV today during the preliminary round of the US Team Trials.

World Kayak brought in a total of 8300 viewers throughout the day, which in the kayaking community is unheard of. World Kayak is truly bringing the competition home to the viewers, its original intent. We will continue to bring live coverage the remainder of the competitive season all the way through the World Championships in Thun, Switzerland at the end of August.

The competition was tough as water levels rose on the Colorado, somewhere in the range of 12,000 cfs which creates a few dead zones on the wave at random moments in time. Many of the top competitors chose to take more conservative rides to stay on the wave throughout their 45 second ride. Each competitor was given four 45 second rides, where their top two scores were taken and combined for their overall score. The top 10 men, 10 women, 3 Jr Women, 10 Jr Men, and 2 OC-1 were determined today and those remaining few move on to the Semi’s and Finals tomorrow. C-1 and Cadet will compete tomorrow as well.

Results are in PDF Format below… more to follow with competition coverage tomorrow where www.elevationlifestylenetwork.com will professionally broadcast the event with 6 studio cameras and a mobile broadcasting station for a pay per view fee of $4.95. It was a pleasure to be a part of the first true live broadcast to the web in kayaking history. Me and the rest of h2odreams.com look forward to bring you more. Special thanks to Jackie Newman, Jake Ament, Annie Ament, Vaughn Corum, Tracy d’Arbeloff, Eric Jackson, Clay Wright, Jeremy Laucks, Chris Stafford, Brian Kirk and Andrew Holcomb for stepping in and doing some guest commentating.

prelimresults-sheet11

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