World Kayak Event Coverage

Ohhhh baby, sun up we were on #5 and Colin was trying to teach me how to loop… er… I see the move in my head, just got to transfer it from the head, to the arms, paddle and body. Not so good at the loop my friends, even though the kiddies from Reno were poppin’ those suckers left right and center. So after almost getting the loop, I go up and spend a day watching folks do WAY more than just a loop. I’m of the ilk that rodeo got too cartwheely. Endless lefties in Horseshoe on the Ottawa was just that, endless lefties. Now though, most of the moves are complex combinations. The trickywu is a perfect example of early migration, leading to todays Phonix Monkey, McNasty and others. The standard loop is now Space Godzillas/airwheels, air loops and growing. Add today’s judging standard of variety and we have rides that are NO WHERE the same in any way. Day 2 in Reno kicked off with that key note for me. I sat for 4 hours on a rock and was entertained to the hilt.

Hosts Dan Gavere and Hobie (hope I spelt it right) were truely the heart of this event with their color commentary. I’ll have video up shortly and I’ll leave the sound on… wow… imagine sittin and jabbering for 8 solid hours (they did before and after stuff too)… they filled our day with banter about everything from weird dudes in tight speedos, cool bikes on the waterfront, kids kayaking, encouraging paddlesports, thanking sponsors and much more. Reno and our festival owes a ton to these two legends, as do all of us. They are truely ambassadors and took all occasions to explain, educate and encourage locals, the thousands, watching this event with idle curiousity. Well done guys, you definitely made my day!

OK. The scene. Saturday morning, sun is up, 80+ degrees (25C), well over 10,000 people wandering about, hundreds of vendors, music everwhere, beer tents (key) and non stop activity. It was like one of those fairs, not the little ones that take a day, but the Disney worlds that take two or three days to take it all in… Reno was up and at’m for this, one of there biggest events in downtown.

Competition started off with the Juniors. Wow. These kids are really the cream of the crop and, like the Open class juniors yesterday, began the day with a clinic of moves. Jason Shales, Dane Jackson and Jason Craig led their class with an extremely tight competition. Dane and Jason Craig (a local Reno boy) are long rivals, good friends who have litterally grown up on the river together, their flurries of McNastys, loops, air loops got the crowd oooing and awwing. Not a lot of folks have seen kids givin’ er in a hole like this. In the end it was down to the best friends for the ultimate showdown.

The women’s semi final field was a field cropped to 5 with Ruth Gordon (Canada), Tanya Faux (Australia), Emily Jackson, Devon Baker and Diane Gaydos in what was one of the heaviest women’s comps I’ve seen in a while. They were all on their game and all came to win. The semis saw probably the best rides from Tanya and Ruth with Emily. The girls were throwing the heat with McNasty’s, loops and a rare blunt by Tanya. Tanya and Emily especially looked poised as their routines were without hesitation at all. After the semi’s Emily, Tanya and Ruth went on.

Next were the men’s quarters. This was the biggest field, and the top 6 went to the fsemi-finals. This was a pretty powerful pro class. EJ, Steven Wright, Judd Keiser, Brian Kirk, Nick Troutman, Andrew Holcomb and our own KB (had to group him here man) were all on hand for the bling prize and bragging rights in this first big pro event of the season. The scores were as high as they can be in this hole. Many of these guys had entry moves that migrated right into a McNasty, loop or air loop. Space Godzillas were of particular entertainment value since some had the guys hitting upwards of 2 feet out of the hole. The Trickywhu’s were out as well and the bigger scores came when guys like EJ and Andrew H. mixed things up doing the moves on both left and right sides… usually in one fluid motion. Amazing. The semi’s final standings saw our beloved KB drop as well as yesterday’s open class hero’s Scott Sadey and Dave Fisulli. Also dropping out were Ben G., Judd Keiser, Johnathon Meyers, and a couple others I missed (sorry). The six finalists were therefore (in order) Brian Kirk (6th), Manny Burnam, Nick Troutman, Steven Wright, Andrew Holcomb and EJ. Ohhhh baby.

The finals began with the juniors…. The final showdown was between Jason Craig and Dane Jackson. Jason’s final run dropped into the hole and delivered a 118 point ride (keeping in mind the mens best was 196). With the crowd cheering as Jason rolled up into the eddy after the ride, he looked straight at Dane and gave that chin up “yeah, take that you son of a %$%&”. The taunt kinda backfired as Dane dropped in to continuous moves starting with a Flip into the hole from above for a full points entry move. The onslaught was on. Dane ended up with 130-something (sorry) with the ride of a lifetime for that hole. Crowd went nuts.

Back came the women for their final round, a head to head round. Ruth unfortunately hit a rock on her first move and thudded out an uncharacteristic 28. This openned the door to Tanya and Emily, and both delivered with their best round ever. Leaving them to do the head to head final run. Tanya wowed the crowd with another big blunt, loops and a few very powerful moves, but didn’t have the ride she had a moment or two before… Emily on the other hand, had an even better ride than her last… starting it by dancin to the Bee Gees that Hobie and Dan put on from the DJ booth. Emily nailed all her moves and came out the 2008 Reno River Fest champ.

Women’s and JR semi/final video - (10 minutes of rides) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtRe1blVUaw

The men’s final 6 then hit the river. All were pumped, all were old buddies and rivalry was thick in the Reno air. Andrew Holcomb, I gotta say was the stand out in that first ride. His continual air, solid and clean moves put the bar, seemingly too high. Manny, a long time competitor from Reno, showed off his familiarity in the hole but didn’t quite catch Andrew… Neither did Brian Kirk or Nick Troutman, though both had stellar runs… pretty much a ‘what the heck is it gonna take’ kinda scenerio… they all did their max. Andrew was just that good on his first run. Then came EJ and Steven. Steven’s story is a great one as he started out here as an open class competitor, a few years later he’s litterally the most perfect freestyler out there. He simply does every move text book! His ride didn’t dissappoint these high expectations, he did the text book loop, phonix monkey, airwheel, trickywhu and others… just a technically perfect ride… but he took his time. His ride beat Andrews, but didn’t beat the old mans… EJ came in with a first ride that pushed the threshold of the points you could score in this hole for a minute… there was simply no second wasted. His second ride was hands free… to, of course the thousands of spectator’s delight.

The finals therefore saw Andrew, Steven and EJ going head to head … one ride only, best 2 go to the final head to head. Andrew lead the way, but like Ruth before her was bit by the rock and thumped out into the green water, killing off valuable seconds and loosing too many points. Steven and EJ lined it up and went off delivering runs that had the fans on their feet. They were now head to head. In the grand finale I gotta say it was hard to pick a winner and no one knew till the awards ceremony. Steven and EJ seemed to hit a stride together in competition and Steven picked up the pace delivering more moves than he did previously. EJ delivered a run full of moves… delivering the left then the right of each move in a routine that showed him up clearly as the reining world champ… the dancin’ girls handing out bling at the end of the day got to put the prize around EJ’s neck as the 2008 Reno River Fest champ.

Mens semi final s and finals video - (10 minutes of rides) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVOwlRTaTXM

This is the first time the jacksons appeared on the top rung together in competition… probably not the last!

And oh yeah… bragging rights for the best air… check out KB’s air loop… Its the main photo… KB… you da man today.

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