World Kayak Event Coverage

Blessed by another perfect Washington DC evening, 28 competitors gathered on the Potomac River last Thursday for the May edition of the Maryland Chute Out Freestyle Series. This was surprisingly good turnout, since the river was at 4.2 feet and thus we were up at Upper Center Ledge. Don’t get me wrong–it’s a good little hole that gives up easy cartwheels and even the occassional tricky-wu and loop. But it is a bit of a let down from last month’s event at lower Center Chute wave–the sweetest ride on the river when it’s in.

But in a lot of ways this was a more loose and fun event. There was more daylight, and more places to play while waiting to compete. There’s a big eddy to hang out in, a nice lefty pocket hole on the other end of the ledge, and a little jet of current that leads into a great rock splat. When people weren’t competing, they were hanging out or playing in these other features. It was a classic Chute Out scene in other words–the reason we do it!

Oh yeah, the competition results. With such a friendly, predictable feature, we had some really high scores. In the K1-A class, local phenoms Jim Buley and Chucky Bartlett had a battle of the strategies. Jim threw vert cartwheels and splits as fast as he could, trying to rack up a big technical score. But Chucky focused on maxing his variety score, with loops, splits, mcnasties, and even tricky wus. In the end Chucky stood highest on the podium. In C-1, Seth Chapelle had the second-highest score of the comp, easily winning the class. But I don’t think it will be long until Jordan Poffenberger catches up…so it once was with young Seth chasing Joe Stumpfel.

And what’s with the title? We had a special guest announcer–Sam Burk from up Pennsylvania way. Sam gave it everything he had and did a great job. He must be a baseball fan though because he was telling everyone to hit it hard! I’d say we did.

- James

K1-A

1. Chucky Bartlett
2. Jim Buley
3. Peter Lutter
4. Jim Hubshman
5. Alex Parlini
6. Sam Burk
7. Nathan Sass
8. Anatoli Mnev
9. Andre Zuban
10. Garrett Boop
11. James Sneeringer

K1-B

1. Brenton Petrillo
2. Brad Stine
3. Paul Pucket
4. Troy Crawford
5. Howard Morland
6. Jason O’Neill
7. Rob Brown

K1-W

1. Monique Hubshman
2. Shelby Stine
3. Jen Klemperer
4. Janine
5. Sheilla Chapelle

K1-Jr

1. Peter Lutter
2. Shelby Stine

C-1

1. Seth Chapelle
2. Jordan Poffenberger
3. Ned Poffenberger

Thanks to www.potomacpaddlers.com for the pictures.

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