World Kayak Event Coverage

Saturday, August 31st (Yep, I am a week late writing this. My appologies, regular work kinda got in the way.) was 2008 Canada Cup and the second part of the North American and Junior CanAm Freestyle competition.
The event was put on by Wilderness tours on the Ottawa River as a follow-up to the Blackwater Challenge held in Watertown, New York.
This year, the Ottawa River has been a little bit unpredictable. Mini Bus was out for for a long time in the middle of summer and we had not seen Garb or Baby Face at all….
So the competition was held for the first time ever on Corner Wave!
Corner wave is an excellent feature that offers (depending on level) a great place to throw moves and an eddy that is reasonably easy to catch (also depending on level). The down side is missing the eddy which mean a hike back up for the next ride… (Something that this author displayed flawlessly :)..At least I got a lot of exercise walking..)
The event was also held at the same time as the 2008 Worlds in Europe which meant that many of the paddlers on the pro circuit we no there. On the other hand it gave some interesting opportunities to new up and coming paddlers!

The turn out for this event was great.
24 Junior Men, 5 Junior Women, 3 Pro/Open Women and 16 Pro/Open Men with the support of Matt McGuire, Ryan Whetung and Cory Volt from Wilderness Tours put on a great show.

In spite of the level and the frustrating flushes down river the event went of really well. This was a one day event which means it is a long day. Fortunately the weather was great (lots of praying to the weather gods for that one), music was descent and kept everyone moving and the commentary from Ryan and Corey gave everyone a good idea of what was going on and also kept us laughing (I believe ther e were a few choice comments about how the youngest paddler, Emily, would not have to work to hard to bet her dad’s score :)).
After a great day of paddling everyone headed off to Rafters at Wilderness tours for an excellent dinner and closing ceremonies.

The final standings for the Canada Cup were as follows:

Junior Mens Results:
1st— Devyn Scott
2nd—Isaac Holden
3rd—Kalob Grady

The remaining 21 did great as well: Kyle Allen Hull, Jamie Rosenberger,Cooper Lemkay, Josh Mills, Sebastien Scholl, Nate Garcia, Ben Stanistreet, Frank Jackson, Martin Norment, Erik Johnson, Stephen Fortster, David Gorski, Zachary Zwanenburg, Justin Fraser, Kevin Kelleher, Graham King, Jacob Regenstein, Jackson Conn, Quinn Connell and Sean Hakvoort.

Junior Women Results:
4 points—Katie Kowalski
3 points—Alex Shallhorn
1 point— Sara Daub
Hats of to Emily Zwanenburg and Jessica Droujko for steeping up and working hard!

Men Pro Results:
1st—Joel Kowalski
2nd– Moe Kelleher
3rd—Tino Specht
The rest of the men did great too with lots of good rides: Kent Bretzlaff, David Spiegel, Shawn Byron, Dave Zinn, Ivan Stiefic, Alex Perret, Brendan Ginter, Chris Sorfleet, Ben Fraser, Barry Picket and Robert Zwanenburg.

The final Standings for the 2008 Junior CanAm Freestyle Competition (combined Canada Cup and Blackwater Challenge):

Junior Women Results:
1st–Alex Shallhorn
2nd–Sara Daub
3rd–Emily Zwanenburg

Junior Men Results:
1st–Devyn Scott
2nd–Kyle Allen Hull
3rd–Kalob Grady

The Canada Cup was another great example of what freestyle kayaking is and where it is going. Seeing so many new young paddlers competing is something that makes this writer really happy. Kayaking (in all its forms) is an amazing sport that is still far from being main stream. Thanks to the efforts of so many volunteers, supportive parents and companies like Wilderness Tours and so many others, we are seeing an increase in young people paddling. What’s more, we are seeing more and more women on the rivers and competing.

Until the next event, Play Safe and Paddle Hard,

Robert Zwanenburg (aka: Emily’s dad)

Photos are courtesy of Colin Moneypenny.