World Kayak Event Coverage

Valleyfield, Quebec – July 25th – Riviere St-Charles.

Hot Humid, chance of thunders showers. Ahh mid summer weather… The dog days of summer in the Seaway Valley

So the forecast was less than good but the water is warm and everyone in the province of Quebec is on Vacation.  The result: 12 competitors ready to give it their best on the Manic, Bob and mini wave! ?
It was goingto be another sweet World Kayak Hometown Throwdown in the Seaway Valley.

Each event has brought us a couple new paddlers and this was no exception. We welcomed Maude Chiasson, Stephanie Dupre and Pat Brayley (all 3 from Montreal) and Niek De Wildt (coming all the way from Amsterdam) for their first competitions!
That is right folks: We have an international flair now

It is great to see more and more girls competing with us. This ensures that Cheryl and Sylvie will have some harder competition! Stephanie did great playing on Bob, smiling and getting a reminder of why we always wear nose plugs! Nicely done Stephanie. Maude balled up her courage and got on briefly on mini wave. Sweet! I am expecting to see her improve a lot by the next competition in August!
Niek, who came out to race in the slalom survivor last week with his cousin Sean in a Tandem, did an awesome job too! His first ever ride in a hole was during our Throwdown He did great. Rolled till he could roll no more! Awesome job Niek! I believe that he might be hooked so watch out Dutch Water Dream. Here he comes! He will be tearing up their features in no time.
We were also joined by Pierre-Yves, a local school principal (My school Principal was not a cool paddler when I was a kid…..), Cheryl, Sylvie, Zachary, Emily, Sean, Adam and myself.

This go around we added the hand paddles! Anyone who wanted to complete a ride with hand paddles was awarded 5 extra points for each move done with hand paddles Does that sound generous? Give it a go. You might change your mind!
Sylvie, Cheryl, Zachary and Sean all took advantage of the paddles to bump up their score a bit So what did we see from our competitors? loads of spins and enders, loops (front and back), cartwheels and a few Donkey Flops (that is a flip that is mostly in the water ). We added points for effort, smiles, clowning around, thumpings and swims too !!!!

Here comes my favorite part!: We added a Duo surf comp! 2 rides and whoever could amuse the judges the most took it all! So we saw a lot of comedy on the water. (I shot my wife! Hee hee. Kinda weird but it got us the most laughs) you will have to watch the video clip

The event ended with a barbecue at our home.

A great event, awesome people, great sponsors and loads of fun.

The scores were as follows:

Duos:

Zach and Cheryl   9
Pat and Steph       13
Sean and Neik      22
Sylvie and Rob      24

Juniors:

Maude                 17
Emily                   31

Men (We included Zachary and Sean in this category)

Neik                    17
Adam                  33
Pierre-Yves          50
Robert                53
Pat                      89
Sean                   104
Zachary              219

Women:

Steph                 25
Sylvie                 84
Cheryl                136

Thanks to everyone who came out and made this possible.

For pics and videos of the day click here.

Our next Throwdown is August 23nd. We will have kids from the Boys and Girls Club there and hopefully a lot more locals (if the forecast is kind to us!)

Till next time: Paddle Hard and see you on the river,

Robert Zwanenburg

www.cornwallwhitewater.com