The third event in the 2012 Nolichucky Hometown Throwdown series was kind of a shocker!  Just when we thought the river level for Big Rock was going to drop in for a good rodeo the day before, we awoke on event day to discover the river level was rising from rain overnight.  We have now coined this year’s Noli HTTD Series as “the year of no rodeo”!

However, we made the best of it and had 16 competitors join in for some friendly downriver freestyle/slalom and boatercross competition!  We had several spectators who watched and cheered on the competitors from the Riverpark Campground bank.  The event was held at Big Rock on the Lower Nolichucky River, TN with very humid partly sunny weather. 

The river level was 1,640CFSwhich made the main Big Rock wave/hole feature too flushy for our typical rodeo format.  So we agreed to a slalom course through the rapid.  Each competitor got 2 runs through the course and each run counted for their “DFS” Score.  The course involved catching 3 eddies down through the rapid behind rocks.  The competitors got 10 points for each of the eddies they caught.  Competitors had 1:30 minutes to complete the course while attempting downriver freestyle moves along the way to earn additional points from our Variety and Technical judges!

The third run was a boatercross race for each class from the top of the campground and went through the main feature.  Then the race course veered through our version of the “Notch” and finished on the river right beach!  This made for a fun zigzag course with a bottle neck at the “Notch”.  We gave 10 pts per place in the boatercross race and summed the BC score with the DFS runs for the grand total!

2012 Nolichucky Hometown Throwdown Event #3 Results:

Women K-1                           DFS    +      BC =           Total

1. Jennifer Bradley                        66                2^nd place:40   (106)

2. Laura Meade                            37                DNF              (37)

Men’s Expert K-1:

1. Michael Bianchi                        164              2^nd place:40   (204)

2. Andy Woods                            142              3^rd place:30    (172)

3. Wesley R. Bradley                     131              4^th place:20    (151)

Men’s Intermediate K-1:

1. Matt Dalton                             116              1^st place:50    (166)

2. Mike Dorsey                             112              2^nd place:40   (152)

3. Jeff Weatherford                      100              3^rd place:30    (130)

4. Ryan Shealy                            89                4^th place:20    (109)

5. Steve Moore                            88                5^th place:10    (98)

Men’s Novice K-1:

1. Brian Vermillion                         96                1^st place:50    (146) 

2. Robert Davis                            80                3^rd place:30    (110)

3. Hayden Blake                           40                4^th place:20    (60)

4. Lance Simerly                          41                5^th place:10    (51)

Junior Men’s Novice K-1:

1. Carter Davis                            146              1^st place:50    (196)

2. James Hunter                           90                5^th place:10    (100)

(Click here for a PDF copy of Event #1 Results)

Thank you to all the competitors for their participation and congrats to all of our class winners of Event #3!

Event Highlights:

*We had 3 swimmers during the event that went home with with the coveted River Gypsies “Everybody Swims” sticker award.

*Laura Meade introduced the new hand/paddle gesture, the “BANTHA-POO-DOO”, which will forever shadow the “Brown Claw”!  This gesture involves raising your paddle above the head and pumping it up and down while yelling like one of the Sand People from Star Wars!  This gesture was an instant classic by the crowd and will forever live in infamy!

*Laura Meade’s son quoted “Mommy you didn’t do very good” after she swam on her first run!

*Junior competitor, Carter Davis, kicked all the Men’s Expert’s butts in their boatercross race!

*Women competitor, Jennifer Bradley, kicked all but one of the Men’s Novice’s butts in their boatercross race!

*Everyone who competed or volunteered in the event went home with a prize and free swag!

Event #3 Photo Album Links:

Cheryl Killman’s Noli HTTD #3 photo album

Noli HTTD #3 Award Ceremony photo album

A big thank you goes out to all of our great volunteers for their help in event #3:

Jennifer & Wesley Bradley – Variety Judge & Registration

Samantha Young – Technical Judge

Erin Weatherford – Time Keeper

Cheryl Killman – Photographer

Susan Jarvis – Scribe

A special thank you goes out to our World Kayak Partners listed in the banner at the top of this page & the local sponsors below for all the great prizes & support of the events!

 The point series standings are getting exciting with only one event to go ion the series!  There are some tight point spreads between several of our top competitors in some of the classes!  Who will come out on top and/or make it up on the podium after the final event?  Check out the current standings below:

Click here for PDF Point Series Standings

Mark your calendar for August 11, 2012 to join us & Click Here to Register for the final event #4!  I hope to see you on the Noli to Throwdown and pray the level will drop in for a rodeo in our final event!!

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