The day started out with a tough wave.  At the start it truely didn’t look like the wave was being nice at all.  Runs under 100 left the first heat baffled when Fiona Jarvie of Wales (GBR) showed up with game face on!  A couple of rides later and a flurry of round houses and blunts she broke the 100 point ride mark and never looked back.  In the next heat Martina Wegman of NLD brought the air into play with a donkey flip… pushing towards a 200+ score.  Midway through the competition in stepped Marianne Saether.  Everyone twittering out there stopped to notice her rides … Marianne kicked in a solid ride including the most air of the day to date… Donkey Flip, Helix, huge blunts taking her combined total to 528… solidly ahead of all the rides so far.

The real drama began with good friends Ruth Gordon of Canada and Tanya Faux of Australia showing up in the eddy for warm up.  Ohhhhh baby, these ladies really work off of each other’s competitive energy… smiles all around they took the wave to even higher levels.  Tanya throwing the gauntlet down with her first ride of just under 300.  Along came Ruth with a tight combination of Donkey Flip, back stabs, spins and a huge blunt or two… 400 point ride.  ITS ON!  Ruth ended with 713 and Tanya at 500 in third behind Saether at this point in the comp… with A couple heats to come and Emily Jackson in the eddy for her warm up… you can SEE the US flags wavin’!

The anticipation of Emily’s rides was temporarily put on hold with a light first ride, but got the crowd on their feet with an amazing second ride of around the 400 area and a final ride that helped her into second spot for the day.  Jessie Stone, one of the sports TRUE ambassadors brought in a great story line as she chipped her way into 5th over all with solid performances… showing that she will ALWAYS be a threat.

Today’s prelims was highlighted by one of the biggest fields ever to grace a freestyle World Championships.  With 103 competitors from all corners of the globe, there was no end to the drama.  Early heats saw names like BIlly Harris of Canada, Stephen Wright of the US making immediate marks with combined scores of 1500 and 1400 respectively.  Mikael Lantto of Finland landed a spectacular Air Screw and came in with a score of 1360 and Simon Strihmeir of Germany scored an impressive 1110 allong side Casper Van Kalmthout… spreading the leaders all over the proverbial globe.

The entire field battled the often flushy wave.  Only those with the luck of River Gods and strength in clean delivery were able to keep their flurries on the wave till the horn.  The moves ranged from massive blunts to donkey flips, helix and a new kid on the block… the backwards Airscrew… er… that brings us to the next portion of the program…

12►

Each heat had a good battle, flushes and bad  luck to epics of 900+ point rides between two or three riders.  Peter Csonka of Slovkia and Nick Troutman of Canada both stunned the crowds in their respective heats… with combined rides for Peter of 1613 showing his prowess in his WS Project.  But the brightest shine came from Canada’s Troutman with a stunningly controlled blasts best described by this Twitter post from Lee Hart of Brand amp: “nick troutman’s 2nd ride: air screws back blunt mcnasty pan am donkey flip and helix for . . . off the charts.”  Score… 2480!  For those math freaks… thats a full 800 points (the average combined ride score for most of them) ahead of the second placed Csonka!  OH FREAKIN CANADA (voluntary addition by this Canadian author).

Other notables off to the Quarters include Eric Jackson our raining (sp?) champ, Richard Grimes of GBR a main stay near the podium, Mathiew Dumoulin who came pretty close to upsetting them all at the World Cup in 2008, young Joel Kowalski on his first K1 men’s stage at the worlds Just a head of Anthony Yap and a crowd favorite in Tyler Curtis (now for Norway) slipping in amongst the 30 moving on.

Notable drops included Rush Sturges,  fellow American Cory Volt, Mario Vargus with a couple unlucky flushes among 70+ others. 

Tomorrow we hit the OC1, C1, and Jrs

MENS PRELIMS VIDEO – CARE OF NICK TROUTMAN!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Official results below…

Place  Bib Name        Points      Series Country

1 3 Troutman Nicholas 2.480,000 Prelim CAN
2 2 Csonka Peter 1.613,333 Prelim SVK
3 9 Harris Billy 1.516,667 Prelim CAN
4 64 Wright Stephen 1.410,000 Prelim USA
5 122 Lantto Mikael 1.360,000 Prelim FIN
6 124 Van Kalmthout Casper 1.271,667 Prelim NLD
7 139 Strohmeier Simon 1.110,000 Prelim GER
8 14 Thompson Kelsey 1.080,000 Prelim CAN
9 138 Strohmeier Seppi 991,667 Prelim GER
10 55 Kirk Bryan 928,333 Prelim USA
11 143 Chrimes Richard 905,000 Prelim GBR
12 1 Jackson Eric 891,667 Prelim USA
13 163 DUMOULIN Mathieu 825,000 Prelim FRA
14 165 COLDEBELLA Mathieu 765,000 Prelim FRA
15 85 Serrasolses Gerd 756,667 Prelim ESP
16 43 Meyers Jonny 751,667 Prelim USA
17 95 Kazuya Matsunaga 748,333 Prelim JPN
18 68 CARPENE Leo 738,333 Prelim FRA
19 117 Kuronen Tuomas 733,333 Prelim FIN
20 128 Spreiter Sandro 730,000 Prelim SUI
21 97 Shintaro Komori 721,667 Prelim JPN
22 144 Best Jon 681,667 Prelim GBR
23 166 Immler Anton 681,667 Prelim SWE
24 52 Kowalski Joel 680,000 Prelim CAN
25 191 Yap Anthony 676,667 Prelim AUS
26 220 HERZIG Daniel 625,000 Prelim AUT
27 74 GALLAIS Jules 611,667 Prelim FRA
28 60 TYLER CURTIS 556,667 Prelim NOR
29 17 Bergeron Proulx Francoi 541,667 Prelim CAN
30 201 Häberling Severin 541,667 Prelim SUI
31 145 Ward Alan 536,667 Prelim GBR
32 129 Dillier Florian 511,667 Prelim SUI
33 71 Sturges Rush 463,333 Prelim USA
34 147 BLODER Marcel 460,000 Prelim AUT
35 72 Corey Volt 450,000 Prelim USA
36 24 Magwmba Ibrahim 441,667 Prelim UGA
37 127 Zarn Andrea Marco 428,333 Prelim SUI
38 107 Akira Nakamura 410,000 Prelim JPN
39 34 Anderson Sam 410,000 Prelim GBR
40 225 ANDREA COLOMBO 408,333 Prelim ITA
41 183 Leonard Mark 408,333 Prelim IRE
42 209 MITAUT Maxime 406,667 Prelim FRA
43 89 Goikoetxea Gorka 406,667 Prelim ESP
44 40 Cooper Doug 395,000 Prelim GBR
45 142 Collenteur Raoul 378,333 Prelim NLD
46 108 Andrassy Tomas 375,000 Prelim SVK
47 175 Vasin Konstantin 370,000 Prelim RUS
48 213 O’Donoghue Tomas 361,667 Prelim IRE
49 126 Suokko Samuli 351,667 Prelim FIN
50 171 Rybnikov Ivan 345,000 Prelim RUS
51 200 Langner Nico 343,333 Prelim GER
52 104 Tatsuya Yagi 305,000 Prelim JPN

The eight-member team agrees freestyle kayaking, the newest of competitive paddlesports disciplines, isn’t nearly as high on the Swiss national consciousness as winter sports like skiing and ice hockey or even slalom, an Olympic discipline, But the team hopes to enlist the help of the international family of whitewater paddlers they are hosting here this week and associated media interest in the event, to raise Swiss awareness of an issue that transcends the sport.

On Wednesday, local organizers of the World Championships are inviting visiting athletes, politicians and journalists to float down the Aare River. The goal is to draw attention to the plight of Swiss rivers and river ecosystems under threat because of a new law that subsidizes further hydropower development in a country that already using 95 percent of its rivers to generate hydropower.

Simon Hirter, director of Verein Wellen Events, producers of the World Championships is also the River Watch Ambassador for the Swiss chapter of WWF. Hirter said the new Swiss law has created an alarming situation since more than 500 new hydropower projects have been proposed in the year since the law was enacted. Hirter said the crisis also marks the first time fishermen are joining forces with kayakers to fight to preserve Swiss rivers from hydropower assault.

Following Wednesday’s float, WWF will host a panel discussion with Barbara Egger-Jenzer, Director of Energy, Infrastructure and Traffic for the Canton of Bern, Tino Reinecke, hydrologist and head of the Waters Commission for the Swiss Canoe Federation and Catherine Martinson, member of WWF’s Switzerland Management Board. The evening ends with the screening of two environmentally oriented kayaking films, “The Last Descent,” and “Oil and Water.”

The Swiss team is unanimous in its support of protecting the last remaining wild stretches of Swiss rivers. The team is comprised of two junior and six senior competitors: Juniors: Leonie Haberling, 16, Zurich; Sam Schwarz, 18, Basel. Seniors: Andrea Marco Zaru, 20 Trin; Florian Diller, 21 Obwalden, Julian Stocker, 22, Zug; Severin Haberling, 24, Zurich; Sandro Spreiter, 24, Trin; and James Weir, 29, Versam.

For more information about this issue, and all the events during this year’s ICF Freestyle World Championships, visit http://www.icf-thun2009.ch

This year’s Freestyle Worlds has attracted more than 250 paddlers from 35 nations – as small as Andorra and as large as the United States – to the Aare River in the heart of Thun, Switzerland Aug. 31 – Sept. 6.

Richard Fox, Second Vice President of the ICF, himself a slalom World Champion, explained that the people who compete at the Freestyle Worlds are highly skilled athletes who are less structured than more traditional paddlesports athletes. “These are people who live and work on rivers and they have a freer spirit. They don’t’ need to compete here but they do it to show their support for the sport and forge stronger ties with the worldwide whitewater community.”

ICF Freestyle Chairman Lluis Rabaneda explained why more and more national sport federations are beginning to support freestyle kayaking. “I think the most progressive federations recognize that freestyle has a huge potential to be a key discipline for the ICF, especially since the same skills paddlers use in kayaking translate to other Olympic ICF disciplines such as slalom and sprint.”

Whether rookies or seasoned competitors, all athletes have been enthusiastic in their support of the Worlds experience. Members of the host Swiss team were unanimous in summing up what the Worlds experience is all about: a chance to come together with friends they’ve made on some of the world’s most daunting whitewater rivers as well as seeing how your skills stack up against the best in the world. “It pushes you to see what you’re capable of and how much further you might be able to go,:” said 22-year-old Julian Stocker of Zug.

It’s not uncommon for these athletes to train in Canada in the summer and Africa’s Nile and Zambezi rivers in the winter. Others never leave their home country, like 24-year-old Susmita Sanuwar, the first female paddler to represent the tiny Himalayan nation of Nepal at Worlds. In a country where women’s participation in sports is rare, Sunawar is a pioneer for her gender especially in the adventure sports realm.

In contrast to Sunuwar, this is Mario Vargas’s sixth World Championship outing. Hailing from Turrialba, Costa Rica’s gateway city the country’s premier whitewater rivers, Vargas is Costa Rica’s team captain, team manager and paddler and de facto tourism ambassador all wrapped in one. Entirely self-supported in his championship campaigns, Vargas said he just loves coming to Worlds for his own personal paddling satisfaction and to reconnect with the many international friends he’s made throughout the years.

For more info, current results and images, visit http://www.icf-thun2009.ch

Taking a closer look at this year’s field, the following is a synopsis, by division, of paddlers to watch as the Thun wave starts to boil from all the hot paddlers.

“Like any sport, World Championships brings out the very best in competitors, even more so for freestyle kayaking since we aren’t yet an Olympic event,” said ICF Freestyle Chairman Lluis Rabeneda. “Even casual spectators who might not know much about the sport will appreciate the complexity of the athletic moves and amazing amplitude the athletes can achieve.”

Men’s K1
Defending champ Eric “EJ” Jackson (USA) returns to try to win an unprecedented fifth world title. But Jackson, 45, faces stiff competition from his own family and teammates as well as other young guns eager to unseat the winningest kayaker in history. Heading the list are Jackson’s son-in-law, Canadian National Champion Nick Troutman and his fellow Canadian national teammate Billy Harris as well as reigning US National Champ Stephen Wright. Other serious threats to Jackson’s title include last year’s World Cup Champion, Peter Csonka (SK), French champion Matthieu Dumoulin (FR) and Anthony Yap (AU) who designed a new kayak specifically for the wave in Thun.

Women’s K1
Probably the biggest threat to defending Champ Ruth Gordon’s (CA) title is Team USA’s Emily Jackson. The 19-year-old daughter of Eric Jackson, Emily, won the junior women’s division of the last World Championship, won last year’s World Cup and is reigning US National Champ. Other women to watch include Norway’s Marianne Sather, Germany’s Jutta Kaiser and Emily Wall. Wall spent the past year training in Africa. Also a threat no matter what type of kayaking event she enters is Australia’s Tanya Faux, whose titles include 2006 World Cup champ, 2007 Australian Canoeist of the Year, World Championship silver medalist, and 2008 Australian Adventure of the Year for her first descent of the Moran and Mitchell Rivers in Kimberley, Australia.

Junior Men K1
Coming into Thun on fire this season is France’s Sebastien Devred, who won last year’s World Cup. So far this year, Devred has not only won every event he’s entered but he’s also done so with scores that would have seen him at the top of the senior men’s podium.
Aiming squarely at Devred are Team USA best friends, 16-year-old Dane Jackson (Eric’s middle child) and Jason Craig.

Junior Women K1
One of the few divisions wide open due to the absence of defending champs, the heavy favorite is Nouria Newman of France who won last year’s World Cup and is also a formidable slalom competitor. In fact, Newman will be arriving in Thun later than most competitors, and foregoing practice tine because she’ll be coming straight from a major slalom event. One freestyle insider described Newman as “55kg of pure talent.”

C1
Watch for a trio of western Europeans to battle it out including European champ David Bainbridge (UK), veteran competitor Marcus Hummel (DE), and Alexandre Bessau (FR) who won World Cup last year.

OC1
This division that uniquely features a high number of homemade boats sports defending champ Stephan Paetsch (DE), last year’s World Cup champ James Weir (UK) and another German, Toby Huther (DE), who will be paddling a low-volume, converted unique low-volume twin-tip boat which will put a lot of pressure on his opening moves.

Squirt
Brits are the primary force to be reckoned with in this division. Look for strong showings by James Reeves and Claire O’Hara.

The ICF Freestyle World Championships are scheduled Aug. 31 to Sept. 6. Other exciting paddling competitions during the event include the Jackson Kayak King of the Wave and Rafting High Ender competitions on Friday, Sept. 4, a Kayak Big Air competition on Saturday and a river surfing exhibition.

The first milestone is marked by attendance at the event by VIPs from some of the most august international sports bodies. Headlining the list of dignitaries is International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge. Joining Rogge from the IOC will be Sports Director Christophe Dubin. Other VIPs planning to check out the freestyle kayak action in Thun include Hein Verbruggen, president of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), Denis Oswald, Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), International Canoe Federation (ICF) Secretary General Simon Toulson and Leta Joos from the ICF Court of Arbitration.

Lluis Rabaneda, Chair of the ICF Freestyle Committee, a veteran of freestyle competition organization and the paddlesports industry for more than a decade, said he is honored that so many high-ranking officials have chosen to come to Thun and believes it demonstrates that the sport has attained a critical level of professionalism.

A key component of that professionalism comes with formalizing judging standards and providing ICF training and accreditation. During the past year, cross continent exchanges between North American and European judges, funded by the ICF, were conducted by veteran judge Jasper Polak. Only the most highly trained judges, those who demonstrate the best knowledge and consistency of scoring, will judge the competitor in Thun.

In freestyle kayaking, competitors have a set amount of time, usually 45 seconds or 60 seconds to perform as many maneuvers as possible on a stationary river feature such as a standing wave or hole. In Thun, the time limit will be 45 seconds and the feature is a wave.

The skilled and athletic moves range from simple spins to complex aerial moves with such dynamic names as McNasty, Phonix Monkey, Tricky Woo and Air Screws. The more difficult the move the higher number of points awarded for it. Bonus points may be awarded if the move is particularly huge in aerial amplitude or for smoothly linking more two or three moves.

For example, an Air Screw is defined as a barrel roll performed above the surface, front surf to front surf. The boat must be aerial for at least 270 degrees of the roll and must land in a front surf within 45 horizontal angle range. Any deviation from this technical definition means the competitor doesn’t score any of the 160 points awarded for this move. Moves are only scored once, although some moves may be performed to the right and the left and thus may be scored as two different moves. During this year’s World Championships, look for scores upwards of 900 to be tallied in the senior men’s division.

ICF Freestyle World Championships, produced by Verein Wellen Events, are scheduled to be held Aug. 31 through Sept. 6. For more detailed event information, visit http;//www.ict-thun2009.ch.

This broadcast is free and LIVE! We are set up with a cool G3 wifi access and high end camera.

Broadcasts are at www.worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown/wktv … or at www.ustream.tv/channels/world-kayak (with chat) check it and join us. 

Subscribe to the WK Twitter feed to ensure you know when the broadcast starts.

Schedule:

FREESTYLE

Friday, June 5, 1pm – Qualifier Rounds
Saturday June 6th, 4:15pm – Finals

8-Ball

Sunday June 7, 11:30am (Qualifier Rounds)
Sunday June 7, 2:30 – Finals

At the Semi’s ELN takes over.  Elevation Lifestyle Network is a local broadcast group who will bring a full mobile unit to the competition and cover it with 6 cameras and full screen playback!  Complete with interviews and much more.  They have a great deal of cost associated with this broadcast so a nominal fee of $4.95 .  World Kayak has agreed to help promote this coverage as we feel that it is an EXCELLENT example set by a local broadcaster.  We imagine ALL our regional broadcasters taking up the gauntlet thrown down by ELN and ensuring more and more whitewater events get covered on local, national and international levels.  Please support their efforts by joining us and cheering on your US competitors.  Coverage begins at 2 pm Saturday May 30th at http://www.elevationlifestylenetwork.com .

US TEAM TRIALS BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Schedule Subject to change:

PRELIMINARY ROUNDS

Sat. May 30th Preliminary coverage starting at 9:00 a.m to 2 p.m. (Free via World Kayak)

WKtv   OR AT: www.ustream.tv/channels/world-kayak

SEMI FINALS

Sat. May 30th Semi Finals coverage starting at 2:00 p.m. ($4.95)

>>> go to ELN

FINALS

Sun. May 31st Finals coverage starting at 11:00 a.m. ($4.95)

>>> go to ELN

We will be hosting the video at www.worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown … be sure to check us out starting Friday!