Later that night at the festival grounds WK hosted a 4 square tournament.  Yes it is the same game that you played in grade school!  Over the course of the evening super ambassador Wes and his sister kept the event moving and got more people to step up and play.  There was a $2 buy in to play all night and all of the money was donated to AW at the end of the evening.  Thanks to all of the folks who helped out and to those of you who donated to AW through our silly little game.  Look for both of these new events to be back next year along with the original “Am I Ready for the Gauley Yet?” event.

Later;  Colin

K1-W

1.       Elizabeth

2.       Cheryl

3.       Heather

K1-B

1.       Zach

2.       Rob

3.       Newt and Jay Bob

4.       Blake

5.       Shawn

6.       Ryan

7.       Chris

K1-A

1.       Jim

2.       Billy Joe

3.       Will

This year I was fortunate enough to be invited back to Wausau to coach the Midwest Freestyle Championships for the second year in a row.  Needless to say it was great to see a bunch of familiar faces.  This year’s trip had a few new twists to it that added a bunch to the experience.  The freestyle clinic was in enough demand that we had to add a third instructor to be able to handle everyone.  On the morning of the first day of the clinic I was interviewed on the morning show along with Dave Lemke, the Wisconsin World Kayak ambassador.

                Right after we got done with the TV folks we were off to get geared up and start the first clinic group.  We had a number of new faces that signed up for the clinic which was great, but for me as an instructor it was super cool to see the progress that so many of my repeat students had made since last year.  My two fellow instructors were Team JK member and Wisconsin native John McConville and Brian Tupper, the Sacramento/Coloma World Kayak ambassador.  Each of the instructors taught two groups of 5-7 students for 4 hours each.  After class we all got to get in as much play as possible for the remaining 1 hour of water time.  Needless to say we were all tired at the end of each day.

                Saturday brought the first rounds of competition.  All preliminary rounds were held for the expert men, intermediate men, women, and masters.  This year the organizers allowed the women to compete in the men’s event as well as the women’s event.   It was cool to see how many women jumped at the opportunity.  It was great to see a very full women’s class this year with 15+ women strutting their freestyle stuff.  I was fortunate enough to just edge out my fellow JK teammate John McConville for the men’s preliminary win.  After everyone had sufficiently tired themselves out we hosted a movie premier in the basement of the VFW.  After the movie we announced the teams for the team event.  The team event is something that I have not seen at any other freestyle competition.  The organizers put the names from each of the skill levels into three different hats, and they draw one expert boater, one intermediate boater, and one beginner boater at random and form teams of three.  Each team has 2 full minutes to rack up as many points as possible.  You can put two people in the hole at the same time if you would like to try to get more points faster.  The trick is to try to give everyone a list of moves that they are strong at so you can maximize the variety score.  After the teams were named everyone spilled out into the parking lot for a friendly game of 4 square.  In my mind this is Wausau!  The whole boating community gathering in the VFW parking lot after a long day of boating to keep on playing. 

                Sunday morning brought bad weather!  The organizers did a great job of working with what Mother Nature gave us.  First we had the boater cross.  We got to use the same awesome course that was created last year, but this year you were required to use the boat that you competed in during the freestyle event.  This was a great equalizer; however, there were a few boaters more focused on the boatercross than the freestyle so they surfed in their river running creek boats so that they could have the advantage with speed.  We ran heats of 5 boaters with the top boater advancing on to the next round.  We had well over 50 boaters race!  After two preliminary rounds I found myself in the start eddy with a significantly longer boat sitting next to me in my Mon-Star.  I had my work cut out for me to say the least.  Fortunately I got a good start and had the hole shot for the first dive gate.  Carnage ensued behind me and my long boat friend was taken out.  I was able to power my Mon-Star to the finish for the win.  Team runs were next and my team did not go until later on so we got to watch the show for a bit.  The team runs are so much fun to watch 3 people attempting to coordinate a very dynamic event.  We our time came our team just concentrated on having fun and attempted to do the moves that we assigned to ourselves.  I was fairly sure John’s team had edged us out for the win, but once the scores were posted we walked away with the win.  Thanks to my teammates for a great time.  Right after the team event wrapped up we went straight into individual finals.  The top 10 from preliminaries advanced on and we all got 1 ride, so you had to make it count.  Only the top three got one more ride to see who would come out on top.  At this point we were starting to see some very tired boaters!  Once again I was fortunate enough to win my semifinals round.  In the last ride for the final three I ran out of gas!  I went from scoring the highest ride of the competition n semis to dropping almost 100 points.  John McConville took advantage and walked away with the win.  Every competitor then helped with the breakdown of the event and the awards ceremony was held.  It was a spectacular event, and I need to thank Julie, Cole, Mike, Ashley, and Chad for making it happen.  I was ready to take a long nap by the time I got back to Reno.

For additional pictures of the event take a look at Nora Whitmore’s blog http://seaboopugs.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/WausauWhitewater

Later ; Colin

Team JK  

Another season of the Reno hometown throwdowns has come to a close.  We capped the season off last evening with a slalom survivor and a boatercross.  This was our second slalom survivor of the season and the course had a few new twists to it.  There was a mandatory back ferry across the second feature in the new Sparks Park.  At the finish line you had to quickly get out of your boat and run up the shore with all of your gear to the finish line/tree.  This proved to be a great equalizer in Noah’s run.  Since he was in his Core(squirt boat) he had a nice speed and length advantage the whole way, but as he was getting out of his boat the lack of volume caused him to sink and have to empty his boat before he could run up to the finish tree.  John Fairchild ended up taking the slalom survivor win in a kinetic. 

After the slalom survivor we decided to have a quick boatercross.  We had both short boat and long boat heats.  Charles had a great idea for a quick start.  All competitors lined up in the current paddling up stream to hold position and then had to have a quick spin to get going.  It provided some quality entertainment right out of the gate as people were catching bows and sterns.  The short boat heat was evenly matched, and the long boat category saw everyone gang up on John Fairchild to ensure that he did not get two wins in a single day.  Thanks to everyone for another great season.   

12►

Special thanks again to the GCRS – 2009 partners in the kayaking and local communities. Their support, along with many others, allowed our competitors and spectators to enjoy the battles in the rodeo hole for the third Wednesday in a row. It was a battle of wills against the hole that just didn’t want to give up loops you could stick.

A reminder about this competition; while it is a serious competition for the Expert class, the Intermediate and Sport class winners have an equal opportunity to win the kayak or paddle. Names of the winners from each division are put in a hat and a lucky name is drawn for both men and women the fourth night of the rodeo.

Anyway, with one more night of competition and have had a great turnout so far and the rain has held off every evening, so come on out and make this one the best and the biggest. There will be free peanuts and some free sub sandwiches for spectators to fuel themselves with after work and cheer for the competitors louder than ever!

The Golden Colorado Rodeo went off again this year as described in previous posts.  Here are some great video from the event.  Thanks again to all organizers an those who attended and competed... see you in 2009!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kayak fans came from Denver, Boulder, Golden and places in between for the rodeo and after party just downstream at T-Roy’s house. Soon after many were heading to Glenwood Springs, Colorado to watch the U.S. Team Trials. We’ll be back at it for two more Wednesday nights. Come out and support your local paddlers and the businesses that support us.

Greg Kyle

Our fifth throwdown of the year was a nice decompression after a weekend full of Reno River Festival craziness!  A bunch of the same faces that were competing in the open event at the river festival were back to their roots throwing their paddles in the air for style and a bunch of other super sweet moves.  We had some guest judges in from Canada and it was great to have Charles back on shore to lend a helping hand as well.  It finally happened!  Good weather and sweet water levels combined for a fantastic event.  As always the group went over to The Imperial for food, drinks, and a movie after the event.  Remember there are only two events left for the year.  One more freestyle and one more slalom survivor.

K1-A

1.Scott Sady

2.Noah Fraser

3.Mike Lindberg

4.Kyle Hardman

5.Pete Delosa

6.Jesse Carlson

K1-B

1.Justin

2.Newt

3.John

4.Manny

5.Trevor

6.Mike Lee

7.Shane

8.Damon

8.Todd

10.Eric

11.Chad

K1-W

1.Mary Elliot

2.Dawn  

12►

1.Luke Riker

2.Eddy Hake

3.Billy Malesky

4.Mario Vargus

5.Chris Wing

6.Colin Kemp

7.Scott Sady

8.Craig Kleckner

9.David Stefan

10.Tyler Martin

11.Jeremy Laucks

12.Noah Fraser

13.Anthony Ghidoss

14.Pete Delasa

15.Andy Tenbrick

16.Cameron Bender

17.Spencer Josef

18.Kyle Hardman

19.Tyler Muntz

20.John Lemay

21.Chris Korbulic

22.Shane Way

23.Bjam1

24.Jesse Carlson

25.Jord Golnic

k1-B

1.Matt Donnelly

2.Robby Liebherr

3.Michael Lindberg

4.Justin Schafer

5.Mark Sachs

6.Brian Tupper

7.Robert Swan

8.Sam Hardt

9.Jake Ament

10.Todd Barber

11.Tim Dowis

K1-W

1.Erin Clancy

2.Jessie Stone

3. Diane Gaydos

4.Jessica Yurtunis

5.Mary Elliot

6.Nicole Mansfield

7.Libby Hamilton

7.Sophia Mulder

7.Anna Bruno

K1-JR

1.Kyle Hall

2.Alec Voorhees

3.Stephen Forester

4.Evan Moore

5.Michael Hates

6.Trevor Lemay

7.Sage Donnelly

7.Hayden Voorhees

—————-

Night one of the 2009 Golden Community Kayak Rodeo Series finished with record spectator attendance. Usually, on the first night, fewer eyes witness the antics of some of the best playboaters in the state. With record temperatures of 89 degrees and accompanying higher water, the spray was flying through the air along with the schwag provided by our partners! Our title sponsors, Confluence Kayaks / Telemark and Spyderco Knives, along with many other partners, made sure we could be on Clear Creek in Golden, Colorado for the 7th annual GCRS.

In exciting news, Lauren Burress was a new, junior paddler and was the winner of her expert division. We would like to have her enjoy all 3 competitions, but we know she will need to train then attend the US Team Trials in Glenwood Springs.

Of course, everyone had a great time and is looking forward to night two. It’s all leading to the big finale on June 10th, where overall prizes are awarded. As usual, the larger prizes include two kayaks and an a carbon fiber paddle. The men’s and women’s winner in each division will have their name placed in a hat at the after party. Then we’ll have a random drawing to see who needs to find room on top of their car for a second kayak and paddle! More next week.