On Sunday, August 23, almost 60 participants took part in the Riversport Ramcat Slalom, a traditional slalom race held in the Ramcat Rapid of the Middle Yough. The course featured 21 gates requiring racers to travel both up and downstream, back and forth across the river a number of times, with the best run of two attempts counting as that participant’s score.

Upon arrival on the scene it was obvious how much work had gone into setting up the course. Twenty wires had been strung across the river, on which the twenty-one gates had been meticulously hung. In speaking to the race coordinator at the race, I came to understand that not only did it take over four hours to setup, but that the majority of the work had been completed in a large downpour. Kudos to the setup team for their perseverance on such a monumental task.

The race itself was divided into two sessions, a morning ad afternoon session, with an equal division of competitors. One benefit of such a division was that those who had raced in the morning were then able to provide assistance to those who raced in the afternoon, as those afternoon racers had during the morning session. With full radio communications and a host of gate watchers and score runners, times could be posted almost immediately following a racer’s run on a board right by the river. Watching the process occur left me with an overriding sense of efficiency and thoroughness. Watching the racers examine the scoreboard and discuss tactics to shave time off their score demonstrated just how such a well-run event could help to spur on competition.

If you haven’t been to a well-run slalom event before, I suggest you check one out. Slalom has the unique ability to take the smallest of rapids and make them incredibly challenging. At this event, I was impressed both by the number of young competitors, of which I would say almost one-third of the competitors were under the age of 18, and by the variety of craft used in the event. From plastic creekboats, to fiberglass slalom craft, to two-person open decked canoes, the race had something for everyone. My favorite of the racers was a grandfather and his two or three year-old grandson, racing in a two-person canoe. As one could imagine it was more of the grandfather paddling and the grandson along for the ride. The best move of the event was when that grandson fell out of the canoe between gates and the grandfather grabbed the kiddo by the pfd and put him back inside the canoe just in time to cleanly run the next gate. The entire crowd apparently agreed with me that this was a pretty slick maneuver as they erupted into a loud cheer as the move went down.

All in all it was great to see so many fine racers exhibit their honed skills and to see a number of new racers get bitten by the bug. To all who competed, best of luck to you on your future slalom adventures and keep up the great show.

Results can be found in the gallery, last picture.

After negotiating the struggles that come with hosting our Hometown Throwdowns in the local state parks, our third Throwdown, a downriver mass start loop race at the famous Loop section of the Youghiogheny River, went off splendidly. We had fourteen racers and a number of safety boaters, insuring both an exciting and safe adventure down our regions most paddled section of river.

The race included everything from the long wildwater style boats on down to the smallest of playboats. Racers began with their bows on the shore requiring them to backup at the beginning in order to pull away from the putin beach and start their journeys downstream. The race was carnage free, much unlike our last race, with the boats pulling ahead of one another through both Entrance and Cucumber rapids. From this point on the race became the sort of smaller races that are created when one mass starts the competitors, with those nearest each other egging each other on and desperately trying to make those last minute passes.

At the finish line, just at the end of Railroad rapid, racers were require to touch and marked rock with some part of the boat and/or person. I know that I personally took great pleasure in watching the racers push for the final stretch, with racers who had already finished egging on those still competing. Following the race, Chrissy Zeltner, a resident wildwater racer from the region, took the time to allow fellow racers to experiment with paddling her boat, hopefully bringing more paddlers to this often overlooked section of our paddling community.

After the race, the racers gathered in the Ferncliff parking for the raffle of the great prizes from Shred Ready, Crocs, Rocky Mountain Khaki, Stonyboater Paddlewax, LVM, Smith Optics, and more… We look forward to seeing everyone at this region’s final Hometown Throwdown, The Riversport Slalom Aug 22-23.

Overall Order Of Finish (Top 4)
1 – Chrissy Zeltner
2 – Carl Schnieder
3 – Kent Reigel
4 – Rick Gates

Finish By Class

A Class – Boats Over 11’
1 – Chrissy Zeltner
2 – John Roach

C Class – Boats 7-9’
1 – Carl Schnieder
2 – Kent Riegel
3 – Rick Gates

D Class – Boats Under 7’
1 – Paul Eisner
2 – Joey Eisner
3 – Carolyn Brown

Friday, June 5^th was the scene of our region’s second Hometown Throwdown, the Slippery Rock Giant Slalom. Building upon the downriver mile race that used to exist in years past between McConnell’s Mill and Eckert Bridge on Slippery Rock Creek, this year as the race was revived from history, a new twist was added. In addition to attempting to be first through the mile long downriver course, racers (except for the greater than 12’ boat class A) had to negotiate two eddies on their way towards victory. Racers and spectators alike agreed that this year’s race was one of the best in our region’s history as 27 competitors paddled their hearts out to be this year’s champions of the slip.

Racers were first broken into classes based on boat size. D class for those boats 7’ or shorter, C class for those between 7’ and 9’, B class for 9’ to 12’ and the open A class for boats 12’ or greater. Fortunately for us, we had so many participants that the classes were broken further into heats allowing friends to make sure they were able to race against their buddies in their pursuit of Slippery Rock Glory.

While most racers were able to negotiate the course without mishap, my safety boaters did report some carnage towards the second eddy, with a swim or two resulting in some good laughs by the creek side. The most notorious of these swims came from a competitor who apparently swam out of his boat, and then managed to climb back in and race the boat full of water to a second place finish. This stunt earned the competitor a round of applause by all participants at the final prize presentations.

Big thanks to IR, Smith Optics, Rocky Mountain Kayak, Mountain Khaki, Crocs, Nuun, LVM, Stonyboater Paddle Wax, and of course World Kayak.

We look forward to seeing you at our next event, The Loop Mass Start Down River Race – Friday evening, July 31st.

Results:

Canoe – A Class

1 – Mark P

2 – Emile Castro/Larry Wetzel

Kayak – A Class

1 – Ed McGuinness

2 – Matt Pascal

3 – Natalie Thomas

4 – Steve Kroser

B Class

1 – Paul Eisner

2 – John Rudland

3 – Luke Gitner

4 – Josh Bernstein

C Class Heat 1

1 – Brian Kish

2 – Bill Schwab

3 – Joe Sharie

4 – Mike Wasco

C Class Heat 2

1 – Rick Gates

2 – Carolyn Devenne

3 – Heather Macieko

C Class Heat 3

1 – Jeff Macklin

2 – Brian Walker

3 – James Stockman

D Class Heat 1

1 – Gary Rigdon

2 – Jeff Johnson

3 – Michael Bolton

4 – Matt Wehman

D Class Heat 2

1 – Joey Eisner

2 – Astrid Layton

3 – Suzie Colhane

Hometown Throwdown #1 – Stonycreek Rendezvous 4/25/09

The inaugural event for the Confluence/Ohiopyle region’s Hometown Throwdown series was an astounding success, with boaters competing across two separate events.

The first of the events was a boatercross race held Saturday morning at the showers rapid on the Stonycreek Canyon. This event included twenty competitors spread across the advanced, intermediate and women’s brackets. As the whistle was blown, paddlers had to race down through the first hole and touch a marked rock on river left before making an aggressive ferry to round a river right gate. After rounding the gate it was an all out sprint laterally across the flow to make contact with a final rock on river left. From my vantage point at the first river left rock, it was quite the mayhem. Paddlers often came in to touch the rock first, only to get blasted out of the flow by those behind them and being required to make quite the aggressive ferry to regain the fist place spot. While there were no swims, there were a number of competitors who were unable to complete a required move as their lines became clogged with other competitors who had saved that last bit of energy for the final push to the finish line.

Places: Advanced – Chris Poli 3^rd, Matt Sams 2^nd, Matt Fithian 1^st

            Intermediate – Jamie Rosenberger 3^rd, Sam Voigt, 2^nd, Eric Koontz 1^st

            Women’s – Kristen Melso 3^rd, Holly Harmon 2^nd, Shelby Stine 1^st

The second of the events was a playboating competition held at the new Greenhouse Whitewater Park, a man altered stretch of river that has produced a shallow but consistent hole that the Johnstown crowd has been very excited about. Playboaters competed in either the novice, intermediate or advanced classes depending on their ability level, but unlike the boatercross event, competitors were also putting on a show for about 200 festival goers who came out to cheer on their local favorites. The majority of moves consisted of varying degrees of cartwheel verticality and flat spinning, with a very memorable Front Loop from Alex Haag that sent the crowd into cheers. When the advanced boaters were up, a whole host of moves were thrown in for variety from Phonix Monkey’s to McNasty’s ending in a 1st place tie between Matt Fithian and Jeremy Laucks. With the crowd cheering them on, our two top competitors went back into the hole for a hand-paddling version of king of the hole, where they battled it out for three rounds trying to dislodge the other competitor from the frothy pile.

Places: Advanced – Matt Sams 3^rd, Jeremy Laucks 1^st, Matt Fithian 1^st

            Intermediate – Jack Hill 3^rd, Jamie Rosenberger 2^nd, Jamie Levine 1^st

            Novice – Steffan Waugh 3^rd, Sam Voigt 2^nd, Chris Biehl 1^st

The evening ended with a celebration and the handing out of the coveted Stonycreek Rocks, hand-painted locally and awarded as trophies to the competitors. Following the trophies, a raffle was held and competitors from both competitions helped themselves to some great gear from Immersion Research, Mountain Khaki, Nuun Sports Drink, Stonyboater Paddlewax, Crocs, and of course, World Kayak.

Join us for our next event, the Slippery Rock Downriver, a giant slalom to be held on June 5^th at 6:30 pm in McConnell’s Mills state park.