We had a bunch of new people come out for the Slalom Survivor and the Throwdown, mixing it up with the now veterans. Some have mastered the art of capturing the flamingo while others continue to pull out all kinds of tricks in the Throwdown to impress the judges and get those style points.

We had a great set-up again this time with demo boats from Jackson Kayak and Bliss Stick Kayaks for everybody to check out. Wes brought the JAW that now includes the entire 2010 Star series. All that can be said is that the Monstar is huge and the big boys were all smiles.

The Slalom Survivor kicked off at noon and lets just say you haven’t lived until you’ve seen two grown men in kayaks fighting no, actually ripping a blow-up pink flamingo in half as they are paddling through class II rapids. During the race the flamingo is thrown out somewhere in the course and whomever gets to the finishing eddy with it gets a minute off there time, anything goes. This time we had to modify the rules a bit as the flamingo got ripped/bitten into two pieces so we did the logical thing and each racer with a piece got 30 seconds of there time.

We played musical Throwdown again, which is one of the great things about the USNWC, not only do we have the different classes we can move around the Center and utilize a bunch of the great playspots. We started things off with the ladies at second drop It is amazing to see the progression of the competitiors through the series as the ladies are now going for spins, enders and are attempting cartwheels and even loops. Jen boated away in first after throwing some great vertical cartwheels.

We moved across the island to Dave’s Dilemma for K1B, a great hole and wave combination. The hole is a bit flushy at most levels but the K1B boys were pulling off some spins and cartwheels. The wave is right behind the hole, and offers up some great surf, spins and the occasional blunt were seen. The trick of the day from our C1er keeping old school, balancing his paddle in the air tee handle on his helmet while front surfing.

Our Juniors have progressed so much it is amazing. We had both Will and Conner throwing down with the K1A boys and Alex the little big man in the Shooting Star mixing it up with the K1B boys.

K1A was held once again and quickly becoming a crowd favorite, on M wave. The wave seemed to be a little more flushy today, but the rides were still great to watch. Will and Conner competing in K1A now (started the Throwdowns in Junoirs) battled it out, with Will ending up in first throwing a couple nice blunts and spinning like a top on the wave.

This wraps up our events for the season…..maybe keep checking H2O PLAY IN CHARLOTTE for more details. We have to give a big THANKS to everybody who volunteered throughout the events, Andrew, Wayne, Billie Joe, Heather, Chris, Wes, Jen, Natalie, Brian, the Ripple boys (great noseplugs by the way http://ripplenoseplugs.blogspot.com/)

Results:

Slalom Survivor

Mens

Name	Time	Place
Wes	3.00	1
Brian	3.39	6
Billy joe	3.34	4
John	3.05	2
Phillip	3.45	7
Duo	3.37	5
Parker	3.29	3

Womens

Name	Time	Place
Heather	3.48	2
Jen	3.52	3
Natalie	2.38	1

Throwdown

Women

K1-B Mens

K1-A Mens

The July throwdown was a huge event at the USNWC. Kayakers from all over the area (from Tennessee to Greensboro) where drawn to the big action this July.  The JAW (Jackson Action Wagon) with World Kayak Tri Cities Ambassador Wes Bradley was on hand for demos including the new 2010 Star and All Star.

The K1-A competition was stepped up when it was moved to M-wave, the biggest and beatdowneness  playspot at the USNWC. Thirteen competitors put on a great show for a huge crowd that was drawn to the men throwing their biggest tricks.  While all the men and one kick butt chick boater threw it down, it was USNWC’s own Fergus Coffey who came out on top with Tommy Hehnen, coming from Rock Island, Tenn., and locals Will rounding out the top three.  Charlottes own little GIANT Mason Farmer only 13 years old competited in the Mens K1-A and threw it down on M-wave.

The ladies were not to be out done by the boys.  There were 7 ladies who threw it down in Second Drop, with 3 ladies entering there first throwdown.  It was a battle of the Stars.  Jamie (a USNWC raft guide) took the top spot followed by Heather Phillips and Jen Bradley, who looked awesome in the new astropop multi-colored boat.  Jen went for extra style points with a great hawiian outfit.  A fun time was had by all the ladies.

The K1-B competition took place on Trashcan and Sunset, which is an awesome wave hole combination.  The biggest trick of the day was avoiding the rafts coming down.  Some competitors were able to hold their own and stay in the hole as the rafts came through earning themselves mad style points.  There were 9 awesome competitors giving it their all, including a sit on top kayak and 3 men who were entering the throwdowns for the first time.  Billyjoe Phillips took top honors in the competition with Jason Miller (World Kayak Charlotte Ambassador) and Paul (a USNWC raft guide) rounding out the top three spots.

The rest of results are posted below.  Thanks to all of the sponsors and volunteers who make each of these throwdowns possible and a big shout out to the USNWC for their continued support in making these events bigger and better each month.  Special thanks to Ripple noseplugs for helping out with this event, making it even bigger and funner.

Hope to see you all at the next thrown down on August 8th!

For more pictures go to http://s623.photobucket.com/albums/tt311/worldkayak/

Racers started in the eddy above Entrance Exam rapid and could go for the boof into the eddy or run the rapid and get to the river left eddy.  The racers then hauled boat down the rodeo channel hitting the all the eddys that had flags in them.  At Dave’s Dilemma racers were tossed a ball that they had to shoot into a basket, make the shot and get 30 seconds off your time.  They then headed down the next drop and had to back paddle across the pond before hitting the eddys on there way to Trash Can (okay Sunset, but for all those who play in it, it is known as Trash Can).  Once through Trash Can they had to sprint to the finish eddy above M wave.  At some point during the race the pink flamingo made an appearance on the course, usually in a hole or eddy that was not well liked.  Grab the pink flamingo and get to the finish eddy with it was good for 1 minute off your time.   Boaters raced in three person heats, so you had to battle for the best lines.  We had three heats of men and a heat of all women.   A couple of the slalom boaters who train at the USNWC joined us for the event and really stepped up the competition level.  Everyone got to the finish eddy with a smile on there face and a couple with a pink flamingo stuffed in their PFD or in their mouth.  Our two slalom boats, Maria and Austin were the day’s winners and Austin even managed to bring the pink flamingo to the end.

The Hometown Throwdown was held on a wave to change things up.  We combined the men’s classes and let the ends fly.  We saw a lot of spins, some blunting and even some air blunts.  The wave was tricky but it was still a blast.  We had some of the boys from Bliss-Stick Kayaks as well as USNWC instructors showing us all what could be thrown.  The USNWC’s own Dave Hepp was the big winner, taking home the bragging rights for the day, paddling a C-1 and beating all of us with only one blade.

More photos here:  http://s623.photobucket.com/albums/tt311/worldkayak/Throwdown%203%20and%20Slalom%20Survivor%201/ enjoy

Thanks to all our sponsors for providing a lot of great schwag so we could put together two events for the paddling community on the same day.  Special Thanks to all the folks who volunteered to help us out especially Andrew, Wayne and the Bliss-Stick crew.

The next event is on 7/11, Sunset wave and M wave better be ready for a Throwdown.

The second Hometown Throwdown was again held at the hole known as second drop at the USNWC (United States National Whitewater Center, www.usnwc.org). The ladies started us off this time with a two new competitors Throwing it down for the first time.  The crowd started to gather, something about girls in boats always draws a crowd.  The ladies put on a great show going big, linking ends and even showing us what can be done in C1.  In the junior division it was a close head to head battle.  Both Connor and Alex showed us that the only reason they are in the junior division is because they can’t drive yet.  The boys were next, pulling out ends in the hole and showing the complete mastery of the art of the windowshade.  The stakes are high in the mens division even if the winner managed to pull off the victory while enjoying a cold beverage during there final ride in the hole.  The schawg donated by all our great sponsors brought even more excitement to the event.  Throwdown #3 on June 13 at 5pm following our first Slalom Survivor it’s gonna be good.  Thanks to all our sponsors and a special Thanks to all the folks who volunteered to help out and to Ty, Andrew and Kelly for taking some great pics making us all look like we know what we are doing.

Working along with the USNWC we have gotton the Throwdowns on the Charlottes Got A Lot Website and on the city event calendar, now we gotta bring it as hopefully we will have a huge crowd watching, learning and having fun with us in our funny little boats.