World Kayak Event Coverage » James Sneeringer

MD Chute Out series is off to an Upper-Center-Chutey beginning

James Sneeringer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:44:46 +0000

We’re two events into the MD Chute Out season here in DC and both comps have been held at Upper Center Chute Ledge. It’s a small pourover ledge hole, not too wow-inducing but well formed, easy to surf, and safe. It’s actually a great place to hold a freestyle event–you’re out in the middle of the river, with a huge eddy, a nice rock island for the judges, and plenty of smaller features to keep impatient boaters entertained while the judges get their acts together.

For the April event we had a pretty good turnout. It was obviously a while ago but since I haven’t posted the scores here yet I’ll lead with those. The highlight was surely Nathan Sass’s halting, awkward rap-style delivery as announcer. Hilarious! Second-best was former national freestyle team member Seth Chapelle almost losing to Jordan Poffenberger, who is now a current member of the national freestyle team. They grow up so fast…

April 2009 MD Chute Out Scores

K1-A

1. Mike Mathwin – 260
2. Jim Buley – 182
3. Sam Kane – 152
4. Jack “Flash” Sherman – 136
5. Garrett Boop – 112

K1-B

1. Dylan Evans – 209
2. Troy Crawford – 120
3. Jack Hill – 103
4. Blake McCoy – 69
5. Jianyi Liu – 53

K1- W

1. Maria Stine – 5
2. Shelby Stine – 4

K1-Jr

1. Dylan Evans – 209
2. Ocoee Chapelle – 6
3. Shelby Stine – 4

C-1

1. Seth Chapelle – 189
2. Jordan Poffenberger – 145
3. Ned Poffenberger – 5

—-

The May MD Chute Out event, alas, was threatened by big thunderstorms. While we managed to dodge the rain and actually have an event safely on the river, I think the threat alone depressed a lot of turn-out, especially among folks with a longer drive.

K1-A

1. Danny Stock – 221
2. Sam Kane – 178
3. Jim Buley – 149

K1-B

1. Dylan Evans – 125
2. Colin – 61
3. Howard Morland - 7

K1-W

1. Sheilla Chapelle – 7

K1-Jr
1. Dylan Evans – 125

C-1

1. Seth Chapelle – 159
2. Jim Norton – 8

The series continues on for June, with the next event scheduled for one week from tonight–Thursday, June 25. Watch BoaterTalk and Paddle Prattle for the playspots we’ll be featuring. See you there!

Heat and Humidity High, Water Low — Must Be Time for the July MD Chute Out

James Sneeringer — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:56:01 +0000

You know it’s summer in DC when the heat and humidity can’t get much higher and the river can’t get much lower. Nevertheless that did not stop more than 30 people from coming out for the July edition of the MD Chute Out Freestyle competition series–part of the Hometown Throwdown series in 2008.

Here on the Potomac we pay close attention to the state of our low-water playspots, which tend to change from year to year due to high water. (A typical summer level is around 3000 CFS, while it can easily top 100,000 CFS each winter.) It was with great joy that we discovered this summer that the MD Chute was once again a great little spot at these low levels. With a light touch it will cartwheel you to the right with almost no effort; left moves encounter a rock but are possible for the well-balanced playboater.

On top of the good playspot and good company, we had a great set of prizes to give away in the raffle, thanks to the Hometown Throwdown sponsors and a few extra Chute Out sponsors. The highlight was an Astral 200 PFD courtesy of New River Academy, and it was won by the perfect person. Charlie Bartlett not only won the A class this month, but he has the nastiest, moldy, crappy PFD on the river. Well–now he’s got a nice shiny new one.

K1-A
1. Charlie Bartlett
2. Matej Holev
3. Jim Hubshman
4. Jim Buley
5. Matt Springer
6. Garrett Boopa
7. Anatoli Mnev
8. Andre Zuban
8. James Sneeringer
10. Thilo Rusche
11. Bruce Uthus

K1-B
1. Brenton Petrillo
2. Troy Crawford
3. Jack Hill
4. Adam Van Grack
5. Jason O’Neill
6. Howard Morland
7. Rob Brown

K1-W
1. Shelby Stine
2. Maria Stine
3. Jen Klemperer

K1-Jr
1. Sean Chapelle
2. Danny Kaufman
3. Josh Ellis
4. Ocoee Chapelle
5. Connor Martin
6. Shelby Stine
7. Aaron Mermelstein

C-1
1. Seth Chapelle
2. Jordan Poffenberger
3. Ned Poffenberger

June MD Chute Out Event — Summer Relaxin’

James Sneeringer — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:19:12 +0000

The river level was looking grim, but at the last minute–reprieve! The gauge nudged up to 3.45 feet, which was just high enough to hold the June MD Chute Out at…the MD Chute. Sweet.

Once again the turnout was a pleasant surprise. The crowd was psyched to see Jeremy Laucks back on the east coast after the annual Chasing Rain Colorado tour. He came bearing gifts of DVDs as always. (If you haven’t seen “When It Rains,” you should.) Also inspiring shrieks of delight from the crowd were Danny Stock–local slalom racer/instructor/super looper extraordinaire; Kindly Old Dr. K–Bill Kirby; Alden Bird (author of the new New York guidebook “Let It Rain”); and Rob Brown making Team RiverRunner look good as always.

June is the most fun event for me to run because there is the most daylight. For an event that typically starts just after 6pm, the April and September events often end in the dark. But in June we can take our time (and surfs). There’s even time to give Jim Hubshman a 100 second ride (we forgot to start the timer and he just…kept…going…).

Check out the event results below. And if you’re anywhere near DC this weekend…come hang out with us at the Potomac Whitewater Festival.

http://www.potomacfest.com

K1-A
1. Jim Buley
2. Danny Stock
3. Jim Hubshman
4. James Sneeringer
5. Garrett Boop
6 Jeremy Laucks
7. Craig Kleckner
8. Milan Rusnik
9. Steve Wertz

K1-B
1. Matej
2. John Richards
3. Brenton Petrillo
4. Will Tate
5. Paul
6(tie). Bill Kirby
6(tie). Rob Brown
8. Matt Sloan
9. Kevin Littell

K1-W
1. Monique Hubshman
2(tie). Shelby Stine
2(tie). Vaso Pavli
4. Jen Klemperer
5. Jen Stoner
6. Maria Stine

C-1
1. Seth Chapelle
2. Jeremy Laucks
3. Alden Bird

K1-Jr
1. Dylan Evans

May MD Chute Out – Hit It Hard!

James Sneeringer — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:48:44 +0000

Blessed by another perfect Washington DC evening, 28 competitors gathered on the Potomac River last Thursday for the May edition of the Maryland Chute Out Freestyle Series. This was surprisingly good turnout, since the river was at 4.2 feet and thus we were up at Upper Center Ledge. Don’t get me wrong–it’s a good little hole that gives up easy cartwheels and even the occassional tricky-wu and loop. But it is a bit of a let down from last month’s event at lower Center Chute wave–the sweetest ride on the river when it’s in.

But in a lot of ways this was a more loose and fun event. There was more daylight, and more places to play while waiting to compete. There’s a big eddy to hang out in, a nice lefty pocket hole on the other end of the ledge, and a little jet of current that leads into a great rock splat. When people weren’t competing, they were hanging out or playing in these other features. It was a classic Chute Out scene in other words–the reason we do it!

Oh yeah, the competition results. With such a friendly, predictable feature, we had some really high scores. In the K1-A class, local phenoms Jim Buley and Chucky Bartlett had a battle of the strategies. Jim threw vert cartwheels and splits as fast as he could, trying to rack up a big technical score. But Chucky focused on maxing his variety score, with loops, splits, mcnasties, and even tricky wus. In the end Chucky stood highest on the podium. In C-1, Seth Chapelle had the second-highest score of the comp, easily winning the class. But I don’t think it will be long until Jordan Poffenberger catches up…so it once was with young Seth chasing Joe Stumpfel.

And what’s with the title? We had a special guest announcer–Sam Burk from up Pennsylvania way. Sam gave it everything he had and did a great job. He must be a baseball fan though because he was telling everyone to hit it hard! I’d say we did.

- James

K1-A

Chucky Bartlett
Jim Buley
Peter Lutter
Jim Hubshman
Alex Parlini
Sam Burk
Nathan Sass
Anatoli Mnev
Andre Zuban
Garrett Boop
James Sneeringer

K1-B

Brenton Petrillo
Brad Stine
Paul Pucket
Troy Crawford
Howard Morland
Jason O’Neill
Rob Brown

K1-W

Monique Hubshman
Shelby Stine
Jen Klemperer
Janine
Sheilla Chapelle

K1-Jr

Peter Lutter
Shelby Stine

C-1

Seth Chapelle
Jordan Poffenberger
Ned Poffenberger

Thanks to www.potomacpaddlers.com for the pictures.

April Maryland Chute Out Rocks in the Potomac Warm Season

James Sneeringer — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:28:39 +0000

The first Maryland Chute Out event of the season went off with a bang as we got Center Chute wave at a pretty good level (6.2), with sunny skies and temps in the 70s. New River Academy stopped by and besides killing the wave (Isaac Holden had the high score of the event), they were super helpful in judging, scribing, and keeping time. Also thrilling the crowd were Rob and Troy, a couple guys who started paddling in the Team River Runner program.

We even picked up some additional sponsors, as Chasing Rain, the New River Academy, and Autoboof.com all kicked in videos and schwag for the raffle. Thanks guys! This is on top of other local sponsors like the Bethesda Center of Excellence (BCE–the Olympic development program in DC) and PotomacPaddlers.com.

All in all a great way to start off the season!

K1A

1. Zach Mitchell
2. Jeremy Laucks
3. Andrew Hiss
4. Charlie Bartlett
5. Jim Buley
6. Bion Kim
7. Alex Parlini
8. Matthew West
9. Garrett Boop
10. Jim Hubshman
11. Chris Gorman

K1B

1. Curt Joyce
2. Brenton Petrillo
3. Troy Crawford (tie)
3. Will Tate (tie)
5. Matt Broxterman
6. Rob Brown
7. Jason O’Neill

K1W

1. Valerie Marsh
2. Monique Hubshman
3. Sandrine Deglin

K1Jr

1. Isaac Holden
2. Peter Lutter
3. Sam Fulbright
4. Eli Spiegel
5. Sean Johnson
6. Michelle Yates

1. Seth Chapelle