World Kayak Event Coverage

NAWF – Day 2 and closing

Christopher Wing — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:06:46 +0000

We all woke up Saturday morning to a dusting of snow and temperatures near 20 degrees which if your from the Midwest or Canada you shrug off as a warm early spring day. However, we are in North Alabama and most down here have only seen snow five or six times in their lives. So let me just say it was no surprise that they pushed back the 8:00 AM competitors meeting.

Competition eventually kicked off sometime around noon starting with juniors and following with men’s expert, women’s, and pro men respectively. Mens expert and pro were the only two that fielded enough competitors for a prelim and finals. There has been a surplus of rain recently in the drought stricken southeast that I think many people found some of the local creeks more enticing. However, despite the weather and high water there was an impressive turnout.

Team Dagger and Team Jackson brought on some of their heavy hitters, this weekend and both put on an impressive showing rounding out most of the top spots. Spencer Cooke of Team Riot displayed his trademark finesse in this kind of feature throwing a seamless blunt to split to phonix monkey in practice. Some of the local boys, Jonathan Shales, Charlie Mix and Tyler Phillips made their presence known in all the events as well. Jonathan Shales competed in his first pro event and made it to finals throwing all of the tricks that the top of the pro class was throwing as well.

Men’s expert and juniors classes are the up and comers in the sport and this venue is the perfect place for them to come and have fun and rub elbows with the pros. The women’s class fielded four competitors including local girls first time ever playing in a hole! She requested a few safety boaters and appeared she was not going to need them as she rolled up several times after flipping, until yours truly (one of two safety boaters) dropped the ball, sorry.

The festivities were classic southeastern redneck fashion including a potato gun firing out free t-shirts to the crowd, lots of trailers that did not appear to move any time soon, and good old-fashioned BBQ chicken. Jeremy Adkins and Gavin Raines put on one heck of a fun event and kept it running smooth despite mother nature’s attempts to shut it down. As they say in Alabama, git-r-done.

Many thanks to Brad McMillan, member of Team H2O Dreams for helping with the footy.

For full results click here

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North Alabama Whitewater Festival 2008 - Results

Christopher Wing — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:07:52 +0000

In classic NAWF fashion these are the “semi” complete results scribbled in crayola on the back of a score sheet:

Huckfest

Men’s Pro:
1.Andrew Holcombe
2.Nick Troutman
3.Tyler Phillips
4.Charlie Mix
5.Dane Jackson
6.Corey Volt
7.Keith Yell
8.Clay Wright
9.Jonathan Shales
10.Boyd Ruppelt

Men’s Expert:
1.Chris Wing
2.Ryan Snodgrass
3.Isaac Ludwig
(incomplete)

Women’s:
1.Samantha Brunner
2.Lauren Burgess
3.Emily Jackson

Boater X

Men’s Pro
1.Eric Jackson
2.Nock Troutman
3.Dane Jackson
4.Clay Wright
5.Jonathan Shales
6.Andrew Holcombe
7.Keith Yell
8.Boyd Ruppelt (DNF)

Men’s Expert:
1.Tommy Hennan
2.Ryan Snodgrass
3.Chris Wing
4.Kevin Shafew
5.Isaac Ludwig
(2 others DNF)

Women’s:
1.Emily Jackson
2.Lauren Burgess
3.Samantha Brunner (DNF)

Throwdown

Men’s Pro:
1.Eric Jackson
2.Andrew Holcombe
3.Nick Troutman
4.Jonathan Shales
5.Clay Wirhgt

Men’s Expert:
1.James Tansey
2.Ryan Snodgrass
3.Jonathan malley
4.Andy Gates

Junior’s:
1.Dane Jackson
2.Jonathan Shales
3.Tommy Hennan

Women’s
1.Emily Jackson
2.Lauren Burgess
3.Samantha Brunner

Day 1 - Falls Freestyle and Boatercross

Christopher Wing — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:51:03 +0000

Greetings from chilly Alabama. The first day of competition went off without a hitch and provided some entertainment as well. With the recent rain that the Southeast has been receiving, Short Creek was stomping today and provided us with some big tricks as well as quality beatings. Andrew Holcombe and Nick Troutman had strong showing today in the Men’s Pro Class. Andrew was throwing split wheels off of the falls while Nick was continually attempting to throw Mcnasties and coming very close to executing one, though he also cam pretty close to pogoing his head off the lip of the falls as well.

The Men’s Expert Class provided the crowd with some impressive wheels as well. Final results for todays two events are being saved for tomorrow nights festivities and I will post the top in each class as well as overall winners. Compete final results for the weekend will hopefully be provided Sunday morning. Until tomorrow, cool runnings.

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2 Days 2008 Season Kicks Off

Christopher Wing — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:28:38 +0000

We are just two days away from the start of the 2008 Pro Circuit where Guntersville, Alabama plays host to the North Alabama Whitewater Festival on Short Creek and the Locust Fork rivers. Day one’s festivities include a waterfall freestyle and boatercross on Short Creek Falls. On day two, the Locust Fork will be the site of the Throwdown (traditional rodeo) and the Big Trick (head to head big trick) competitions. Registration takes place at Short Creek on day one and have Junior, Intermediate, Expert and Pro classes. Event coverage will start on day one of the competition.