World Kayak Event Coverage

The fourth and final event in our Hometown Throwdown series was our largest and most fun event this season. The August event was held at Big Rock in conjunction with the Noli Spash event!  The weather for the event started out with mostly cloudy skies and temps in the mid 70s.  With the lower than [...]

Boise’s final Hometown Throwdown of the year was a great finish to the series. We even had a special guest appearance by Reno Jackson paddler Sage Donnelly. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting this little gal, you are missing out – she is personality-plus!   (and a great little paddler!)
Seth Stoenner owned [...]

Congrats to the top 5 of the Jr. Women, Jr. Men & OC-1 who will advance onto Finals!

Women Semis start at 6:00PM. Men’s semis is under the lights tonight at 8:30PM. Live streaming video on http://worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown/2009-ifc-world-championships/
USA, USA, USA, Go USA!!!

Congrats to the top 10 of both the Women & Men K-1 who will advance onto tomorrow’s Semi Finals!

Complete Quarter Final Results:
Men K-1 - http://www.jacksonkayak.com/pdf/2009WorldsResultsQuartersK1M.pdf
Women K-1 – http://www.jacksonkayak.com/pdf/2009WorldsResultsQuarterK1W.pdf
GO USA!!!

The late day sprinkles threatened to come early this fine morning, but the sun won out as the Women took to the wave in Thun.  Every heat list that was announced seemed like it was THE heat to beat.  All of them seemed to be dotted with stars and veterans of freestyle.  Some amazingly classic [...]

Today’s prelims was highlighted by one of the biggest fields ever to grace a freestyle World Championships.  With 103 competitors from all corners of the globe, there was no end to the drama.  Early heats saw names like BIlly Harris of Canada, Stephen Wright of the US making immediate marks with combined scores of 1500 [...]

Thun, Switzerland – Some 250 pf the world’s best kayakers, representing 35 countries, are fine-tuning their Pan Ams, Airscrews, and Helixes in the final days of practice heading into the start of the ICF Freestyle World Championships here next week.
Taking a closer look at this year’s field, the following is a synopsis, by division, of [...]

Thun, Switzerland – This year’s ICF Freestyle World Champoionships mark new milestones in the evolution of the youngest discipline in paddlesports.
The first milestone is marked by attendance at the event by VIPs from some of the most august international sports bodies. Headlining the list of dignitaries is International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge. Joining Rogge [...]

Sunday August 23rd – Riviere St-Charles, Salaberry-De-Valleyfield, Quebec.
All summer we have been fortunate to be able to host a series of Freestyle events for World Kayak here in the Seaway Valley. Each event turned up new paddlers willing to give competitive kayaking a chance and show what they could do on the features of the [...]

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 third event in our Hometown Throwdown series was once again some big boomin’ fun at Big Rock!  The weather for the event was another perfect partly cloudy day with temps in the low 80s and a nice mild water temperature.  The hole was much more retentive at this event with the lower river level [...]

CBC News
After shelving the project more than 20 years ago, industry is once again looking at hydro development on the Slave River on the N.W.T.- Alberta border.   Click here to read the article.
Slave River Paddle Fest – hosted on the August long weekend this event was one of the best ever!  Warm water, gentle play [...]

 
The 2009 2nd Annual NOC Shootout was simply the most amazing display of kayaking skill I have ever witnessed!  No Joke… watching the final rides of the Men’s Pro K-1 class was astonishing and mesmerizing!!!  If you were not there at the event you can not even begin to appreciate the words I am trying [...]

Valleyfield, Quebec – July 25th – Riviere St-Charles.
Hot Humid, chance of thunders showers. Ahh mid summer weather… The dog days of summer in the Seaway Valley
So the forecast was less than good but the water is warm and everyone in the province of Quebec is on Vacation.  The result: 12 competitors ready to [...]

The second event in our Hometown Throwdown series was more fun than lighting a whole pack of bottle rockets at one time!  The weather for the event was perfectly sunny with temps in the high 80s and a nice mild water temperature.  The river level dropped enough over the past month to allow the event [...]

Another great day!  We started off with paddling the Pipestone near Lake Louise and then headed back to Canmore for the Rundle Riot; the second World Kayak Survivor Slalom from a series of four in Western Canada.  Amidst thunder showers throughout the day the clouds parted ways for our event and the sun was out [...]

The 61st Annual FIBArK (First In Boating the Arkansas) Festival has already kicked off here in Salida, CO with live musics, movie premiers and feverish practicing from kayakers of all disciplines.  Salida plays host this year to the USA Wildwater National Championships as well as a dozen other kayaking events.
Tomorrow starts the competition with Wildwater [...]

Event Coverage on WKTV will continue during the weekend of June 18-21 during the 61st Annual FIBArk River Festival.  Until then…

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 [...]

Click Here to Register for these Events
The Chilliwack Cup
This is the second of three freestyle events to be held on the Chilliwack River at Pointa Vista.  A wave/hole feature that is challenging enough for advanced boaters and super fun for beginners; come check us out this Sunday at 3 PM.

Survivor Slalom #2 – The Rundle [...]

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 [...]

Men’s Freestyle Results
1. Stephen Wright
2. Nick Troutman
3. Dustin Urban
4. Casper VonKolmf
5. Andrew Holcombe
Women’s Freestyle Results
1. Emily Jackson
2. Tanya Faux
3. Ruth Gordon
4. Nicole Mansfield
5. Devon Barker

The preliminaries for the Pro Freestyle kicked off today around 1:00 PM with 44 competitors in the men class and 16 women.  As with most preliminary competitions the majority of the rides were conservative where competitors were given 2 rides with their points from both combine to determine who moved on.  The top 15 of [...]

Unlike the last couple of weeks, the skies were blue and cloudless… that was until predictably the rain clouds organized around 2:30.  Fortunately the race was over at that point, so competitors were treated to 70 deg temperatures and sunny skies whereas last year it was raining and sleeting.
Last year was one of the most [...]

With beautiful weather (80 degree sunny skies) and a near perfect river level / water temp, the first event in the Tri-Cities HTTD series was a great success! Saturday’s (5/30/09) Throwdown was the first organized event of its kind in the Tri-Cities area in over 4 years. Though it was originally planned to be held [...]

The weekend of June 5 through 7th will feature our next broadcast of WKtv.  With H2oDreams’ Chris Wing at the helm again with the H2oNation gang (various fools and their frollic, superstars, clingons and many more kayak oriented vagabonds)… the coverage begins with the Freestyle event on Friday (great work viewing) and on Saturday for [...]

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!

A few surprises occurred in the US Team Trials Semi and Finals today.  Competition kicked off once again at 9:00 AM promptly, highly unlike kayakers.  The top 5 men, top 3 women, top 3 jr men, top 2 jr women, top 2 OC-1 were decided through an amazingly close competition and included some major upsets [...]

I just checked Boatertalk and I believe the lack of comments deems it a success, The one comment of the nice video was very nice as well.  We kicked of the official launch of World Kayak TV today during the preliminary round of the US Team Trials.
World Kayak brought in a total of 8300 viewers [...]

Starting Saturday, May 30th, 2009 World Kayak, H2oDreams (Chris Wing) and Elevation Lifestyle Network will be coordinating to bring you the full US Team Trials LIVE via the web.  World Kayak and Chris Wing will be streaming LIVE from the rocks in Glenwood Springs Colorado as the hopefuls in all divisions take to the wave.  [...]

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.  [...]

http://www.eddyflower.com/RodeoSeriesStandings.aspx?EventId=86
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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 [...]

The Reno River Festival Invitational was not nearly as long winded as the Open event yesterday.  However, a few of the competitors from yesterday faired very well among the dominant freestylers in the sport.  Erin Clancy, came out and placed in the top five after working her way through the Open event yesterday and then [...]

The format for the men’s and women’s competition on Friday was a combined two heats to move on to the next round where the finals would be a knockout series.  The Reno River Festival saw recors numbers not only in attendance but in number of boaters entering the competition.  The competition was stiff throughout the [...]

Cameras are rolling and we are tabulating the scores at the Reno River Festival… more video and updates are on the way.  Coverage starts Saturday!

The 2009 Reno River Festival will covered top to bottom by World Kayak and Chris Wing (H20 Dreamin).  The coverage begins Friday, May 8 with the Open competition and will continue on through the entire weekend with full coverage of the Pro event.  This will be the FIRST ever ‘Almost Live’ coverage of a Freestyle [...]

World Kayak is happy to announce that the open at this year’s Reno River Festival will be a Hometown Throwdown (HTTD).  The open event will be held on Friday May 8th.  The event will be conducted and scored like all other HTTD’s.  The top three paddlers from the K1-A, K1-W, and K1-JR will be carried [...]

The weather was better than the second throwdown but not as good as the first.  Go figure, spring in the Sierra.  We did have the great honor of having the lowest water level possible.  Even with the low water we had a great turnout.  For the first time the K-1A category was bigger than the [...]

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 [...]

Our second Throwdown in Reno was cold!  Actually it was cold and windy.  It was still snowing at my house when I left to drive down to the park.  The cold weather had also dropped the river level a bit, but we made the best of what we had.  Instead of a normal throwdown Toby [...]

The curtain closed on the first annual SGS the end of March with 8 teams holding their heads high. The persistent drought that has plagued the southeast was indeed a factor but ELFing rivers aside our teams were capable of logging some serious gradient in the pursuit of bragging rites.
 
The weeks were highlighted with teams logging down laps on the Cheoah, some went [...]

It was about over 20 degrees warmer this year than last and there were over 20 kayakers that came from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to paddle at the first World Kayak Hometown Throwdown. Yes it was 10 degrees above zero but the was still a chilly wind blowing downstream, hey it was March in [...]

Here we are again at the start of another Throwdown season and we got super lucky with the weather!  It is now the day after and another winter storm is bearing down on the Sierra and the temperature is dropping.  So, let’s get back to the event and the news that you actually want to [...]

WK Ambassadors Marc Richard and Toby Ebens are metaphorically cutting the ribbon on a brand new slate of fun and free events… on a cold wave in Nova Scotia and the incredible Reno Whitewater Park in the sun (ish) of Nevada!  The first week in April and we are a GO!
 
2009 comes with a good [...]

While Chris Wing and I were off boating on the Cheoah Saturday; my good friend, Andrew Bentley from Elizabethton, TN, was live at the 13th Annual GNAR Race to report for World Kayak.  Below is his full story:   
Pat Keller was the 2008 Green River Narrows race overall winner this past Saturday with a time of 4:31.  [...]

This past Saturday (10-18-2008) was the 1st real cool day of the fall season in the Southeast US.  Skies were partly cloudy and a nice breeze was whipping about in the trees.  Autumn colors were almost to full peak and the smell of fall was in the air.  A great day to bring the heat [...]

Today was the World Cup Final Finals and the results are in! What a great show by many classes having their highest scores here today in the finals!
In the Men’s Kayak Class- Nick Troutman and Stephen Wright dominated the finals with rides in the 900’s in their All-Stars. Peter Czonka had a great first ride [...]

(Sorry photos coming later)
After the dust settled on Semi-final day, we have our scene.  The K1 men’s class had two steps as they were cut from 20 to 10 then 10 to 5.  The end result was once again, Canadian Nick Troutman at the top with a final round ride that was 300 points higher [...]

Nick Troutman was the man of the hour in today’s Quarter Finals.  Nick blew the field away with an incredible 1263 point score with Stephen Wright of the US at his heals, but 200+ points behind.  Wow.  Peter Csonka of Sla was in third… a spot he needs to keep to win the world Cup.  [...]

OK.  The finale has started.  After Germany, the boaters were pretty stoked about getting to the next venue… Thun Switzerland.  Some litterally left after the last ride in Germany, some the next day, but most who continued to compete were on the wave the next day.
The Swiss wave was far different than the first two [...]

Thun, Switzerland is the best setting we have had for any event in terms of sheer beauty, and central location. Both Prague and Augsburg were both great sites as well, but Thun is quite special. I am sure that Vail, Colorado tried to model itself after this town, as we voted unanimously upon arriving that [...]

On August 22nd (Last Friday) with the help of my family and friends, we loaded the CReW trailer and headed to Watertown New York. Why? Why else:, 2 days of whitewater: The 2008 Blackwater Challenge and the 2008 Can Am Junior Freestyle Championships.

Day 1: Get there, register, set up camp and the Opening [...]

I just returned to Charlotte from rainy Western NC from this weekends NOC/Dagger Shootout.  It was a great display of what this area can offer as an event venue and the overall response from both competitors and spectators was positive with some constructive feedback.  Let’s just say that rodeo is back in Western North Carolina!  [...]

World Cup 2 was held in Augsburg, Germany, on the Eiscanal, a man-made whitewater course built in 1972. The Washing Machine is still the best hole for this type of course and it was built 36 years ago. The feature was awesome, and people had a lot of fun [...]

Yesterday morning started with a bit of apprehension, apprehension that any organizer would have with their first major event. Daniel Dutton informed me that around 8:00 AM that there were only 16 competitors registered for the event, but that he was anticipating at least ten more. Not so surprising to me, the event [...]

The C1ers started the day with their semis, the top 5 making it to the finals.  Markus Hummel of Germany stood atop the field with 380 points with a remarkable ride in this tough C1 hole.  Out from nowhere Lee Pike of Great Britain took second spot and Stepan Fiedler took third.  Lukas and Alexandre [...]

The day was another for the record books. Again familiar faces kept at the top of the chart for the men’s quarter final round. Peter Csonka killed it with a 1627 combined score with American Dustin Urban making it in second as he starts to feel a consistency to his [...]

Teams and paddlers from 30+ countries arrived at Augsburg, Germany this week to begin training for the second stop on the World Cup circuit. With Prague playing host to a Euro paddler victory, much of the continent is all fired up for more of the same. Canadians and Americans are now dusting off [...]

The Midwest Freestyle Championships were last weekend in Wausau Wisconsin. I was there to coach some freestyle clinics and to soak up the Midwest boating scene. Let me tell you they can get things done in Wausau. Not only was the event a great time and a huge success, but the off water events were [...]

The blistering morning and afternoon sun was over shaded by thunderstorms to close out our HTTD #5 @ the USNWC on August 2.  The weather was extremely hot and humid leading up to the hour of the Throwdown.  We had a total of 38 competitors sign-up to compete for the final event!  However, as soon as we [...]