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 normal air temperature, the Nolichucky River water felt like bath water and we all enjoyed it!  The sun occasionally peaked out for us, but later in the afternoon we had to take about a 30 minute delay in the Men’s K-1A heats due to a torrential downpour!  After the shower passed, the rest of the evening was pleasant and we finished out the event with some great rides by the K-1A Men.  

The wave/hole feature at Big Rock was near perfect thanks to a small shower we received two days before that had the river level slowly dropping to the ideal level (+/-700 CFS) for freestyle tricks.  A great show was put on for our large crowd of spectators (30-40) along the river left bank and on the center rock island!  I was fortunate to have my mother and grandmother join us at the event to watch and they both said that they really enjoyed it!  I also learned from the Riverpark Campground owners that some of the campers on site had come to camp just to watch the event.  It was really great to hear that our freestyle series was growing a fan base! 

A total of 37 competitors came from near by & as far away as Charlotte, NC and Rock Island, TN to participate in the August event #4.  This event had the best rate of participation of any event the series!  All five of our divisions were filled with paddlers ready to strut their stuff!  Thanks to Kerry Porche, we had a PA system set-up beside the feature which added a fun, new aspect to this event.  A few of us took turns announcing competitors and adding some colorful commentary!  We also played some good tunes on the PA for a background soundtrack to the event.  Good times, good times!  

HTTD Event #4 Results:

Juniors’ K-1:

1.       Conner McSpadden (94)

2.       Nathan Kincheloe (68)

Women’s K-1:

1.       Crystal Gustin (118)

2.       Terri Adkins (104)

3.       Jennifer Bradley (60)

C-1:

1.       David Goodwin (95)

2.       Dan Pettingill (73)

Men’s K-1A:
1.       Michael Patterson (409)

2.       Tommy Hehnen (261)
3.       Brad Barker (246)

4.       Chris Wing (241)

5.       Josh Dalton (227)

6.       Dewey (218)

7.       Casey Jones (173)

8.       Kerry Porche – Hand Paddler (169)

9.       Brandon Dale (160)
10.     Will Rudisill (154)
11.     David Ledford (149)  

Men’s K-1B:
1.       Wesley R. Bradley (136)
2.       Justin Benton (118)

2.       Joseph Obenschain (118)

4.       Steve Moore (116)
5.       Tyler Jones (96)

6.       Eric Hoffman (94)

7.       Brian Pickett (93)     

8.       Stuart Everett (80)

9.       Jason Bordwine (78)
9.       Mike Dorsey (78)

11.     Nick Smith (77)

12.     Michael Bianchi (73)

13.     Jason Miller (62)

14.     Adam Gudger (60)

14.     Stacy Smith (60)     

16.     Randall Hunter (57)

17.     Michael Kincheloe (55)

18.     Travis Fleming (52)

19.     Jere Rudisill (48)

Congratulations to Connor, Crystal, David, & Michael as our event #4 winners!  I was also really happy to finally win an event myself in the Men’s K-1B class after two years of competition.  It’s now time for me to move up to K-1A now…  A big THANK YOU as always to all the competitors who came out to participate in this big day!  The event would not have been a success without each of you and I hope you will come back to join us next year for the 2010 Tri-Cities HTTD Series.

HTTD Event #4 competitor highlights:

- Mad Mike Patterson showed us once again that he is truly the Tri-Cites Freestyle Champion by racking up a +400 score for this event, which was a new personal best for him in this series!

- Brian Pickett debuted his new freestyle trick (the “Epileptic Dog”) that thoroughly entertained the crowd.  He also showed us in his final ride that you can throwdown in a creek boat too!

- We had two gentleman (Jere Rudisill & Mike Dorsey) compete in the Men’s K-1B class who were over 50 years young… that’s just awesome!

- Eric Hoffman gave the crowd some good entertainment with his water cannon and earned some style points with his recreational orange PFD.

- Despite having a broken hand, Kerri Porche still competed with one hand and used hand paddles!

- We had 2 swimmers during the event who went home with with the coveted River Gypsies “Everybody Swims” sticker.

As if HTTD Event #4 was not enough fun by itself, the Noli Splash event and the APE’s Annual Picnic added even more good times to the day!  The Noli Splash was a fund raiser for the First Descents Program.  The Noli Splash raised approximately $1,000 through a silent auction & $2 admission fee into the venue.  The money raised in this event will be used for a scholarship to send one young adult recovering from cancer to the First Descents Camp in Colorado.

A special thanks goes out to  for donating $50 to this cause and supporting our events!

The Noli Splash hosted some great live music from: Richard Banks, Lexus Shipley, The Rhythm Brewers, & The Tin Whiskers.  The Noli Splash also had tube & funyak rentals through the day.  We hosted a great Tri-Cities film premiere of “Hotel Charley 4 – At Your Own Risk” on Friday night as well after a nighttime play session in Big Rock by spot light!  A huge thank you goes out to Kerry & Catherine Porche for all their hard work and organization on the Noli Splash with the Hometown Throwdown Event #4!

The Ape’s Annual Picnic and river trips were a great success as part of the events also!  A few of our local more experienced paddlers met up with some newbies to run a lower section of the Noli (Class II) and another group took a group of 1^st timers down the Noli Gorge (Class III-IV).  I have heard some good reports from all the Noli river trips that day.  All the events culminated in the late afternoon with a BBQ picnic provided by the APE’s from the Firehouse.  It was tasty after a hard day of paddling and competing!  Thank you to Randy, Debbie, and Joe for organizing all of the APE’s activities during the day!

We had a great group of 7 volunteers who came out to assist in the HTTD event!  Jeff Weatherford was a great commentator on the PA for the event!  Erin Weatherford & Bob Peal served as our technical judges.  Tom Hehnen and Samantha Miller were excellent scribes for our judges.  Megan Dale, once again, kept everyone very alert with the air horn while serving as timekeeper.  Cheryl Killman was back on site as the event photographer shooting some great shots, as seen in this event coverage, of all the action.  A big thank you goes out to these guys and gals for all their help!

All of our competitors & volunteers went home with prizes provided by our good sponsors!  A big THANKS goes out to all of our program partners, listed in the banner above, and our local sponsors: Bonnie Kate Theater, Bonnie Kate Café, Risen Sun the movie, River Gypsies, Riverpark Campground & Rushing Waters Outfitters.  A special thanks goes out to Riverpark Campground for the use of their great venue to host the events.  We would not have had these events without their support.  Make sure you give Bruce and Nancy a personal thank you for all they do for our paddling community…

As always a big thank you to the World Kayak leadership: Colin Kemp and James McBeath for making these events possible with all their hard preparation work!

Cheryl Killman’s HTTD #4 Event Photos:

Album 1 – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29332&id=1074133134&l=44e918c30a

Album 2 – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29387&id=1074133134&l=970edebda0

Album 3 – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29399&id=1074133134&l=b93d675105

Wesley R. Bradley’s HTTD #4 & Series Champ Award Ceremony Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113365&id=552848204&l=fde651b4d1

Our 2009 Tri-Cities HTTD series came to a dramatic close this year after the BBQ picnic with a fun medal ceremony. A big thank you goes out to Dominion Carton  for sponsorship of the medals.  Our top 3 competitors in each class went home with a medal and certificate designed by yours truly.

2009 Men’s K-1A Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Michael Patterson

Silver Medalist – Will Rudisill

Bronze Medalist – Bradon Dale

Bronze Medalist – Brad Barker

2009 Men’s K-1B Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Wesley R. Bradley

Silver Medalist – Steve Moore

Bronze Medalist – Jason Bordwine

2009 Women’s K-1 Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Terri Adkins

Silver Medalist – Crystal Gustin

Bronze Medalist – Jennifer Bradley

2009 Juniors’ K-1 Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Nathan Kincheloe

Silver Medalist – Matt Wright

Bronze Medalist – Mason Farmer

2009 C-1 Series Champions:

Gold Medalist – Dan Pettingill

Silver Medalist – David Goodwin

Congrats and thanks again to all for coming out and participating in one or all of these four great events in the series.  Thanks to for sponsoring all the top prizes that were given to the series champs!!  This brings our freestyle series to a close this year, but stay tuned to World Kayak for upcoming paddling events and news about our great sport.  Until the next Throwdown series, I hope to see you creekin’!

Later that night at the festival grounds WK hosted a 4 square tournament.  Yes it is the same game that you played in grade school!  Over the course of the evening super ambassador Wes and his sister kept the event moving and got more people to step up and play.  There was a $2 buy in to play all night and all of the money was donated to AW at the end of the evening.  Thanks to all of the folks who helped out and to those of you who donated to AW through our silly little game.  Look for both of these new events to be back next year along with the original “Am I Ready for the Gauley Yet?” event.

Later;  Colin

K1-W

1.       Elizabeth

2.       Cheryl

3.       Heather

K1-B

1.       Zach

2.       Rob

3.       Newt and Jay Bob

4.       Blake

5.       Shawn

6.       Ryan

7.       Chris

K1-A

1.       Jim

2.       Billy Joe

3.       Will

Seth Stoenner owned the hole with flurries of aerial moves – his smooth style makes paddling look so easy… We ran two hole runs and then a couple of Boater-x heats. We didn’t draw prizes until about an hour after the competition as everyone was having so much fun they wouldn’t get out of the water. We had the largest party-surf I have seen int the Gutter. Special thanks to Matt Donnelly for helping take pics!

Only the scent of dogs cooking on the grill wafting over the water could draw them out. We had a great visit while we ate and drew for the great prizes that our generous supporters have donated. Thanks locally to Alpenglow Mountainsport for their donations and providing demo boats at most of the events, and to Kieth at RiverRunner Gear as well. And of course to our international sponsors for supporting these events!

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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!!!

Northern Youth Camp – Fort Smith, Northwest Territories

Kiddies Having Fun

Surfing it up at Playground Rapid on the Slave River

Chilliwack Cup #2

Event Results

Event Name: Chilliwack Cup #2
Event Region: British Columbia

Event Date: August 16th, 2009 @ 5:00pm
All times are localized to the event location.

Survivor Slalom #4

Sign into our facebook group for the Western Canada Region to receive updates about these events.

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 day started out with a tough wave.  At the start it truely didn’t look like the wave was being nice at all.  Runs under 100 left the first heat baffled when Fiona Jarvie of Wales (GBR) showed up with game face on!  A couple of rides later and a flurry of round houses and blunts she broke the 100 point ride mark and never looked back.  In the next heat Martina Wegman of NLD brought the air into play with a donkey flip… pushing towards a 200+ score.  Midway through the competition in stepped Marianne Saether.  Everyone twittering out there stopped to notice her rides … Marianne kicked in a solid ride including the most air of the day to date… Donkey Flip, Helix, huge blunts taking her combined total to 528… solidly ahead of all the rides so far.

The real drama began with good friends Ruth Gordon of Canada and Tanya Faux of Australia showing up in the eddy for warm up.  Ohhhhh baby, these ladies really work off of each other’s competitive energy… smiles all around they took the wave to even higher levels.  Tanya throwing the gauntlet down with her first ride of just under 300.  Along came Ruth with a tight combination of Donkey Flip, back stabs, spins and a huge blunt or two… 400 point ride.  ITS ON!  Ruth ended with 713 and Tanya at 500 in third behind Saether at this point in the comp… with A couple heats to come and Emily Jackson in the eddy for her warm up… you can SEE the US flags wavin’!

The anticipation of Emily’s rides was temporarily put on hold with a light first ride, but got the crowd on their feet with an amazing second ride of around the 400 area and a final ride that helped her into second spot for the day.  Jessie Stone, one of the sports TRUE ambassadors brought in a great story line as she chipped her way into 5th over all with solid performances… showing that she will ALWAYS be a threat.

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 and 1400 respectively.  Mikael Lantto of Finland landed a spectacular Air Screw and came in with a score of 1360 and Simon Strihmeir of Germany scored an impressive 1110 allong side Casper Van Kalmthout… spreading the leaders all over the proverbial globe.

The entire field battled the often flushy wave.  Only those with the luck of River Gods and strength in clean delivery were able to keep their flurries on the wave till the horn.  The moves ranged from massive blunts to donkey flips, helix and a new kid on the block… the backwards Airscrew… er… that brings us to the next portion of the program…

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Each heat had a good battle, flushes and bad  luck to epics of 900+ point rides between two or three riders.  Peter Csonka of Slovkia and Nick Troutman of Canada both stunned the crowds in their respective heats… with combined rides for Peter of 1613 showing his prowess in his WS Project.  But the brightest shine came from Canada’s Troutman with a stunningly controlled blasts best described by this Twitter post from Lee Hart of Brand amp: “nick troutman’s 2nd ride: air screws back blunt mcnasty pan am donkey flip and helix for . . . off the charts.”  Score… 2480!  For those math freaks… thats a full 800 points (the average combined ride score for most of them) ahead of the second placed Csonka!  OH FREAKIN CANADA (voluntary addition by this Canadian author).

Other notables off to the Quarters include Eric Jackson our raining (sp?) champ, Richard Grimes of GBR a main stay near the podium, Mathiew Dumoulin who came pretty close to upsetting them all at the World Cup in 2008, young Joel Kowalski on his first K1 men’s stage at the worlds Just a head of Anthony Yap and a crowd favorite in Tyler Curtis (now for Norway) slipping in amongst the 30 moving on.

Notable drops included Rush Sturges,  fellow American Cory Volt, Mario Vargus with a couple unlucky flushes among 70+ others. 

Tomorrow we hit the OC1, C1, and Jrs

MENS PRELIMS VIDEO – CARE OF NICK TROUTMAN!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Official results below…

Place  Bib Name        Points      Series Country

1 3 Troutman Nicholas 2.480,000 Prelim CAN
2 2 Csonka Peter 1.613,333 Prelim SVK
3 9 Harris Billy 1.516,667 Prelim CAN
4 64 Wright Stephen 1.410,000 Prelim USA
5 122 Lantto Mikael 1.360,000 Prelim FIN
6 124 Van Kalmthout Casper 1.271,667 Prelim NLD
7 139 Strohmeier Simon 1.110,000 Prelim GER
8 14 Thompson Kelsey 1.080,000 Prelim CAN
9 138 Strohmeier Seppi 991,667 Prelim GER
10 55 Kirk Bryan 928,333 Prelim USA
11 143 Chrimes Richard 905,000 Prelim GBR
12 1 Jackson Eric 891,667 Prelim USA
13 163 DUMOULIN Mathieu 825,000 Prelim FRA
14 165 COLDEBELLA Mathieu 765,000 Prelim FRA
15 85 Serrasolses Gerd 756,667 Prelim ESP
16 43 Meyers Jonny 751,667 Prelim USA
17 95 Kazuya Matsunaga 748,333 Prelim JPN
18 68 CARPENE Leo 738,333 Prelim FRA
19 117 Kuronen Tuomas 733,333 Prelim FIN
20 128 Spreiter Sandro 730,000 Prelim SUI
21 97 Shintaro Komori 721,667 Prelim JPN
22 144 Best Jon 681,667 Prelim GBR
23 166 Immler Anton 681,667 Prelim SWE
24 52 Kowalski Joel 680,000 Prelim CAN
25 191 Yap Anthony 676,667 Prelim AUS
26 220 HERZIG Daniel 625,000 Prelim AUT
27 74 GALLAIS Jules 611,667 Prelim FRA
28 60 TYLER CURTIS 556,667 Prelim NOR
29 17 Bergeron Proulx Francoi 541,667 Prelim CAN
30 201 Häberling Severin 541,667 Prelim SUI
31 145 Ward Alan 536,667 Prelim GBR
32 129 Dillier Florian 511,667 Prelim SUI
33 71 Sturges Rush 463,333 Prelim USA
34 147 BLODER Marcel 460,000 Prelim AUT
35 72 Corey Volt 450,000 Prelim USA
36 24 Magwmba Ibrahim 441,667 Prelim UGA
37 127 Zarn Andrea Marco 428,333 Prelim SUI
38 107 Akira Nakamura 410,000 Prelim JPN
39 34 Anderson Sam 410,000 Prelim GBR
40 225 ANDREA COLOMBO 408,333 Prelim ITA
41 183 Leonard Mark 408,333 Prelim IRE
42 209 MITAUT Maxime 406,667 Prelim FRA
43 89 Goikoetxea Gorka 406,667 Prelim ESP
44 40 Cooper Doug 395,000 Prelim GBR
45 142 Collenteur Raoul 378,333 Prelim NLD
46 108 Andrassy Tomas 375,000 Prelim SVK
47 175 Vasin Konstantin 370,000 Prelim RUS
48 213 O’Donoghue Tomas 361,667 Prelim IRE
49 126 Suokko Samuli 351,667 Prelim FIN
50 171 Rybnikov Ivan 345,000 Prelim RUS
51 200 Langner Nico 343,333 Prelim GER
52 104 Tatsuya Yagi 305,000 Prelim JPN

The eight-member team agrees freestyle kayaking, the newest of competitive paddlesports disciplines, isn’t nearly as high on the Swiss national consciousness as winter sports like skiing and ice hockey or even slalom, an Olympic discipline, But the team hopes to enlist the help of the international family of whitewater paddlers they are hosting here this week and associated media interest in the event, to raise Swiss awareness of an issue that transcends the sport.

On Wednesday, local organizers of the World Championships are inviting visiting athletes, politicians and journalists to float down the Aare River. The goal is to draw attention to the plight of Swiss rivers and river ecosystems under threat because of a new law that subsidizes further hydropower development in a country that already using 95 percent of its rivers to generate hydropower.

Simon Hirter, director of Verein Wellen Events, producers of the World Championships is also the River Watch Ambassador for the Swiss chapter of WWF. Hirter said the new Swiss law has created an alarming situation since more than 500 new hydropower projects have been proposed in the year since the law was enacted. Hirter said the crisis also marks the first time fishermen are joining forces with kayakers to fight to preserve Swiss rivers from hydropower assault.

Following Wednesday’s float, WWF will host a panel discussion with Barbara Egger-Jenzer, Director of Energy, Infrastructure and Traffic for the Canton of Bern, Tino Reinecke, hydrologist and head of the Waters Commission for the Swiss Canoe Federation and Catherine Martinson, member of WWF’s Switzerland Management Board. The evening ends with the screening of two environmentally oriented kayaking films, “The Last Descent,” and “Oil and Water.”

The Swiss team is unanimous in its support of protecting the last remaining wild stretches of Swiss rivers. The team is comprised of two junior and six senior competitors: Juniors: Leonie Haberling, 16, Zurich; Sam Schwarz, 18, Basel. Seniors: Andrea Marco Zaru, 20 Trin; Florian Diller, 21 Obwalden, Julian Stocker, 22, Zug; Severin Haberling, 24, Zurich; Sandro Spreiter, 24, Trin; and James Weir, 29, Versam.

For more information about this issue, and all the events during this year’s ICF Freestyle World Championships, visit http://www.icf-thun2009.ch