Friday Night Fun Series Results - Wavesport Freestyle on 8/10

August 13, 2007 – 9:44 am

A hardy group of 9 boaters took to the water at ASCI to compete in the 2nd Wavesport Freestyle Rodeo held on Feature “A”.  Despite a couple “surprise” changes to the feature, everyone had a great time. Full results should be posted on http://ascikingoftheriver.com. But in the meantime here are the Top 4  and the Top 10 standings in the Immersion Research King of the River  series-long competition.

8/10/07 WAVESPORT FREESTYLE RODEO RESULTS

Top 4:

1) Paige Teegarden - 65 pts

2) Lance Reif - 61 pts

3) Brian Homberg - 55 pts

4) Garrett Boop - 49 pts

 

IMMERSION RESEARCH KING OF THE RIVER
Standings through 5 of 7 events

1)Paige Teegarden
2) Jesse Shimrock
3) Brian Homberg
4) Lee Railey
5) Matt Fithian
6) Chuck Stump
7) Nancy Beakes
7)Jason Beakes
9)Chara Whittemore
10)Jeremy Stump
10)Matt Taylor 

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, News, News | Comments (0)

8/10 -Friday Night Fun Series #5 Tonight!

August 10, 2007 – 10:56 am

Tonight is the Wavesport Freestyle at the Adventuresports Center in McHenry MD on top of March Mountain.

 For More specifics about the go to our website: http://ascikingoftheriver.com

We’ll see you up there tonight.

Registration at 5:00

Competion at 7:00

It will be under the lights if it takes that long.

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Events, News | Comments (0)

US Slalom National’s Course in Pictures

August 9, 2007 – 5:57 pm

Except of gate 9 I think I have every part of the course on film. SO like I did for our Friday Night Fun Series, here is the National’s course from start to final gate.

Start

 

From the start the first 4 gates were all off set down stream gate.

Gate 1 & 2

Gate 3

Gate 4 into Gate 5

Close up Gate 5

The next set of gate 6-9 were a series of down streams with difficult offsets aft 7-9. This picture looks upstream from right next to gate 9. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures showing Gate 9.

Here is a closer look at the tough 7 to 8 move.

After Gate 9, racers than had to go down through Feature “A” where they had to decide how to treat Gate 10, an Upstream/flush gate. Here are the two ways that it was run.

Direct

or as traditional upstream

Gate 11 was another upstream on the other side of the course . It was followed by a down gate 12 that required recrossing the current to the river left side.

Down through 12 on left

and down Feature “B” into an Up at gate 13

After going through get 13, a surf across the Feature “B” hole took you to gate 14. The start of a very tough 4 gate offset sequence.

Gate 14

#15 into #16

Gate 16 into 17

and Gate 17 into the Gate 18 Upstream before the last drop on the course.

From 18, boats peeled out and ran to the left of the “monkey Face” rock  to finish the course with an “S” upstream into an downstream combo.

Down the drop

Through Gate 19

and finishing with the Gate 20 downstream seen in the background of this shot

The finishline was at the very back of the pool just before Feature “C”. 

So there it is the National’s course from start to finish in pictures.

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Yough Paddling Club Night @ ASCI - Wednesday August 8

August 7, 2007 – 10:19 am

As part of ASCI’s support for the Yough Paddling Club, the first Wednesday night of every month during the season is Yough Paddling Club Night. What does this mean?

FREE TIME ON THE WATER FOR CLUB MEMBERS!!!!

Members of the club have exclusive use of the whitewater coures from 6-8 PM prior to the monthly club meeting at 8 PM. So if you are a member come on up tomorrow night (all 34 of you), and if you aren’t a member come up and join for the huge fee of $10 and paddle too.

YPC memberships are $10 annually for an Individual, and $15 for a Family membership

The club website isn’t fully funtional yet, but once it is you’ll be able to download an application there to send in. IN the meantime just show up at a YPC event and join.

Up coming YPC events include:

YPC Night at Asci (tommorow)

Friday Night Fun Series Events  (Friday, 8/17, and 8/31) 

Wednesday Nigth Rolling Sessions

So come join the fun and the club.

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Events, News, News | Comments (0)

Friday Night Fun Series Back in action this Week at ASCI - Wavesport Freestyle

August 7, 2007 – 8:02 am

The Friday Night Fun Series get back in the action this Friday with Wavesport Freestyle Rodeo on 8/10. After a 1 week hiatus, the Friday Night Fun Series at ASCI will host its 5th event the second Wavesport Freestyle. SO far the freestyle has been our most popular event and we hope that that trend will continue this week.

A couple changes for this week:

1)      Rodeo will be held on Feature “A” instead of Feature “C”. We will tune it to a wave hole with a good pile that allows for traditional “hole” type moves but it will also have the ability to allow for the newer wave based moves.

2)      We’ll be starting a little later. Registration will be from 5-6:30 and competition will be gin at 7:00

3)      We will do first rides for all classes and then come back around for second rides. IF there are any ties after the completion of all of the rounds, the tied riders will have a 1 ride – head-to-head heat to determine the winner of the class.

The rest of the necessary beta:

Cost: $10 per person, $8 for ASCI season pass holders, $5 for Yough Paddling Club members

Schedule:

Registration: 5-6:30 PM

Practice: 6:00-6:45

Athletes Meeting: 6:45

Competition: 7:00

For more info, pictures and results from other Friday Night Fun Series Event, and information regarding our sponsor go to our website: http://ascikingoftheriver.com

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, News | Comments (0)

Top 3 Results from Slalom Nationals & link to full results

August 6, 2007 – 7:30 am

Here are the Top three results by class. You can look at the full dedtailed results here:

http://www.adventuresportscenter.com/images/stories/Events/Slalom_Nationals/final%20results-%202007%20slalom%20nationals.pdf

K1

1) Scott Mann
2) Bett Heyl
3) Scott Parsons

K1-W

1)Heather Corrie
2) Zuzana Vahna
3)Ashley Nee

C-1

1)Ben Fraker
2) Erik Amason
3) Larimer

C-2

1)Austin Crain/Scott McClesky
2)Eichfield/Powell
3)Borst/Stazcko

Here is a link to the pictures I took at the event. A full write up of my experience and impressions from the event will be forth coming.

US Slalom Nationals

Click on the Picture or t he caption to get to the picture gallery.

Nathan

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Riversport Boatercross pictures are up

August 2, 2007 – 7:44 pm

A fair number of pictures from last Friday’s Riversport School of Paddling are now up on the Friday Fun Series website photo album along with the results. So go check it out. The water level in the pictures is the same level that will be used at U.S. Slalom Nationals in 2 days (Saturday).

Here a nice one of the first upstream. The racers sprinted together from the top of the course to this upstream gate aproximately 100 yards downstream.

From this point they than rushed through 2 drops to the second upstream in a swirling and surging eddy  here

After this upstrean they had to negotiate a very sticky hole, go through Feature “A” and then onto the finish in the eddy below “A”.

Thanks to Jason Rigby of Stonyboater.com and Stonyboater Paddle Wax for taking the pictures hand maintianing the Series Website.

See you next week for the second Wavesport Freestyle Rodeo to be held on Feature “A”  instead of using feature “C” as was done at the first rodeo.  

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, News, News, Photos | Comments (0)

Yough Paddling Club Night at ASCI next Wednesday

August 1, 2007 – 9:09 pm

If you would like to have exclusive access to the ASCI Whitewater park one evening a month, as well as a bunch of other membership benefits, come to next Wednesday’s Yough Paddling Club Night at ASCI starting at 6:00. Join the club and paddle that evening - no raft traffic - and good times with local boaters like you.  

The Yough Paddling Club is a new boating club with a little over 30 members. The Adventuresports Center (ASCI) has been very supportive in helping get the club up and running. As part of their support the second Wednesday evening of each month during their season is Yough Paddling club night. From 6-9 the YPC has exclusive access to the whitewater park for free.

 Yough paddling club members can paddle the course from 6-9:00 with the YPC’s monthly members meeting starting at 8:00.  Only Yough paddling club members are allowed on the course during that evening.

So to gain access a person must join the Club. YPC memberships can be purchased on site that evening as well as every Friday evening that there is a Friday Night Fun Series event. The annual cost is $10 for an individual and $15 for a family membership. There is the expectation that members will also volunteer to support YPC events, trips, and functions during the year.

I’m the Club President so if you want more info you can contact me through the comments section or by emailing me directly.

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, News, Regions | Comments (0)

U.S. Whitewater Nationals this weekend at the Adventuresports Center

July 31, 2007 – 11:10 am

Just a reminder for those of you who will be in the area this weekend - August 3-5 - US Slalom Nationals are being hosted at the Adventuresports Center on Saturday.  This is the whitewater discipline that is part of the Olympics. Slalom combines speed and precision with racers negoitiating aproximately 24 gates over the length of the race course. It is truly amazing to what these athletes dance through the course at high speeds.  Between 80- 100 of the nation’s top racers will be racing in 6 different boat classes. 

Whiile a lot of people have already expereince the whitewater course at ASCI, its events like this that make the Center a huge assett to the region. This event will draw in people and media attention from all over the country.

For more information about the event and its schedule check out ASCI’s website: http://adventuresportscenter.com

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, News, News, Regions | Comments (2)

Friday Fun Series Picture Highlights

July 29, 2007 – 2:38 pm

I want to thank Jason and Sully of Stonyboater.com and Stonyboater Paddle Wax. They have been taking pictures of all of our events. This past Friday, Jason provided me with a CD of over 700 pictures from the first 3 events in the series.

The events were the Wavesport Freestyle Rodeo, Stonyboater Paddle Wax Boatercross, and the Immersion Research Giant Slalom. I sifted through all the photos and assembled a gallery of 28 of my favorite pictures from the events.

Here it is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/WesternmdDem/FridayNightFunSeriesHighlightsFirst3Events

So enjoy looking through them. I also have picked my favorites that emphesis in my mind the beauty and power of the Whitewater and the three disciplines being contested in the Friday Night Fun Series

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, Photos | Comments (0)

Riversport Boatercross Full Results and IR King of the River Standings

July 28, 2007 – 4:18 pm

Here are the full results from last night’s event-

Riversport School of Paddling Boatercross

Kayak Class

1) Jesse Shimrock
2) Geoff Calhoun
3) Brian Homberg
4) Ben Ledewitz
5 (tie) Lee Railey
5 (tie) Matt Taylor
7) Paige Teegarden
2 registrants DNS

Ducky-cross

1) Matt Taylor
2) Jesse Shimrock
3) Lee Railley
4) Tom Beall
5) Paige Teegarden

After 4 events the Immersion Research King of the River standings are:

1) Paige Teegarden
2) Jesse Shimrock
3) Lee Railey
4) Matt Fithian
5) Brian Homberg
6) Chuck Stump
7) Jason Beakes
7) Nancy Beakes
9) Chara Wittemore
10) Jeremy Stump
10) Matt Taylor

Next Event is August 10 - Wavesport Freestyle

Also, the Riversport Series Final will be a Freestyle Event

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle | Comments (0)

Quick results from tonight.

July 27, 2007 – 10:13 pm

I’ll do a full write up later for tonight’s Riversport Boatercross. But in the mean time here is the results from tonight’s Kayak class. Ducky class results will be in the full write up.

K1

1) Jesse Shimrock
2) Geoff Calhoun
3) Brian Homberg

I also was handed two CDs tonight with close to 1000 pictures from the first 3 events in the Friday Night Fun Series. I’ll slowly sift through them and post a couple galleries. If you want the pictures from an event that you participated in or want your series of pictures from all 3 event (or how ever many you went to). Jason Rigby of Stonyboater.com will put it together for you on a CD for $15 including shipping.

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, News | Comments (0)

Yough Paddling Club to hold Rolling Session at ASCI pond tonight

July 25, 2007 – 3:03 pm

From 5:30 - 7:00 at the ASCI “pond” the Yough Paddling Club  (YPC) will be having rolling sessions. Paige Teegarden, YPC Board member, and certified Instructor, will be there to help people perfect their rolls.

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, News | Comments (0)

A quick plug for this weekend’s Upper Yough Race and Festival

July 24, 2007 – 9:24 pm

The Upper Yough Race is this Saturday along with a Festival that takes place at the Friendsville Park at the Upper Takeout.

The Race is the highlight of the events but there as been a bunch of work put into creating a full community event.

All the info you need can be ound at the events website:

http://www.youghioghenyriver.org/Festival.htm

Of course the best wayto do the weekend is to race botercross on Friday first, right?

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Events, News | Comments (0)

Hidden Treasures Of Western Maryland #2

July 24, 2007 – 8:48 pm

This is the second of three posts about little know creeks in the region. This is one in the drainage of the North Branch of the Potomac River. Difficult Run drops down into the Kiztmiller Section of the North Branch from the West Virginia side.

Difficult Run (WV) - Tributary of the North Branch of the Potomac River

Difficult Run in WV  has 4 miles of 170 ft per mile with most of the gradient found in the last mile 7-10 significant rapids 

Rating: IV+ due to wood and the last 1.3 miles of the stream 

Runnable Levels:

If the bridge base is underwater or if the spray painted gauge is over 2.5 feet

Driving Directions:

 From Loch Lynn, MD (just east of Oakland) Turn at light go across RR and turn Left at the stop sign going south toward Gormania. Cross into Gormania, turn left onto Rt 50, approximately 2-3 miles outside of town then you will cross a small stream, Difficult run is the next stream that passes under Rt. 50. If you get to the green metal bridge over the Stoney River you went too far.  General Description

Difficult Run is a steadily dropping micro-creek without any major drops after the put in until the last mile of the run. However there are significant chances for wood in bad places and due to a lack of eddies there should be no more than four boats on a trip and really three is the best number of boater.

 Major Rapids

The first 2.5 miles or so consist of steady gradient with no drops of over 2 feet but potential for wood is high as the stream is as narrow as five feet in a couple places. Most of the problems stem from gravel bars with rocks of 2-4 feet in size the most significant drop in the upper section is the 100 feet of sliding drops above the Rt. 50 Bridge. 

The 2.5 -3 mile section is steeper with  on significant 5 foot boof (IV+), and rock pile rapids similar in type to those found on  the easier sections of Fike’s Creek(III-IV). The final miles has cut into more stable bed rock and has about half a dozen slide drops with more opportunity for wood and changes caused by mud slides from the eroding banks.

There is a 2 drop rapid of note which includes a slide like entrance into a 6 ft drop with a piton rock ledge 12 feet past the drop, a 25 ft pool and then a sliding 10ft vertical drop with no landing pool and several interesting lines.  The slide type drops continue below this until you hit the N. Branch of the Potomac about 2 miles above the confluence with the Stoney
River.

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Photos, Rivers | Comments (0)

FNFS: Immersion Research King of the River - Top 10

July 24, 2007 – 11:50 am

What is the Immersion Research King of the River Competition?

The Immersion Research King of the River is the Friday Night Fun Series’ winner-take-all competition. There is a significant prize package that will go to only one winner. It will be awarded at the end of the series to the competitor who accumulates the most points in their class(es) over the course of the entire series. 

How does this work? 

Points are awarded by placement in each class. The winner of each class recieving 100 points, and each competitor below that recieves 1 less point. So 1st place get 100 pts, 2nd 99 pts,  3rd get 98, on down the line. 

Since there is a two class registration limit for each night, the maximuim any one person can accumulate each night is 200 pts. The racer get this by winning both classes he or sahe enter.

As of the just completed Giant Slolam, there has been 1 event in each of the series 3 disciplines: Freestyle, Boatercross, Giant Slalom. There are still 4 more events left in the Friday Night Fun Series.

Top 10 King of the River Rankings through the first 3 events of the Friday Night Fun Series

  1. Paige Teegarden
  2. Jesse Shimrock
  3. Matt Fithian
  4. Brian Homberg
  5. Chuck Stump
  6. Lee Railey
  7. Jason Beakes
  8. Nancy Beakes
  9. Chara Whittemore
  10. Jeremy Stump

Our current leader, Paige, racig ducky in the Stonyboater Paddle Wax Boatercross

By westrnmdbtr | Posted in Confluence - Ohiopyle, Events, News, News, Photos | Comments (0)

Giant Slalom Pictures are up

July 23, 2007 – 3:57 pm

Here is the link to the event photo album. You need to scroll down to the third event and all of the  pictures are clickable to get a larger version of the picture.

http://ascikingoftheriver.com/Photo_Album.html

 So here are a few of my favorite ones

This picture shows the kind of venue this site is in terms of picturesque views at the end of the day. this is looking up at the top drop and gate 1 of the course

This one shows some of the the gradient in the top sections of the course and gates 2 & 3

Another shot of the 1st Upstream

After the upstream at 3 it was down to gate 4

This is the gate 5 upstream below feature ‘A” whic hrequired a cross current peel out to a downstream gate 6 (not pictured)

Next up for the racer was a left to right move at Feature “B”

Then came the final move at “Monkey Face” a left to right “s” move through the eddy and then down to the finish line. This is the first part of the “S” with the rest to the left of the picture and the finish line about 30 yards downstream

That was the course that people found both challenging and exciting for everyone.

Enjoy all the pictures..

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FNFS: Riversport School of Paddling Boatercross this Friday - 7/27

July 23, 2007 – 12:52 pm

Event # 4 for the Friday Night Fun Series is the Riversport School of Paddling Boatercross. Its amazing to think the series is now over 1/2 way to completion. It seems like the first event was just last friday. Still, here we go again!

 Info:

Riversport School of Paddling Boatercross

Location: Adventuresports Center International, Mchenry, MD

Time:
Registration begins at 5:00
Course opens for practice at 6:00
Boatercross starts at 7:00

For the uninitiated, Boatercross is a knockout format mass start race where between three and five boats at time race each other through a rapid with at least 1 obstical that must be navigated. The first 2 boats to the finish advance to the next round, and the other boats get sent to the consolation bracket with a chance to race back into the second round of main event.  The rounds continue until there are only 4 boats left at which time they race to see who the winner will be.

To see pictures of the most recent Fridany Night Fun Series Boatercross, check the post a couple posts below this one.  A more detailed description of the event and info about various boat length restrictions, registratoin, and more pictures. Go to the sereis website: http://ascikingoftheriver.com and click on the boatercross button on the right as well as the results and photo album.

 Thanks again to all our sponsors:

Stonyboater.com & Stonyboater Paddle Wax - website , pictures, and prize support

Wavesport - freestyle judging, and prizes

Immersion Research - Prizes

Riversport School of Paddling - Prizes

Starrkmoon Kayaks - Prizes

ASCI - Water, prizes, and logistical support

BTW I’m still trying to catch up on the season long standings for the IR King of the River Competition. Also, look for the announcement of the event type for the Series Final next week. ALso I hope to get up the second installment of Western Maryland Hidden Treasures by then as well.

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Immersion Research Giant Slalom Results -edited 7/24

July 21, 2007 – 4:27 pm

Well, the first ever slalom race at ASCI is in the books, and it was an unequivocal success!

A total of 15 racers racing in 6 classes took two runs per class down the 10 gate course. The ten gates were hung over a full length course creating a more open course with 2 upstreams, 2 offsets, and a crux “s” turn move right before the finish.

The wide open nature of the course lent itself to fast times and key moves. 

The top overall time belonged to Jason Beakes of Washington, D.C. He charged down the course as if he was racing the setting sun with a clean run of 81.1 seconds in his slalom kayak.

The second fastest time overall was C-1 slalom paddler Erik Anderson of Charlotte, NC who blitzed the course in 81.2 seconds, but had a 1 second penalty for a final time of 82.2 seconds.

The third fastest time went to local legend Brian Homberg whose stealth kayak skills resulted in a clean run of 83.4 seconds in his slalom kayak.

Here are the results by class for the whole race. Pictures will be up on the event website: ascikingoftheriver.com by the middle of the week.

C1/OC1
1) Erik Amason
2) Jack Ditty
3) Jesse Shimrock (OC1)

K1 Slalom Boat

1) Jason Beakes
2) Brian Homberg
3) Paige Teegarden (K1 W)
4) Casey Beall
5) Jeremy Stump

K1 Men - Expert Plastic Boat

1) Jason Beakes
2) Brian Homberg
3) Jesse Shimrock
4) Jeff McIntyre

K1 Men - Beginner/Intermediate Plastic

1) Matt Kocher
2) Matt Durnell
3) Lee Railey

K1 Intermediate Long Boat

1) Jeremy Stump
2) Chuck Stump

K1 Women

1) Nancy Beakes
2) Paige Teegarden
3) Chara Whittemore

Ducky Class

1) Nancy Beakes
2) A. J. McIntyre

I’ll have more detailed results later, but for now that is it.

Join us this coming Friday, July 27, 2008 for the Riversport School of Paddling Boatercross.

Registration at 5:00 and racing begins at 7:00.

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Immersion Research - Giant Slalom in 24 hours

July 19, 2007 – 4:05 pm

I’m really excited about this one. Its been a struggle to get the logistics and format worked out with ASCI due to this being the first month of operations. They’ll be putting up wires for gates almost up until the event (me too when I get there) just to make sure it happens. SO due to this we’re not going to run the duel head-to-head format originally in-visioned for this event. It will be more of a traditional style slalom race with a shorter course, a less technical set of gates , and the course should run about 60-70 seconds for the expert kayaks.

This is the first ever slalom race of any kind at ASCI so please come be part of this event. If your not boating it should still be good watching as the course will be on the upper more difficult and creeky section of the course. Bring friends and family as it should be a great event for spectators, too. Not as good as if it were the head-to-head format, but still pretty exciting to watch boaters dance down the course on their limit of speed and precision.

Here is tomorrow night’s schedule:

5-6:30 Registration

6 -7 open course for practice

7- until we are done - Racing

Here is the rest of the info from my various posts on a few different message boards:

For all those traveling to the Western Maryland Region, the Yough Paddling Club and Stonyboater.com would like to host you for an evening of fun competition at ASCI. This will be the first time ever that a slalom race of any kind will take place at ASCI – come be part of history – and have some fun too

Immersion Research Giant Slalom – Tomorrow Night

Cost: $10, $8 for ASCI season pass holder, $5 for YPC members

Classes:

In addition to the tradition gender and boat-type classes, we will offer classes for play boats, duckies, slalom boats, and plastic boats over 8.5 feet in length. You can enter up to 2 classes.

Format:

Giant Slalom is consists of 2 runs down a more open slalom course (compared to traditional slalom) that is  roughly 60-70 seconds in length. A racer’s best run time plus gate penalties will determine the final results.

More info at:

http://ascikingoftheriver.com

Sponsors of the Friday Night Fun Series are:

Wavesport, Immersion Research, Riversport

School of
Paddling, Stonyboater.com and Stonyboater Paddle Wax, and Starkkmoon Kayaks

Hope to see you there.

Oh Yeah - ITS RAINING AGAIN!!! WOOH HOO!!!!

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