World Cup Final, Rock Island

Tenessee is a long way from Watertown, and has had a drought this summer so we didn't have any water release until Friday. This meant we had a few days to find some paddling. Most of us headed to the upper Yough in West Virginia, and had a fun day on the river, paddling in a group of over 30 paddlers! The following day, after a fantastic breakfast at Cathedral Cafe, Fayetteville, we had a chilled out paddle on the New River.

The water at Rock Island released for just a few hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This meant timings were tight for the competition and also meant only 45 minutes of practice between 15 paddlers i.e 5 rides. There were no surprises as to who was paddling well in practice - the locals! The feature is a wave-hole, trashy in the middle but flushy on the edges - especially on river right. Cartwheels go well in the middle and blunts etc. were possible on both shoulders, but you had to be quick on river-right to ensure you stuck in the hole. In my practice rides I was concentrating on sticking entry moves, and just surfing about the hole. I stuck all the entry moves (although maybe not scoring ones) but often found myself flushing off river right side of the feature. On Saturday I stuck a nice entry move in my practice ride but then flushed on my first competition ride, and didn't get back up to the wave. Perhaps on my 2nd ride I should have played safe and not gone for the entry move again, as once again I was too slow with the move, and basically landed on my head, flushing straight away! This time I just about made it back up to the wave, but didn't have enough time to do any moves. Nil points and 8th place for me. Hmmmmm. Unfortunately this didn't do me any favours in the overall World-cup rankings as it pushed me down a place into 4th.

The ladies final was fun to watch though (although obviously I would have liked to have been paddling in there!). Tanya Faux had a solid first ride, and an amazing 2nd ride with entry move, big blunts, cartwheels and a McNasty (I think). This meant she took 1st place in this competition and 1st place overall, ahead of Emily Jackson in 2nd. Devon Barker had some super fast clean cartwheels earning her 3rd place at Rock Island. Ruth Gordon had been getting some great entry moves and blunts, but unfortunately not in finals, so she took 4th place which put her just ahead of me, 3rd place, in the overall rankings.

The mens final was going to be good, 3 locals along with Ed Smith (England) and Peter Czonka (Slovakia). All had been getting big moves throughout prelims and semis. Peter started his finals with a score of over 100 points from a huge entry move, big pan ams, McNastys, and even a phonics monkey. Clay Wright wasn't phased by this score and upped the pace even more landing just about every move possible and earning 122 points. The pressure was on the other paddlers. There were some unlucky flushes from Ed, EJ and Stephen, and there was some confusion over scores, EJ and Stephen scoring equally, both in 3rd place. In the overall placings EJ was World Cup Champion, Stephen 2nd and Clay 3rd.

Despite the lack of water and my poor performance Rock Island was a good event, thanks to the Jacksons, and all who helped for the organisation, and for the parties - free food and drinks and an appearance from Elvis made a great loosers' party!

I'm now in North Carolina for a few days, and preparing myself for a big weekend of partying at the Gauley fest!

World Cup, Watertown, NY

Unfortunately I'm a little slow on the updates, I don't have one of those new style electronic equipment things (laptop) to regularly log onto the internet.

So, the 2nd of the World Cup events was at Watertown on the 9th September. On Friday we were told the event was going to be held at 'hole brothers' feature rather than Route 3 wave due to water levels. I found hole brothers to be a better feature as more moves could be done, but with only 1 afternoon to practice and a long line-up in the eddy I never really got used to the hole. I couldn't figure out how to loop in the hole, but others did - Stephen Wright and EJ, amongst others, were getting huge air loops.

In prelims I managed to pull a super-clean cartwheel out of the bag which put me in 2nd place behind Tanya Faux who got a big air loop. Unfortunately for the finals, the next day I couldn't find the right spot for cartwheels, and still wasn't getting the loop. Emily Jackson had an awesome ride with a big loop, McNasty and space godzilla, she took the win with Tanya Faux in 2nd and Ruth Gordon 3rd. Without the loop I was a long way behind, in points, taking 4th place. This put me into 3rd place in the overall World-cup standings.

Full results should be on www.worldfreestylekayakchampionships.com

World Cup, event 1

I was sure this year's World Cup, the first ever, was set to be a big event. 3 competitions on 3 different features in Canada/US meant that international paddlers didn't have to travel for just one single competition. 120 paddlers from 20 countries showed up for the first event on Garberator on the Ottawa river. A good number, but not as many as I had expected, and far less than previous 'pre-world Championship' events. The Canadians and Americans had their big event the week before with their team trials, and only a handful of those paddlers entered the World Cup Event. Perhaps this was to do with the entry fee, or perhaps because 'Rock Island', the 3rd event, is so far away from the other 2 events.

Finally though we had a World Class event on a World Class wave where paddlers could show off the latest moves and not be stuck in the old-style spin (or cartwheel)-to-win. The competitors didn't dissapoint. Every move possible on a wave was seen in the competition so it was a great spectator event. But some of the competitors made it a little too nerve-wracking to watch as many choked and flushed, or didn't go as big as they were doing in practice. Anthony Yapp, was a good example of this; he was pulling the fastest pistol flips and biggest airscrews in practice and got the highest score from one ride in prelims, unfortunately it didn't happen for him in semis and he didn't make top 5. There were others that we expected to be in top 5 but it was a tough cut from 15 to 5 and some had similar rides to Anthony's in semis, not earning them enough points to get them through: EJ, Pat Camblin, Clay Wright. Peter Csonka had the biggest air screw of the competition which helped in his 120+ point ride to win him semis.

The format of finals was 3 rides best ride counts - so much better than knockout finals, especially on a wave where it is easy to flush. So with 2 rides to throw away the guys went off. Stephen Wright stuck nearly every move possible in one of his rides and this gave him the win. Bryan Kirk and Moe Kelleher both put in some big moves to get 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

I wasn't expecting to make top 5, and as there were less than 20 competitors in the Ladies event, we cut straight to 5 for the final. Most of the girls were going big in practice sessions, and I couldn't get my back stabs or right-hand blunts to go consistently (or to go at all). So in prelims I just stuck to what I knew I could do: go left! This was enough to put me in 3rd place, and I was happy to be able to paddle again the next day. I liked the format for finals, and thankfully it wasn't knockout as I flushed straight away on my first ride! But, the girls were obviously nervous, Tanya Shuman and Ruth Gordon didn't get the rides they had been hoping for -both had been getting big air blunts and back blunts in practice. Once again (after my poor attempt at a first ride) I stuck to what I could do and went left, scoring a pan am and blunts. I think I may have even got a righty in their somewhere! This put me in 2nd place (and won me $300) just a few points ahead of Emily Jackson who took 3rd. Tanya Faux was super fast with her blunts and had some awesome rides with big aerial pan ams and donkey flips. Not surprisingly she took a well-deserved 1st place.

There were a few Brits competing, many of them have been in Canada since July. Flic paddled well in the Junior ladies taking 2nd place behind Nouria from France who got some huge blunts.

Ben White took first in the squirt event, which took place in the middle of the river somewhere upstream before the opening ceremony had even taken place!

Unfortunately the Brits didn't do so well in the Men's event, and none of them paddled as well as they had been in practice sessions so they didn't make the cut to top 15.

So, we are now on the black river in Watertown New York State. Unfortunately the wave here is to Garb what the 'wave box' is to Hurley. Micro-roundhouses will be the move for me. Other paddlers are getting blunts and flip-turns. Corey (dagger paddler) has been getting pistol flips, but I think has been the only one brave enough to try - getting it wrong means head connects with large rock just underneath the wave!

I'll try to keep the updates coming.

Flea.