WHITEWATER GRAND PRIX: STAGE 5: FREESTYLE: RESULTS/VIDEO

We just finished up the 5th Stage of the Whitewater Grand Prix. It was the last freestyle event on such an amazing feature. It felt like a slightly smaller but faster Skookumchuck wave. The format was everyone got four 1 minute rides, with your best ride counting. Out of your best ride only your best 6 tricks counted which was to entice the athletes to go bigger to separate the scores.

With such an amazing wave and such high level of paddlers it was just incredible to watch. So many people throwing down such great rides with huge tricks and sweet combos. I was glad I didn’t have to be one of the judges because I am sure it would have been a tough competition to judge.

At the end of the day I was able to just barely squeeze in front of Dane Jackson for the first place seat, followed by Bryan Kirk in 3rd, Mathieu Dumoulin in 4th and Rush Sturges in 5th.

Here is a video from the comp and the list of results:

Men’s

1- Nick Troutman

2- Dane Jackson

3- Bryan Kirk

4- Mathieu Dumoulin

5- Rush Sturges

6- Joel Kowalski

7- Devyn Scott

8- Bren Orton

9- Kalob Grady

10-  Gerd Serisoles

Womens

1- Adriene Levknecht

2- Marriann Saether

3-Martina Wegman

4-Sandra Hyslop

5- Hannah Kertesz

WHITEWATER GRAND PRIX: STAGE 4: BIG WAVE FREESTYLE: RESULTS/VIDEO

The WWGP has completed the 4th Stage. A freestyle competition held on the wave Black Mass on the Mistassibi River. The format was 2 minutes rides with your best 3 tricks scored. It was a great day with tons of huge tricks, massive airs and some epic wipeouts. I had my best rides during practice and had some difficult staying on the wave for my 6 comp rides. My best ride was my first one with a pretty large airscrew, a Bread/Butter combo and a flashback. Though it wasn’t enough to beat two of my best friends, Joel Kowalski and Dane Jackson. Joel was able to pul ahead on his last ride with a massive stern clearing Panam and both Flashbacks. And it was an obvious winner for anyone who saw Dane Jackson’s ride. Dane through back to back massive Airscrews and an airscrew/airscrew combo and airscrew/clean blunt combo.

Here is a video on my practice ride:

Here are the results:
Men
1st Place: Dane O Jackson (USA)
2nd Place: Joel Kowalski (CAN)
3rd Place: Nick Troutman (CAN)
4th Place: Rush Sturges (USA)
5th Place: Devyn Scott (CAN)
6th Place: Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
7th Place: Marcos Gallegos ( Whitewater Kayaker ) (CHL)
8th Place: Kalob Grady (CAN)
9th Place: Sam Ward (GBR)
10th Place: Bren Orton (GBR)

Women
1st Place: Hannah Kertesz (USA)
2nd Place: Adriene Levknecht (USA)
3rd Place: Martina Wegman (NLD)
4th Place: Sandra Hyslop (GBR)
5th Place: Nicole Mansfield (USA)

WWGP STAGE 3: TIME TRIAL: RESULTS

The Whitewater Grand Prix has always been known for it’s extreme stature, and this years Time Trial was no different.The Shawinigan River is steep and manky and  made for a great Grand Prix race course. The race was 3 runs and your best 2 count.
The line was pretty obvious run down the mank on the left, boof the waterfall, sprint through the eddy and run the next rapid in an assortment of ways just finish pointing downstream and sprint through the finish. This might sound easy though there were lots of ways to screw it up: which I did several of. The biggest mistake I did was boof the waterfall and not land far enough left which then means getting pushed deep into the left eddy and costing valuable seconds when the race course is only 52+ seconds long. The next mistake I seemed to do on all of my race runs was to somehow run the bottom drop and either surf, spin or get pushed deep into the left eddy there as well.
At the end of the day It was a truly impressive race to watch and when the paddlers nailed the lineit looked good and crazy fast. There was also a little bit of carnage to add to the equation with some people flipping in the manky, surfing above the falls, running the falls backwards and one unfortunate swim over the falls that looked exceptionally gnarly, though luckily no one was injured. Dane Jackson and Chris Gragtmans just screamed through the course and took home the top two places, followed by an equally fast and consistent Tino Specht. I had my personal worst finish so far with a 17th place, though know we are off to the next competition and I get to try again.

Here are a full list of results.
Mens:
1st Place: Dane Jackson (USA)
2nd Place: Chris Gragtmans (CAN)
3rd Place: Tino Specht (USA)
4th Place: Gerd Serrasolses (ESP)
5th Place: Tyler Curtis (CAN)
6th Place: Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
7th Place: Mathieu Dumoulin (FRA)
8th Place: Galen Volckhausen (USA)
9th Place: Rush Sturges (USA)
10th Place: Marcos Gallegos (CHL)
11th Place: Joel Kowalski (CAN)
12th Place: Bryan Kirk (USA)
13th Place: Jules Domine (FRA)
14th Place: Bren Orton (GBR)
15th Place: Evan Garcia (USA)
16th Place: Kalob Grady (CAN)
17th Place: Nick Troutman (CAN)
18th Place: Tyler Fox (CAN)
19th Place: Sam Ward (GBR)
20th Place: Devyn Scott (CAN)
21st Place: Juanito de Ugarte (PER)
22nd Place: Leif Anderson (USA)
23rd Place: Casper van Kalmthout (NLD)
24th Place: Louis-Philippe Rivest (CAN)
25th Place: Ian Vogel (CAN)

Womens:
1st Place: Martina Wegman (NLD)
2nd Place(tie): Adriene Levknecht (USA) // Mariann Saether (NOR)
4th Place: Sandra Hyslop (GBR)
5th Place: Nicole Mansfield (USA)
6th Place: Lu Urwin (NZL)
7th Place: Hannah Kertesz (USA)

WHITEWATER GRAND PRIX: STAGE 2: BOATER-X: VIDEO/RESULTS

Well just finished but the stage 2 event: Big Water Boater-X. It was an awesome event and a great day with perfect weather, awesome levels and big rapids. The course was set up on the Rouge river with a long set of standing waves and a bit of craziness at the bottom just to keep it interesting. The crux was ‘The Gauntlet’ which was a roll of the dice whether the waves would crash on you and destroy you of the rapid would let you pass with ease.

We started off with a Time trial to seed everyone in the heats, followed by quarter finals heat of 7 and 4 advance, and then a semi finals heat of 8 5 advance, and a super finals of 10.

I did pretty well in the Time Trial and finished in 7th place, and then 2nd in Quarter Finals heat, and 2nd in my Semi Finals heat. Though Finals was a whole other story. It started off with just a mass start of 10 paddlers and I was able to stay in the top 5 off the word Go. It was an all out sprint through some big waves and a couple crashing holes until the start of the ‘The Gauntlet’ which I chose to head far left to avoid the big breakers which paid off and I was able to pull ahead into first place. The final crasher was all that was left and I knew I was having a great line. I punched though the first part no problem though the next wave jacked up and launched me into a backloop. I rolled up to find myself amongst everyone else and still near the front of the race. Though as were we coming over the hole I was the outside man and couldn’t make it in to make the eddy and flushed down stream. That concreted 10th place for me.

Here are the full results and video of the Semi Finals.

Men’s Results:
1st Place: Marcos Gallegos (CHL)
2nd Place: Joel Kowalski (CAN)
3rd Place: Dane Jackson (USA)
4th Place: Rush Sturges (USA)
5th Place: Bryan Kirk (USA)
6th Place: Tino Specht (USA)
7th Place: Evan Garcia (USA)
8th Place: Bren Orton (GBR)
9th Place: Tyler Fox (CAN)
10th Place: Nick Troutman (CAN)
11th Place: Jules Domine (FRA)
12th Place: Kalob Grady
13th Place: Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
14th Place: Leif Anderson (USA)
15th Place: Sam Ward (GBR)
16th Place: Gerd Serrasolses (ESP)
17th Place: Lane Jacobs (USA)
18th Place: Galen Volckhausen (USA)
19th Place: Louis-Phillipe Rivest (CAN)
20th Place: Devyn Scott (CAN) [dnf
21st Place: Juanito de Ugarte (PER)
22nd Place: Casper van Kalmthout (NLD)
23rd Place: Tyler Curtis (CAN)
24th Place: Chris Gragtmans (CAN)
25th Place: Ian Vogel (CAN)
26th Place: Mathieu Dumoulin (FRA)
27th Place (tie): Ben Marr (DNS)
Eric Jackson (DNS)

Women’s Results:
1st Place: Martina Wegman (NLD)
2nd Place: Sandra Hyslop (GBR)
3rd Place: Mariann Saether (NOR)
4th Place: Nicole Mansfield (USA)
5th Place: Lu Urwin (NZL)
6th Place: Hannah Kertesz (USA)
7th Place: Adriene Levknecht (USA)

Winning Stage 1 of the WWGP

Well the Whitewater Grand Prix has begun. The first stage, the Best Trick Competition, took place on the infamous Gladiator wave on the Ottawa River. The format was two groups of 14 men each got 2 hours to do as many rides and tricks as they could and the single best trick would win. It was an amazing day of good whitewater, some fun tricks, and beautiful sunshine. It was a tight competition and 1st and 2nd were only decided by a couple votes difference, though after all was said and done I was able to pull after of the mighty Dane Jackson and take the 1st place seat.