Recently I was fortunate enough to be a part of a Team GoPro Summit outside of Grand Junction. It was an amazing two days getting out of the river and into the desert. GoPro definitely pulled out all the big guns, literally, we were shooting guns, driving trucks, some poolside shenanigans, good food and close friends.
As I am sitting back in Tennessee watching a thunderous storm as a flood is pouring down off the roof, I am reminded of the amazing opportunity of whitewater and waterfalls in the South East. Tennessee alone is littered with waterfalls, many of which I still hope to run. Though I was excited to finally take my Karma and check Cane Creek off my list with the help of Eric and Dane Jackson.
Well we just finished up the Canadian National Championships and Canadian Team trials for Freestyle Kayaking.
For me it all started a week before when I first visited Valleyfield, Quebec, the hosting city for the Championships. I was beyond impressed with the man made course build in the middle of the city. I couldn’t believe that this place existed only 3 hours from where I grew up and I had barely heard of it, and never visited before. The whitewater park itself was a great combination of olympic friendly slalom course with a fun and challenging freestyle feature smack dab in the middle.
The feature itself was quite good, but challenging in the fact that it was so powerful and flushy, making it hard to stick a multitude of tricks before washing out the back of the hole. After a couple days of practice I started to figure out the hole a bit better and started feeling a little more prepared for this quickly approaching National Championships.
It was long before the weekday became the weekend and the event started off. Saturday was the Prelims, and Semi-finals rounds, and Sunday held the finals and crowned the new National Champions. I felt good with my rides on Saturday, winning both the Prelims and Semi in Men’s K1, as well as continuing on to Sunday and making the finals in the C-1 class too. Sunday came bringing sunshine and spectators, as we battled out to crown a multitude of National Champions in the several classes. First up Sunday morning was the Junior classes, with Sam Duff taking 1st in Jr. Mens and Savannah Westeinde taking 1st for the Jr. Women’s class. Next was my first class the C-1 class. This was more for fun for me, being I usually don’t compete in this disciple of Canoe class. I ended up in 5th in C-1 and was really happy to have tried it and completing my ride, while Zachary Zwanenburg took home National Champion in C-1. Following the C-1 class was the OC-1 which is more traditional canoe style with an open cockpit. Zach Zwanenburg also took home another first place in OC-1 after breaking a tie for first with Andy Hill. The Pro women followed with some amazing tricks and some disappointing finishes, though Cheryl McGregor was more then excited as she took her first National Champion title and won a spot of the Canadian Team for 2017. The Pro Men’s class rounded off the event with some spectacular moves, and all around good rides from all the finalists. I ended taking home another gold and National Champion title for myself, and I couldn’t have been happier.
After all the dust settled, and the sweat and tears dried up, what was left was some newly crowned National Champions and a strong field of competitors that will proudly represent Canada in Rio for the 2017 Freestyle Kayak World Championships.
Time to switch gears and focus on the next chapter in life, and see you all in Brazil next year!
Well, this year was the highest water levels I had ever seen for the GoPro Steep Creek race. The Homestake creek course is usually notorious for being low volume, and tons of sharp shallow rocks. A normal flow is between 80-200 CFS (cubic feet per second), though this year the race was in the 600’s and we had several practice laps in the 800’s CFS while leading up to the race.
Though after putting in several practice laps, it finally came time for the race day. It was a great day, warm weather, sunny skies, and lots of racers and spectators, a perfect start for the 2016 Mountain Games. The water was high, powerful and fast.
The format was 2 runs with with best time counting, and then top 10 racers make it to a finals of 1 run fastest time wins. My first run felt pretty good, a couple very minor mistakes, but overall quite solid. I felt comfortable with my first run, though it still only landed me in 9th place. This had me a little worried going into the second rides and I knew I need to go a bit faster. Though my attempt at paddling harder and faster turned out a mistake as I bobbled and made multiple timely errors. I would have to stick with my first run time, which after everyone had finished their second runs, left me in 10th place. It was tight, but i had made it into the finals unscathed, which was more to say then most. The course had been handing out some beatings with the higher water levels.
Going into finals in last place enabled me to go first, being it is reverse seating, which helped me focus on my line and not let the announcers distract me with talk of the other racers. I tried to go harder, though focus my energy on being smooth. My line was feeling good, though I had a minor mistake, I kept paddling and trying my best. I finished feeling good, not perfect but good. Though I knew that there were 9 racers still to go, all who qualified with faster times then mine. I actually got out of my boat to watch the rest of the racers, and my good friends finish their runs. Everyone looked exceptionally fast, though I was shocked to find out I still finished in 3rd place.
After the day was done I was more then fired up to share the podium with my good friends Alec and Isaac, and exceptionally glad to walk away with only a couple starched knuckles. I can’t wait to come back and race again next year.
This episode we have made it to Colorful Colorado, and I have a couple tips on GoPro mounting, settings, and how to get some great shots and step up your game with your GoPro.
After a couple weeks of training and competing I figured it was time to get the whole family out on the water and take our 2 year old son Tucker out kayaking. Emily and myself, along with two close friends, Jason Craig and Phil Sheppard, took Tucker down the Truckee River in Nevada. It was a epic day of river fun with some train spotting, looking for animals like beavers, ducks and geese, and a great finish with some jungle gym fun in the park. I know Tucker had a blast, check out the video for yourself and let me know what you think.
The family is off to the biggest little city, Reno Nevada. Both Emily and I competed in the Reno River Festival and the National Championships for Freestyle Kayaking, where Emily took home the title National Champ, while I won the C-1, Slalom, Boater-X and took second in the Freestyle. So much fun to be had at the 2016 River Festival.
