I'm in hopes that AB will see this thread and reply. Another recent thread had an S. Broam link to pictures of the races at Charlotte. http://subido.info/index_files/page0010.htm I saw some great shots of Alden and Joel among others in C-1. Thanks Scott! The water looks big and pushy. How about a report on the races, the feel of the water there, the course etc? After coming in second to Kaz by .18 sec in the OC13 race in my borrowed duct taped special "Irish" Ignitor (powered by Guinness when I paddle it), you must have truly flown in a real race boat. Were there some real racers there for competition? What's your take on having an Open Boat race there on the lower section of the middle channel? Oh yeah, when's your baby due to be born (er published?)
Pat
In search of the Bird Report on C-1 Nationals
Moderators: kenneth, sbroam, TheKrikkitWars, Mike W., Sir Adam, KNeal, PAC, adamin
-
NEOC Slalom Rules
- C Guru
- Posts: 103
- Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2003 9:11 pm
- Location: St. Albans Bay, Vermont
- Contact:
In search of the Bird Report on C-1 Nationals
Open Boat/Open Mind
boatin
hey Pat,
Charlotte is just incredible. It made my jaw drop. There are two main channels:
1) The competition channel where we had the race -
- Class III, with class IV drop at the end
- Big water
- Friendly
- No keepers
- Not that surgy
- Goes from wide to narrow, and back again a few times.
- Tons and tons of eddies
In short - it's world-class. One day they'll have the World Championships there. The bottom drop there is a stout class IV plunge into a big close-out hole. It's awesome. Every single C-2 flipped and rolled in that drop, as did many other good kayaks (Scott Parsons, Scott Shipley). There were swims during the race, even. It was very exciting - and the gates down there weren't really even in hard places! They could make it so hard.
2) The other channel - which actually splits into two channels and then rejoins.
- It splits into a class II channel and a class III channel
- Then rejoins for more class III
- They can set up slalom gates on the class III part
- Both channels are wide
- interesting eddies, surf waves, holes, swirling currents, obstacles
- would make an incredible race course
- and great for training before the race because there is so much room
- it just feels luxurious
- the playboaters were tearing up the various surf waves
- There is a huge surf wave based on the "M-Wave" in Colorado
- It's massive, and fast
- Some people compared it to the Garb on the Ottawa
And the conveyor belt that takes you back to the top - what can you say?
The race was really fun. I got 9th. I lost a lot of time in certain places, but it was a tough course. I've never seen so much carnage. All of the C-2s flipped and rolled in the bottom drop. The girl who won K1w flipped twice on her final run. The K1 who finished second also rolled in the bottom drop.
There's never been that much carnage at any Nationals I've ever seen. I think an old line I read about the Rattlesnake Race now applies to Charlotte - "It won fame by trashing the best boaters our nation could produce - a complete success!"
Alden
Charlotte is just incredible. It made my jaw drop. There are two main channels:
1) The competition channel where we had the race -
- Class III, with class IV drop at the end
- Big water
- Friendly
- No keepers
- Not that surgy
- Goes from wide to narrow, and back again a few times.
- Tons and tons of eddies
In short - it's world-class. One day they'll have the World Championships there. The bottom drop there is a stout class IV plunge into a big close-out hole. It's awesome. Every single C-2 flipped and rolled in that drop, as did many other good kayaks (Scott Parsons, Scott Shipley). There were swims during the race, even. It was very exciting - and the gates down there weren't really even in hard places! They could make it so hard.
2) The other channel - which actually splits into two channels and then rejoins.
- It splits into a class II channel and a class III channel
- Then rejoins for more class III
- They can set up slalom gates on the class III part
- Both channels are wide
- interesting eddies, surf waves, holes, swirling currents, obstacles
- would make an incredible race course
- and great for training before the race because there is so much room
- it just feels luxurious
- the playboaters were tearing up the various surf waves
- There is a huge surf wave based on the "M-Wave" in Colorado
- It's massive, and fast
- Some people compared it to the Garb on the Ottawa
And the conveyor belt that takes you back to the top - what can you say?
The race was really fun. I got 9th. I lost a lot of time in certain places, but it was a tough course. I've never seen so much carnage. All of the C-2s flipped and rolled in the bottom drop. The girl who won K1w flipped twice on her final run. The K1 who finished second also rolled in the bottom drop.
There's never been that much carnage at any Nationals I've ever seen. I think an old line I read about the Rattlesnake Race now applies to Charlotte - "It won fame by trashing the best boaters our nation could produce - a complete success!"
Alden