First let me start by saying that it was an honor to go in the first place, and all a bonus from there. It was great getting together with many of the world's best freestyle competitors. The OC crowd hung out and as a competitive group had so much fun it was ridiculous. Penrith Whitewater Stadium is an interesting place. The man made stadium built for the Olympic slalom event is fairly long.. has great currents, funky eddys and one feature that is so cool... the conyeyor belt that runs you back to the start eddy. The Worlds feature hole has very fast water coming in and a goofy pile... I still don't know if I liked it or not. It was a real test for the paddlers.. I don't even know if there was even a full 45 second ride by anyone in any class. Flushing was almost a gaurantee. Big moves where risky... we all learned. I was hoping for more of a wave.
A big congratulations goes to Paul Danks and Esquif of Canada for his awesome performance during the competition. Paul almost missed the finals due to an error in his airline tickets.. he was supposed to fly out the morning of the finals, and after enough brow beating he was able to stay an extra day. Paul primarily paddles C1 around the Ottawa and he is very talented. Hats off to you mate! Paul also scored the highest ride on an open canoe at any world's competition... a whopping 65. That might not sound like a ton but look at some of the other scores in the class(es) and you will get the picture.
Jordi Domenjo (ESP) was fifth going into the finals and he kept plugging away with his CUFly to take the silver. He is an excellent boater and placed 12th in a hotly contested C1 class as well. Jordi also did by far the coolest entry move in OC1 which helped him make the final round.
Jamie Burbeck (GBR) had some of highest clean cartwheels in his shortend SpanishFly that most folks have ever seen. Jamie would go in hard, throw the bow deep and rocket the boat around. This tactic kept him in the heat of the competition and garnished him the bronze. For any of you folks that are near where Jamie paddles.. do yourself a favor and get together with him. He is a polite young man who can throw down hard.
James Wier, Mark Scriver and the entire class put on a great show for the crowd, and even folks who usually don't hang around to watch OC's where impessed.. if even surpised by what an open canoe can do. Our class finally got a little respect. There was even some curiousity from more than a few kayak companies designers.
The Aussie OC'ers Gary Findlay and Jeremy Blanchard are awesome guys.
--Gary is THREATENING the field that this would be his last Worlds competition... but we will see about that. Gary knows this feature better than nearly anyone that paddles there.. in practice he was cartwheeling like crazy in his CUFly throwing splits even. Sadly Gary met the demise of the other 9 of 14 people in the class.
--Jeremy (AKA "don") is a very enthusiastic young man who is so into paddling it is crazy.. he started canoeing this season and is learning quickly. His alter ego "don" is a crazy old school kayaker who puts on his bright orange full faced motorcycle helmet, an old extrasport PFD and slides into his faded yellow Perception Piroutte. He cruises the course doing old school moves and reaping carnage upon anyone in his way. "don" is a funny guy! They made our trip extra special... thanks so much guys!
As for my personal performance (or lack of it!) I have a few excuses... but won't go there. My rides where the worst I have ever had in competition... period. I had fun. My wife got a vacation, and we escaped sub-zero temps here in Wisconsin.
The C1 class.... well let me tell you there are some young men from around the globe that can RIP. Marc Foltete and Marc Giradin (FRA) and Kynana Maley (AUS) tore it up in the finals. Stu Morris (GBR) and Bill McKnight (USA) had great rides but it was tough to hold a candle to the young hot rods. These kids where on fire. Kynan Maley had a prelims ride where he broke a paddle and flushed (20 points)... then came back and made enough 234 points on his second run.. which put him in third going onto semi's. Amazing performances. Bill McKnight (4th) Joe Stumpfell (7th) and Seth Chappelle (10th) (USA) all had good rides as well.
Oh yeah there was some kayaking too.. EJ of course won!
The End!
