Blackwater Challenge: small lines, big fun!

August 27, 2007

By Clay Wright

The 07 Blackwater Challenge was held in Watertown NY this weekend and showcased the rapid progression going on in freestyle today.

Just 2 years ago on the Route 3 Wave, we saw a couple of Helix’s and an airscrew thrown but most competitors could only hit blunts and roundhouses.

This year we saw Stephen Wright and Jason Craig sticking Mcnasty’s, Nick Troutman nailing airscrews, Kelsey Thompson going big on clean pan-ams, and Bryan Kirk throwing helix’s and clean blunts both ways!

The Keener Program turnout was impressive and really added a lot of ‘fun’ to the event as well as providing a good show for the spectators. Dane Jackson hit the ‘double airscrew’ with a little help from his friends and Jason Craig hit a 10′ high air-loop the same way – not on the feature but just getting thrown up by the Keeners. Cool stuff. The party-surfing afterwards kept the crowd entertained for hours.

Thanks to Tommy Gun, Jana, Valerie, and Sara for organizing and entertaining us all weekend and here’s looking forwards to the 2nd event of the North American Cup on Garberator this weekend.

Oh yeah – top 3’s:

K-1 M: Bryan Kirk (113!) Stephen Wright, Nick Troutman

K-1 W: Ruth Gordon, Emily Jackson, Elaine Campbell

Jr. Men: Dane Jackson (95?) , Keegan Grady, Jason Craig

Jr. Women: Katy Kowalski, Alex Shalhorne, Tilly Martin

Clay Wright