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September 4, 2007

By Nick Troutman

All pictures are by Stephen Wright

This year was the third , held both at the Black River in New York and the Ottawa River in Ontario. The event consists of two rodeos, one in America and the other in Canada. The scores of both competitions are combined to bring our overall winner and North American Champ.

The first event of the was on the Route 3 Wave on the Black River in New York. It was a great event put on by, Sara and Tom O’Riley.

It was a two-day competition, plus a big air comp. Unlike previous years, we had the water we needed and we able to train all week leading up to the event.

This year way more tricks were being thrown consistently, including air blunts and backstabs, clean blunts, helixes, airscrews and mcnastys.

In the Big Air comp, Stephen Wright took first with a giant McNasty; Corry Volt took second with a down river pistol flip, and I (Nick Troutman) placed third with sticking a big airscrew.

The next two days consisted of prelims, semis, and finals. On the podium were;

Jr. Women, Tilly 3rd, Alex Shallhorn 2nd, and Katie Kowalski 1st
Jr. Men, Jason Craig 3rd, Keegan Grady 2nd, and Dane Jackson 1st
Pro Women, Elaine 3rd, Emily Jackson 2nd, and Ruth Gordon 1st
Pro Men, Nick Troutman 3rd, Stephen Wright 2nd, and Bryan Kirk 1st

The next week was the second competition of the event on the Garb wave op on the Ottawa River.

All week long we trained at Garb, and it was off the hook. Though as the week went on the water kept dropping. The level went from -1.5, on Monday to – 2.8 by Saturday.

Though to show went on, and even with the low water levels, we saw some amazing aerial tricks.

First were prelims early in the morning. Pro men and Jr. Men were the only groups with enough people to go on the semis. So the both cut to 10, while Pro women cut to 5 and straight to finals. This was also the Canadian National Championships, so it was pretty cool seeing my little brother Matthew, and Scotty as the only two Canadians in Semis. They both did a great job, although it was starting to look impossible to beat Dane Jackson. In the Pro Men’s class we had a lot of flushes from some great wave boater, such as Billy Harris, Kelsey Thompson, and Joel Kowalski, though we could all tell that the water was dropping.

Though it was finals that made the day really exciting, nobody knew who would stay on the wave, or who would be the daring one to through the big moves.

Finals started with Jr. Women, who did amazing under the flushy circumstances. Katie Kowalski took first, Alex Shallhorn took second, and Huge Experiences own Morgan Tidd took third.

In Jr. Men we had some Huge moves being thrown, and some huge flushes. With no surprise Dane Jackson took home first place, with showing us some of the biggest air of the comp, Scotty Borthwick took second, and was the Jr. Canadian National Champions, while Cameron Savage took third.

By this time everyone was starting to flush, though the Pro women dug in hard and put on a good show. After the first rides, Ruth Gordon was in first being that she was the only one who made it on the wave. But after the second rides things changed. Eleanor Perry caught the wave and through a huge air blunt, putting her in first, until Emily Jackson went out and had something to say. She throw her clean spin, clean roundhouse, flash back, and blunt to take first. In the third rides, nobody could beat it, and the final placings were 3rd Ruth Gordon, 2nd Eleanor Perry and 1st Emily Jackson.

The Pro Men’s finals were equally as exciting. I was a bit nervous, only because I had watch many people flush, and I had flushed on every practice ride throughout the day.

I was in first place going into finals, so I got to go last, and watch everyone’s rides. Bryan got a couple blunts and clean blunts which put him in first, then Stephen went and got all four blunts, front and back, with big bonuses putting him in first. Then I went and got airscrews and donkey flips, and blunts and backstab, and flashbacks, and clean spins, and then I took a demanding lead, which stuck though all of finals. Though on the third and final rides, Anthony Yapp decided that he wanted to go big too, and with some huge panams, and cleans blunts he stole second place, bumping Stephen into third.

The Award ceremonies were back at Wilderness Tours that night, and there were plenty of awards being that it was three events, the Garb rodeo, the Canadian National Championships, and the North American Champions.

For the Canadian National Championships:

Jr. Women: Katie Kowalski as the National Champion, and Alex Shallhorn as the Silver Medalist

Jr. Men: Scott Borthwick as the National Champion, and Matt Troutman as the Silver Medalist

Pro Women: Ruth Gordon as the National Champion

Pro Men: Joel Kowalski as the Bronze Medalist, Billy Harris as the Silver Medalist and me (nick Troutman) as the National Champion.

It was a full Jackson kayak sweet for the whole Canadian National Championships.

As for the :

Jr. Women: 1st Katie Kowalski, 2nd Alex Shallhorn, and 3rd Morgan Tidd

Jr. Men: 1st Dane Jackson, 2nd Cameron Savage, and 3rd Jason Craig

Pro Women: 1st Emily Jackson, 2nd Ruth Gordon, and 3rd Eleanor Perry

Pro Men: 1st Nick Troutman, 2nd Bryan Kirk, and 3rd Stephen Wright

Well, that is what I have been doing for the past couple weeks, check in to see what is in store for the next couple weeks, while we are filming for our film “Here & Now.”

Nick Troutman

Final Results

Canada Cup Results

Men’s Division

1) Nick Troutman

2) Anthony Yapp

3) Steven Wright

4) Bryan Kirk

5) Andrew Holcombe

6) Clay Wright

7) Todd Baker

8) Billy Harris

9) Joel Kowalski

10) Kelsey Thompson

11) Sven Peischmann

12) Ben Fraser

13) Jeremy Laucks

14) Trent Harris

15) Shane Groves

16) Moe Kelleher

17) David N

18) Neil Gibson

19) Tino Specht

20) Matt Hamilton

21) Matt McGuire

22) Joe Potoczak

23) Corey Volt

Women’s Division

1) Emily Jackson

2) Eleanor Penny

3) Ruth Gordon

4) Hanna Farrar

5) Tanya Shuman

6) Kim Russell

7) Louise Urwin

Jr Men’s Division

1) Dane Jackson

2) Scott Borthwick

3) Cameron Savage

4) Ross McIlwaine

5) Eli Spiegel

6) Danial Stewart

7) Matt Troutman

8) Sam Fullbright

9) Will Flory

10) Jason Craig

11) Rob Virostek

12) Chris Saranto

13) Kalob Grady

14) Jonathan Gervais

15) David Ruhle

16) Matt West

17) Devyn Scott

18) Jamie Rosenberger

19) Keegan Grady

20) Sean Johnson

21) Kent Bretzlaff

Jr Women’s Division

1) Katie Kowalski

2) Alex Shallhorn

3) Morgan Tidd

C1 Division

1) Jeremy Laucks

2) Dylan Boles

North American Championship Results

Men’s Division

1) Nick Troutman

2) Bryan Kirk

3) Stephan Wright

Women’s Division

1) Emily Jackson

2) Ruth Gordon

3) Eleanor Perry

Jr Men’s Division

1) Dane Jackson

2) Cameron Savage

3) Jason Craig

Jr Women’s Division

1) Katie Kowalski

2) Alex Shallhorn

3) Morgan Tidd

3) Tilly Martin

C1 Division

1) Jeremy Laucks

2) Dylan Boles

Canadian National Championships

Men’s Division

1) Nick Troutman

2) Billy Harris

3) Joel Kowalski

Women’s Division

1) Ruth Gordon (only Canadian to compete)

Jr Men’s Division

1) Scott Borthwick

2) Matt Troutman

3) Chris Sarantos

Jr Women’s Division

1) Katie Kowalski

2) Alex Shallhorn

C1 Division

1) Dylan Boles

 

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Clay demonstrating how to catch the wave

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Clay getting way out of the water

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Dane showing off his acrobatics

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Little Jason showing he can huck with the best of them

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Nick Big Airscrew to win finals

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Nick getting inverted on a panam

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Stephen Garb Helix

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Stephen launching a Backstab