Stephen Wright is the official judge supplied by the USA

January 25, 2005

Stephen Wright, who is a true student of the sport
of freestyle kayaking, and good enough to medal here in Australia (in
my opinion after watching him paddle here) volunteered to be the USA supplied
judge for the competition. Each country is asked to bring one qualified
judge to the competition. Stephen is here supporting Devon, helping to
coach Todd Baker, and paddling a lot himself. Only after he had already
volunteered to judge did he find out that judges get paid by the organizers
of the event, per IFC. Stephen has as good of a understanding of each
move as anybody on the water, and is as non-biased as they get. I don’t
know who the other variety judge is yet, but I am sure it will be another
really good judge. The Variety judges for the mens’ classes are
always top notch because the men go so fast from one move to the next
that it is impossible to judge unless you have done it before and really
know the moves.

Thanks Stephen for your soon to be hard work in the
judges booth all day long!

🙂 EJ

Close up of Stephen’s Pan Am