The Jackson Kayak RV is almost Ready to Roll!

May 5, 2005

I have spent more time in one
spot this spring than in the past 9 years. Rock Island has been good,
I opted for the east coast tour, instead of the west coast, and there
was plenty to do for Jackson Kayak this spring. We arrived back from the
World Championships in Australia in February and stayed home until late
march. Then we filmed my River Running videos for two weeks, doing a 5
day stint, back to Rock Island, another 5 day stint, and then we were
finished. I went to the Potomac for a week and worked with Valley Mill,
and have been home since. Tomorrow, the RV rolls out of the driveway,
with Mini in tow, off to Reno, Nevada, the biggest little city on Earth.
This will be the second annual Reno Whitewater Festival with a full on
freestyle and boatercross event. The city is putting us up, there is prize
money, and a fair amount of media. Jay Kincaid lives in Reno and trains
there full time, making for a challenging event to win for sure. Last
year I thought I had him with both of us stepping it up big time in the
final round, but Jay edged me out by 8 points at 468 to 460. I still wear
the silver belt buckle, fashioned like a rodeo buckle that I mounted on
a crocodile belt I got in Australia.

After Reno- the kids and I fly to the Ottawa for the
Bus Eater event. So it is whitewater park to big wave competition back
to back, nice switch up. From there we fly to Vail for another whitewater
park event, and Kristine is meeting us there with the RV. We’ll
head to FIBARK, a kids favorite after that in Salida, Colorado, and finally,
end up in Durango on the Animas river for USA Slalom Team trials with
my new slalom boat! I qualified for trials last year by competing in nationals
and doing well enough there.

After Colorado? I haven’t looked at my schedule
and don’t really care at this point where I go, because it will
be good wherever it is. I know I head up to Canada to teach on the Ottawa
with www.ottawakayak.com
. If my classes aren’t full you should consider coming up and joining
in- FUN!

EJ 🙂