Vail Mountain Games, Day 2

June 4, 2005

Photos

Yesterday was a big LONG day with two competitions
in one day. First was the Paddler Magazine Homestake Creek Extreme Race.
The race consisted of two runs down a 2 minute course on a narrow tight
creek with more little screw up rocks than you can imagine, some scary
little spots for anyone off line, but a perfect venue for the race. I
did three runs on the course two days before the race with Dane and Nick
and Hobie leading the way. While I certainly needed many more runs to
get the lines memorized, I had a good general idea where to go and where
most of the major slow down rocks were. However, there are about 10 rocks
to slow you down for each 10 seconds of paddle time, by my guess. That
means that you would have about 120 rocks to memorize if you wanted to
be fully prepared. Well, in this case I opted for a broad brush approach
to the race, focused more on getting Dane and Nick ready to run the race
safely.

We did first runs and I was in sixth place over 10
seconds behind the leaders. It was Tao, Pat Keller, Brad Ludden, Jason
Beakes, Tommy Hilleke, and then me. Nick was about 20th and Dane was 4th
from Last, but not last. Dane had a sweet run, nailing every line bopping
down the course with solid endurance paced strokes, never eddying out,
but I would not let him sprint. At 10,000 feet in elevation, there are
few kayak races in the world that are more brutal. The length of the course
is the same as a slalom course, but without any air to breathe. Several
noteable events happened on first runs. Jay Kincaid pinned underwater
and swam, his first swim in 8 years. Steve Fisher was the next boater
behind Jay and got whistled off of the course and had to do another run
because Jay’s boat was still in the drop. There was another pin
and swim on the same rock by another guy that I don’t know.

On second runs, I got my juices going and memorized
more rocks this time. Steve Fisher got to the bottom of the course only
to spin out and find that he caught up to the person in front of him and
showed that bad luck goes in streaks. Jay had a better second run. Dane
and Nick both had good second runs also. Andrew Holcomb had a fast looking
second run to make up for his first one. Andrew won the race last year.
The organizers didn’t give us the results until the awards ceremony.
I really should get some photos of the podium, it is pretty full on.

Steve had the opportunity to do his final run. Hoping
to break his bad luck streak he fired out of the start. Only 60 seconds
later the news came in on the radio that he crashed hard into a rock and
broke his paddle in a bad spot, his second in one week and was out of
the race.

They started by announcing the women. It was Nikki
Kelley, then Tanya Faux, then Robin from Maryland. The suspense was killing
me. I was way behind after first runs but felt that I could have passed
as many as four of the guys in front of me, but with no times to see,
who knows.

They said: “Coming in third place in the men’s
class in the Homesteak Extreme Creek Race…. Eric Jackson!”
Cool! 6th to 3rd, sweet! In second…. Pat Keller! And Winning the
2005 Homesteak Race, Tao Berman! “ Andrew Holcomb shot up from 8th
to 4th with his awesome second run, just out of the money. Yes, every
time you go on the podium you get a check, sweet! I got $500 for the second
place in the boatercross yesterday, and $200 for my 3rd place in the extreme
race today. First place is $700.

Dane and Nick can now say that they beat Jay Kincaid
and Steve Fisher in an extreme race, cool.

What a long and mentally stressful day- with Dane competing,
me being 10 seconds behind and way out of the money on my first run, and
a tough course. Well, it isn’t over yet, time to go into downtown
Vail with my All-Star and get ready for the Big Trick Freestyle Contest.
Dane, Nick, Emily, and I all ate a late lunch and headed up to the hole
on Gore Creek in the Vail whitewater park, at 8,100 feet and 35 degree
water at about 300 cfs. We all paddled for two hours, and then had to
get out for the awards for the Extreme race (6pm) and then compete in
the Big Trick Contest at 7pm. The format was round robin, each paddler
getting three rides to do the biggest two tricks we can. The scoring was
simply the normal freestyle score for the move performed plus 1 point
for each inch out of the water. So an air loop is 16 points and if it
is 6 inches clear of the water you would get a 22 point score.

In the women’s class it was a heated battle between
Tanya Faux and Emily Jackson. Emily was winning until the final ride where
Tanya pulled it out for the win. Both did either Space Godzilla’s
or Air Loops.

In the Men’s class with the top pros competing,
I am proud to say that the Jackson Kayak RV crew had a sweep! I won with
one loop at 16 inches (Hey now your and All-Star, get your game on, go
play!) Nick Troutman was second in his All-Star! And Dane Jackson, age
11 was third in his Fun 1!!! Dane had a big air loop and big back loop
and a Space Godzilla for the judges to choose from. Nick had two 10 inch
air loops. Jay Kincaid announced a year ago that the day he gets beat
by Dane he will quit kayaking. Well, today, Dane beat him twice, but I
don’t recommend that Jay quit, it was just not his day. He’ll
be back in full swing today, I’ll bet for the freestyle comp. Also
competing in the Big Trick contest was Dustin Urban, Rush Sturges, Ben
Guska, Jessie Murphy, Corey Volt, Robert Pearson, Brian Kirk, etc. etc.

The awards were immediately following the competition.
I have competed in three events so far and have a 1st, 2nd, and a 3rd.
Tao has a 1st, Rush has a 1st. Tommy has a 3rd, Pat has a 2nd, and Nick
has a 2nd, Dane has a 3rd.

There is one contest left, with I believe, a $2000
first prize, almost as much as Reno, the Freestyle competition. Prelims
are today, quarter finals are today, and semi-finals are today and finals
are tomorrow (top 3). The hole is really small, but still fun. I will
let you know how it goes!

🙂 EJ