Vail Mountain Games kicks off today with me paddling the Super Hero!

June 3, 2005

Today was the opening day of the Teva Vail Mountain
Games with the Time Trial and Head to Head race on the Eagle River at
Dowd Chutes. The first race was 3.5 minutes long and at 8,000+ feet in
altitude it is a tough one. It is a time trial to see who has the fastest
time and also eliminated 50% of the competitors with the top 16 advancing
in the men’s and top 12 in women’s. I paddled the Super Hero,
the fastest 8’6” boat on the water and took the top seed with
a 3:34 with Slalom Racer, Jason Beakes getting second only one second
behind me in a modified Kendo, with Tao Berman in third. Nikki Kelly won
the women’s with Tanya Faux in second.

The really exciting part was the boatercross. 4 Heats
with each having 4 boaters in it do their run down the course with some
interesting twists. First we had to start backwards, secondly there is
no warning before the start, thirdly, there are 4 gates you had to hit
with your paddle that were actually stop signs on the side of the river,
each a dive gate in an eddy.

In my first run, I got a great start and lead the whole
thing, winning and putting me in finals. Tommy Hillike had a hard battle
against Tao Berman and Steve Fisher and Peter Benedict to win his heat.
Jay Kincaid lead his heat from the start and won, while Rush Sturges won
the battle in the first gate against Jason Beakes and Andrew Holcomb and
Pat Keller to get an early lead and hold onto it. We then had 4 winners
for the finals. In the women’s class Nikki won her heat, Shannon
Carrol, and Tanya Faux, and Laura Nash (who was last but the other girls
flipped and missed the last gate). Emily had the only pin of the day trying
to sneak down the slot on the right at the third gate and had to be pulled
off before she continued on her way.

In the finals I had the opportunity to pick pole position
and chose the river left side but got a last minute sandwich between Tommy
Hilleke and Rush Sturges. Before I even thought we were nearly ready for
the start Dan Gavere yelled “GO” and I was a sitting duck
only flinching when Tommy’s stern hit me and it was game on! I should
have anticipated the start better but you win some and lose some. It is
a better way than preparing the athletes because then they try to gain
the advantage. Well, I got off in a distant 4th place and was sprinting
behind a group of really fast guys. I managed to stay focused on winning
and making a pass, one at a time. I managed to sneak behind Jay without
cluing him in and made a quick bump, thump, and run pass on the first
gate with a well timed paddle stroke on his chest. Heading into the second
gate I was on the tail of Tommy and took the outside line and managed
to bump him to the rocks right at the turn and carry my momentum as I
set my sights on Rush. Rush was still a full boat ahead so I has some
serious catching up to do before I would be in pass position, if at all.
I had to follow him through the last gate and didn’t get a pass
opportunity, however it was big waves and small holes down below before
the finish line and I found his weak spot by going a little wide around
a small hole while he hit a wave and I caught up. We were as neck and
neck as it gets into the final stretch but the river squeezed off and
I was on the right of him but the finish was on river left. I made a tactical
error and cut left too early before pulling enough of a lead so he got
the chest stroke on me and we got tangled all of the way into the finish
for a two person reach for the finish line that was too close for me to
call, but the judges on the rock, after conferring with each other, decided
that it was Rush for the win. I didn’t win but the excitement of
the chase was so awesome that it was worth getting second to start in
the back and try to make it up.