Jackson�s Win both men and women�s class in Bremgarten, Switzerland!

June 18, 2006

While there was a really fun wave to play on all day here in downtown Bremgarten, the kayak competition this year consisted of a Boater Cross. The race started on a ramp above the water, shoulder to shoulder, 4 at a time. Four “gates” or obstacles were set up on the way to trip you up and make things interesting. This race was well set up and it made everyone a little bit of a fish out of water, especially at the start, and the bottom two gates.

The field was cut down on Friday’s individual time trial run, and then bracketed for Saturday’s big event. Saturday morning was the first cut from 32 to 16 men, and to 8 women.
Dane’s run was next and he planned on going low to the first gate and that was a good plan until the other three guys went low and he was too low and really slow there. The next three gates he caught up a lot, but didn’t advance. He just isn’t as fast in a sprint in his Fun 1 as the adults are in their play boats.

Nick took off like a rocket and lead the whole was in his heat.

My heat was not too hard at first as both of my competitors went low and I went high so it was simply a time trial for me once I passed them in the first gate.

Emily, Jessie, and one of the Dutchesses (an affectionate term for the young ladies from Holland that paddle Jackson Kayak) made up the first heat and Jessie followed Emily down the whole thing with the Dutchess in third until the final gate where Jessie took Emily out with a quick turn downstream and won her first heat. Marianne Seather won her round handily also with another Dutchess taking second.

After this first elimination round we had lunch and a competitors meeting at 1pm even though the start wasn’t until 3pm. Live television coverage of the event had to be run like clockwork, and as you may know, the Swiss run some accurate clocks! They also selected me to carry a POV camera through the course in a mock race at 2pm. I tried to make it look real, and the guys started treating it more like a race as we hit the second gate!

At 3pm sharp- the first heat of men went and the live TV coverage showed on a huge truck TV screen, the crowds were big and the announcers were in full force (Arndt Shaeflein). Right before the Semi-finals race at 3pm, the course got changed for an athlete “surprise” and all of the starting strategy I was working on went out the window.

Nick Troutman was in the first heat to go and had the winning time trial time but crashed on the start getting tangled up with the other three guys and losing the battle to the front. Nick started in the far right slot on the ramp per his choosing but tried too hard to turn his boat right on the drop down and his stern hit the guy on his left and rebounded back turning him left right into the guy on his left on the landing! Even so, Nick pulled out into second place at the first gate and was giving the leader a challenge until the rolling gate where he rolled right into the leader and both of them lost time and the 3rd and 4th place paddlers caught up for the last gate where they stuffed Nick hard into the bridge piling, and passed him. Nick was deflated going into the final gate where he no longer had a chance to win and was eliminated. He took it very well however, and spent the rest of the day watching and helping the other Jackson Kayak paddlers.

My semi-finals heat had an Italian Slalom Team member on my direct left. One thing I can say about slalom racers is that they know how to surf a wake to save energy with all of the hundreds of flatwater workouts they have done. I wasn’t sure if I should let him in the lead at the start and surf his wake to tire him out and then pass him, or use my full power to hold the early lead and let him surf my wake. Either way a slalom racer can’t easily shake another slalom racer off their wake (at least not a competitive one that has trained hard for year against other racers). I went for the concept that I could outlast him even if I was pulling him on my wake and went for it full speed. He did the tricky wake switch and got on my right so I couldn’t railroad him into the first gate (a metal box in the water that I could have swiped him off on). He was driving his bow hard into my right blade and was easily able to surf up my wake to be almost even with me as we approached the first gate and he was apparently trying to push me into the metal box. I have a special boatercross “see ya” technique for playboats (it doesn’t work for creekboats because they are too long). That technique is to lean back and to the side hard enough that when you take a stroke on the side of your competitor on your wake, you drop your elbow in the water and connect with their bow and pull hard on the stroke and push them back off your wake with your elbow. It isn’t easy to get a good purchase, but if you do you get a boost and they get knocked straight off the wake and have to drop behind you to your stern wake. I hit his bow three times but glanced off and got my paddle caught under his boat as he was trying to push me to the box. I had 5 seconds to break free of I would be in trouble and my next elbow connected with his bow perfectly and I knocked myself clear and just made it around the first gate in the lead and simply drove it home for the rest of the run. In the other semi-finals heat both Sam and Alex made the cut (Sam is a Swiss slalom racer, and Alex is a French slalom racer).

Emily, Jessie, and a girl from Scotland were in a heat together and this time Jessie took off from the start in first and Emily followed her all of the way down with the Scottish girl just behind them. Emily took a higher line into third gate and pushed around Jessie to take the win in their semi-finals run. Marianne Seather again handily won her heat to make it to finals with Jessie, Emily, and Martina Wegman (18 year old Dutchess)

At the start of the ladies heat they all got off the ramp at the same time, but Emily’s starting position was last, since she had the slowest time trial run (she goofed up the last two gates). Marianne had a strong start, while Jessie got turned completely left and got off last. Martina also had a strong start and it was those three fighting for the first gate. Marianne hit the gate first and pulled a good lead over Emily, Martina, and Jessie. It looked like Marianne was getting tired at the third gate as she went around the bridge to the right side for an S-Turn on that gate. Emily took her only remaining good opportunity to pass Marianne by cutting on the left side of the bridge to dive into the gate from the other side while Marianne tried to get out of it. It worked as Emily knocked Marianne’s boat into the bridge and she bounced off of it and through the gate to make the pass, sweet! It was an awesome pass and Emily took full advantage of it hitting the gas to the final gate and hitting it high, peeling out and hammering to the finish like she was still fresh at the start! Marianne came in a solid second and Martina came across the line in third with Jessie just behind. Jackson Kayak took 1st, 3rd, and 4th in the ladies, sweet!

I got into my Fun on the ramp and looked at the other three guys. It was my first time against Sam the Swiss guy in the Prijon Release. He was only .4 seconds behind me in the time trial and had won each round he entered so far. The Italian dude had already told me that wasn’t going to let me beat him again (at the finish line of the Semi-finals). It was also my first time meeting Alex in a heat. Alex was also quite powerful and motivated to win. I raced against him in slalom in the 90’s before I stopped racing. It was funny to look across the line and see three guys who were all experienced racers and all with shoulders that were quite a bit wider than normal, making it seem like really tight quarters on the ramp. Each racer wanted their paddle on the side they wanted and while in previous heats there may have been some concession and people switching sides so that everyone had a good place to push off; not in this heat. I wanted my paddle on the left and my hand on the right side for my push off and Sam the Swiss guy wanted his paddle on his right and his hand on his left. We both put our paddles against each others with barely any room between our boats for our hands and the starter guy said “racers ready?” We all yelled “Yes” in our respective languages the same time and the starter yelled “Attention!” and I leapt off the ramp alone! I landed and yelled “what was that?” knowing instantly that I was in the wrong not the starter. The start was supposed to be: Racers ready, Attention, and then he would wait an unspecified amount of time to keep racers from jumping the gun and then “Go”. I simply forgot the protocol and got a little too excited, but was lucky that they didn’t disqualify me. I climbed out of my boat, got back onto the ramp, put on my skirt only to realize that I broke the right wall off the ramp (the 12” high guide that keeps you from falling off the side of the ramp onto the ground). It was hanging over at a 45 degree angle and wobbly and it was what I was supposed to pull off of with my right hand. I decided to trust it anyway and assume that because I was pulling straight back that it would hold.

No sooner did I get my skirt on that the starter said “Racers Ready?”- “Attention” …… “Go!” I was gun shy and while I am usually the first off the line I was last this time by a fraction. That fraction is the difference between having your paddle in front of the other boaters body or them getting that advantage. The landing of the ramp with four boaters is nuts. First off if you boof too hard it is a really hard landing and it also is slower than going in at 30 degrees and just getting the bow a little wet. Next off is the fact that you are too close to the next boater to really take a stroke so you have to make room some how. I figured out a really cool way to make room for my left blade at the start. When you land the water flies everywhere and you can’t see anything, however you know where your boat is, it is lined up with the guy next to you. If you know what a lean clean is, I landed each start on a right edge and lifted my knees as hard as I could which threw my bow up and to the left into the boater on my left knocking them away from me and towards the guy on their left and then I did a hard right C-Stroke off of the rebound and pulled my bow back right. I had enough room to paddle on both sides.

On this start being a little behind it worked but Sam caught my wake instantly and drove straight over my stern to get the high-side advantage and Alex was able to get on my other wake making me a kayak sandwich and unable to lose them or take good strokes. I frantically tried to get my elbows on Sam’s bow and while I have plenty of scratches on my elbow for the effort, I wasn’t able to make a full lock on it and I couldn’t lose him that way. I faded a little left forcing Alex to either drop behind me or miss the first gate so he dropped back, while I was 5 seconds from being forced left by Sam and had to make a move. I did the old “fake right and go left” trick; turning hard right into him slicing my stern under his bow as if I was going to his right but then immediately shot back left just above the gate. Sam reacted by defending his high-side position and gave me an extra 2 feet of room to get around the gate and turn downstream fast pulling in the lead, Sweet! This was a battle I was excited about fighting and the start to the first gate was no let down. Our Italian friend goofed up the ramp landing too vertical and was stuck surfing Alex’s wake in 4th and couldn’t make that pass.

Heading down to the second, third, and fourth gate I realized just how tired I was pulling Alex and Sam to the first gate and trying to fight them off my wake, and the last ferry was critical to make high or two people could easily pass you there. I made the decision to slow down a little to rest coming into the 2nd, and 3rd gates, and then hammered over to the last gate making it just high enough to be out of danger and my arms were no longer able to go very fast or pull hard. I made the peel out and cut in front of Alex for good measure and the sprint to the finish was wide open. The final move is to hit the finish banner with your hand. Sam and Alex were right behind and the Italian dude Michello or something like that, was just behind Alex.

The TV folks were at the take out interviewing Emily who had just won the women’s class just 5 minutes before I came down showing that at 16 years old, she has the power and presence of mind to compete at the top level. Emily came running up to me yelling, “A Jackson Kayak sweep!” and was very excited about it. It makes me feel really good knowing that she cares about how we do as a team. A 16 year old girl could just as easily want to rebel a little, if you know what I mean, but not this one, sweet! Martina (18 year old tall blonde Dutchess that looks so Dutch it isn’t funny) took 3rd in good form and Jessie Stone, who was killing it all day, just couldn’t make up for her bad start.

Kristine bought me a “Mojito” to celebrate while I sat on a hammock and got interviewed for the taped part of the TV show. They asked the standard questions, the ones I am happy that they ask…

Back in the 80’s, 90’s, and until 2004, reporters and TV shows who interviewed me would ask, “how long have you been kayaking” what did you think of the event, how did your run go, etc. etc. Now, they ask: “How does it feel to have your kids competing with you?” “How do your kids do school?”, “What is this project Emily is doing in Africa?” “How do you continue to perform so well while running a business and being a dad?” It is exciting to me that the things I am most interested in are the things the media are now interested in.

Last night was the “party finals” with two bands, and thousands of people for the party. I don’t know what time we finally came home, but it was time for bed when we did. This morning I said goodbye to my partner Tony and his boy Alexander who Dane was playing with for two weeks.

Today I am going to attempt to find wireless and send out this update along with others from the week. Sorry for the long time between updates. I haven’t found wireless here in Bremgarten yet. (I haven’t really looked too hard either).

We are having dinner with Phillip our distributor tonight and then heading to Austria tomorrow for a week of river running with Arndt Shaeflein. We will be looking for some creekboats when we get there since we only have our playboats. This final leg of our European trip will be a fun one and more relaxing with no competitions or schedules.

See you on the river!

🙂 EJ