National Slalom Championships just finished on the National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC

August 28, 2006

The new Charlotte Whitewater Center is the biggest and best whitewater park ever made, period. More CFS, more gradient, more channels, and longer rapids come together for an incredible course that saw the 2006 National Slalom Championships as the first chapter of its long life.

In the Men’s K1 Class it was:

Brett Hyle- National Champion
Scotty Parsons- silver
Danny Stock- bronze
EJ- 10th, yippee- I was 8th today in finals and after combining times with my 12 place finish in prelims I got 8th.

Today I truly felt like a slalom racer again going down the course. I nailed one move after another until gate 10 where my stern hit a rock and I got rocketed upstream in a fast eddy about 15 feet. I got back on my game and had a great finish with no penalties. I was strong from the start to the finish and physically I was not at a disadvantage. I really wish Emily and Dane were here to race as well. They would have loved it and done really well.

It is 12:16am and I just got back from an alumni dinner where the guest list was quite extensive: Eric Evans, David Curran, Cathy Hearn, Davey Hearn, Jennifer Hearn, Jamie McEwan, etc. etc. at the Omaha Steakhouse. I was telling a story about how I had to get food for free to live when I had no money (on and off for years) and David wanted to see if it was still possible. We went to McDonalds and met Terrance who is a homeless guy out front and got his story. Both parents dead 8 months ago, he an electrician, now homeless and tried to kill himself, is now waiting for god to tell him what to do next. In part to help Terrance and in part to go with David and see if I could still get free food, we approached the door of McD’s only to find it locked. Only the drive through was open. I carefully negotiated around the ordering spot and got up to the window and was able to get Terrance a large fries for free, sweet.

I am now ready for bed!

🙂 EJ