World Cup #1 is under way- 20 countries compete today in Prelims under perfect conditions!

September 1 , 2006

Perfect water levels, incredible judging, scribing, scoring, announcing, food, weather, and a big crowd make for an incredible start to the World Cup! The competition had strong fields in the Men’s, Women’s, Junior Mens, and C1 Classes, and a few really strong boaters in the Junior Women’s and OC1 classes too.

In the Junior Women’s Class, Noria from France dominated the prelims getting nearly double the second place score of Flic from England, and Flic had a great round!

In the Junior Men’s Class, Nick Troutman (who won the Senior Team Trials for Canada, since he’ll be a senior in the 2007 World championships) took top honors with sick rides. His best buddy from the Ottawa Valley Joel Kowalski took second with awesome rides, followed by Dane Jackson in third with some awesome paddling.

In the C1 class some great rides and big moves were thrown to make the top 5 cut. Dane snuck in after outfitting his old Fun 1 as a C1 and got an Air Screw and Back Pan Am on one ride to take 5th!

In the Women’s Class- Ruth Gordon dominated the class getting some huge scores on all three rides. She nailed a big air screw on one ride! Tanya Faux was in second with great blunts, and a couple of Pan Ams. Emily Jackson took the final spot in 5th place with some sketchy but good rides, flushing on all three rides early.

In the Men’s Pro class it seemed like somebody had been passing around BIG AIR and BIG MOVE pills because the rides were SICK! With the cut going from 50 competitors to 15 there was no room for screwing around! Just making the cut was my friend from Costa Rica, Mario Vargas, and it went up from there.

Taking the top spot was Stephen Wright, coming off of a disappointing USA Team Trials, he was on fire! Patrick Camblin, also missing the Canadian Team this past week had two sweet rides to take the second spot. It was sweet revenge after these guys didn’t have their best performances on this same wave just a few days ago.

In the third spot was Anthony Yapp with a huge scoring second ride nailing the McNasty, Clean Air Blunts both ways, big Pan Ams, a sweet Air Screw, and more.
In the fourth spot was Andrew Holcomb having three consistent high scoring rides and would have been top 5 with any combination of the two. (it was three rides, your best two count)
In the 5th position was me, Eric Jackson, with three rides that lasted only about 30-40 seconds each, never really getting to the meat of my rides, but still throwing big moves and getting big and huge bonuses on my Helixes, and Pan Ams.
Clay Wright threw one ride that was bigger than any of mine and took the 7th place spot, while Jay Kincaid did three rides that were only 30 seconds each to get 14th and make the cut.

Just as we finished the last heat the hurricane rains showed up making the walk out a wet one, but the entire day was dry and calm weather, with wet explosive paddling.

Tomorrow the Men’s Class and the Junior boys class has to cut down to 5 competitors. The Men’s pro class cuts from 15 to 5, and the junior men’s class cuts from 10 to 5. After those big cuts in these super competitive classes, there will be 5 people in each class for the FINALS, which will also happen tomorrow afternoon!

I can’t even imagine the kind of paddling you’ll see during the semi-finals and finals. Like every major event of this type, the scores start getting HUGE fast. Nobody can afford to play defense, and the best of the best, the most famous of the famous wave surfers will have to put out big rides or watch the finals. There are more really big name boaters than there are spots in the top 5, by a lot!

I don’t have a camera to take photos anymore, but there will be sweet shots on the World Cup Freestyle Website taken by Sharky soon!

Got to go eat some pasta that Kristine cooked at the Jackson Kayak Farmhouse we rented for the competition! Then it there is a big losers party at Wilderness Tours that I haven’t decided if I will attend or not. It is called the Losers Party because it is where those who didn’t make the cut today usually really cut loose and things get wild. It is the consolation prize.

See you tomorrow about the same time for the finals results and point standings for the World Cup #1!

Prelim Results

For more coverage on the world cup go to http://www.wcfkc.com/

🙂 EJ