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Today Nick Troutman and I did Prelims and Quarter-Finals at Inner City Strife at 13,000 cfs (prelims) and 12,500 cfs (quarter finals). The real World Championships start on Wednesday morning. Our goal today and tomorrow is to see how we can do making a routine with a single day’s practice and then compete under the watch and against ourselves and each other. We are trying to do is recreate the feeling and reality of the worlds the best we can.

This morning we did 4 rides and two counted. Tons of people were there watching and training. Billy Harris, Kelsey Thompson, Dave Newenhouse, Carly Harris, etc. Nick did a 270 for two rides with a 156 being his high score. I did a 16, and a 72 for my first two rides and then hit a 170 and then a 131 to get a total of 301. The 170 was my personal high score for a wave that doesn’t have hole moves available (bigger wave). I am 90% sure it is also the World’s Record for a 45 second ride on a wave. Most people don’t attempt to go that fast from one move to the next, and those that do rarely (including me) get that many moves in 45 seconds. (In Africa I never got over 143 in our dozen or so competitions, and never got over 160 when timing myself, and that was for 5 weeks of two sessions per day!)

So my prelims was successful with a 301. I am sure that to make the top 40 men (that is the cutoff for Quarter-finals) it will take 80 points total with two rides combined out of 4 rides.

This afternoon- It was just Nick and I since everyone else went home or got out of the water. We scheduled the Quarter finals for 5:30pm and we each got just one ride (like in worlds). Nick had to go first based on seeding from this morning. (he would have been in the final heat of 5 men I am quite sure with his 270.) his first ride was a 16 point ride (he flushed on his pan am). My first ride was my new record high score of 176! It included: Pan Am Left, Back Pan Am right, Pan AM right, Back Pan Am left, helix right, helix left, blunt/McNasty left, air screw left, air back stab right for 176 with no bonus points (Nick and I haven’t really been awarding them since we are adding in our heads,) On second rides, Nick got a 150 and I got a 16! On third rides Nick got a 133 and I got a 135. Our Semi-finals totals were: Nick- 283, and EJ-331. We are both convinced that tomorrow if we don’t miss a pass, don’t miss a single move, that we can top 200 points! That would mean 11-12 moves in 60 seconds. Not even a 4 second set up when you catch the wave is available! I want to be the one to do it, of course, because it will be a mark that won’t be beat anytime soon! Buseater forces you in the pit to much to get as high of a score.

Tomorrow my routine will be: the same as today, but I am adding two flip turns (one each way) after the Blunt/McNasty to give me another 32 points (over 200) if I can go fast enough and not flush.

2007 World Championships Routine Maker – Big Smoothy (PDF)

2007 World Championships Routine Maker – BusEater at 14 Feet (PDF)

2007 World Championships Routine Maker – BusEater at 16 Feet (PDF)

🙂

EJ