World's Training Photos and more rambling thoughts

By Stephen Wright

I got out with my camera and shot a few photos during training day before
world’s. Enjoy the pics!

This was truly an event to remember. Wilderness Tours moved mountains to
get Buseater in the middle of a 50 year low-water season. There were great
water for prelims on Wednesday, good water for Thursday, and lower foamy
levels for finals on Friday. Hydro Quebec and Ontario worked to raise the
level of the Ottawa almost 5 feet over it’s natural flow for this event,
which was amazing. Huge moves were common, and my only regret was that I
had to watch and judge instead of paddling–I’ll make the US Team yet! It
killed me to see everyone else on my favorite wave for 3 days straight
without being able to enjoy it myself.

I did enjoy taking 5 rides on Tuesday evening with the highest water of
the week. I hadn’t been able to paddle the new All Star on Buseater yet (I
was in the 2 Fun in the fall) and it was WAY too much fun. I was giggling
and screaming for joy as I surfed-out onto the wave. The speed of that
water is addictive, as is the huge air for combos and forgiving edges that
made spinning a lot less scary than ever before–spinning is often more
scary than aerial moves on Buseater. I felt as though I had reminded all
the competitors in the eddy that Buseater and I are tight. We’re like this
(imagine my two first fingers crossed for effect).

Some highlight moves of the event for me were: Steve Fisher’s MASSIVE
pan-ams to flush, Billy Harris’s constant smiling face as he helixed and
mcnastied all over the place, Ruth’s consistent clean air blunts, Paul
"Chewy"’s aerial OC-1 Pan Am in Prelims, Holcombe’s beautiful pan ams,
Nick’s lightning-fast airscrews, and EJ’s Mcnasty on the buzzer to win
another one. Other highlights of the week included Ben Stookesbury’s
relentless efforts towards making the best Jackson Kayak Promo Video
possible. The first 2 sections are done, now he’s working on the final
track, a few bonus features (including Jay and Nick’s infamous NINJA MOVIE),
Jackson University, and a few final edits. I was also psyched to finally
figure-out what was causing the loud rumbling and vibrating in my truck
between 40 and 65 MPH–after replacing the bearing, race, and seal on the
rear differential it’s good to go!

Now it’s off to one of the best-run events in the world: The Reno River
Festival. Black Dog is staying with my sister in Denver. She’s been banned
from the Reno casinos after cleaning them all out last year (Black Dog has a
gambling problem, and is a bit of a card shark). I need to get my
competitive juices flowing again. 2 years ago I was 3rd in Reno, last year
I was 2nd, this year the trend will hopefully continue…. 🙂

Live from 30,000 feet on the way to Reno,

Stephen Wright