Regional Team member LP from colorado Springs checks in from National Championships

October 2, 2007

By Michael Palmer

Hey everyone,
Its Michael Palmer (LP) checking in. I am now back at the Gauly for a week before I leave for Africa. For the past two months I have been traveling with world class kayak academy. We have gone to Ottawa, Montreal, and all over eastern Canada and the US. Last week we competed at the National championships. It was a awesome week. Jackson kayak won every k1 freestyle event.

In the Jr mens class we had a stacked competition with almost 20 Jr competing. Coming out of the prelims they cut us to top ten. Dane was in first, I was in second, and Jason was in third. The set up for the competition was you got two rides on the upper wave and two rides in lower hole. They took the top ride for one feature and added it to the top ride for the other feature. I would also like to mention World class Kayak Academy had numerous people in the top ten(for more information go to www.worldclassacademy.com).

In the semi-finals Dane destroyed all of us with a whopping 120 pt ride in the upper wave. It was the highest scoring ride during all of nationals in any devision. Coming out of the semi-finals Dane was in first, Jason was in second,I was in third, Eli was in fourth and max (another world class student) was in fifth. All of us where in Jackson boats!

Finals was run a little bit different. We got three ride and best score counted. After the first ride I was sitting in first and Jason was in second with Max following closely in third. The second ride Dane destroyed it. Blowing all of us out of the water putting him in first. The third ride Jason had a great ride bumping him in to third place. My third ride was my best and I almost caught up to Dane. After all of the rides where done there was some confusion but in the end Dane won, I got second and Jason ended in third. Team JK swept the podium in junior men and in mens pro! I will just have to beat Dane next year.

Congratulations to Stephen Wright, Morgan Tid, Emily Jackson, and of course Dane Jackson.

I am going home for a week and have some of the final rides on film so I will try put the high-lights on the site.

This week we are going to run the Green. Then its off to Africa for two and a half months of boating and Chili for another three months of boating. I will try to write updates about both.

Se you out there.
Michael Palmer (LP)