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By Nick Troutman

This past weekend in Chambly was beautiful, the weather was an awesome 20C degrees (hot), the waves were great, and the crowds were cheering. It was the 2008/2009 Canadian Team Trials, this is one of or possibly the biggest Canadian competition of the year, being it is the selects for who gets to represent Canada at the World Championships in Switzerland next year.

People from all over Canada showed up. The park was packed with kayaks and kayakers, there was gear, boats and paddles everywhere.

Saturday started off with the Pro Men, which was the largest group. We had three rides and your best two counted. This was the Prelims for the Men, cutting the group from 23 down to 10. It was tight but the ten who made it were:
1-NickTroutman (Bibs 71)
2-BillyHarris (Bibs 55)
3-JoelKowalski (Bibs 58)
4-PatCamblin (Bibs 74)
5- TylerCurtis (Bibs 75)
6- KelseyThompson (Bibs 65)
7- François Bergeron (Bibs63 )
8-DaveNewenhouse (Bibs 70)
9- Dru Lyall (Bibs 61)
10-Dylan Davidson (Bibs 72 )

Then were the Jr. competitors. First was the Jr. Women, and being there was only three, they went straight into finals. All of the Jr. Women paddled well, though it was obvious who won. With big airblunts and all of her roundhouses Katie Kowalski took top honors, following in second and also making the Canadian team was Alex Shallhorn.

Next was the Jr. Men. This was one of the closest and most exciting rounds of the day. The Jr. Men started with Prelims being that there was 8 Jr. Men. Prelims were very close with all of the Jr. Men looking really good. It seemed that everyone could airblunt, panam, and donkey flip. The top five went straight into Finals. Finals had even closer rides, though 1st place was stolen away by Keegan Grady. Keegan had really stepped up his game, with airscrews, clean blunts and pack panams he would have easily placed top 10 in the Pro Men’s.

Next came the Pro Women’s. These women had all been practicing hard, working on panams, flashbacks and donkey flips. The scores were really close throughout finals, though Carly Harris ended up on top. Billy likes to think that he somehow helped, though I think it was her months of practice that helped win.

C-1 came next with only three contenders. All three had automatically made the Canadian Team, though they still fought hard for the first place finish. I was one of the judges for the C-1’s, and I was blown away. I saw some of the biggest panams I have ever seen, as well as some mcnasty attempts, and some enormous Helixes thrown by Paul Danks. I had never seen a Helix in a C-1 before, and it sure does look sweet.

Finally by 6:00 at night, we were back up. The Pro Men’s Semi Finals. This was the cut between who made the team and who didn’t. Even the most experienced paddlers can feel stressed through these Semis. It seemed as though everyone brought their A-Game with huge air, and technical moves. On my first ride my helmet came off half way through my ride. I could have grabbed it and surfed off, but I knew that this was my ride, so I left the helmet and continued to throw moves. I was pretty distracted by the whole loss of the helmet and I had no idea where I was in my routine so I started throwing random moves all over the place. On my next ride I was able to borrow Kalob Grady’s helmet. As I caught the wave on my second ride my bow caught and I decided to throw an emergency loop. I was able to stick the loop and continue my ride, though it had wasted most of my time. I was a bit nervous while we were waiting to hear who would be top five and make the team. I wasn’t quite sure that my rides would have been good enough. Luckily I made the team as well as 4 other great boaters.
1-NickTroutman (Bibs 71)
2-PatCamblin (Bibs 74)
3-BillyHarris (Bibs 55)
4-JoelKowalski (Bibs 58)
5-KelseyThompson (Bibs 65)
6-TylerCurtis (Bibs 75) 1st alternate

It was around 7:00 and people were anxious to get the comp over with, though we continued on with a quick Finals, three rides your best counts. In Finals we were so fired up that we were just going out a hucking everything we could. You could tell everyone was still shooting for the top honors, though everyone was having fun and stress free rides being that we were all already on the team.

It ended up to be a great competition, one of my favorites ever. The wave was sweet, great for crowds to watch, and a tight competition. I’m glad everything worked out to be one of the best Canadian Team Trials Ever.

We all then headed to Marius’s Restaurant for dinner, and Jacky’s bar for the party!

All photos taken by Colin Moneypenny

CANADIAN TEAM TRIALS RESULTS

Jr Women k1
1-KatieKowalski (Bibs 3 ) – 20 pts
2-AlexandraShallhorn (Bibs 1 ) – 6 pts
3-Tilly Martin (Bibs 2 ) – 0 pts

Jr Men K1
1-KeeganGrady (Bibs 06 ) – 81 pts
2-DevynScott (Bibs 04 ) – 52 pts
3-ScottBorthwick (Bibs 07 ) – 44 pts
4-JoshuaMills (Bibs 05 ) – 44 pts
5-JonathanGervais (Bibs 08 ) – 33 pts
6-KalobGrady (Bibs 09)
7-Joelfraser (Bibs 66)
8-Justinfraser (Bibs 10)

Sr. Women K1
1-CarlyHarris (Bibs 21 ) – 23 pts
2-DominiqueGauthier (Bibs 22 ) – 22 pts
3-Marie-PierreCôté (Bibs 24 ) – 18 pts
4-EmilyLussin (Bibs 23 ) – 12 pts
5-Annie-Pierre Marchand (Bibs 20 ) – 10 pts

C1
1-GuillaumeLa Rue (Bibs 25 ) – 108 pts
2-PaulDanks (Bibs 27 ) – 84 pts
3-GlenWarner (Bibs 26 ) – 80 pts

Sr. Men K1
1-NickTroutman (Bibs 71) – 256 pts
2-BillyHarris (Bibs 55) – 161 pts
3-JoelKowalski (Bibs 58) – 159 pts
4-PatCamblin (Bibs 74) – 136 pts
5-KelseyThompson (Bibs 65) – 119 pts
6-TylerCurtis (Bibs 75)
7-Dru Lyall (Bibs 61)
8-DaveNewenhouse (Bibs 70)
9-François Bergeron (Bibs63 )
10-Dylan Davidson (Bibs 72 )
11-Ben Marr (Bibs 73)
12-Philippe Jacques (Bibs67 )
13-Ryan Whetung (Bibs 57 )
14-Tyler Fox (Bibs 99 )
15-Ben Fraser (Bibs 60 )
16-Zack Boles (Bibs 56 )
17-Andy Hill (Bibs 54)
18-Luke Newenhouse (Bibs 59 )
19-KentBertzlaff (Bibs 62 )
20-JoelFraser (Bibs 66)
21-MicahLyall (Bibs 69)
22-MattHamilton (Bibs 64)
23-Mark Richard (Bibs 68)

OC1
1-PhilippeMorin (Bibs 90 ) – 0 pts
2-VincentNormandeau (Bibs 91 ) – 0 pts
3-BenMarr (Bibs 73) – 0 pts
4-Pat Camblin (Bibs 74) – 0pts

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