Midwest Freestyle Championships

August 22, 2008

By Colin Kemp

Photos

I recently got to spend some time in the flat lands coaching at the . They took place at the Wausau whitewater course in Wausau Wisconsin. The course has recently had a facelift to a number of its playspots. The course had at least 4 play spots that you would easily stop and play at for an extended period of time if you found them on a river run. The competition hole was strong and surgey. Its inconsistent nature rewarded the patient boater who took the time to figure out its personality. It gave up some big air for sure! My favorite spot is just down stream of big drop. This hole gave up every move in the book with air and its smooth predictable nature made it an ideal place to work out any move that you needed to refine. It was on of those play spots that makes you feel good about your paddling because you can throw and stick every move you know in a single ride.

The clinics were sold out, over booked, and we had a waiting list! I was joined by John McConville as my co-coach. This was John’s first venture into teaching and he did extremely well. We had groups of boaters that were just looking to improve their boating, but we had even more that were looking to improve for the competition. We not only worked on specific boating skills, but as a group we worked on competing smarter. Everyone identified their strengths and then used that knowledge to work the scoring system over. I am proud to say that a number of the clinic students placed in the medals!! Not only did the event have a traditional freestyle event, but also we had team events that were a blast. There were bunches of swims and a ton of other goofy stuff implemented to score big on style.

My highlights of the weekend were designing and racing in the boater cross, learning the game of 4 square, meeting Team PBR, and watching all of my students progress. Thanks go out to Julie and Cole for all of their hard work in setting up the event. Thanks to John Pike for the cool pic of me jumping into the comp hole during the team event. I look forward to getting back next year. For full results go to www.worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown

Later ; Colin