For the 2nd year in a row, My family and I traveled to Kernville, Ca. to compete in the 47th Kern River Festival and 7th (?) annual Brush Creek Extreme Race.  We arrived about 2 weeks early so I could attend the Gold Medal Camp put on by former Olympic Gold Medalist Joe Jacobi, former Olympic coach Bob Campbell, US National Jr. Development coach Tom Long, and former National Team members Chad, Kenneth and Anne Long. The weather wasn’t the greatest, (it even snowed!) but the coaching was! I highly recommend this camp to improve your slalom or overall river running skills.   Then it was time to put my new skills to work and train for Brush Creek and the Kern River slalom course. Brush Creek was about 3 which is a great flow for the race, and I was the only Jr. girl among the 3 jr. boys that included my friend Daniel who was competing for the first time. Several other Jackson Kayak paddlers were there, including Colin Kemp and Darin McQuid, and fellow Reno paddler Noah Frasier made the journey down as well. I was able to boof over my problem area from last year (Fuzzy Bunny) so I felt very good about my race. Then it was onto the slalom race in downtown Kernville where they just received the permits to build a whitewater park. The water was very high and fast so the course was challenging. I think everyone had a great time! Hopefully next year they also have freestyle in their new whitewater park!

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Originally posted here:
Gold Medal Camp, Brush Creek Extreme Race, Kern River Festival, 2011!