Only 1 More Day Until World Cup #1 Starts at Rock Island- home of Jackson Kayak!

Here we go!

It is so exciting having the world at Rock Island!   People from 17 countries are here to compete in the biggest Freestyle event of the year, the bi-Annual World Cup.    This event will mark the second time in history that the World Cup will be in the USA and the second time at Rock Island.    Clay Wright won the World Cup final event here at Rock Island in 2006 and he is paddling better this year than any year I have known him.     Todays practice session was a free-for-all where everyone could paddle from 3-6pm during the release and it was crazy busy.   Tomorrow it will be broken down by country and 1 hour slots to make it more organized.

I saw some impressive rides today with some good blunt/mcnasty combos, some big loops, air screws, back pan ams, pan ams, clean blunts,  phonix monkeys, tricky woos, lunar orbits, and more.   I saw a helix today and didn’t really think of that.    good chance to get  a Felix, but still worth some good points!

Everyone’s stress level is quite high and it is apparent.   There are few that say “I had a good ride”.     Everyone feels that they doing terrible, but it is all relative and the situation isn’t condusive to good practice rides.   Long lines, short practice sessions and a crazy spot.     This is a great spot to see how people deal with the pressure for sure.

10am tomorrow to start!

🙂

EJ