Fun Times at World Cup

Awesome Rides at the incredibly user friendly Pigeon River Hole today.   The Men’s Finals was electrifying with nail biting suspense during a showdown between Peter Csonka and Dane Jackson that was amazing.    The Women’s finals was also incredible as Claire Ohara and Emily Jackson battled for the win down to the final ride- with Nina Csonkova able to pull of a huge ride at any time, but flushed out of the hole.   Junior men’s class had Hunter Katich and Brenn Orton going at it as the two clear leaders.    Hunter gave Brenn a run for his money with a 900+ point ride to Brenn’s 1000 point ride.   Brenn got a victory lap, however, and did some sweet combos to show off, including a trickywoo to front loop and lunar orbit to front loop that was sick!    Jordon Poffenberger had some great rides and is becoming quite the kayaker (he is a C1er first) and took Third.    Brandon from England was 4th with a close score to Jordan and Paul Palmer, coming off a second place at Rock Island came in 5th with some nice moves, but not enough to be in the top 3.

The C1 class was also hotly contested with Seth Chapelle, Jordon Poffenberger, and Dane Jackson in the top three.   Neither Jordan or Seth got the best rides they are capable of, and Dane won with a 633 point ride- while all three of them are capable of getting in the 800’s in that hole.   The honors went to Dane who got both McNasties, a phonix, some sick loops and cartwheel combos as well.

The Squirt Competition was fun to watch as you had the traditional squirt boaters and the playboats both competing.  The rules make it nearly impossible for a playboat to win the competition, however, watching their flatwater routines is inspiring.  Tomas from Poland was amazing!    Clay hurt his shoulder the day before on the Green and was not at full capacity, leaving Dane to take the honors with a 1260 point ride, giving both Dane and Clay a win and a second going into the final event at NOC.

OC1- unfortunately I missed this competition taking care of KC at the squirt comp, but Seth Chapelle took first place with some good rides according to those who were watching! 

So the Men’s Competition:

Pringle from England (current world champion in men’s K1) got a 920 on his first ride, followed by Stephen Wrights 860, and then Jaquime Fontane from Spain got an 1006, and then Peter Csonka (two time world silver medalist) went and got a 1180, and finally Dane went and got an 1103 to be in 2nd place.    On Second Rides Stephen stephen improved to a 953 but still in 4th place.   Jaquime went and got an 1160 to move into 2nd place ahead of Dane, but not ahead of Peter.   then Peter went and got a 1200 even to pull a bigger lead with some sweet moves-   Lunar orbits and Tricky Woos both ways on top of his other moves…    Dane had the honors of going last, since he won semi-finals and did his second ride- he was on fire early and was getting HUGE air on his hard moves- Mcnastys that looked like huge air loops.    He came back with a 1375 point ride to take the lead from Peter.      on the final rides Pringle improved but still in 5th,  Stephen stuck with his second ride,  Jaquime was going for it hard and fast but got sloppy and missed many of his moves so stuck with his 1160.   Peter came out of the eddy from below and started a flurry of moves.   Big guy (204 pounds) in a little boat he was going fast and straight, but not big air.   He got his Mcnasty, phonix, lunar orbit, tricky woo both ways and then a back loop, some splits, loops and the buzzer went off…..   1,416 points to take the lead by less than 50 points from Dane.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PvrYtMckEQ&feature=plcp[/youtube]

Dane still had his third ride to go and off he went…   He was on fire- not missing a move, getting huge air on his moves and hopefully earning huge bonuses (30 points/move)   He was at the same point in his routine as his 2nd ride but with 10 seconds left.  He went for the Lunar orbit left to seal the deal but missed it, tried again and missed, buzzer went off and it was too close to call….  score came in at a 1380- only 30 points behind but put him in second place.      Awesome finals.

Meanwhile on the shore you had the “Tent of Enthusiasm” made up of some “Kiwis and Aussies” in pink shirts and full of great cheering spirit!    They kept the crowd fired up.   NOC had their scoring system that they made for the World Championships on display, so you could see the ride scores after each ride and see the leader board with everyone’s rides.

Look for current standings in the overall world cup tomorrow!  Here are some photos from the day!

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