Stage 1 Whitewater Grand Prix- “Freestyle Big Trick”- Gladiator Wave

Stage 1:  Whitewater Grand Prix- “Freestyle- Big Trick”- Gladiator Wave”

 

35 paddlers (27 men and 7 women) competed today on Gladiator Wave.     The Ottawa Valley gave us a wonderful spring day with Sunny weather and high of 55 degrees.     The format for today’s competition was fun, and an all day event.

The Women of this year’s Grand Prix are here in force:

Martina Wegman, Nicole Mansfield, Adrienne Levkneckt, Sandra Hyslop, Mariann Saether, Louise Urwin, Hanna Kertesz all competed yesterday…   Looking forward to watching them compete!  They had some great moves yesterday!

The  Men are:

Dane Jackson (USA)
Nich Troutman (CAN)
Kalob Grady (CAN)
Ben Marr (CAN)
Tyler Curtis (CAN)
Marcos Gallegos (CHL)
Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
Anthony Yap (AUS)
Bryan Kirk (USA)
Devyn Scott (CAN)
Eric Jackson (USA)
Galen Volckhausen (USA)
Gerd Serrasolses (ESP)
Jakub Nemec (CZE)
Mat Dumoulin (FRA)
Rush Sturges (USA)
Steve Fisher (ZAF)
Tino Specht (USA)
Joel Kowalski (CAN)
Chris Gragtmans (CAN)
Bren Orton (GBR)
Casper van Kalmthout (NLD)
Sam Ward (GBR)
Louis-Philippe Rivest (CAN)
Tyler Fox (CAN)
Lane Jacobs (USA)
Jules Domine (FRA)

 

 

1. Meet at 9am to check the water levels and location of event based on those levels.
2. Meet at Gladiator Wave at 11am for competitors meeting and heat assignments.
3. Begin heat one at 12pm- two hours of round robin surfing-  which worked out to be 6 rides each.
4. Begin heat 2 at 2pm- same format… still incredible weather and water and great rides.
5. Begin women’s heat- 5pm
6. Begin a final ride by everyone at 6:30pm.
7. Dinner at 9pm
8. Judge rides at ???   We are about to eat dinner.

 

I was the third person to go in heat one and it was my first time EVER on Gladiator.   hmmm… cool way to start a competition.    Not ideal if you want to paddle well, but fun to jump on a wave and see how you can do with no practice on it.

 

I had some good moves, but have no idea how high they were in comparison to others and you really couldn’t watch anyone in your heat.    I think we’ll see some sweet photos and video and hope to have some as well!

 

Tomorrow we’ll do the second freestyle event if possible.    It is supposed to rain again, but we’ll see.

 

I’ll let you know the results of stage one as soon as we know!  Likely tomorrow… sorry!