CKS Festival 2014! Big Water and Big Sales!

CKS Festival and BV Pro Rodeo 2014

 

Buena Vista Colorado welcomed hundreds of outdoor enthusiasts this weekend with one thing in common, a love for the river. Several us arrived early in the week and enjoyed paddling on the section that flows through South Main, as well as Browns Canyon. Each day the weather got a little colder but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the play features and rivers. The river continually shot up making the features different and exciting each day.

 

Friday kicked off the official CKS Fest, the booth was set up in South Main and the CKS Shop stocked as many kayaks and boards as they could into their BV Location. It was entertaining weaving around people for 3 days straight as they poured into the shop. In years past it was even busier in the shop but this year we had more people in the demo booth then ever before. We had 8 Karma mediums in our booth and not once was their more then 1 sitting there. We also had several Karma UL’s out and Rockstars. It was fun to see people come back and try boat after boat, giving each a test run down the South Main play park. Friday also kicked off with the Pro Prelims.

In the womens Courtney Kerin scored her first ever McNasty in a Compeittion!! Exciting times. She took the top spot on day one and deservedly so. In the Mens Mathieu sat on top with two very solid runs. The evening ended with beer and a band on the “beach” at South Main.

 

Saturday the Juniors took over the competition as well as the cadets. This event might be my favorite event as far as spectating goes and the main/ only reason is the cadet rodeo. Never will you see so many awesome kids all under the age of 14 compete. The eddy is a flurry of different color shooting stars, fun 1’s and fun 1 ½’s. Thomas Dolle from France took the top honors in the Cadet rodeo followed by the Kellogg Brothers. I was so excited to see the level of enthusiasm and sportsmanship from these little rippers!

 

The Juniors took center stage afterwards and the Junior Women and Men paddled incredibly well! Max Karlsson and Rowan Stuart took top honors followed by Grady Kellogg, and Hayden Voorhees in JR Mens, and Sage Donnelly and Kady Kellog in the JR ladies.

 

With the quick switch from working the shop to working the play hole, the pro event began. Mens Semi Finals went first and it was a TOUGH competition with each finalists making it over 1,000 points.  Bronze medalist at the 2013 Worlds Thomas Ctzatplicki, (totally spelled wrong) just missed the cut and was knocked out by local boy Dustin Urban. Bren Orton, Nick Troutman, Dane Jackson and Mathieu Dumoulin rounded out the rest of the finalists. The women went next. It was the finals so we knew it was 3 rides only one counts. I went in with a medium size rockstar and had my best ride on my first ride. Afterwards I couldn’t quite get just about anything to work and spent lots of time face surfing. Luckily my moves in the first ride put me in the 1^st place position. Courtney Kerin took second and Jessie Stone took third. The battle for third place jumped between Haley Mills, Natalie Anderson and Jessie on each ride. I was very happy for Jessie as it was a tight battle.

 

The weather took a quick turn during the women’s finals and the men remaining were doing jumping jacks and dancing to keep warm. On the first set of rides the men all had impressive scores except for Dane who came in with a 280. : )

Bren Orton got fifth after not quite pulling together a solid ride in finals. Dustin Urban took fourth with a great ride, just barely getting knocked out by Nick Troutman for the podium spot. Dane and Mathieu battled it out. Each having impressive rides that would have been even more impressive if each move scored. Either way the scores were high with Dane and Mathieu both breaking the 1,600 barrier. Dane pulled out on top by a mere 20 points in the end for the BV Pro Rodeo Crown.

 

The Pro Rodeo may have been over but the weekend was not. That evening Dustin Urban DJ’ed and everyone came out to dance. Sunday people were moving slow but by 11am the Open Rodeo kicked off and each contestant competed for a spot at the top. Each competitor was a winner already as they got 10 raffle tickets for entering for a brand new Karma Unlimited! Sunday evening had another beach party with bands, beers and presentation by the Holcombe Family on Kids and Kayaking. The Holcombes took almost 30 people on a river run/ float aimed at bringing more family and kids into kayaking.

 

If you haven’t checked out CKS’s Festival or the BV Pro Rodeo, be sure to join us in 2015. We will have the full line of JK boats and lots of team members teaching throughout the weekend.

 

Happy Paddling and Memorial Day
Emily Jackson-Troutman

Thanks to Phillip Robert and the Kelloggs for the photos!