Prelims for national Championships were heated!

Photos

The water levels dropped today turning the wave/hole into more of a hole. The junior men started the contest off and it was a hot competition! The kids came from every corner of the USA and were as young as 10 and up to 18 years old. The kids did entry moves, and just about every move in the book was thrown during the prelims. The USA has a strong up and coming freestyle contingent that will do incredibly well internationally. The top 10 juniors qualified for Semi-finals. They were:

1. Jonathan Shales- All-Star
2. Jason Craig- Star
3. Dane Jackson- Shooting Star
4. Michael Palmer- All-Star
5. Kyle Hull- Specialist
6. Seth Stoenner –Shooting Star
7. Jonas Cochran-
8. Eli Spiegel- Astro
9. Isaac Holden- Star
10. Kincaid Wurl- Shooting Star
The highest score was 221 for Jonathan and the score required for top 10 was a 51 point combined ride for Kincaid.

In the Men’s Pro class there were so many awesome rides that it really showed that the depth of the American Freestyle paddlers is growing, not shrinking! Awesome! I opted to do a Donkey Flip and Back Pan Am on principle, just because I committed to the moves yesterday and really wanted to hit some wave moves during the competition. However, tomorrow, I’ll do 100% hole moves as they didn’t score like I had hoped.

Here are the results from Prelims for Men’s Pro (top 10 who will move on to semi-finals)

1. Stephen Wright- All-Star
2. Nick Troutman- All-Star- (Canadian)
3. Eric Jackson- All-Star
4. Clay Wright- All-Star
5. Dustin Urban- All-Star
6. Jed Selby- All-Star
7. Andrew Holcomb- Agent
8. Alex Mohn- Agent
9. Kelsey Thompson- Project
10. Brian Kirk- Project

The highest score was Stephen with a 327 (combined for two rides) and the 10th place score needed was 170 to make the cut.

The Women go straight to Semi-Finals tomorrow. National Championship/Team Trials Finals tomorrow night will be under the lights with thousands of spectators enjoying the main event at the 60th Annual Fibark Festival.

Tomorrow will crown USA National Champions and USA Team Members and there will be some that don’t make it as far as they hoped. Such is life in the competitive scene. The beauty of this type of competition is that it really pushes the boundaries of what is possible in a freestyle kayak in a spot like the Salida Hole. What if there weren’t any skateboard comps? Then there wouldn’t be kids doing big stuff in the skate park. When I brought the McNasty to comps in 2004 only a few top pros had even seen the move yet and almost none could do it. The next year most of the pros learned it. This year, kids have seen it on video, seen the pros do it, and are learning it in their 2nd or 3rd year of kayaking!! Kids are learning to front loop their first season. It is awesome to see the progress of freestyle boating and the amount of people who can do the moves that were only done by the best in the world a few years ago. Emily is nailing Blunt/McNasty Combos, something that I didn’t imagine she would do yet. Dane is a loose cannon that can do anything at any time. If it has been done, he has done it, but it is anything can happen day when he paddles. He can miss 5 moves in a row, or he can earn more points in 10 seconds than anyone in 60. Crazy.

Well, time to take a break and get ready for tomorrow. Kristine and I are having a glass of wine in the RV and dinner is next; yumm!

🙂