National Championships!

By Emily Jackson

Hey Everyone!
This weekend was the National Championships for the U.S here in Wisp Maryland. The first day started off with a boater cross through all sorts of cracks and eddy moves that left so many places to err. There were all sorts of carnage and I don’t think there was a round where someone started in first and finished in first. The Mens was won by a slalom boy by the name of Isaac, with Jesse Shimrock in second follwed closely by Team JK Member Nick Troutman in Third. Although Nick is a Canadian, they allowed him in the boatercross.

For the Women there was first place by Eleanor Perry, right behind her was me, after surfing a hole getting smashed and feeling a little queasy I was still happy with second, and in third place was Tanya Shuman. There was a lot of carnage and quite a few missed gates making the race all more exciting.

The rodeo was why we were here though and it rocked the house. Jackson Kayak had a large showing in every class. For C1 we had young Jordan in second showing Dane up who go third. (both in c1 shooting stars) In first was none other then Seth Chapelle who was cheered on by his whole family! All 10 of them! In the JR Women we had Jackson Kayak Regional Team Member Morgan Tidd take the gold with a sweet loop and some cartwheel moves. In second was another Jackson Regional Team Member Lauren Buress, and in third was Charlotte Hardie.

For the JR Men we had a Jackson Sweep with all 5 finalists in Jackson Boats. In 5th Place was Huge Experiences Kid Eli Speigel with sweet mcnasties, in 4th we had Max Lentz with World Class, and taking third was the previous national champ, Jason Craig, in Second was LP or Michael Palmer who was winning the first round of finals with a score of 49, and in First place we had none other then my little brother and little punk, Dane Jackson who won with every move.

For the Women, and the class that I competed in, we had third place finisher Tanya Shuman who unfortunately is going into retirement! Sad day for everyone, second place was Eleanor Perry who pulled it out on her last ride with an airwheel / space godzilla. And in First was Me with some loops, some sweet old school cartwheel moves and several mcnasty attempts that felt just about the way they scored them (not so swell).

For the Men it was so so close, third place and not by much, we had all day Jay Kincaid, in second we had my dad, EJ who was winning until the winner, Stephen Wright, beat his score by 9 points on his last ride, very close competition for everyone.

While I am sitting her almost everyone I mentioned is playing Frisbee golf at the Wisp Resort as I am sitting back, enjoying my bed in the back of my westy! Last freestyle competition of the year and an awesome way for our team to finish it off! If you get any more updates from me it will probably be something goofy since I am excited to go home for awhile and do school and take baths who knows maybe I will have to do something stupid to make my updates exciting like oh I don’t know go rock climbing on my chimney or repel from the beams in my house, maybe even find a way to ride our not very friendly miniature horse!

Until then….. Have extra fun on the water for me, and don’t forget to do an extra rain dance for the southeast so that way I can go boating!!! It really helps if you really mean the dance too, its serious business

Safe Travels and Have fun on the Rivers
EmJ
2007 Womens National Champion