Whitewater Grand Prix: Stage 2: Boater-X: Video/Results

Well just finished but the stage 2 event: Big Water Boater-X. It was an awesome event and a great day with perfect weather, awesome levels and big rapids. The course was set up on the Rouge river with a long set of standing waves and a bit of craziness at the bottom just to keep it interesting. The crux was ‘The Gauntlet’ which was a roll of the dice whether the waves would crash on you and destroy you of the rapid would let you pass with ease.

We started off with a Time trial to seed everyone in the heats, followed by quarter finals heat of 7 and 4 advance, and then a semi finals heat of 8 5 advance, and a super finals of 10.

I did pretty well in the Time Trial and finished in 7th place, and then 2nd in Quarter Finals heat, and 2nd in my Semi Finals heat. Though Finals was a whole other story. It started off with just a mass start of 10 paddlers and I was able to stay in the top 5 off the word Go. It was an all out sprint through some big waves and a couple crashing holes until the start of the ‘The Gauntlet’ which I chose to head far left to avoid the big breakers which paid off and I was able to pull ahead into first place. The final crasher was all that was left and I knew I was having a great line. I punched though the first part no problem though the next wave jacked up and launched me into a backloop. I rolled up to find myself amongst everyone else and still near the front of the race. Though as were we coming over the hole I was the outside man and couldn’t make it in to make the eddy and flushed down stream. That concreted 10th place for me.

Here are the full results and video of the Semi Finals.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZWLZp1iAA0&list=UUCxdr9qzts7fc6qeyt_vAGw[/youtube]

Men’s Results:
1st Place: Marcos Gallegos (CHL)
2nd Place: Joel Kowalski (CAN)
3rd Place: Dane Jackson (USA)
4th Place: Rush Sturges (USA)
5th Place: Bryan Kirk (USA)
6th Place: Tino Specht (USA)
7th Place: Evan Garcia (USA)
8th Place: Bren Orton (GBR)
9th Place: Tyler Fox (CAN)
10th Place: Nick Troutman (CAN)
11th Place: Jules Domine (FRA)
12th Place: Kalob Grady
13th Place: Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
14th Place: Leif Anderson (USA)
15th Place: Sam Ward (GBR)
16th Place: Gerd Serrasolses (ESP)
17th Place: Lane Jacobs (USA)
18th Place: Galen Volckhausen (USA)
19th Place: Louis-Phillipe Rivest (CAN)
20th Place: Devyn Scott (CAN) [dnf
21st Place: Juanito de Ugarte (PER)
22nd Place: Casper van Kalmthout (NLD)
23rd Place: Tyler Curtis (CAN)
24th Place: Chris Gragtmans (CAN)
25th Place: Ian Vogel (CAN)
26th Place: Mathieu Dumoulin (FRA)
27th Place (tie): Ben Marr (DNS)
Eric Jackson (DNS)

Women’s Results:
1st Place: Martina Wegman (NLD)
2nd Place: Sandra Hyslop (GBR)
3rd Place: Mariann Saether (NOR)
4th Place: Nicole Mansfield (USA)
5th Place: Lu Urwin (NZL)
6th Place: Hannah Kertesz (USA)
7th Place: Adriene Levknecht (USA)