Weather turns stormy for the final day on the mountain!

Weather Update, 11:50am: A line of showers with gusty winds, arriving in half an hour. Start of the finals has been moved forward by an hour from 12:02 to 13:02 running with a compacted schedule.  Lightening moves closing ceremonies into town for shelter.

Semi-final runs were a challenge in the wind. Not only does the racer have to react to the ever-changing boils and mushy water, now the gates moved position without notice. At times it helped the athlete, yet rarely, as in the case of Viktoria Wolfhardt, AUT, who was one of five amongst the 30 K-1 women to land a clean run, but shocked to see a 50 second penalty given her as she crossed the line.

Top ten advanced to the finals, with Jessica Fox leading the charge.

Melanie Pfeifer, GER, was boat number two to start in the K-1 Womens Finals and laid down a clean run. Next down the course Fiona Pennie, GBR, broke the time by a full six seconds to take the lead. It held until the final paddler, Jessica Fox, AUS, came blazing down the 24-gate course. Killing it with each stroke, she laid down a fast and clean run, surpassed Fiona’s time by a single second and claimed this World Championships as her own with double gold! 

For the C-2 Men, the hardest sequence was the gate 18 to 19 flush gate (one pole hung upstream of the other) combination. Not a single pair went direct, instead choosing to pass below the second pole, paddle up the eddy to re-enter the current and pass through the gate from left to right, conservative and three seconds longer. In the finals, only three teams went direct. The Slovenian boat of Bozic/Taljat cleared it, winning the 2014 World Title, the Polish C-2 hit the downstream pole landing in fourth, and the Germans went all out paddling with abandon, but when the bow paddler tapped the pole of gate 19 with his head it was perceived as intentional and given a ‘50’ placing the pair in 10^th. The final results being:  SLO, FRA, SVK.

Team runs completed the agenda for the 2014 World Championships. In order of 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd for the women it is FRA, AUT, SVK. And for the C-2’s FRA, SVK, CZE. 

The sun came back but storms predicted for the late afternoon, will bring the Closing Ceremonies back down the mountain to Garrett College for 7pm.  

Great worlds, great gathering, and phenomenal racing.  Helmets off to Deep Creek for nailing it! 

Claudia Kerckhoff-van Wijk is a ten time Canadian Slalom champion, 5^th 1979 Worlds in Jonquiere, Bronze medallist in Slalom, and owner of Madawaska Kanu Centre and OWL Rafting.

USA wins GOLD in Mens C-1! Fabien Levevre stole the show at Deep Creek today, landing the fastest time in the morning’s semis, and then starting last in the finals knowing it was his to win. Win he did, but not at first. He was pleased with his run, waving to the crowds that had cheered him down the course louder than any other boater, but it showed a two second penalty positioning him in second place on the Pixel Board. It was a good ten minutes before the loudspeaker announced that his two second penalty had been overturned by chief judge, Jean-Michel Pronost giving Levevre a clean run, and a gold medal. The crowd went ballistic with this announcement, which became the first gold of the worlds, and a first for the USA since Davey Hearn’s in 1995 for C-1 Men.

This is the boost these worlds were hoping for. The ASCI whitewater venue is an expensive facility to operate, and leaving a legacy is important to keep momentum going well after this big event. In the summer months, tourism becomes the economic impact for Garrett County. Rafting, kayaking and utilizing the whitewater venue as the training ground for Garrett College’s Adventure Sport Program is key to its continued success. As will be the NBC Sports feature to come out in October. Levevre’s gold for the USA will enhance this story. 

Saturday, the semis and finals for C-1 Women came to play. A tough course, these ladies have a lot of courage to hold their own in the turbulent waters. It takes commitment, speed, finesse and a lot of practise to race non-stop down 24 gates. Ten paddlers, representing six countries moved on to the finals. British veteran Mallory Franklin posted the early lead with a time of 138.78. Sitting in the victory box watching the scoreboard from the finish line, six more competitors had to race before she realized silver was hers. Only Jessica Fox, AUS, was able to beat her time. The daughter of double world champion parents—both having won gold at the 1989 wolds here in Maryland—raised in Australia where Richard Fox, and Miriam Jerusalmi chose to follow their dream of coaching together, Jess grew up in the slalom world. Falling in love with paddling, living so close to the Penrith 1992 Olympic course, it was only natural for Jess to pick it up through ‘osmosis’. Jess’s run was powerful, in control with only one touch and it really looked like she was having fun. With a six second margin, gold was well deserved. Bronze went to Orianne Rebours.

The tension was high for the K-1 Mens Final.  Fresh off his Gold medal run, Fabien Levevre had to change gears, now paddle with two blades starting first in Men’s Kayak.  Racing the first few gates his athletic Fabien-style was looking for a repeat performance. Yet a touch and later a 50 second penalty had this idea vanish quickly. Not sure if it was nerves or the odd turbulence that has been giving many top racers trouble, but it seemed like only the French could make the course look easy in the finals. A full French sweep of the medals had the rest of the world looking on in awe.

Team Runs, where 3 boats race the course weaving in and out of the gates, completed the days racing with SVK, CZE, SLO taking the medals for C-1.  CZE, GBR, FRA for C-1 Women. And FRA, CZE, GRB in K-1 Men with Team Canada in 8^th, and USA 10^th. 

Claudia Kerckhoff-van Wijk is a ten time Canadian Slalom champion, 5^th 1979 Worlds in Jonquiere, Bronze medallist in Slalom, and owner of Madawaska Kanu Centre and OWL Rafting.

Just off the mountain after one of the most exhilarating days at a Slalom Worlds in my memory. My voice is hoarse from cheering, making writing the ideal activity especially as I’m writing my post from the end of the local Brewery’s wooden table surrounded by some of the World’s top paddlers. This group of paddlers have fully embraced whitewater competition in any discipline. Paddlers like Nouria Newman, FRA, who three weeks ago became the first woman to run Site Zed on the Stikine River, BC as well as being Whitewater Grand Prix, Freestyle, and Slalom medallist; Vavra Hradilek, CZE, last year’s gold medallist, Narrows of the Green and Sickline racer, and Mike Dawson, NZ and Olympic finalist, multiple Sickline, and Little White champion; Jiri Prskavec, Vit Prindis; the list goes on. The energy was high, fresh off the day’s racing. 

And great racing there was. First it was watching the K-1 Women compete over two heats on the same course as yesterday. For women, the formula for success on this course seemed to be not to fight the water with aggression. Instead, it was the athlete that paddled smoothly, placed their boat with very distinct strokes, and changing their cadence in-between gates that produced the fast times.  Being clean (not touching a gate) was key to placing in the top 30. 

All three boats from the nations of GER, CZE, FRA, AUT, and AUS moved on to the semis, lead by former World Champion Maialen Chourraut of Spain who set the fastest time of the day of 111.45 seconds. Sadly the Canadian and USA paddlers didn’t lay down a run fast enough to move on to Sunday’s semi-finals. 

Next up was my favourite class to watch in slalom, the C-2 Men. To me this boat is ballet on water, demanding co-ordinated team work only possible through much practise time with your partner. Last minute decisions must come through reflex, as the speed of the course doesn’t allow any time for discussion. For success, it seemed the important goal was to ensure both heads passed through the gate line. Secondly, it was to avoid getting a touch. 8 or the 38 pairs had clean runs. The French excel in C-2, taking the first three spots. Close behind are the CZE, GER and SVK.  I was pleased to see the USA team of Devon McEwen / Casey Eichfeld nailing it in their second run to claim ninth place.    

My vantage point today was from the inside of the scoring tent, as I was able to complete my ICF Officials’ credentials. This has given me a bigger appreciation of how accurate the judging, scoring and timing is. It is the video analysis that impressed me the most. Every paddler is captured on video, catalogued and judged by the analyst. In the semis and finals, the video judge’s call counts equal to the judges out on course. 

We went for a bike ride around Wisp Mountain over the mid-day break taking advantage of the course change gap, returning for the semi-finals in K-1 Men. Best seat in the house was the Grand Stand at mid-course where you could see from gate 3 to 18. The remainder could be seen on the two jumbo screens. Venue announcers filled us in on the background of each athlete as well as split times. As only the top ten make it to finals, this race was edge-of-your-seat excitement. The fastest time was set early on by Russian paddler, Pavel Eigel; 104.49. The crowd cheered loudest for home turf favourites including the 24^th paddler to start being Ben Hayward of Canada. Ben’s run started extremely well with the fastest split up to gate 9 upstream. Here a boil didn’t allow Ben to get his head through the gate line, so he had to do ‘a ringle’ and renegotiate costing him valuable seconds. Still his raw time ended up 3^rd fastest of the day. Penalties and judges call for a 50 cost Ben his chance to be in the finals. The first American paddler down the course was Michal Smolen who had an immense amount of pressure on him to perform, being the current U23 World champion. A clean run, with brilliant moves saw him just miss out on a top ten by 1.2 seconds. Bib 16 was local favourite Ricky Powell who paddled to perfection on his home course. He laid down a clean run with no obvious errors and a time of 106.33 giving him an impressive 16^th place finish. The final hope for the USA came down to the new American, former French athlete and Olympic medallist Fabien Levevre. And he delivered, securing the 10^th position. 

The Top 10 for tomorrow’s finals are:  Lucien Delfour, AUS; Sebastian Schubert, GER; Boris Neveu, FRA; Mathieu Biazizzo, FRA; Sebastien Combot, FRA; Mateusz Polaczyk, POL; Thomas Bersinger, ARG; Giovanni de Gennaro, ITA; Pavel Eigel, RUS; Fabien Levevre, USA. 

Claudia Kerckhoff-van Wijk is a ten time Canadian Slalom champion, 5^th 1979 Worlds in Jonquiere, Bronze medallist in Slalom, and owner of Madawaska Kanu Centre and OWL Rafting.

Here are the full results from the 2014 Gull River Race:

The sun poked through the fog around 8:30 a.m., just in time for the judges to see the forerunners start the clocks—test run for today’s races. This is the Qualifiers for C-1 Men, C-1 Women and K-1 Men. Best run of two heats will allow the Top 30, 20, and 40 to advance to the semi-finals.   

The course may not look very difficult from shore, but the water on the ASCI course pulses unpredictably. The best slalom paddlers in the world are adjusting paddling styles to meet the course, where gates hang very near the minimum, 20 centimeters above the highest water pulse. Experienced gate judges impressively catch minute touches. I’d have to say this racecourse, being the longest of the season at 24 gates, is giving challenge to the world’s elite! The importance of keeping the focus right up to the end became apparent as athletes touched, or even gained 50-second penalties (for missing or wrong direction) in the last three gates. There were very few surprises over the runs, selecting the top qualifiers for semis.

C-1Men was a race between Germany and the Slovakia, as they took the top five spots. Three Americans placed in the top 30 to advance to the semis. Canada’s sole entry, Cam Smedley’s time would have placed him in 9^th position, but with four penalty touches, it wasn’t meant to be. 

Watching the C-1 Women was grace on water. Switching has become the norm in the women’s class, especially on the inside of a turn giving the paddler much more power on their dominant paddling side.  A collection of nations secured the top ten spots with only France tripling up. Neither Canada nor the USA has a paddler advancing to the semis. 

Top ten in K-1 Men were this season’s consistent leaders, France, Germany, Poland and Slovenia. All three USA boats, Smolen, Lefevbre, and Powell advanced to the semis. Canada’s Ben Hayward brought tingles to anyone who watched his second run—he shaved his beard just days before, wanting to ensure his bushy winter warmth didn’t cause a reason to not reach his goal. Just two weeks ago at the Canadian Championships on the Madawaska River, Ben hit a gate pole with his beard. The same happened in Europe at a World Cup in Augsburg. The margins are too close in the international arena for Ben to take this chance. 

Highlights from Thursday are not just on the water. The weather was incredible with blue skies allowing t-shirts & shorts to be spectator attire. The venue has raised the bar for whitewater in North America with duplicating a natural looking river.

“This is crazy,” said C-2 stern paddler Wojeciech Staniszewski, returning from Poland to the site of his 1989 World Championships, “I thought to myself, driving up the mountain to watch a whitewater event…we normally drive deep into a River Valley.”

As the sport changes, as does how we meet up—many past competitors have stayed in touch through Facebook. In fact, that is how the Old School Racer Gathering came to be. The event is happening in Ohiopyle, PA, Saturday afternoon and evening. From Dave Curran (former USA slalomite)’s FB event, it looks like well over 100 paddlers plan to show up. 

Looking ahead at Friday’s schedule, there is a unique twist: after the K-1Women and C-2 Men heats, the K-1 Men will be racing semi-finals. This means the course change must occur very quickly. Demos for semis are scheduled for 1:45pm. Semi-finals for 40 K-1 Men is slated for 4:15 with a two-minute interval. 

Let’s hope it all wraps up before the autumn sun drops below the Wisp Mountain. 

Claudia Kerckhoff-van Wijk is proud to be an Old School Boater. She’s a ten time Canadian Slalom champion, 5^th 1979 Worlds in Jonquiere, Bronze medallist in Slalom, and owner of Madawaska Kanu Centre and OWL Rafting.

Adventure Kayak magazine and Pygmy Boats have partnered to give away a bundle of prizes, including a kayak kit and a 2-year subscription to Adventure Kayak. Find out how to win below:

“Some people define adventure as a bold or risky undertaking,” says the Pygmy Boats website. “For our purposes we are leaning towards the definition: “an exciting or very unusual experience.”  An adventure can be had in your own back yard. With a little creativity something as mundane as commuting to work can be turned into an adventure (see Commuting By Kayak video). 

Our customers tend to embrace adventure. They begin their adventures on land by building their own boat. Some of our customers were in their 80s when they began kayaking (see Al Villa, You’re Never Too Old to Start). We are continually impressed with our customers’ stories and so we decided to give someone the opportunity to create and “build their own adventure.” We’ve partnered with Adventure Kayak magazine, Kokatat, NRS, Snap Dragon and Sawyer to create this fun giveaway. There is a wonderful adventure out there, existing in someone’s imagination, and we want to help them make it a reality.”

How To Enter: This is a video contest. First create a 2 minute or less video pitching your dream adventure idea. Then upload the video to YouTube, and fill out the form below. After the contest is over the winner will also be asked to do a 2 minute or less follow-up video showing a glimpse of their adventure. That’s it. Make a video, enter to win, go adventuring and share your adventure!

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