NOOZ
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| Worlds Update #4- the final installment | ||
The squirt event was, as always, a bit disorganized, and a bit of a side show, but we managed to work with the judges and organizers to pull it together. Prelims were held Thursday afternoon. Due to the oddities of the official ICF rules, we cut from 12 to 10 paddlers, and did Semi finals right after Prelims, which worked out well for me, since I finished 6th in Prelims, and would have missed the cut to finals. I didn't have my ride planned out well for the spot, and had to make some adjustments as the round went on. It was a long day, and by evening it was getting cold- there was a good bit of shivering in the eddy, and I was feeling really low energy and possibly a bit sick. I managed to keep things together enough in the semifinal round to sneak into finals by about 3 points, and live to paddle another day. Clean Cartwheeling.  Getting a bit of a mystery. The seam was weak and incosistant, you had to "take" the downtime from it, it wouldn't give it to you.  Taft Sibley Friday morning was round 5 for me- Squirt Finals. After an early night and a lot of orange juice, I was still feeling tired and on the verge of being sick. I realized I had two choices- give in, or stop feeling sorry for myself and do my best anyway. After watching the British squirtboaters fire it up in prelims, I didn't expect to move up in the standings anyway. Run one for me was better than my prelims runs, but I didn't get much of a mystery, and didn't move up. Run two went better, and put me in 3rd place. I got to watch the other two boaters behind me take their third runs before I did- and neither bettered my score. When it got to be my turn, I had already won the bronze medal. Time to have fun. Run 3 actually put me into 2nd place briefly, but Toru from Japan bettered my score on his next ride. In the end, James Reeves from Great Britian came out on top, followed by Toru taking silver, and I took the Bronze.  Receiving the Bronze Medal for squirt.  Squirt Medalists. After squirt finals it was time to go back to bed for me. I had OC-1 semifinals on Saturday, and wanted to keep my energy level up as much as possible. I'm kind of disappointed I didn't make it out to the parties, but I was really there to compete. The semifinals were a bit stressful for me. I only had to make the top 5, which should have been well within my grasp, but I also knew it was entirely possible to miss the wave twice or flush early. Every morning on the way to the river, I'd tell myself it was "just another day in the office." I just had to stay focused and paddle like I normally do. The office was growing on a daily basis though, this morning there was a giant TV screen and cameras, including a boom cam out over the water. This event set a new standard for World's competitions.  The crowds and big screen, across the river from the grandstands. I was second in prelims, so I got to watch all but one of my competitors go first. The pressure was off a bit after watch the first heat. I didn't paddle my best, but got a enough moves in to win the semifinals round- which meant I'd get to go last in Finals, just where I wanted to be. Time for more sleep. In 2007 I decided to try out for the team in C-1. I trained hard all summer, but missed the team by one spot. I also decided to compete in OC-1 at team trials, just to be another person in the class. No one else showed up, and I made the team by default. I decided I was going to take it seriously, trained hard, and designed and built my own boat, since I didn't really like the boats that were available at the time. I went into the Buseater worlds with no expectations on how I would do, just wanted to do my best and help push the sport a bit. I ended up finishing third, but left with the feeling that I could have won. I spend the next summer paddling version 1 of the "Blackfly," the boat I built for Buseater. I had some serious issues, and I hadn't had time to build another prototype before worlds, but spending a summer paddling it on the Ottawa gave me pretty good ideas on what to change. In 2008, I focused more on my kayaking, and put the Blackfly project on the back burner. This spring the feelings that I was my turn to take on the world again forced me to revisit the Blackfly, and in a hurry before leaving for team trials, I built Blackfly 2.0. Over the summer, I modifed the ends of the open area to make it slicier- Blackfly 2.1, and spent a good bit of time in the boat getting ready for Worlds. I realized there's the potential to do any of the decked boat moves in this boat if you have the skill. I got my blunts dialed in to the point where I knew I could throw them. Finals day started at 11:00 am. OC-1 was the first to go, and most overlooked. I'm not sure if the reporting on the class that completely overlooks it (that's you, KayakSession) is better or worse than that which just talks about how boring and pointless it is. I'm doing my best to help change that. I was exactly where I wanted to be- the last to go in the round, which meant I got to see exactly what everyone else was doing before me. I knew that if I paddled to my full potential, I should be able to win, but still had to do that. I figured I could do, and aimed for, a ride that was in the ballpark of 120 points. On my first ride, I used all 45 seconds on the wave, and posted a score of 115, which put me in a commanding lead. Stephan Paetsch, the current world champion, asked me how they were supposed to answer a ride like that, I said "you need to figure that out, and figure it out quick!" Stephan did his best, answering with a ride of 90 points on his second ride, but flushed early on his second and third rides. I posted another 100+ point ride on my second ride, and when it was time for my third ride, I had already won, and got to do a victory lap. I had done what I'd been thinking about for two years, won the World Championships.  Back Roundhouse  Giving'er on the blunts  Blunting  The Brown Claw!  OC-1ing on the big screen!  They also posted the scores on the big screen after each round, so everyone knew where the competitors sat.  OC-1 Medalists. After seven rounds of competition, I finally had the chance to relax. Of course, by relax I mean be awake for 22 hours, and travel for 14 of that. A two hour train ride, a 10 hour flight, and an hour drive, plus transfer time in between each, and I'm finally home and adjusting to east coast time. So what's next after conquering the world? I've got some video to edit from the event, look for that sometime soon. I'd like to get the Blackfly into some sort of mass production, but need to make a few more changes to the plug first, just to get things dialed in just the way I want. I'm not sure just how I'm going to produce it, but I'm open to different options. And of course, Gauley season is coming up in a few days. I'll probably miss the first weekend, but I'm psyched to get back on the Gauley. |
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