Hometown Throwdown comes to Charlotte

Saturday, April 5th the USNWC will host the first of the Charlotte Hometown Throwdown series presented by WorldKayak. Check out registration details here. Come out and try your hand on the instruction channel with your hottest moves. The World Kayak Throwdown is a series of FUN events aimed at friendly competition at the United States National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC. Judging is fun, rules are easy and prizes are only given out for participation... we draw names from a hat!

Come out, have fun, strut your stuff and be sure you attend all events for that grand prize at the end of the season.

- Registration and sign-in will begin @ 4:00 p.m.

- The event will kick off @ 5:00 p.m.

Hope to see you there. TAKE IT OUTSIDE!

And It's Only March 1st!!!

I said this a number of times today; "and it's only March 1st!", because one look at the crowd at the USNWC today and you would have thought that it was the middle of June. I rolled up to the parking lot around 8am and there were hundreds of cars in the parking lot. The third stop of the four part series of the Finish Strong Duathlon sponsored by Inside Out Sports was already underway. Over two hundred competitors were there for an 8k run/ 53k bike/ 8k run with the run sections on USNWC trails and the bikes rode out through the small town of Mount Holly and into the countryside of Gaston and Mecklenberg counties.

My day progressed on to our first day of flatwater guide training. It was an absolute joy to hang out with these fourteen folks as we started getting prepared for our biggest season of flatwater trips yet.

In addition to our guided flatwater trips we will be offering flatwater boat rentals on the Catawba. Guests ages 9 and up will have a chance to discover parts of the Catawba on their own. Today we paddled up Long Creek, a bordering tributary to the Catawba, further than I've ever before been. The water levels were up far enough for our group to get to the "waterfall". Congratulations to Adam Seacrest for his first decent of this impressive drop. Adam spends an inordinate amount of time on the Green River Narrows, and those class V skills paid off on this "first D".


Once we wrapped up our day of training we all headed over to the Competition Channel to check out the Slalom Springs Series race. Over 50 competitors registered for this event. An impressive number for any time of year. I caught this shot of local paddlers Scott McCluskey and Austin Crane racing C2 in the first round.






To wrap up the day we headed to The Eddy Restaurant and Bar overlooking the Comp Channel to grab a beer.
I just couldn't believe that there was a two deep line at the bar. ......AND IT'S ONLY MARCH 1st!!!

USNWC Slalom Series Continues

In preparation for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Team Trials, held here April 25th through the 27th, the USNWC Slalom Series continues this weekend.
Saturday and Sunday the race will be held from 3 to 6pm.
Traditional Slalom format. Two runs, no demos.
Registration at Climbing check-in Wed-Friday. $30 registration fee.
Competitors meeting 12 noon Saturday @ Kayak Check-In.
The rest of the details will be gone over in the competitors meeting.
We are in huge need of volunteers to help time and judge the event. Contact Dave Hepp at dhepp@usnwc.org or call (704) 391-3900 ext. 115 if interested in volunteering. Volunteers will meet at Kayak Check-In at noon Saturday.
TAKE IT OUTSIDE!

The IceMan Cometh???

I haven't been this confused in a long time. I've been waiting for one of the staff to send me the pictures of the recent IceMan competition on the Saluda thinking I would post some info on the race, congratulate Pablo, Jon and Daniel for their participation and lend thanks to the event organizers. I had even already written up a little witty schpiel (italicized below) to paste on the blog once I got the pictures. After downloading the pictures this morning, the confusion began.

What type of race is this???The boys told me they stomped it, they told me it was tough competition but they pulled through. I even let them borrow boats to help ensure a victory. But when I open the first picture of Pablo smiling from an innertube I am definately starting to feel a little hoodwinked and bamboozled.


Jon was neither going forward nor was he "stomping it" as the three of them proclaimed.



Daniel looks as though he is posing for the camera rather than barreling through the thick masses of competitors.

Here's the original write up on the event:
The 8th Annual IceMan Championship and Millrace Massacre took place earlier this month (January 5th to be exact but the winter is flying by so quickly it is difficult to remain exact) on the Saluda River. Pablo, Jon, and Daniel decided to bring the noise, bring the pain all the way to Columbia to tempt their fate at freezing cold temps and must-make moves.
The Millrace Massacre is a time trials for boats 8'6" and under, with several must-make eddies.
The Iceman Championship is a mass start downriver head-to-head race with no length limit that also involves paddling back upstream, running, and even swimming. This race states that "it truly separates the men from the boyz". The event has been put on by the in-famous "SaludaBoyz" or the less gender specific "SaludaKayakerz" for the past several years. Now, I don't know who these good folks from Saluda are or why they defy the rules of grammer constantly replacing a perfectly good s with a z, but I do know that everyone who attended had a great time.


After scrolling through all the pictures I finally did come across one of Pablo "racing" in an actual kayak. Now, I've seen Pablo race before and this is definately not his "game face". He's not even in the boat I let him borrow. I'm very confused.
Next year I'm just going to have to experience this race for myself to see what the real story is. Find out more about this event at www.saludakayakerz.com and be sure to join in on the fun next January.