The 2011 Midwest Freestyle Championships, a video review
If you have read my past stories about this event it comes as no shock that I love going to this event every year. Enjoy this great video made by some of my Wausau friends.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Later ;Colin
2011 Throwdown season ends with a full day of paddling and an awesome after party :)
When – Saturday September 17th.
Where – The Riviere St-Charles in Valleyfield, Quebec.
Saturday started with a sunny but brisk morning. Paddlers started showing up at 9:30 am to get registered and get ready for another fun boater cross. At 10:30 we had 3 categories of racers: The first was our women’s category. Cheryl McGregor, Sylvie Lebel, Emily Zwanenburg, Sabina Finnie and Shaunna Neil-Martin. The race was excellent. The course was intentionally made tough with a couple must make moves to ensure the challenge and add some excitement to the event. The first upstream gate was in an eddy set just above a retentive hole. This assures us a good show. It also reminded everyone of the importance of never quitting. Cheryl held the lead throughout but at the tough gate, Emily and Sylvie collided pushing both into the hole and missing the gate. Shaunna is a new paddler who came to us from Petawawa, worked super hard to keep up with the pack. She did great. The second upstream gate proved challenging but with some encouragement form her friend Graham she never quit and completed every gate assuring her a second place in the race. We were all proud.
The next 3 heats consisted of our men’s category combined with the Junior men. What a great show. The 1st upstream gate gave us the intended results. A big challenge and some good beatdowns. Our regular racers Zachary Zwanenburg, Sean Hakvoort, Zachary Hakvoort, Francois Bergeron-Proulx, Aimé-Jean Lavigne, Louis-Phillipe Legare and the rest of the kids from the Valleyfield slalom club ( 3 Sams, Max, Marc-Antoine, Charles, and Aaron) were joined by Simon LaChance, Graham Kent from Pembrooke, Frederick and Eric and Charles Davidson who gave us a great show pushing themselves and each other really hard 
The highlights were our new paddlers: Graham rocked his first race. Graham is a very new paddler (been a month!) and he got worked in the hole and hung on tight and finished the race. Eric Davidson and his brother Charles ran their first race too. Both these young men come from the CReW Youth Challenge Kayak Program and showed us that they were listening throughout the summer. Well done boys!
After the race and the race awards, Aime-Jean and Louis-Phillipe organized an impromptu mass start race without rules! I could not resist and jumped in the race. What a hoot. 11 paddlers start together in a tough mix of slalom and no rules boatercross. Manic is a hole that does not treat you well if there is more than one paddler in it. There were many. hehehehe. No one completed all the gates but everyone had fun.
Next up is the main event – Seaway Valley WK Hometown Throwdown. It seems that the last event of every year brings us the best crowd. This year was no exception. The morning race crew competed and we added Dany Trottier to the men’s group. The competition was solid. 7 paddlers did their rides on mini wave while the advanced group watched and cheered. The kids and new paddlers gave us surfs, spins and back surfs mixed in with some great old school shows (paddle twirls, air guitar and a tomahawk) So very cool to see these new paddlers take on the sport.
The advanced boaters gave us a good show as well. 4 women( junior and adults) and 12 men (Juniors and adults) stood up to manic and did their best. Loops, a few huge entry moves, massive air loops and aerial space gods, splitwheels, cartwheels and a felix were on the table. Was very cool. In the end the results were as follows:
Down River race:
Men:
1st Louis-Philippe Légaré
2nd Zachary Zwanenburg
3rd François Bergeron-Proulx
Women:
1st Cheryl McGregor
2nd Shaunna Neil-Martin
3rd Emily Zwanenburg
Rodeo:
Men A
1st François Bergeron-Proulx 175 points
2nd Frederick 167 points
3rd Aimé-Jean 118 points
Junior men A
1st Zachary Zwanenburg 342 points He was also the 1st overall.
2nd Maxime Leboeuf 62 points
3rd Samuel Primeau 48 points
Women A ( junior and adults)
1st Cheryl McGregor 139 points
2nd Sylvie Lebel 17 points
3rd Emily Zwanenburg 15 points
Men and Women B ( junior and adults )
1st Charles Demeule
2nd Samuel Pharand
3rd Zachary Hakvoort
The only C-1 of the day was Zachary Zwanenburg, 23 points, no swimming!
At the end of the day, everyone had fun and walked away with a sweet reward from our sponsors too
The day ended with a BBQ for those who could make it. Food drinks, cake, coffee and fireworks were provided by the Zwanenburg family at our home. It was a great time and a wonderful way to end the freestyle season in our region.
Thanks to all our participants, family, volunteers and sponsors. Without you all my life would be a lot less fun
See y’all on the river soon,
Robert Zwanenburg
www.cornwallwhiteweater.com
Idaho Throwdown #5
Yet another awesome Throwdown for Idaho, but sadly, its the last one of the year. We had around hundred spectators for this event. The KWP wave was primo for smaller boats. It was shallower than the last few times, but it made up for it by being stickier. Our group consisted of more people from out of town than locals. Out of the nine of us, five were from Bend, Oregon. It was awesome having that group paddling with us. They did an excellent job, especially for having so few play waves over there. Also, my sister Paige surfed for the first time and got her first combat roll – she even rolled in the hole The water is still super warm- which makes it that much more fun to hang out in the water.
We had two ten-year-olds in the group. Blaine and my sister Paige. KWP is such a great place for beginner surfers.
We then had two boatercross heats. Boatercross is so much fun and you can never tell who is in the lead until the last ten yards.
After all that we gathered around to get our places, scores, and prizes. Big props to our event sponsors and to our local sponsors – H2OVelocity and River Gear and Grind.
Thanks to everyone for a good time, and we’ll see you next year!
Results:
Mens:
1- Daniel Dixon
2- Devin Hawkins
3- Mark Davis
4- Philip Robert
Womens:
1- Joan Davis
Juniors:
1- Troy Wilson
2- Walker Davis
3- Blaine Davis
4- Paige Wilson
Idaho Throwdown #4
ThrowDown number four is over for Boise. Yesterday I was up at Kelly’s Whitewater Park along with nine other competitors- two of which were from Utah. I think this was our first TD with only one junior, which was me. So I was thrown in with the mens category. Like before, we were on the second feature and it was perfect for our group. There were a few more kayakers new to surfing that were game to get in there. All of them did excellent and ended with huge smiles on their faces. We altered our boater cross course a little because Big Nasty (feature one) was so sticky the carnage would’ve been too much to handle. As usual, this seemed to be a hit with everyone. Afterwards we got together for scores and prizes. In my opinion that was one of the best ThrowDowns we’ve had and I’m looking forward to the next one on September 3rd. Make sure to show up for the last of the great flows and warm water.
Placements:
Mens K1 A:
1- Daniel Dixon
2- Troy Wilson
3- Brant Hoover
4- Devin Hawkins
5- Tyler Wilson
Mens K1 B:
1- Joe Petrilli
2- Chad
3- Josh Rodriguez
4- Matt Evans
Women’s:
1- Meredith Ruland
Boater Cross results:
Heat 1:
1- Troy Wilson
2- Joe Perilli
3- Josh Rodriguez
4- Meredith Ruland
Heat 2:
1- Tyler Wilson
2- Daniel Dixon
3- Devin Hawkins
4- Brant Hoover
Hey look, this time we got pictures! 
2011 Nantahala Hometown Throwdown Event #4
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #1
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #2
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #3
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #4
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #5
Nanty HTTD #4 Award Ceremony photo album
[nggallery id=145]
2011 Nantahala Hometown Throwdown Event #4
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #1
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #2
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #3
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #4
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #4 photo album #5
Nanty HTTD #4 Award Ceremony photo album
[nggallery id=145]
2011 Slave River Throwdown #2
With our second throwdown of three done we are heading into our main event of the season; Slave River PaddleFest. This will be host to many events including our Throwdown #3. This last event saw some new boaters out for a great evening on the river. This event was followed by a river run at super high water.
Event Results
Event Name: Slave River Throwdown #2
Event Region: Yukon/NWT
Event Date: July 24th, 2011 @ 6:00pm
All times are localized to the event location.
| Men's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Rick James | 55 | 125 |
| 2nd | James van Camp | 35 | 115 |
| 3rd | Paul Bannister | 60 | 135 |
| Women's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
| 1st | Jes | 65 | 135 |
| Men's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Tracey Hutton | 85 | 135 |
| 2nd | Don Jaque | 80 | 115 |
| 3rd | Jason Panter | 70 | 105 |
| 4th | Kris Johnson | 80 | 125 |
| Women's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
| 1st | kirsten | 80 | 115 |
| 2nd | Erica Thompson | 90 | 135 |
| 3rd | Tamara Lamb | 85 | 125 |
| Men's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | John Blyth | 165 | 135 |
| 2nd | Chris Williams | 135 | 115 |
| 3rd | Rob Cartwright | 140 | 125 |
| Women's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
| 1st | saskia | 125 | 125 |
| 2nd | Genevieve Cote | 120 | 115 |
| 3rd | Natalie Kramer | 135 | 135 |
** Denotes points earned towards the World Kayak Throwdown Amateur Ranking Program.
If you have not selected the ranking option when registering for an event, you may either do so when you register for an event, or you can Get Ranked Now, and claim the points you have already earned!
2011 Slave River Throwdown #1
Well, it took a while, but we finally hosted our first of three World Kayak Throwdowns on the Slave River. Our beginner nights started off slow this year partly due to cold weather and springtime busyness. Its been an interesting two years of paddling on this river. From last year’s historical low flows to this year’s super high levels it has been quite an experience to see both ends of the spectrum. Regardless, here are the results from the Throwdown #1. Stay tuned for upcoming events.
Event Results
Event Name: Slave River Throwdown #1
Event Region: Yukon/NWT
Event Date: July 17th, 2011 @ 6:00pm
All times are localized to the event location.
| Men's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Larry Hastie | 75 | 125 |
| 2nd | Laurie Brown | 70 | 115 |
| 3rd | Colin Leavett Brown | 80 | 135 |
| Women's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
| 1st | Sarah Rosolen | 60 | 135 |
| Men's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Paul Bannister | 70 | 115 |
| 2nd | Jason Panter | 75 | 125 |
| 3rd | Kris Johnson | 80 | 135 |
| Women's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
| 1st | kirsten | 75 | 135 |
| 2nd | Helen Lefebvre | 70 | 125 |
| Men's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Chris Williams | 115 | 115 |
| 2nd | John Blyth | 127 | 125 |
| 3rd | Leif Anderson | 142 | 135 |
| Women's Results | |||
| Place | Paddler | Event Points | Ranking Points** |
| 1st | saskia | 122 | 125 |
| 2nd | Genevieve Cote | 119 | 115 |
| 3rd | Natalie Kramer | 135 | 135 |
** Denotes points earned towards the World Kayak Throwdown Amateur Ranking Program.
If you have not selected the ranking option when registering for an event, you may either do so when you register for an event, or you can Get Ranked Now, and claim the points you have already earned!
2011 Nantahala Hometown Throwdown Event #3
The third event in the 2011 Nolichucky/Nantahala Hometown Throwdown series was HUGE in size and fun!! We had a total of 61 competitors join together for a big booming freestyle rodeo on the Nantahala River, NC!!! This event had the most participation of any whitewater freestyle event to date this year in the USA! Nanty HTTD event #3 now holds the record for the most participation of any HTTD event that has ever been recorded in our 4 years of World Kayak hosting these events! We also set a record for the most juniors to ever compete at a freestyle event at the NOC! There was also a huge crowd of spectators who watched and cheered on the competitors from both sides of the river and bridges! Good vibes were all around at this throwdown!!
We had so many competitors show up for this event that we were afraid we were going to run out of water due to the water release schedule on the Nanty for the day. To help solve this issue, we ran two rodeos at the same time! All the novice classes competed on the Surf School Wave and the expert, intermediate, & C-1 classes competed on the NOC Wave. This also meant we had to have two sets of volunteer judges, scribes & timekeepers, which we worked out thanks to a few would-be competitors volunteering to judge instead of compete. Big thanks to all those folks for their efforts to make the event work well!
The weather for the afternoon was perfect with sunny skies and warm temps. The only thing that did not go as planned was a late start. This due to my wife and I getting stuck in some bad Asheville holiday traffic on the way to the event… Due to this late start and the huge turn out, we began to run out of water at the NOC Wave before the Men’s Expert class started. With some quick thinking from our volunteer staff, we came up with a quick format for the Men’s Experts to do a quick, one ride round robin style rodeo for double points! Big thanks to the Men’s Expert class for going along with this plan to complete the event. Please accept my sincere apologies for my tardiness in getting the event started. I do not like to waste other people’s time and cut into their event fun. I will do my best to make sure the last two events start on time 
2011 Nantahala Hometown Throwdown Event #3 Results:
Women’s Expert K-1:
1. Rowan Stuart (81)
2. Sara Hunter (74)
3. Ann Marie Pelcher (42)
Women’s Novice K-1:
1. Annabell Plush (54)
2. Francheska Barreto (52)
3. Catherine Hardin – Jr. (51)
4. Mary Mills (48)
5. Julia Kendrick (47)
6. Melissa Pennscott (43)
Junior Men’s Expert K-1:
1. Hunter Katich (284)
2. Carter Davis (199)
3. Dylan Riddle (146)
4. Miles Murphy (137)
5. David Jaben (133)
6. Matt Smith (112)
7. Bennett Smith (92)
8. Alex Andrews (85)
9. Ben Ghertner (83)
10. Joey Brown (64)
11. Ted Ballenger (63)
12. George Boss (54)
13. Zac Agnew (43)
13. Eric Mount (43)
15. Eric Lee (42)
16. Michael Egues (28)
17. Davis Morrs (20)
Junior Men’s Novice K-1:
1. David Perrin (77)
2. Hunter Cooper (57)
3. Jack Egues (45)
C-1:
1. Jon Clark (249)
2. Jezz (96)
3. Alex Vargas (57)
4. Garrett Mays (37)
5. David Goodwin (34)
Men’s Expert K-1:
1. Tommy Yon (234)
2. Matt Anger (210)
3. Brad Caldwell (144)
4. Ryan Baudrand (130)
5. Andrew Koch (122)
6. Clay Lucas (118)
7. Casey Jones (104)
8. Ty Caldwell (88)
9. Paul Butler (62)
10. Duane Gibson (50)
11. Chan Jones (34)
12. Zach Sanders (28)
Men’s Intermediate K-1:
1. Sam Ovett (159)
2. Jared “Blue” Smith (119)
3. Maximillian Ovett (115)
4. Emerson Clauss (95)
5. Trey Lawson (65)
6. Rick Thompson (63)
6. Ryan Richardson (63)
8. Steven Naylor (20)
Men’s Novice K-1:
1. Wayne Dickert (68)
2. Mike Dorsey (56)
3. Jeff Weatherford – Hand Paddler (52)
4. Mitch Odom (45)
5. Shaun Freudeman – Hand Paddler (41)
6. Don Robertson (37)
7. Michael McNeal (34)
Click here for PDF copy of Event #3 Results
Thank you to all the competitors for their participation and patience. Congrats to all of our class winners of Event #3!
Event Highlights:
*Several of our Johnson City Team River Runner Chapter members came down from the Tri-Cities area to represent & compete in this event! They all really seem to be loving this event series and the sport of kayaking with the great TRR program. A sincere thank you to all of them for their service to our country as veterans!
*Jr. Men’s K-1 class winner, Hunter Katich, had the highest score of the event out of the entire field of compeditors!! He had some of the most text book McNasties I have ever seen!
*There was bromance in the eddy…
*Of Course their were brown claws thrown!
*Much respect to Jezz for all his kids camp work he does over the summer and thanks for bringing a ton of Jr’s to compete in this event!
*We had 3 swimmers during the event that went home with with the coveted River Gypsies “Everybody Swims” sticker award.
*Everyone who competed or volunteered in the event went home with a prize thanks to all of our awesome sponsors!
Event #3 Photo Album Links:
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #3 photo album #1
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #3 photo album #2
Cheryl Killman’s Nanty HTTD #3 photo album #3
Nanty HTTD #3 Award Ceremony photo album
A BIG thank you goes out to all of our great volunteers for their help in event #3:
Jennifer Bradley, Erin Weatherford, Melissa Pennscott, Brad Caldwell – Registration
Jennifer Bradley, Erin Weatherford – Surf School Wave Technical Judges
Jeremy Adkins, Wesley R. Bradley – NOC Wave Technical Judges
Daniel Dutton, Tommy Yon, Francheska Barreto – Scribes
Mike Seek, Melissa Pennscott, Wayne Dickert – Time Keepers
Cheryl Killman – Photographer
A special thank you goes out to our World Kayak Partners listed in the banner at the top of this page & the local sponsors below for all the great prizes & support of the events!
The World Kayak Amateur Points System continues to gain excitement at our events this year! I have been contacted by several of the competitors to sign up to Get Ranked. I encourage all participates of our events to sign up… Don’t MISS OUT on your chance to win 1 of 4 Jackson Kayak Stars that World Kayak is giving away to all members who pay $10 to Get Ranked by September 1, 2011! You still have two chances to win a new kayak in the August & September drawings.
Participation at each event in this event series is the key to bring home a point series championship this year. After three events, the point series is heating up to be a great rivalry in all the classes! Daniel Dutton, Ann Marie Pelcher & Carter Davis have taken over the points lead in their respective classes. Matt Anger & Michael McNeal now find themselves on a possible podium spot in their respective classes thanks to their consistent participation! The Men’s Expert & Novice classes are in a very tight points clash for gold! David Goodwin has established a commanding points lead in his C-1 class, but he has found some stout competition with some new competitors that have join his class! Congrats to our current top 3 leaders in their class:
Men’s Expert K-1:
1. Daniel Dutton (295)
2. Duane Gibson (275)
3. Matt Anger (230)
Men’s Intermediate K-1:
1. Wesley R. Bradley (315)
2. Steve Moore (210)
2. Chris Vella (210)
Men’s Novice K-1:
1. Jeff Weatherford (385)
2. Mike Dorsey (375)
3. Michael McNeal (285)
Women’s Expert K-1:
1. Ann Marie Pelcher (240)
2. Taylor Dwyer (135)
2. Jo Ann Pasqua (135)
2. Rowan Stuart (135)
Women’s Novice K-1:
1. Annabell Plush (135)
2. Francheska Barreto (125)
2. Catherine Hardin (115)
Junior Men’s Expert K-1:
1. Carter Davis (240)
2. Alex Andrews (200)
3. Zac Agnew (160)
Junior Men’s Novice K-1:
1. David Perrin (135)
2. Hunter Cooper (125)
3. Jack Egues (115)
C-1:
1. David Goodwin (365)
2. John Clark (135)
3. Jezz (125)
3. Chris Vella (125)
Click here for PDF copy of Point Series Standings after #3
Mark your calendar for July 17, 2011 at high noon to join in on more HTTD fun & CLICK HERE to Register for EVENT #4 @ the NOC! I hope to see you on the Nanty to throwdown!!
2011 USNWC/Charlotte Throwdown #1 Well Hole is good and well
Well Hole was on and the first Throwdown of the year was well a blast. Everyone was entertained and some big rides were had. Lets let the video and pics do the talking.
Huge Thanks to Kristen Wallin for taking all these great pictures and video footage, rock on! And all the volunteers who helped out throughout the day so everyone gots to have fun!
After the event we had a little battle for the hole comp followed by the prizes!!! Thanks to all our great sponsors for providing some great prizes for us to fight over!!! See you for our next events July 21 and July 23.
Click here to view the embedded video.
[gallery link="file" columns="4"]Jr’s
1 –Rowan
2 – Davis
3 – Kate
Women
1 – Heater
2 – Monica
Mens Not Pro, not even expert
1 – Jason
2 – Chris Mathews
3 – Billie Joe
4 – Shawn
5 – Kate
Mens Expert
1 – Will Rudisill aka “big Willie Style”
2 – Sam the Man Fullbright
3 – Chris Wing “er”
4 – Matt Wallin
5 – Tad Dennis the one bladed master
6 – Trent T-Dog Thibodeaux
7 – the Vaugn Corrum
8 – Pablo Mr.Slalom McCandless
Huge Thanks to Kristen Wallin for taking all these great pictures and video footage, rock on! And all the volunteers who helped out throughout the day so everyone gots to have fun!
After the event we had a little battle for the hole comp followed by the prizes!!! Thanks to all our great sponsors for providing some great prizes for us to fight over!!! See you for our next events July 21 and July 23.
Good Lines
