Slave River Big Air Competition (The Edge King Throwdown)

Time: Tuesday, July 26 · 12:00pm – 3:00pm Location: Fort Smith, NWT Are you attending? More Info: It’s going to be about 3/4 days before Paddlefest (July 26th & 27th) starts so we can go out into the river and not have to worry about spectators.

Time: Tuesday, July 26 · 12:00pm – 3:00pm

Location: Fort Smith, NWT

Are you attending?

More Info: It’s going to be about 3/4 days before Paddlefest (July 26th & 27th) starts so we can go out into the river and not have to worry about spectators. This will be an event by boaters for boaters. The feature we use for the competition will be based on the water levels that week/ day. This could be any number of places. The Edge, Sweet Spot, Rollercoaster, Rockem Sockem (not likely unless the water is uber low), Monster Schizer, Ou…trageous, No 1,2,3 wave, or something crazy like Pelican (if we ever figure out how to catch it consistently).

There’s 1000 bucks in prize money (maybe more) split by the top three, and a crown with the words “Edge King,” written on there going to the top spot.

After consultation with the kayak community here’s the rules we’ve decided on. We chose to follow rules similar to that of the White Nile’s Festival. These rules tend to promote people trying to go really big, to try new things, as opposed to safe moves. The rules with also level the playing field somewhat and allow for more people to have a chance at the top spots. Anyways the rules…

It doesn’t matter if you flush or not, this point system is to promote going huge and to the progression of freestyle. It is based on a 5 point system where your 3 best tricks count.

-0.5 point tricks
spin
shove its

-1 point tricks
roundhouse

-2 point tricks
blunt
back roundhouse
donkey flip/ silly flip
flip turn

-3 point tricks
pan am
flash back(back blunt)
Felix

-4 point tricks
Back Pan am
airscrew
helix
pistol flip/ mc nasty

-5 point tricks
-trophy moves Ex. wave monkey, Bear screw

This is the basic point breakdown for each move, but bonus points are awarded as well

Bonus

stuck(stayed on wave) -1 point

Big – 1 point
Huge -2 points
*big and huge are up to the discretion of the judges

linked -1 point, added to the sum of the two moves done

Clean -1 point, with the exception of 0.5 point moves where they are awarded 0.5

Also you can only score once for a move (we will score your best of that move though).

Heres a couple of examples

back pan am- big to stuck

4 point trick
1 point big
1 point stuck

total of 6 points

-Clean Spin- stuck

0.5 point trick
0.5 point clean
1 point stuck

total of 2 points

-Kay- y (blunt to pistol flip)- flushed

2 point trick(blunt)
4 point trick (pistol flip)
1 point link

total of 7 points

Heats are done with groups of paddlers in a session for 30 minutes (or longer depending on the feature) to narrow down on finalists for a final heat. You only get 30 seconds on the wave 45 (or longer depending on the feature) if you are doing tricks, someone will be blowing a whistle at you when your time is up.

Other prizes include best beatdown, best single trick, and maybe a smattering of others like smoothest style, most erratic style, a random “you’re great/ terrible have a prize,” prize.

more details coming soon
www.fskayak.webs.com

Seaway Valley ends the year with a Boatercross Survivor

Saturday October 2nd 2010. Riviere St-Charles, Valleyfield, Quebec

Saturday October 2nd 2010.
Riviere St-Charles, Valleyfield, Quebec.

2010 has been an awesome year in the Seaway Valley. This year we decided to end the World Kayak series with something a bit. A Boatercross!
The weather did not do much for us but despite the cool temps  8 paddlers turned up to try the first ever boatercross in Valleyfield.
The site gets it’s water from 2 huge pipes them run under the road at the top of the river. This is a great place to Launch paddlers (2 at a time) down through the course.
The question on everyone’s mind was who will get the better start position and how was I going to decide who raced who. GThe Answe for both: Rock Paper Scissors So adult like

The first run was awesome.  There are 3 great places for entertainment. The drop at the start brings the boaters close together. Manic offers a bit of a challenge and we ran everyone through our local keeper hole where we were blessed with a few good shows of “oh no… I am stuck…”. Not big carnage but just enough to keep it interesting for the newer kids

Click here to view the embedded video.

Each race brought up closer and closer sorting out the paddlers into an A and a B class.In the end the results were as follows:

A Class:
1st place went to Sean Hakvoort
2nd went to Zachary Hakvoort
3rd place weent to Sebastien
4th went to Cheryl McGregor

B Class

1st place was Zachary Zwanenburg
2nd place went to Sylvie Lebel
3rd place went to Aime-Jean Lavigne
4th place went to Emily Zwanenburg

The truth is, everyone won! Sylvie gained loads of confidence during the start process. Emily ran the tubes for the first time and came back to do it again . Sebastien (despite getting a boat in the face at the bottom of the start chute) came back and stepped up his game. This kid has a lot of potential and I am hoping to see him train and compete for more serious events next summer.

The Hakvoort brothers…. What can I say about my 2 favorite young giants? They are awesome. No fear, loads of enthusiasm and did I mention they are big boys? Holding them back in the start gate kept this old guys arms under stress for a long time
Aime-Jean and Zachary Z. put on a great show getting in each others way and keeping the other at arms reach till the end. Well done. Cheryl is always fun to paddle with and puts on a great effort and showing at every event I get to host. Nice This time she also gave us the best trashings in every hole she could find:) And we are always proud of her.

So, what do we do now? Plan for pool competitions and fun.

Thank you all for being part of another great summer WK Seaway Valley Season

Cheers

Robert Zwanenburg
www.cornwallwhitewater.com