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
Gauley Festival Throwdown 2011
All right sports fans we have some exciting news. Ace Adventure Gear has joined this years list of sponsors for the Gauley throwdown. This throwdown will take place on Gauley festival Saturday at diagonal ledges on the lower Gauley. It will be a video contest, so it does not interferewith normal surfing at the wave. Here is how you get involved. Register on line at the link below and show up to the lower Gauley put it and look for our WK ambassador that will be handing out numbered stickers. Once you are set head down to the wave. Once in line at the wave show your sticker to the camera man and take your 1 min ride. If you flush it is over. You will get two scored rides and they will be judged at the Chaco booth that evening. Event details are available at the link below. This event has the richest prize purse of any throwdown this year, so make sure you sign up. There is even a 2010 JK Star in the prizes! Video judging will happen from 12-3. All prizes are given out based on participation.
http://worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown/register/444/
Later ; Colin 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!
July 16th – WK Seaway Valley boater-cross and throwdown
Another crazy fun day on the riviere St-Charles in Valleyfield, Quebec went off without a hitch!
(First let me apologize for the lack of pics and video. We had a camera melt down. the result. 2 weeks of photos and media gone….)
Saturday morning was a warm friendly of day. Sylvie and hitched the CReW trailer, loaded he kids and trucked off to Valleyfield at 9 am to set up for registration. July is a funny month and you can never be sure if the event will be packed or sparse. We got lucky. The kids from the slalom club in Valleyfield came out and with a few of our regulars we had a good good.
15 people signed up for the boater-cross and 12 competed. Last month we started above the tubes for a 2 on 2 race but this time we opted for a larger group start.
I walked the kids through the course which included 3 must make upstream gates in tiny eddies. 3 heats fed to 2 which fed t o a final. We also ran a B group (all those who were bumped off in the first heats). Everyone got loads of rides.
The upstream gates are awesome as they force the racers to cross each other. A crafty paddler can use these moments to jump up as much os 3 places in the race.
Everyone raced fair and clean but there were a few very awesome rivalries (Max and Zachary) and some sweet collisions without injuries.
Sportsmanship was 100% and thanks to the good gate judges the only contested move was overturned by the consensus of the judges.
The finals of the A group ended as follows:
A1- Louis-Philippe Legare
A2- Zachary Zwanenburg
A3- Marc-Antoine Dubois
A4- Sam Lizotte
A5- Max Leboeuf
A6- Francois Lizotte
In the second group the final places ended as follows:
B1-simon lefevbre
B2- Charles Demeule
B3- Yannick laviolette
B4- Jocelyn Quenneville
B5- Emily Zwanenburg
B6- colin Poirier
When the race was over every one stopped for lunch and we got geared up for a 1 PM freestyle event.
Something about afternoon, people come out of the woodwork
When we were ready to go the we had 16 people register and 14 competed What makes the afternoon event a hoot is the number of spectators hanging out to watch.
The judges had to keep up whith Francois BP as he threw down fast and furious He also showed up a helix which is a first at Manic
From the others we saw, entry moves, loops, space gods, cartwheels, split-wheels, back loops and more. From the shore we could hear the cheers from the friends and family who came out to watch. Soo nice to be encouraged:)
When it was over the scores looked like this:
| Name | Score | Category |
| François Lizotte | 64 | C1M |
| zachkayak | 188 | K1JM |
| Maxime Leboeuf | 74 | K1JM |
| Sam Lizotte | 40 | K1JM |
| yannick laviolette | 27 | K1JM |
| simon lefevbre | 20 | K1JM |
| Charles Demeule | 19 | K1JM |
| Emily Zwanenburg | 22 | K1JW |
| Francois Proulx | 339 | K1M |
| Aime-Jean Lavigne | 158 | K1M |
| Louis-Philippe Legare | 102 | K1M |
| Jocelyn Quenneville | 47 | K1M |
| Jimmy bergeron | 29 | K1M |
Well done to everyone who stood up to manic.
Moments to remember:
Young Sam, albeit after the event, looped his Fun 1 1/2 for the first time and kept looping for the rest of the day! Who hoo!
Emily Zwanenburg, stopped during her race to make sure that Colin was OK after his swim in the second heat. Sportsmanship matters. Well done Emily.
When everyone joined up back at the trailer at the put in, we had fun with the awards and then the prizes from our sponsors.
Everyone walked away with something for their efforts.
Our format of the double header works well and our paddlers are happy with it. So now we slowly started thing about our next event of 2011. We decided that the next one should be when folks are just thinking about school and the end of the season so we are hosting the next double header on September 10. Same time and same place.
I hope we will see loads of people looking for that final event of the year.
Till then there is loads of paddling to do. July is not over and august will have its memories to build still.
Until next time,
Paddle hard and have fun,
Robert Zwanenburg
(looking good in his Chaco Z2 Vibram Yampas )
www.cornwallwhitewater.com
PS: we are waiting on some pics from a friend and as soon as we get ‘em they will be posted.
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!
