What a great event to end the kayak tour! Kelly’s Whitewater park in Cascade, ID is one of the nicest WW parks I’ve been to. They have a great feature called Big Nasty which was a meaty hole with an amazing surfers right shoulder that gave up massive blunts, pan-ams and other wave tricks! Two other features were down stream that are more friendly for the beginner paddler or intermediate paddler looking to improve their paddling skills. The park has a Welcome Center with wi-fi, has a concession stand and a lot more you just have to go and see for yourself. The town of Cascade was really excited to have the kayak event there and took really good care of us while we were all in town.
I decided not to fly with my boat and paddle and borrowed Bryan’s Project X 48 and one of EJ’s paddles (I missed my Mitchell Remedy)! Thanks guys a bunch for letting me borrow the boat and paddle I really appreciate it! We arrived on Wednesday late afternoon and got settled in but didn’t paddle. I was having a wicked back issue which I think was from the day before when I cleaned the house in VT like a mad woman and the plane ride didn’t help! Had two days to paddle before the event and had the best time surfing this feature! Personally this was the best feature we competed in all season! I was having the time of my life paddling here plus I loved the occasional working that the hole gave up. I was getting my pan-ams and flip turns dialed in on the wave which was great. The other woman were all paddling real well. Emily was getting really great back pan-ams and Erin was getting her mcnasty dialed in, and Devon her clean blunts, Jess working on her felix and Kat. The comp was looking real good on the womens side. The men were also killing it. Bryan was throwing massive clean blunts and helixes, EJ mcnasties and flip turns, Craig air screws and pan-ams and of course Dane was doing everything!
The comp was Saturday and Sunday. Jeff was the announcer and did a great job! He competed in OC1 and C1. He some how squeezed himself into Dane’s OC1 and Courtney a jr. paddled in the classes. Jeff came in 2nd in OC1 and 3rd in C1 which he paddled in Dane’s OC1 because he couldn’t fit into Dane’s C1. The women’s class was great! Emily killed it with her back pan-am, helix, and clean blunt putting her in 1st. Erin came in second with an entry move, mcnasty, and blunt. I came in 3rd with a huge air blunt and a bunch of other little things. I struggled with getting my pan-am and flip turn off in time. I was pretty happy even with not getting my tricks that I wanted. This off season I’ll focus on getting my tricks off faster which will help in competitions. I was judging the men’s class and it was a fun event to judge being the only wave event this season. EJ came in 1st, Bryan 2nd, and Craig 3rd. They all threw down on the wave. Jr men put on a show especially Dane who came in 1st, Hunt 2nd, and Alec 3rd. The jr. woman paddled on the feature downstream which was hole. Taking 1st was Sage, Lauren 2nd and Courtney 3rd.
Thanks to Brett, Devon, Larry and all the other organizers for putting on such a great event! I’m excited about next year!
The tour is over and it was another great one! I judged and competed at pretty much every event and I got to go to Germany and judge at the World Championships. I couldn’t of had a better year. I’ll miss everyone from the tour but it’s like summer camp and I’ll see them all next year!
Back at home in VT will paddle the Dryway this weekend and then head to our cottage in NY for most of the summer to paddle the Black River and go sailing on Lake Ontario.
Till next time,
Elaine Campbell
