Photo by: Samantha B.Well, this is a delayed post but I am SO pumped to finally get around to it! The North Alabama Whitewater Fest was an AMAZING event this year, way bigger than last year. Competitors from all over the states came to Alabama for a weekend of raffles, parties, big tricks, and Short Creek Falls (a perfect 15+ ft waterfall). Chris Gragtmans even flew in from Africa for the event.
Thursday night after school, I took off with my girlfriend (Samantha Brunner) to Kings Bend Campground, near Culman Alabama! We pulled in after dark and the first thing we checked out, was the new ramp! This thing is sick! The entire ramp was probably 25 ft tall with one of the tightest transitions I've ever seen in a kayak ramp. From the top it looks sketch at best, but this thing was a blast! Not too many boaters fired it up, most worried about theirs backs (so they said), but I think everyone felt a few butterflies their first time down. It was nice!
we got up first thing Friday morning and took off to Short Creek Falls for the event registration and competitor's meeting. EJ brought me my new "Slime Green" Rocker (pics of it in action coming soon) with the new Jackson "Boat Armor Outfitting" and Sam's new Jackson Star! From there, we all signed up, geared up, and got ready for the first competition of the Fest, the Waterfall Freestyle Competition off Short Creek Falls!
Photo by: Samantha Brunner
We could not have had better conditions for the falls comp! The night before it POURED rain and brought Short Creek Falls up to a boiling frothy drop pictured above. I nice little wave formed right on the lip, perfect for freewheels and kickflips! The hole was just a big frothy boiling, sucking competitors behind the curtain of the falls right before slamming them into the undercut shelves on the river left. Rescuers were placed on the rocks to fish out the boaters who went into the rocks too deep. This challenge just made the day that much better! As if Friday wasn't perfect enough, it was sunny and WARM!!! We all wore shorts and hucked away without a single chill or shiver, with a beautiful rainbow just over the horizon line.
The higher water level with the undercuts at the bottom, added a whole new element we didn't really have there last year, a mentle one. On more than one occasion, I found myself recirculated in the hole at the bottom, and one time I even found myself UNDER the rocks behind the falls. When you're underwater in your kayak, it's a pretty interesting experience to reach up and feel rocks instead of air above you. I got slammed hard under there, head first, and actually had to claw my way out and upright, still in my boat of course. (you didn't really think I would swim because of that did you?!) ;-) All that just to say, I think most competitors had a little more than just landing upside down on their minds. But that didn't stop us from going big! I nailed a lot of Kickflips off this falls including this nice little sequence shot by Sam:
action sequence by: Samantha B.
The move of the day for me, was definitely the kickflip entry into a rightside freewheel! After the Waterfall Freestyle competition, we kicked off the Boatercross race. Heats of about 5 competitors raced over the falls on river left, trying to boof to the river right side of the boiling hole. From there it was a race through a river right notch, only a boat width wide, and then upstream. Competitors then raced behind the waterfall curtain back to river left and through the hole and undercut shelves to the finish rock. This boatercross was a MAJOR workout. When the Men's Pro competition rolled around, I was in the first heat with Eric Jackson, Stephen Wright, and 2 others. The start off went GREAT, me and EJ took the lead right off, screaming toward the lip at full speed. EJ went pretty far left (I thought) and I tried to ride up a bit higher on the right shelf on the lip. Unfortunately, my plan didn't work and I got dramatically slowed down by the shallow lip of the falls. Stephen Wright caught up and passed me and I chased right behind him the rest of the way.
Photo by: Samantha B. Me and Stephen on the Lip
Boatercross is one of those things that can go either way, it's always a bit of a gamble. It's fun though! It's also very entertaining to watch. If any aspect of the sport would ever have a true public appeal, it is boatercross. I think the general public would be able to get into it because it's so easy to understand! They should take boatercross into the X-Games! From the falls, me and the rest of the Jackson Kayaks crew, decided to head downstream to check out the rest of this awesome little creek! That night, I took my first ride off the ramp. It was awesome! I hopped in line and started the climb with my boat and paddle, wondering what I would dare to try first. It looked like an inverted landing would hurt, so I decided to see how the bottom transition would act (the big question in everyones mind) by just flying down and doing a flat 360 spin to the right.
Photo Sequence by: Samantha B.
It worked out great and I completely nailed the landing. I'll have to say though, the flat landing the first time hurt a little. I knew the next time I wanted to lean forward on my bow deck to make sure the shock wouldn't go up my back again. The next time off I decided to leave my paddle behind, just to get more comfortable with the ramp.
Photo by: Samantha Brunner
The next day, my wrist was hurting beyond belief. I was really starting to get worried I had done something really bad to it somehow and I was looking forward to my appointment with a wrist specialist. Since rodeo really isn't my thing right now anyway and I didn't want to mess my wrist up any more, I made a tough descision and decided not to compete Saturday in the big trick contest and rodeo. In hindsite, I really should have done the big trick competition! I didn't realize I could do them separate. It was still probably better that I didn't compete, as hard as it was not to, because when I hopped in to surf a bit after the day's competitions, my wrist was really hurting worse. It didn't take much to get it throbbing again. Saturday night's festivities were awesome! The bands were pretty cool, the raffle was awesome, and the awards were pretty cool. Of course EJ won the rodeo, Chris Gragtmans won "the men's event as a whole," and Keith Yell won the waterfall freestyle for his rockspin into a kickflip.... it looked really cool, but I think camra angles had a lot to do with the judging, just my opinion. ;-) Dane Jackson swept the Junior Class and Tia won big in the womens! Emily Jackson put on an awesome show and I think won the rodeo. I pulled off 4th place (though I was told 3rd) in the Men's Pro Waterfall Freestyle Competition; I was pretty pumped about that!
The next morning, Sunday morning, I got to help with the Jackson Kayak roll & freestyle clinic. After that, we took off to Guntersville for a mexican lunch with the Jackson family, before starting our drive back to Memphis and hitting the books the next day at school. Fun times! The Fest was AWESOME and I can't wait till next year!
Check out Samantha B's blog for a bit more! http://boatergrlsammie.blogspot.com/2006/03/nawf.html
Also, check out Ej's NAWF event trip report at http://www.jacksonkayak.com/jkstories06/story.cfm?article=200603131 and more pictures at http://www.jacksonkayak.com/jkstories06/story.cfm?article=200603211 Fun times!
- Boyd
