Last Saturday, the Outdoors Inc. Great Mississippi Canoe & Kayak Race went AWESOME. Usually I'm a safety boater for the race (a 5k flatwater sprint has never really appealed to me) even though it is one of the biggest canoe & kayak races in the country. Guys like Greg Barton and Elmore Holmes come out for the race too. This year, for some reason I decided to race in the Men's Under 10' Kayak catagory. Without a SuperHero at hand, I decided to pull out the Rocker and test myself and the Rocker against the 10' and under (mostly touring) kayaks. I had a great start, faster than a lot of the 13' kayaks, but once I pealed out of the Wolf River and into the Mississippi, 2 realizations hit: one, 3 miles is a long way to sprint on flatwater with a whitewater kayak and two, the cross-wind and low water wasn't helping me very much. Long story short and a long paddle later, I crossed the finish line almost tied with the second place guy. I got 3rd in Men's under 10' class with a time just over 28 minutes... not bad for a 5k flatwater race in a Rocker. :-) 
Photo by Samantha Brunner
A shot I took of Samantha getting ready to head down as a race safety boater.
Memphis Whitewater swept the race in general in all the different classes and age groups of competitors! Check out this shot Sam took of all the Memphis Whitewater medalists!
After the Race, I got the Jackson Kayaks booth up and running, playing the dealers loop on the promo video. People were at our booth before I even finished the race looking at catalogs and checking out the boats. It only got busier from there. Samantha was a HUGE help and did a really great job fitting all the girls. It was a HUGE success for Jackson Kayaks to say the least!
