Team KIWI in the USA Hey BS crew Sam here we just got back from the sickest 6 weeks all three of us have ever had. The world cup was an awesome experience, the tour making it interesting with people like Brian Kirk winning up until the last event where two poor rides put him off the podium. The first round was on the Ottawa river on Garberator which was awesome and super fast, except that the lines were 20mins long so if you flushed you felt like having a cry. They had lights so you could practise all-night with there still being 10 people in the line at 11pm. People slept at the wave and would get woken up at 4am to hear EJ training; it was amazing what people would do to get some time on the wave. The first round Nick and I got into the semi finals with a field of 38 junior men so it meant that it was time to party hard, waking up with little sleep for semi finals which went well enough for me to make the finals and Nick to come 10th with two unlucky rides. I was first up and all of a sudden I felt so energetic and I somehow managed to do all the moves I could do and that put me in second to Nick Troutman who had just won the Canadian men’s trials. The next round was at Water Town New York state, the feature sucked as
it was so shallow and flushy and really suited the first two juniors as they where small 13yr olds that weigh only 30kg. All three of us sucked at this event with Sean coming 9th and myself coming 10th and Nick 13th. The event was really well organized with free Dunkn Donuts for breakfast. We were all happy to get out of there to the next event in Rock Island Tennessee *where it hadn’t rained for 3 months so we could only get enough water to have four practice rides, Nick came 12th Sean 11th and myself 4th doing a “back pan am” just as the buzzer went so I didn’t get it scored, which would have got me on the podium. This was good enough to put me in third place over all to Nick Troutman and Dane Jackson who tied on points for first. Sean Gerlach came 11th and Nick Boyes 12th.There was a sick party at the Jackson factory sponsored by Red Bull and Jack Daniels. The boats got a lot of attention with every body wishing they could be lucky enough to paddle them. They also went big as soon as Yappa taught us how to surf a wave. They bounce further out on the wave which made combo moves a lot better, although we only could get the occasional one. Yappa is on a different level to every one else, it is so cool to watch every one stop to watch him. Even Pat Camblin said that he is way in front of every one. I told him it’s the boat. Any way I hope you enjoy the photos and thanks a lot for supplying us with the sickest kayaks out. Peace Sam Results are on www.wcfkc.com as well as some other photos almost as good as these.
ISSUE THIRTYe
ight • 2006
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