May 14, 2008
 

Dear Wildwater Racers and Friends:

I trust that our Junior wildwater athletes are training hard and making plans to compete in the Western Junior Team Trials on June 12-13. The event will be held in conjunction with the 60th annual FIBArk Whitewater Festival in Salida, Colorado. The Western Junior Team Trials will determine the remainder of the 2008 USA Wildwater Junior Team. Learn more about the event in this newsletter and stay tuned to usawildwater.com for more information in the next few weeks. Members of the 2008 USA Junior Wildwater Team will be competing in the International Junior Wildwater Race (“Titlis-Rivey-Race 2008”) in Buochs, SUI (close to Luzern) in mid-July.

Meanwhile, the 2008 USA WIldwater Senior (and Masters) Team is busy finalizing their plans for competing in the Senior World Championships and World Cup races in Europe. The World Championships are being held in Ivera, Italy May 31 through June 8. The World Cup races June 14-15 in Karlovy Vary, CZE and June 21-22 in Lofer, AUT.

Don't forget the 2008 USA Wildwater National Championships. This event, being hosted by Zoar Outdoors, has been designated an International race by the International Canoe Federation (ICF). We are looking forward to competing with fellow paddlers from Canada and other countries. The folks at Zoar Outdoors are working hard to make "The Nationals" even better than it was in 2007. We need the support of all wildwater athletes to ensure that this event is outstanding. Check out the article in this issue and the link in the article to the Zoar website for more about "The Nationals".

The members of the USACK Wildwater Committee have been busy making sure that our athletes have the support they need. You can view the minutes of our March 2nd meeting in this issue to see what we have been up to.

In my position as Rankings/News Editor/Webmaster for USA Wildwater, I am responsible for calculating and reporting the 2008 US Wildwater Rankings. You can help make my job easier by sending me the results of any wildwater races that you organize. Otherwise, I will be nagging you to get the information.

Chuck Brabec
Editor & Webmaster, USAWildwater.com