March 11, 2009
 

Dear Wildwater Racers and Friends:

Spring is the time to turn the fancy of wildwater racers to competition. I trust that you have been training hard and are ready to race. We already had one training camp (the Chute the Hooch) and one race (the NRC Glacier Breaker). Check the

First in this E-Zine is news about the U.S. Open on March 28-29 on the Nantahala River. This event includes the U.S. Eastern Junior Team Trials, where Junior wildwater racers will compete for a spot on the 2009 U.S. Junior Wildwater Team. Half of the Junior team is decided at these team trials; the remainder will be determined at the U.S. Western Junior Team Trials on April 25-26 on the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado. Members of the 2009 Junior Widlwater Team are eligible to compete in the Junior Wildwater World Championships in Switzerland this summer.

Next is news about the 2009 Spring Colorado USA Wildwater Camp, scheduled for April 18-19. This is a great opportunity for Junior racers to work on improving their paddling skills on the same course as the Junior National Team Trials the following weekend. Thanks to Denny Adams and Jeremy Rogers for organizing the training camp and the Western Team Trials.

We also bring you news of a unique whitewater event, the New England Whitewater Triple Crown Championships. In this event, nationally ranked paddlers will compete in three distinctly different whitewater events: Wildwater Sprint, Whitewater Slalom, and Freestyle. Although competitors may choose to race in their specialty alone, those wishing to compete for the Triple Crown Championships must battle for excellence in all three whitewater events.

Back to the Juniors, we have news about the North American Junior Olympics Festival, being held on July 4-12 in Ontario, Canada. Cadets and Juniors can qualify to compete in the Junior Olympics at several wildwater races. See the article in this E-Zine for the list of qualifying races and more about the Junior Olympics.

Finally, we bring you news about the 2009 World Cup series to be held in Tasmania this fall and the results from the NRC Glacier Breaker. I do apologize for jinxing the weather for the Glacier Breaker. In my last E-Zine I said that the forecast for that weekend was for sun and temps in the low 50s. Boy was I wrong!!

Chuck Brabec
Editor & Webmaster, USAWildwater.com